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.

I have been having Tesco deliveries most weeks since 2020 and I can't get worked up about this. I book a slot and occasionally (maybe once every couple of months) they are early. I always make sure to allow that previous hour just in case. I prefer it if they call and ask but if they don't I still accept it. The drivers almost always ask if it's ok to deliver early (unless it's 5-10 mins) and say thank you for taking it early. It makes perfect sense to ask if they are literally round the corner and delivering now will save them retracing their steps. You can always say no. I have a friend who does this but I am usually happy to get it out of the way. I have only rarely had them be late and that's very rarely. I think maybe only once or twice. I find Tesco the most reliable and like that I can track them on the app (most of the time).

Careful you and pp don't do yourself an injury ranting like that

Again, what are you talking about? What part of my reply to the question you asked me, is hateful? Is it the swearing? Is that what’s getting you all upset? Because it makes it difficult for you to pick up on tone?

I’m curious, does that work for you? You don’t agree with someone expressing a valid opinion and suggesting that your entitlement might be the problem, so you try to minimise their opinion by telling them to effectively pipe down because you don’t like the way the opinion is delivered?

Again, I can only assume it’s my swearing that makes you believe I’m ranting. I’m not. I just swear a lot. This is MN, it doesn’t hold that much sway. But fine, if it helps you feel better, you carry on. Water off a duck’s back.

There's swearing in context and there's just being angry.

I'm not engaging with this further, and I'll leave you to your obvious seething about people and groceries. No biggie 🤷.

Thank you!

@TheFormerMrsTruelove your swearing doesn’t offend me in the slightest - my average day contains an awful lot of (non-aggressive) fucks and I know some people on MN clutch their pearls at that.

This is quite different - your incandescent raging across this thread is simply wild. Personally I think that your presentation here - that your OPINION is ACCURATE FACT is way more entitled than anyone who (shock horror) pays a few meagre coins to get their shopping delivered.

My bet? You’re a classic “mother of boys” and your DS is a delivery driver for one of the big supermarkets.

stands back and braces while you come for me

On the other hand, I don’t read @TheFormerMrsTruelove’s posts as angry and irate at all, and I agree with everything she said (except the bit about new estates being on satnav after 2 years. It took 4 years for my previous house and 7 years for this one…

In addition to all the points made I can’t understand why someone would continue to be annoyed about this when you’ve used the service several times and should understand how it works in practice. The slots are not given as a hard and fast fixed time, and it’s clear after the first couple that they may come a little early or a little late. Once you know that you adjust your expectations accordingly. To continue to use the service and be annoyed by them seems like a ridiculous waste of energy.

I’ve used online grocery shopping for years. You book a slot from 8-9 but know that it could come as early as 7.30. It’s rare it doesn’t come til 9.30. Most times they call to ask if they can deliver early, I’ve always said it’s fine, but on a couple of occasions have only agreed on the proviso they can bring the crates in as I can’t lift them, which is why we always book for when my husband is here. We make sure we are in from about 30 mins prior to the delivery. On one occasion they just turned up, we weren’t in yet, so spoke to them through the ring camera and they said they would just wait as we’d be back in 10 minutes. I would never book a delivery when I’m WFH as anything could happen during the work day, someone could call me, a meeting could be arranged that morning, I could be caught up in a task etc. Making such fixed arrangements around a service you pay a few quid for, which is dependent on so many variables, then complaining it doesn’t go exactly as you have planned, seems like an issue around managed expectations rather than an issue with the service that’s being provided.

Perhaps the issues around managed expectations the fault of the supermarkets. By that I mean with many of them (certainly tesco, who I use), you choose between a flexible slot or pay extra for the one hour slot.

If you literally paid extra for the hour rather than the flexible slot, surely the expectation is that it will be delivered within that hour, or you are getting no additional service for the additional fee.

How and why would I ‘come for you’? 😂 We’re just some randoms on an internet thread that really isn’t impacting on either of our lives. My memory is absolutely shocking so 20 seconds after leaving this thread I can guarantee I’ll have forgotten your username and if you @ me in a week I’ll have no recognition of ever having spoken to you before. Your belief that I’m incandescent is also weirdly incorrect but, ok, if you want to think that, it’s no skin off my nose. I obviously sound more aggressive than intended, so I accept I may have given that impression. In reality it was more of a shake of the head and a couple of eye rolls at the complete lack of a shit some of you give about other people who you feel should be catering to you and your wants. I think it’s pretty shameful. But you hold onto whatever impression you like, if it makes you feel like you’ve shut down any of the points I made. What I haven’t done is claimed my opinion is fact. As that wouldn’t be accurate. And as incandescent as you think I’ve been, it seems to me that you’re being more than a little defensive over any suggestion that you’re being a bit entitled.

And I think I partly answered this in response to some other poster but no, I’m not a mother of boys, my non existent son (or daughter) isn’t a delivery driver. I’m not a delivery driver. None of my family are delivery drivers and although I believe a friend of a friend might still be a courier, I only met them briefly for two minutes, five years ago, so I can safely say that none of my friends are delivery drivers either, for big supermarkets or otherwise. I’m also not a vet, or a gas engineer, or a doctor, but I can still have opinions on animal welfare, British Gas and the state of the NHS. Do you see how that works?

it’s no skin off my nose so I’ll just write a 2 page essay 😂

I addressed your points and questions. If you just wanted the last word, you should have said so. So feel free to have it, because you’re wasting both of our time at this point.

I use Sainsbury’s and they’re usually very good with timing.

It is annoying if supermarkets don’t deliver within the allotted time though, as you’ll have booked the time you did for a reason. If they’re early there’s no automatic assumption you’ll be in/ awake/ able to take a delivery.

It’s not about the driver. It’s about the supermarket making a realistic offer of a time slot and a realistic plan to have it delivered according to that schedule. They can allow for traffic etc as much as the customer can!