Waitrose - no meat being delivered…..

[FlamingoSocks]

I’m just fucked off and wanting a moan
Ordered a rib of beef from their Entertaining range months ago, to be delivered this evening as the Christmas meat. Got the email about what is being delivered and guess what? No beef! So no meat for Christmas Day, 10 people coming, a house to get clean and children to entertain and now have to try and find a joint of beef.

Also not being delivered - Christmas pudding, Yule log, cheese, booze…. Basically we have to now go and do a full shop. It’s fine, we can, DH is home and we can drive, we are lucky…..

If they’d even said sorry I wouldn’t mind, but the woman I spoke to in customer services was the rudest most dismissive person I think I’ve ever dealt with in a Customer Service context. I’m in a mood now and I don’t want to be, it’s Christmas!!!

Still waiting for the confirmation email to say what is being delivered this afternoon. It usually comes through first thing in the morning. App has shown the delivery is being picked - and has been for the last 4 hours.

Tesco order - about 20 items missing including Han, Yule log, sprouts, Christmas pudding etc etc (luckily main meat sorted separately) but we’re in the same boat having to do a shop today. Agh!

Did you put this through as two orders or one?

I think there's a bit of a disconnect when most people think about these... they presume that getting it as close to Christmas as possible is best for expiry dates; but really, the order isn't picked until a few hours before it's delivered/collected, and so if everything has started to sell out, it's gone. There's always a deluge of complaints by people yesterday/today/tomorrow who thought they'd "bagsied" what they'd ordered...

I thought the Entertaining orders were on-demand only; and so it couldn't happen there, although I did notice this year that Waitrose were allowing it to be merged with a normal grocery slot too... Maybe that's changed things. I didn't look into it too much as I collected on Monday.

Today is the busiest day of the year for supermarkets, narrowly beating tomorrow; so bear that in mind when you make plans to go and collect. Very late might be best in terms of people, but it could be a shocking food selection unless your supermarket gets another pre-Christmas delivery.

Oh god, I know this is going to happen to us bc husband ordered full Xmas dinner to be delivered tomorrow pm. Sigh. So we'll have v little time when the inevitable happens to track things down! You hv my full sympathy.

One order - the entertaining item which you have to pre order but in a normal delivery slot. That’s how they’ve done it for a year or so I think?

The rob of beef is from the Entertaining range though, and is special order, it’s not selected from off the shelves. We had items from the Entertaining range and the cut off for changing that part of the order was 21st December.

We got our delivery yesterday. No mince pies or stollen, even though it was billed to me and shown as delivered.

I’ve just been to the supermarket and it was totally fine so don’t worry about it being busy

After being stung about 15 years ago I've never ordered 'crucial' items for delivery. It was Easter Sunday and Waitrose didn't deliver the leg of lamb - not even substituting with another joint e.g. a chicken or pork shoulder, nothing!

Not the end of the world but very annoying.

I am not bothering next year. Meat from a butcher somewhere and I’ll go to the shops and get the rest! No one I speak to who actually does this seems to ever have a problem getting stuff
Fingers crossed for everyone else!!

Been to Aldi and Waitrose today. No queue in either. Did go about 8.45. If you want sticky toffee pudding Waitrose had plenty. Aldi sold out.

I ordered meat from the local butcher. Picked it up this morning. I also popped into Asda about half an hour ago - shelves were full to overflowing!

I'm collecting mine from Waitrose at 2pm and still haven't had the email - I wish they'd send it so I can go get substitutes if needed. They sent an email awhile ago saying I'd definitely get my turkey though.

The checkout man in Aldi told me they get their Christmas deliveries overnight so morning is better than late evening. I always buy Christmas pudding and mince pies in October or November as they’ve often sold out by Christmas

Ocado delivered everything I ordered this morning, except, oddly enough, pink Prosecco.

Morrisons delivered everything this lorning too, aside from one pack of party nibbles tgatvwas replaced by another.

Wow. I had my Christmas ocado order on Wednesday and everything was there. Do you think the issues are local to your Waitrose?

Had the same with Waitrose at Easter, ordered a joint of beef weeks beforehand and the day of my delivery, day before Easter Sunday, no beef! I did complain and it got me nowhere, hence why I won’t do online with them anymore.

Bet they have all this stuff missing from your order on the shelves in the store

Agreed, not bothering with them again. I switched last year from Ocado and it’s been OK, lots of subs and missing but I assumed that was sector wide. If you can’t preorder a huge joint of beef for delivery on a certain day then the delivery service isn’t really a delivery service is it.
Morrisons now deliver to my area so will give them a go instead.

This is why I don't order the Christmas meat joint from a supermarket. I buy it in advance from a good online butchers and keep it in the freezer. You get better value for money too.

Unfortunately, much as I love Waitrose, I've always found them to have way too many substitutions to be reliable for food deliveries.

It comes from a fulfilment centre at Coulsdon so not off the shelves. It’s the customer service that has aggrieved me the most tbh. Really passive aggressive totally uninterested.

My order coming later has no leeks, after eights or lemonade so I guess I have done well.

Just had some sparkling water and a bottle of cravendale missing from my sainsburys order and now feel very grateful!

That same thing happened to us in 2013 with our Waitrose entertaining order. No beef, or the majority of the special order stuff. I was 39 weeks pregnant, with a 2 year old. We don’t have a car so my husband was rushing round trying to find everything, whilst finishing up his work. We now use the butchers at Borough market, preordered and never fails.

Ocado are usually very good, even at Christmas.

Mine is coming between 7 and 8 tonight, so will report back. No email or text yet. I think I have some pink prosecco coming too.