To expect online food shops to arrive within allocated time?

[morningtrain]

What’s the point if they don’t?! The last few I’ve had from both Ocado & Tesco have either been early or late..& not by minutes. Currently waiting for one that was booked 7-8pm. Previously had driver waiting outside when he arrived an hour early & we weren’t home too.. It’s infuriating.

Asda are marvellous. Their delivery drivers are so lovely and chatty. I think they often arrive 15 mins before or after. I’ve had the odd one call
and ask to come early.

I explained why in my initial post. First paragraph. I assume you understand that it won’t be the team from Head Office who came up with the delivery slots who will be battling traffic, out of date sat nav’s, new estates and awful customers to get your shopping to you without being too late or too early.

I’d also hope you’d be aware that if you complain to a supermarket that you’ve paid your £3 but your shopping hasn’t arrived within the promised hour it is, in fact, the driver who will be dealing with the consequences of that.

People who have comprehension issues … 🍿

Having worked in multi drop haulage deliveries for the last 20 years there are so many factors to what can make a driver early or late. You can never route a vehicle and be completely precise. On my Tesco home delivery in the comments box I have "can sometimes take delivery earlier, please call ahead if required". Strangely enough they do ring ahead if early and ask politely if OK to do so. I do also not book my slot too close in time to other commitments. If I need to be on the school run from 3pm I don't book anything for after 2pm for example.

yanbu. I once turned the delivery driver away because he was half an hour early and made him wait. I had booked a delivery for my lunch break and was in a meeting when he arrived early. Just because I am at home doesn’t mean it’s a good time to take a delivery. You contract with them for a specified spot for a reason.

I've used sainburys for years. I choose 1hr slots and they are on time 99% of the time and if they they want to come earlier, they always called to check. The one time they didn't call, I happened to be hosting a meeting and couldn't just leave, but otherwise its always fine.

And (like a pp) I said that in my experience Sainsbury's manage to avoid this (in a local area that definitely has its fair share of traffic, new build estates etc etc).
If they can achieve it when other companies can't, either
a) they are a magic supermarket that isn't affected by the above
b) they put more vehicles on the road and build more slack into the drivers' schedules than the others (and possibly pay better to encourage staff retention/quality)

Sainsbury’s are middle of the road as far as driver pay goes. More than some, less than others. I’ll ignore the bit about the quality of staff because it’s bloody offensive. I have no idea how many vehicles they have for each particular area but it’s a completely irrelevant point because it’s not what the OP’s post is about.

You’ve found a company who delivers your shopping on time? Great! Good for you. For whatever reason, the company that the OP was referring to obviously does things slightly differently to your local branch of Sainsburys. Whether that’s less vehicles or more customers in a shorter time frame, I obviously don’t know. But the drivers are clearly facing challenges in her area that the drivers in your local Sainsbury’s aren’t facing.

We had an Asda delivery due between 8.30 and 9.30 on Sunday evening and had a text saying it would be delayed. By 11pm we knew it wasn’t coming but had no further comms. DP rang on Monday morning and it came about 10am then. So over 12h late. We actually don’t have a car so do two big online shops a month then top up shops - usually it’s fine, sometimes it’s a bit late or a bit early, which is also fine, but this was taking the absolute piss!

I don’t think it’s about privilege. The supermarkets offer a service which we choose to buy into and pay for, and staff are paid to deliver (ha).

What is it that you think I was saying was privileged? Because it sounds like you think I was saying having your shopping delivered is a privilege and that’s not what I said at all.

I have the opposite experience with Sainsbury's. Very first delivery was late, driver did call as was due to take her break and was 20 mins late outside my 1 hour slot.
They have never been on time since and she was the only one who ever called.

YANBU. The slots are an hour long, they should be able to get to you within those slotts.

To be fair to Ocado, when their driver was early he rang ahead to check I could receive the delivery and I agreed as I was in anyway. And I think they've only been late once. So not a bad track record.

