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!

Our local Asda is a hell hole which is best avoided. Morrisons not much better! One of the Aldis and one of the Lidls also.

I think a lot of these things are very location-specific and much of it depends on the quality of the manager.

Also i hate doing the food shop in store. People are annoying, slow 🤣

Same thing happened to me with tesco, although they did ring me about 11 pm to tell me they weren't coming at least

The call centre can’t do anything after the store that dispatched the orders shuts. My husband worked for them and he’d be getting screamed at and couldn’t do anything as it’s the store who controls delivery. Useless really.

Keep an eye out I'm sure they release more dates soon

It's not good for you but YABU to think anyone else is going to boycott a store because you received poor service.

Every chain grocer will have hundreds of examples of missed orders, price disputes, missing stock, surly staff or poor quality produce every week. If we boycott every supermarket where someone has had a poor experience, where do you expect us to buy our food?

Literally this! I'm suuuch an online shopper. Like I'd rather do even my small top up shops online then go in physically, but for my daughter's birthday I went in and did it. Not trusting them for something important like that

Op isn’t telling people to boycott, just to avoid.

Op is is not saying boycott, just avoid.

You want everyone on the internet to boycott a company just because they missed one single delivery?🤷‍♀️🤣🤣😂😂

YABU.

Vans break down, plus stuff goes out of stock, very risky leaving delivery to the night before a party unless you also have a backup morning slot booked too.

I learned this the hard way many years ago when a Sunday evening delivery for regular weekly shop didn’t turn up (Asda) and due to Sunday trading the shops were closed. They offered a slot in a few days time - not helpful when needed lunches for the week!

From then on always made sure I had my delivery with enough contingency to go to shops. During Covid at Christmas I had consecutive days of deliveries from different supermarkets so if something wasn’t in stock on Tuesdays delivery I added it to Weds etc so I got everything I wanted.

Hmmm. One is a synonym for the other! 🤔

A big order for a family party I wouldn't rely on a delivery 11pm the night before- customer service would inevitably be unavailable and last slot at night is always inherently less reliable. It's like my partner's best friend at work complained about their Christmas delivery to an AirBNB on Christmas eve didn't have half the things that they wanted. TBH who in their right mind would expect that to work well? Food doesn't go off the moment it is delivered , what is wrong with having it delivered the day before- then if there is a hiccough you have plenty of time to get the stuff.
Not great customer service, I would agree, but it was no worse than your planning, to be fair.

I'm not going to avoid my local sainsburys just because of one missed delivery that happened to someone else.

Not communist, just dystopian

Putin''s war has massively impacted the global wheat supply, which also has knock on effects on dairy and by extension, all protein products
and climate change is regularly reducing the harvests home and abroad

as a slight tangent, the price of whey protein now is pure insanity - a 100% increase since late 2021 (the GLP-1 weight-loss fanatics further spiked demand of a now-constrained supply, but that's another topic altogether)

also, a number of supermarkets have cut back on less popular product lines, presumably not wanting money held up in slow/non-moving stock..

eg nearly all supermarkets post--pandemic stopped stocking Pataks Vindaloo sauce, whereas in 2019 and before, it was everywhere.

Tinned chickpea dahl? same

They are happy to sell the various iterations of mainstream Soylent Green because that's safe and familiar to most, it flies of the shelves

@NoWordForFluffy
Was literally going to post exactly the same!
The manager at the Tesco I use is obviously on the ball. Other areas, like the next county where my sister lives, all supermarkets are dire.. she nearly tears her hair out.

While all that is true, it doesn't explain (a) why it was shit before 2022, and (b) why some other supermarkets appear to have compensated.

Just as a single example. One of the best - and unique - things they had to offer was the delicatessen. I mean it was still shit if you have ever been to a real delicatessen, but the best of a bad bunch.

Now not only has it disappeared, but the meat and fish counters too. (Fair play to Morrisons for keeping them, even if they are quite useless too). The store I had to visit last week managed to squeeze all their cooked meats into an end of the aisle chiller. Where once half an aisle would have been needed.

Asda somehow lost 3 whole crates of my shopping. Refunded me no bother but I had to go out and get what they'd not brought so now, I just go myself. Very annoying OP I get your frustration.

They did this to us one Easter Weekend. The person on the helpline could not have been less interested. Luckily I was able to buy alternatives. I'd never rely on them for a 'special occasion' delivery.

My advice - go food shopping, rather than have it delivered. You get to see how fresh everything is, you can often pick out bargains and if you focus, you can be very quick.

Whilst it’s really poor service from Sainsburys I wouldn’t be relying on a delivery late evening for a big family get together the following day from Sainsburys or any other supermarket. Unfortunately things can happen to stop a delivery and sadly you have been caught by one of these events.

I stopped using them because they cancelled our delivery twice in a row last winter. The second time we were pretty much out of food and I'd spent the last of my money on the delivery, so had no money to buy more while I waited 5 days for the refund (things were tight after Christmas). They have me something like a £5 voucher for my trouble. I use Morrisons now.

Sad you've obviously suffered very poor service but have to be honest for ourselves the quality and service we've received from Sainsbury's in the 5 years we've used them for online shopping is outstanding and wouldn't do our main shop anywhere else

I agree with you, their customer service is absolutely terrible and no one gives a shit - though delivery drivers are great! up until 2 weeks ago i would have defended them as great service but have had a similar experience to you which is still not resolved and no one has been in contact - im pondering who to use now as ocado don't cover this area and I don't like asda

Sorry you had such a problem. This has not been my experience. Hardly ever have substitutions, drivers are polite and helpful. We had a party in the summer and in the run up, they were here 3 times, including the morning of the event. No issue at all. I wouldn't write off an entire company on the basis of one problem.