AIBU to tell you all to avoid Sainsbury's?

[Theresalotgoingon]

I am so frustrated and feel so powerless to do anything about the shocking service I received from Sainsbury's so just want to spread the word and tell you all to avoid Sainsbury's grocery delivery if you have any alternative options!

We have a family party today and I booked a £150 grocery delivery to arrive last night between 10-11pm with all the fresh food and drinks for the weekend. 11pm came and went with no communication and their help lines were closed. I waited up until midnight but no delivery.

This morning I rang at 8am as soon as their lines were open - their automated response line asked for my order number which they then told me had been delivered and I had to route through several options to actually speak to someone. Finally getting through to someone and they offer no explanation or apology for the totally missed order and said they'd refund £146 to my card in 5 working days! The delivery fee would have to be a gift voucher! So not even a full refund! I have pushed back on this but now have to wait 72 hours for another team to call me to process the £4 delivery fee. They have offered me a £5 voucher good will voucher for the poor service.

I know that issues happen - drivers get sick, they may run out of time etc but the total lack of communication and understanding from the store / company makes me so frustrated. Anyway I went out this morning at 7am to go and buy everything else and will just have to put it behind me. Who else should I use going forward because I'll never book with Sainsbury's again!

Not everyone can, though.

There's some sense in asking - although what they really needed to do was make a note on your record to say no point in asking next time.

I used to have the 1-2pm slot with Ocado. The 12-1pm slot had a "green van" marker, indicating that they already had a delivery booked in the area, but I couldn't guarantee to be home until 12.15. Every week, they would ring to see if I minded them coming early, and it usually arrived at 12.30, which was actually ideal.
Ocado were always fine if I declined an earlier delivery - on one occasion I said that I was teaching until 7.30, and they parked up outside and waited!

If you have a landline, then it may be better to give that than your mobile number; then they can't ask if you're not home!

Why didn't you refuse delivery?

You could apply that to any topic on here. So that's a ridiculous comment.

Reported.

That's really bad. I rely heavily on deliveries as I have young dc and my dh has a serious illness so cannot look after the dc. I've only ever used Tesco but luckily they have always arrived on time. Glad you got sorted though, what a nightmare. Hopefully you can enjoy the get-together ❤️

Sorry for your experience I find Sainsbury’s one of the better shops for delivery, maybe you just got unlucky. I hope you managed to sort everything out!

Ocado are most reliable in my experience

YANBU to be annoyed
YABU to ask people not to use sainsburys because of it.
There was an error, it happens.

But they tend to be organised enough that they won't starve if something happens with the delivery

I was chatting to a Sainsbury’s delivery driver the other week, he said they have changed it so they get approx 10 mins per delivery, but the time it takes to drive between deliveries isn’t factored in. It sounds absolutely crazy to not count that but that’s what he said. I have had a lot of late deliveries lately which never used to happen so I believe him. For this reason I would never book a delivery later in the day now, there’s a good chance they’re either going to be significantly late or not turn up at all.

I don't get deliveries for food so doesn't apply. Why would you risk it for stuff for a party?. Just go to the supermarket and shop yourself.

I think it’s symptomatic of all delivery companies - utter shite .

What did people do before it was a thing? Do that.

I won't touch Sainsbury's with a barge pole after terrible customer service and piss taking delivery driver.

Move over to Ocado OP. You won't be disappointed.

Sainsburys gave me a £20 voucher for the inconvenience when this happened to me!
And delivered the next morning

Disabled people had to rely heavily on the goodwill of friends, family or neighbours. So I'd say its progress that they can now have more independence?

I don't think we're talking about actual starvation. The point I was trying to make is how important delivery is to some people trying to maintain their independence if they have difficulties that make in person shopping either extremely difficult or not possible.

I was thinking that also, why not get the items delivered two or three days earlier and you would have had time to go and get anything, or you could have ordered on Uber (I use Uber for supermarket deliveries as I can get smaller orders without having to pay a lot for delivery).

I am with you!!
our local Sainsbury’s and the deliveries have gone downhill. I have received someone else’s order (veggie food and I’d ordered some meat) and I was unable to get a response from CS. We used the food but felt bad that some non meat eaters might have received my order.
The food is poor quality and the store is absolutely filthy. If that is the customer facing standard I dread to think what the store room and delivery areas are like.
We have changed to Tesco, Waitrose and Ocado.

I’ve used Sainsbury’s for years and never had an issue

Bossy boots! “To tell” us not to use Sainsbury’s

no chance

I rarely do grocery deliveries. Perhaps 3 or 4 a year, if that.
Personally, I'd not do them for something genuinely important, for fear that they'd be fucked up. I'd rather go and do it myself, if it actually matters that I get a set thing at a set time. Or in the worst case scenario, be able to pick my own substitutions, rather than let a hungover teenage doozy pick for me.
That's why I've never done a Christmas delivery. I'm just not quite trusting enough!

I gave up using Sainsbury’s delivery because the sell by dates were so awful and the food often looked like it had been dropped down a staircase.

Out here in rural Mid-Wales, we're 50+miles from the nearest Sainsburys, so no direct experience to share. We've used the Tesco delivery service from our local market town 12 miles away almost weekly, since it started at least 15 years ago, and have only twice had a delivery fail. The first time they turned it into a Click and Collect the same day and the other was cancelled, but no problem with refund because they hadn't yet taken the money. The real-time notifications of what's happening with our delivery work well once the driver's out on his delivery route and we have absolutely no complaints.

Sainsburys have been going downhill for years. They used to have many many unique offerings among the "big 4" but have heroically managed to ensure they are now indistinguishable from them. In fact recent visits to ASDA and Morrisons revealed that things may have reversed.

Since COVID, I have noticed that they have never (not rarely - never) had a time when there isn't something or other out of stock (or more usually just not stocked) and about 10% of the shelves are empty.

DS girlfriend is Latvian, and when her DM visited last year, she asked if the UK had become communist.