What on earth were they thinking?!

[PissTakeSubstitution]

Hardly ever tick ‘allow substitutions’ on my online shop because of past experience, however I didn’t want to risk no wine and I’m not too fussy.

AIBU to think this was a ridiculous substitution? There must have been 20+ different white wines in the price range I’d selected, yet for some unknown reason the person picking this shop decided to an Alcohol Free bottle was the closest match.

Worst still DH didn’t notice it was an alcohol free bottle and accepted the substitute

Some of these substitutions are brilliant 😅😅

Our online shop this week, we ordered two packs of "Walkers Max Strong Fiery Prawn Cocktail Sharing Crisps".

This was from one of the large superstores that has an entire aisle dedicated to crisps. They have TONS of crisps, loads of choice.

No substitution for the crisps. Just....nothing. Out of all of those crisps apparently there wasn't a single thing to substitute.

These crisps were DP's choice and we had no other crisps included in the order. He was not happy 😅

I still can't quite work it out tbh. We've had all kinds of weird and wonderful substitutions over the years. Pretty much never return them, normally just keep them. Crisps, chocolate, biscuits, drinks - they always just stick in an alternative. No clue why no alternative was offered here??

Last I knew, handheld devices are used to scan the item. If it's unavailable the device dictates the substitution and staff have to scan that, they can't swap it out. Staff too get annoyed with, e.g., sending a cream fitted sheet instead of a cream kettle.

During lockdown when it was difficult to get to the shops I ordered a box of wine and they subbed it with one of those little miniature things. There were some bizarre examples of subs when I posted about it. Seem to remember one involved an octopus 🐙

www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3897275-To-be-unimpressed-with-this-substitution?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

I once had a pack of Muller fruit corners substituted with a pepperoni pizza. No idea what happened there. And Sauvignon bland subbed with Cabernet Sauvignon. At least it was wine unlike you @PissTakeSubstitution Sympathies.

Why would the machine be programmed to select another cream item, not another kettle?

This is what I don’t understand, in our Tesco you’d have to go upstairs to get the fitted sheet but the kettle is downstairs.

Maybe it’s the closest match to the words rather then location.

To get alcohol free wine, you’d have to walk past all the good wines to get to that section. Absolutely not quicker or closer in description.

Similarly I had a case of Pinot Grigio (for a holiday cottage hen weekend) replaced by Pinot Noir - so at least alcoholic wine but were there really no other white wine options in the VAST superstore the order came from?
Well there were, as it was click and collect so we just went in from the car park to be confronted by the world’s most enormous wine aisle - and several cases of Pinot Grigio

Some substitutions are crazy, I ordered size 6 pampers nappies for my DS (aged 2.5) , they sent newborn nappies!!

Our pick rate (before I thankfully left last year) was 286 items an hour and you got a bollocking if you didn't hit the target. But clearly you think we just do what the computer says to piss you off.
If you want better subs tell head office to stop setting ridiculous targets for their staff so they can actually provide decent service.

I ordered a pack of Tiger rolls. Got a large box of Maltesers as a substitute. No idea what the thought process was there

Our pick rate (before I thankfully left last year) was 286 items an hour

Whaaat. How's that even possible. That's dreadful

Do you think the picking is done by a human or a robot?

I ordered a bottle of lemon juice as I was planning on baking a lemon drizzle cake. That was substituted with lemon scented toilet cleaner.

I once had cat litter substituted for a shopping bag. NOT JOKING. And then had tampons sent through fedex without explanation and without calling. Zero explanation. I would have even accepted any excuse like “It’s against my religion to touch tampons.” if they had just given me my money back that day. Both items we needed urgently same day. The tampons did feel personal though. They wouldn’t refund them until they arrived (store policy) and they were delayed twice because of snowstorms. It would have been funny but we were doing very badly for money because of a recent family hospitalization and I was not in a position to go out and just buy more. It was really heartless. Luckily I called the manager and she was female and very kind and understanding. It was embarrassing having to explain the money situation. She drove them to me herself and explained she was taking the situation very seriously and that it wouldn’t happen again. I think it was clear that the employee was discriminating.

A couple of weeks ago, Sainsbury's substituted oat milk with Monster energy drink!

But clearly you think we just do what the computer says to piss you off
@Rosebel no, not to piss me off but I did think there was an element of discretion.

Don’t get me wrong, I work a lot of hours for not much money (!)

The Sainsbury's bloke said if a product is not available, the pickers are given options that they have to choose from.

I thought it was done by a person 🤷‍♀️
I

What, you didn’t pour that into the cake?

You were lucky to get a bottle at all !
I ordered a bottle of red wine today that was out of stock and i didn’t receive anything. Apparently they were all out of red wine. Or it was too difficult for the orderpicker to find an alternative .

Often the order pickers at our supermarket are very young, like 16 or so… and they have no idea how to pick an appropriate substitute.
Once i ordered diapers that were out of stock and they sent me diapers 2 sizes smaller… like i just could have shrunk the kids😎

And that's also while having to stop to help customers every 2 mins.

I snorted 😂

I was told by a Tesco 'picker' that they are told what substitutions to make when an item is out of stock, but they have the ability to override if there is a better option.
The trouble is, some of the young staff don't have the experience to know what would make a good substitution so accept the stupid suggestions!

I once ordered size newborn diapers and got size 4. My daughter was preemie and had literally JUST grown into newborn diapers so definitely couldn’t just roll them down! Luckily a wonderful local mother traded me on facebook. She lived just down the street. Real life saver her! What is it about diapers that makes the shoppers lose their minds? I probably could have worked with size 1 or 2 but not 4!!!

It’s because all the pickers are teenagers who appear to be entirely lacking in the life experience that informs good substitution choices.