I find people like the PP, who think everyone (especially women) has to take on the cares of the world and apologise for the temerity of expecting people to do what they said they would do; unbelievably tiresome.

I think you need a sit down and a cup of tea. You’re clearly very triggered by this very benign thread and attacking random pps for having a different opinion to you. 😵‍💫

advertised as open 10-4 & you had a jam packed day with other responsibilities, only to find it didn’t actually open until 11…? Same thing, no?!

No - 9.40 in your scenario.

Ocado app gives you real time info on day of delivery so you can plan accordingly and the driver will call anyway. I can't get worked up about late / early delivery as I'm grateful about not having to do the horror of an instore shop.

If I know that my delivery will be time sensitive, I prefer to change slots.

Mine (tesco) is hardly ever on time. Usually late and its an early slot too, 8-9am. I don’t bother complaining but make sure i’m not going anywhere straight after.

You find this comment bloody offensive?! Oh the irony…

You've been raging (maybe rage-baiting) through this thread accusing people of being arsey, whiney and rude to drivers when there’s no evidence of that and chucking in 😂😂😂 as though that makes your raging somehow lighthearted?

I think everyone is very clear on the extreme and bizarre view you have on the topic now, you can rest easy.

Around here, we are surrounded by road works - I’m not surprised that they are often late. 🤷‍♀️

You pay three quid so you don’t have to get in the car and do your own shopping.

😂

I agree. Ocado have got quite bad recently for early delivery. If I'm home and it's covenient I will accept the slot but often I can't. They usually ring first but he other day one driver called two hours before the delivery slot. We were all out so I messaged that it wasn't possible that day. DH got home 20 minutes before the slot DH arrived home and the driver was sitting outside. He unpacked the order but DH said he was really grumpy. Maybe he had a long day but that's not our fault.

Might be a first world problem but this is the paid for service they offer and it is a bit annoying when it changes. I plan around the delivery time I have booked.

I’ve driven for Ocado and Sainsburys. Ocado would occasionally plan for you to arrive late or early but only by a few minutes

Ocado drivers will go out early, work through their break and often have a gap in their route. It could be an hour. It’s also job and finish with both of these companies hence the drivers wanting to deliver early if possible

I would never sit outside somebodies house as described. I would wait say a mile away and then call to see if I can deliver early

Ocado are not allowed to call a customer more than an hour before the delivery slot and should do drops in order. Sainsburys are totally the opposite. You could ring the customer regardless and you could do your last drop first if okay with the customer. Ocado was so strict and Sainsburys the absolute opposite, even down to not loading the van so the weight is spread evenly

We’ve used Asda and Morrisons over the years and they have always been pretty good. They ring if they are going to be early and ask if it’s ok and on the rare times it has been late I get a text letting me know and apologising.

I don’t mind if it’s early if I’m in. Delivery driver usually calls to check first. They’re only ever late if something has happened eg the van got stuck in some mud - and driver called to say.

Do you want the poor driver to sit in the van for an hour with your delivery because he’s now early and you’re in but it’s inconvenient?

It’s ok when they phone to ask if you mind first, sometimes you’re not home so what would be the point in turning up early? I haven’t had many late orders, I think one happened because the van broke down and another in icy weather.

I'm a driver for Ocado and just wanted to say it's also frustrating for us if we're running late - I think what some people forget or don't realise is that although as a customer you may have booked a 1 hour/2 hour/4 hour delivery slot it doesn't mean that the driver has had that amount of time to get to you. I'll often start and I always check through my route to see what times I've been scheduled to arrive at my 25+ deliveries - if I can see it's been planned for me to arrive at lots of my customers say 2 mins before the end of their time slots then I'll try and get out early as all it will take for me to be late is a bit of traffic, a customer needing assistance taking their shopping to the kitchen (which obviously I'm always happy to do), someone not being awake and taking a long time to answer etc. That's without the issue of needing to find toilet facilities to use - depending on where we are this can be very tricky! But I do always update customers.