To think a birthday cake should only be substituted with another birthday cake

[Tillow4ever]

And of the same type of cake?

It's my birthday later in the week and my son is home from uni this weekend, going back today. It was a bit of a last minute decision, so I decided to put a birthday cake on the Tesco home shop for us to have before he goes back.

I've just seen that they've substituted a white chocolate birthday cake (vanilla cake with raspberry jam and a white chocolate frosting) with 3 chocolate bombes instead. Not exactly sure what they are til they arrive, but they don't sound like any form of birthday cake, they don't sound like vanilla sponge (which is my favourite and why I picked that cake) and they aren't even white chocolate, which might have been more understandable had that been the sub.

Obviously I'll send them back and get a refund later in the week, but my local Tesco is a small one and doesn't stock that cake, and I haven't got time to nip out to buy one as I'm cooking a big roast dinner to try to get served up before the shopping gets delivered! There won't be time after the delivery as my son is due to leave not long after (depending on the time of the delivery of course).

Not exactly the biggest of problems in the world, but I never usually bother to do anything to celebrate my birthday, no one ever thinks to sort a cake out for me (I organise for everyone else's birthday in the house to make sure there's a cake they like) and I've not been having a great time lately so this has just really disappointed me.

Is it really too much to expect that if you order a birthday cake, if the shop is substituting it, another birthday cake should be selected? And it should be the same type/flavour of sponge that you were originally ordering, even if the decoration has to be different?

Sorry for the moan - please cheer me up with stories of your shitty home shopping substitutes or just general home shopping failures!

Thanks - this is useful to know and might explain a few other unavailable items on my favourites list when I was looking through!

Thank you!

A roast potato birthday cake? Now you're talking my language! I can totally get on board with this lol!

Thanks all - it's not the end of the world, just laughingly frustrating, genuinely didn't think they would substitute a cake with something other than a cake!

I've just stock checked and apparently the cake I choose IS available if I were to drive over to the store (40 mile round trip, not worth it or possible). So not entirely sure why the picker has subbed it.

And it says stock levels are updated every hour, so I highly doubt it wasn't available when picked.

I'd love to write te code for substituting items as I can't do a worse job that the subs you get today. I can guarantee there'd have been something much more suitable than what you got.

@Tillow4ever I'm sorry you've had a rough time lately. Could you order some cakes from one of those dessert shops that seem to be everywhere now on deliveroo etc? You deserve at least a nice slice of cake, if not a whole one! X

I thought a chocolate bomb was ice cream but the Tesco bombe seems to be sponge pudding!

I really wish there was an option to specify which thing is the important element for a substitute - it is the brand, price, flavour etc.. I get so annoyed when I order something and they sub it for something that is the same brand but a completely different product. Or, as the asda by me like to do, sub it for a far more expensive brand but keep the amount spent the same, so I get far less than I ordered (e.g. I order a 12 pack of own brand burger buns and they replace with two expensive fancy brioche burger buns that cost the same but mean I now don't have enough to make the 12 burgers I'd planned for our bbq). And that is purely because if they gave me the same quantity, they'd be given me them for "free" because of their "never pay more for a substitute" policy. Gives me rage 😂

Out of curiosity I've just stock checked all 5 of the substitutions on my receipt and all 5 are in stock. One of them is even in 2 locations (I'm guessing it's on a gondola end as it's on promotion). So it's sounding more like laziness - probably because we had a big shop today compared to usual, but to me that doesn't excuse it. And none of the substitutions are ok for us so everything needs to go back.

I don't like complaining, but I think I might need to raise a complaint this time, because there's no way all of these items were genuinely missing I'm sure!

My husband has just put his shoes on and announced he's going out to get me a cake! He's usually an arsehole, so this is shocking for me! He must want something or feel guilty lol

@Tillow4ever Result!!! Make sure it's vanilla and white chocolate! I hope you enjoy it x

It’s not tescos fault really, your family need to step up and sort out a cake for your birthday. I’m really sorry you’re having a bad time but honestly - they’re old enough to sort it out it sounds like you do enough for everyone else.

send one of them out for a cake

I know what you mean! We switched to Tesco because Asda were terrible for this. Tesco on the whole are better - eg at Christmas we ordered a 75cl bottle of Southern Comfort that was on a really good offer price, they substituted it with a 1l bottle for the same price!

Most of the time the subs are ok, or at least make sense. At Christmas I notice they seem to make a real effort to make sure you get a better sub and definitely the right volume.m/amount.

We used to have one driver who made a point of checking every single sub and if the quantity worked out less than what you had ordered (eg you order a 1kg pack of diced chicken and they send 2 x 400g packs instead) he would refund it and let you keep it!

Oh cross posted! Eat the whole thing to yourself! Happy birthday!

As long as it's vanilla I'm happy - the white chocolate was just a bonus when I saw it on their website (I LOVE white chocolate).

The substitution isn't Tesco's fault? That's a new one 😂😂😂

My husband is popping out to pick me a cake up.

Ha ha ha! Don't tempt me - that's a challenge I could 100% try!

How annoying. I ordered slug pellets recently and Sainsbury’s sent cockroach killer spray. My husband unloaded the order and didn’t give it a second thought. My mum was horrified when she visited to see a bottle of cockroach killer on the worktop 🫣

I was with you until you said it was just laziness , that is pretty harsh on a near-minimum wage picker saving you a shopping trip

That's helpful isn't it?! Hone shopping is so convenient... until something like this!

I had veggie burgers subbed with beef burgers once!

So you don't think it's laziness if they didn't select items that are in stock? In that case it's deliberate and done with malice. I'd much rather think it's done one being lazy. One item I could accept if they didn't see it. 5 items, most of which are very obvious items on the shelf so not something you have to didn't time looking for, is either someone who can't be arsed or someone who is deliberately screwing with someone's orders

Being on "near minimum wage" doesn't mean they shouldn't do their job correctly - I worked in a supermarket for 6 years, I was only on £2.13 an hour as well back then (late 90's) and I still gave it 100% and went above and beyond for customers. I'm not expecting above and beyond, I am expecting them to do their basic job of selecting what the customer has ordered.

That's awful!

Not even on just eat, Uber eats or Deliveroo?

my understanding is pickers are given a fixed list with potential substitution options.

Do you have Whoosh nearby @Tillow4ever?

Hopefully husband will come up trumps though😉

Have a wonderful birthday when it comes 🌸