To think this is terrible of the supermarket?

[OliviaTall]

Ill try to keep this as brief as possible.

I placed an online grocery delivery with the supermarket as I do every week. Over a week ago.

The shopping didn’t turn up by the end of the time slot so I rang customer services. Customer services couldn’t tell me anything but said if it didn’t turn up they’d refund.

By the next day I still hadn’t heard anything at all, so I rang customer services again and they said they’d arrange a refund.

Later in the week I still hadn’t heard anything about the refund being processed or a courtesy call to explain why the delivery hadn’t turned up so I escalated it by emailing the chief executive email address. This seems to be the only way to actually get a response from the supermarket as I’ve had problems before.

Still didn’t hear anything after a couple of days so I sent another email.

Finally heard back from the executive team apologising and promising a refund and a quite substantial goodwill gesture of £50. I accepted this in writing by replying to the email.

Later that day I got a call from the executive office from a different person apologising again and giving me details of arranging a faster back refund. This person said they give a £20 goodwill gesture, I didn’t say anything but I assumed that she’d made a mistake as I’d already had the offer of £50. Plus I was in the school run so was a bit flustered. I don’t even know that it was a different person I assumed it was a follow up call.

Sure enough the £50 voucher appeared in my email inbox, but then I had a further email from the original person saying that she’d duplicated the case and as I’d now accepted the £20 goodwill gesture she’d be cancelled the £50 voucher.

Aibu to think this is appalling customer service?

The CEO 🤣🤣🤣

You can put laughing emojis all you want but sadly there are times with companies that it’s the only way you can get your money back.

Customer services seems to be dire with a lot of places now. You can only get through to a call centre that have absolutely no power to do anything or an online chat which is just the same.

What should I have done after over a week of being ignored?

So Sainsburys charge you even if your delivery doesn’t turn up? What a stupid system, Ocado don’t, you pay only when you have accepted the goods.

All that the customer services call centre can do is contact the store to refund you, even though the order was placed online.

The store was just ignoring it.

The team that reply to the CEO emails admitted that the refund wasn’t coming because the store was just ignoring it.

Yep.

Yes so you get charged on the morning/evening before the delivery takes place.

If they’d let delivery doesn’t ten up you are still charged.

Usually this isn’t a huge problem because they let you know if there’s going to be a problem, but this time no one let me know it wasn’t coming and all subsequent phone calls and online contact form were just ignored.

Had v similar thing with Sainsbury’s as well - don’t use them anymore

no follow up to my complaint
no goodwill payment

had 3 deliveries not turn up from a certain supermarket
and in not one case did the store call me to advise delivery was cancelled - I did all the chasing and stayed in for all non deliveries (obviously stayed in to take delivery but they never turned up)

YANBU that's really bad and has wasted a lot of your time too.

Dreadful! Write to head office.

I knew it would be Sainsbury’s. I was overcharged due to overscans but they wouldn’t refund as the bar code had been chopped off the end of the receipt. I went round in circles with online customer services with different people each time asking for my nectar card number and address etc. Leaving a week at least each time between replies. Went on for about 4 months and I gave up in the end (which is what they wanted). I boycotted them instead and shopped elsewhere. Awful place.

That's appalling ... what if you didn't have any additional money in your account to buy groceries after your food didn't show up and they had your money? For over a week!

Shocking behaviour by Sainsburys ... the first offer of £50 should have been honoured ... the least they could do!

What if it had been my last bit of money which for a lot of people it could have been.

Yes this @OliviaTall would be my thinking too, god knows over the years I've been down to my last penny for one reason or another before payday & if something like this happened I'd have been up the proverbial creek, so it's easy for other people to roll their eyes or whatever but it really isn't the point & especially as it took so long to even get the refund never mind not getting the delivery

you were right to escalate it 👏✊

I could tell this was Sainsbury’s before I even got to the end. That’s what happens when they make their staff redundant and move customer service to Calcutta and the Philippines. Exec office is still in the UK. They should be able to reinstate the higher voucher.

I tried, but I shop with every supermarket except Sainsburys, because their customer service is so awful on the odd occasion there's a problem.

All of our food shopping is online: Ocado, Tesco and Morrisons. I've completely given up with Sainsburys.

I would call them again and say no. I want the £50 as originally stated

I don’t use Sainsburys anymore, they’re awful, my 90 year old uncle had just come out of hospital. I ordered him a shop, she couldn’t find it and rang me it only rang twice before I could get to it, I called back four or five times she didn’t answer. Rang customer service they said they would not call her to go back, even though she purposely hadn’t answered me. I have never used them again.

Well, say what you like about Amazon but my experience of their Fresh delivery is bloody brilliant.

I've used it loads, always turns up on time thus far. In fact, I'm doing a shop now. It'll be with me between 8am & 10am and I can track the driver all the way from the warehouse.

And the single time that one item was different without telling me, customer services refunded me for the original item, said to keep the replacement or they would deliver original order that day, AND gave me a £10 voucher. All sorted within a couple of minutes online chat.

No wonder they're a behemoth.

What would happen if you had to feed a a family and did not have enough money to cover another order ?

I guess you have no experience with the modern "customer service". Unfortunately, emailing the CEO is often the ONLY way to get a human to deal with your problem. Good luck getting anywhere with Evri for example without emailing the CEO. You literally cannot get past an AI bot that does nothing to help.

Have you actually read the full thread?

Sainsbury’s is terrible for this. Have complained on a few occasions and been promised a goodwill voucher which has never materialised. I avoid them like the plague. Lying bastardi.

Shitty service.
What a cheap skate.

This happened to me with sainsburys. I bought something from the tinned/packaged goods aisle in store. Got home and only when putting shopping away did I noticed it was over 6 months out of date!
I returned it in store and got a refund, but i did email customer services as I think thats quite a big cockup on their stock rotation.
They offered me a voucher of x amount. The voucher arrived and was for a lower amount. I challenged it on principle and they issued me a new voucher after a lot of arguments. 🤣🤣

That is crazy.
What is even the point of having customer service half way round the world.
We need all the jobs we can get in this country.
The supermarket make enough profit.
I’ve noticed our local Sainsbury’s has skeleton staff on at all times.