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!

I'm waiting for my asda order now. I had ordered two packs of the fun size chocolates for trick or treaters. They don't have them so are sending me nothing instead! no other chocolates or sweets in the whole of Asda?

That's another ridiculous one!

Thank you for the insight. That's a really tight window people are being given for funding things. This suddenly makes a bit more sense about what subs we get sometimes - and maybe if it's someone new, they aren't used to where everything is! I can understand things you pick all the time can be done quickly, but things like specific cakes should definitely be given longer (unless it tells you the exact location in the scanner) as it's just a sea of cakes when you are looking for one that you might only get ordered once a year!

I've made a syrup sponge this way before - it's actually quite nice!

What?! That's bonkers. And now you need to go out and buy something in store.

Perhaps there should be a way for the customer to be able to suggest an alternative?

Or would it be better if no subs were made?

Happy Birthday!
When I was bemoaning an unsuitable substitute, the driver told me the most bizarre substitution he ever had to deliver was 4 tins of Kiwi shoe polish. The customer had ordered Kiwi fruit!
Huh?
It's no consolation but at least your substitution is edible!

It's no consolation but at least your substitution is edible!

Some of the reviews would beg to differ!

The substitutions are decided by a computer algorithm that looks at the phrase and picks out the most important words. It doesn't cope with context. So in "white chocolate birthday cake" it obviously came up with "chocolate" as important. It should be done by a person, but it isn't.

I once ordered online shopping from Asda, can't remember exactly what it was i
ordered but something to do with poppies, the substitution I received was a dinner service with a poppy pattern on.

I've always thought this. I do add a note when I remember to some stuff - usually when an obvious alt couldn't be made. But I really thought with a cake they'd just pick a different one... and one that is an actual cake!

This one has made me smile - properly cheered me up thank you!

😂😂😂😂😂🍎

Having been mind-boggled by some of the swaps on my supermarket shops of late, I asked the driver one time. He said the pickers are all youngsters who work in the early hours and if something is out of stock they just grab anything without much thought or care. He gave me the impression he was sick of the problems they cause with this.

But I really thought with a cake they'd just pick a different one... and one that is an actual cake!

Well yes!

I mean is a sponge pudding even a cake?

You have to heat/cook it it for one thing.

Then it surely needs cream/custard?

And white chocolate-well it's an entirely different beast to chocolate isn't it?

Sorry you've been having such a tough time. 3 good things have come out of this though:

1. You have lots of cake.
2. Your husband maybe realises that when you say "I don't want a fuss" you do still want to feel special and valued.
3. Robots are not going to take over the world anytime soon.

I haven’t RTFT but I know why they might have some in store but be OOS for dot com.

it’s because their system keeps a certain amount for dot com orders and a certain amount in store for IRL shoppers. Not sure of the percentage, they’ll have clever algorithms for that.

happy birthday!

Asda once substituted my baby formula for horlicks and my alcohol free wine for alcoholic wine 🤣

Last year I ordered chocolate sprouts for my kids stockings- they subbed with 4 x packed of real sprouts! Was tempted to keep them just for the joke but my youngest would have cried!! 😂😂😂

This, ffs, you are cooking your own birthday meal!

@Tillow4ever online shops don't always come from the supermarket. My nearest Tesco is about 3 miles away but if I order for delivery, it gets picked from a massive warehouse 25 miles away!

All 5 substitutions might be in stock now, but you have no idea if they were when the order was picked, possibly at 4 or 6 in the morning. So don't say it was laziness when you have no idea if it was.

Can you guess what my job is?

a white chocolate birthday cake (vanilla cake with raspberry jam and a white chocolate frosting)

I got one of those for my lockdown birthday in 2020. It was disappointing, bland and tasteless. You're better off with the bombes.

I know which supermarket it comes from - it's nearly 20 miles away but it's definitely an actual supermarket. My closest store is less than a mile away and I know it doesn't come from that one.

All extremely valid points!