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!!!

OP, have you tried to contact then re the beef?
I’ve had this previously with Waitrose and they managed to ‘find’ my joint and deliver it

I'm currently about 3 mins late to receive my order for Sainsbury's. The driver was there 40 minutes early - unfortunately he's had to wait as I was out trying to source the 10 items they couldn't deliver including Jacobs crackers, mulled wine and some cheese.

Just got back from Lidl, it's busy but no more than summer Saturdays (holiday area) and plenty of meat available

Oh no op I hope you get sorted! It's the thought of driving round sourcing stuff in the utter chaos that is supermarkets atm.

Oh no. Finally got the email and they are subbing my Good Housekeeping top three best Christmas cake (No 1) which costs around £16 and the closest I've found to my late mother's, with a cheapo one. No thanks. ☹️☹️☹️😡

@Blanketpolicy

diluting the cream will be fine, I always buy a small tub of double cream at Christmas and then dilute it as we go ( only use in cooking). Dilute it just before you use it and stir gently with a fork. If you keep it it tends to separate out again.

I had Asda this morning. 6 subs but nothing vital. I wasn’t buying much typical Christmas food though, got the meat from the butcher and have lots already - in the freezer.
Rosemary instead of thyme, no chestnuts or parsnips and sprouts that weren’t ready prepped.
The Asda driver said it’s crazy, his previous customer had 15 nil picks and he says tomorrow will be worse- there will be nothing in stock.

Can you get to a local butcher? Our said we didn't need to pre-order our beef as they always have it.

I cleared them out yesterday

We switched from Ocado to Morrisons and haven't looked back, tbh.

yawn. There’s always one.

Can I make a suggestion, it doesn't help with the no meat or veg but why not buy longer life items like sauces, Christmas puddings, wine etc in early November? If you want special meat I suggest your local butcher.

In all honesty I've used Waitrose entertaining, and Sainsbury's equivalent - both let me down! Full credit to Sainsbury's who had 2 members of staff run around the store getting as close substitutes as possible then not only refunded me for the pre order, but also gave me all the substitute food for free, twice as much (still it caused a lot of hassle) whereas all I got from Waitrose was a shrug and a promise of a refund with 5 days!

Sainsbury's - 20 substitutes.
I gave them all back and got a refund.

They didn't have any of the main "Christmas bits" - no pigs in blankets, mince pies, chocolate treats etc.

They substituted two £5 chocolate yule logs for two £10 Christmas puddings (none of us like Christmas pudding - hence it wasn't on my order).

I wouldn't mind but my agoraphobia is awful at the best of times and as a single mum/ don't drive/ one of my children is disabled - it was disappointing.
I guess I rely too heavily on online shopping, but never known so many substitutes and all main Christmas items.

Christmas ordering/delivery in advance used to be great pre covid….now it’s not worth the hassle as everyone does it and that’s why you don’t get what you ordered

I've seen a few of these threads now (this week and in many previous years) and I'll never understand why people are getting long shelf life items like Christmas pudding, stollen and matchmakers etc at the last minute! They've been available since September!

The last minute meat order is understandable but last time I bought supermarket joints for Christmas I did the pre-order collect in store service which worked fine. Now I pre-order my meat from a local farm shop and collect without any problems whatsoever.

I see so many of these threads, particularly at this time of year, and I really feel for you all. Such a nuisance.

Tesco did it to us on Wednesday. Basically the entire Xmas dinner not delivered and not even a substitution for the multi coloured carrots....so they had NO carrots at all?? I'm doubtful! Went to Lidl last night they had loads...of EVERYTHING! Loads of turkey, gammon, beef...none of which Tesco had apparently!
Those of you with Xmas eve deliveries I'd err on side of caution!

I gave up on Waitrose due to the subs or lack of item itself. They were unable to sub 6 breads rolls and sent nothing

Ocado delivery coming later with no subs for which I’m grateful

i called to Tesco for a couple of bottles earlier and it was really really busy. Plenty of items on the shelves but massive queues

M&S did this to me on Xmas eve once, resulted in a VERY expensive joint of beef collected by DH from a butcher in London after work. They did refund us the difference which meant there wasn't anything to pay for the bits I did have to collect and gave us a free champagne. I have collected it all from them today no issues. Ocado delivered last night with one substitution which was quince - no clue if it's important as it's not for me.

I must say, there's an abundance of food on the shelves, I don't think I would pre order anything unless I'm looking for a specific cut of beef.

I do as a pp said, I buy a lot of the longer life stuff early on and hide it - my favourite bits always sell out

Not very helpful for you but my Ocado has been great too. Only subs were king edwards for king edwards, broccoli for purple sprouting and a box of tiny crap looking scallops instead of the roe on monsters I had ordered.

I received my Ocado order yesterday no subs and all use by dates from 28th onwards. Very pleased as this is first time using online delivery for Christmas shop.

shit customer service on top of a shitty delivery is, er, shit. Commiserations OP - I hope you get sorted. Asda have utterly fecked up with me. I don’t think an online shop at Christmas is worth it.

Annoyingly our Ocado is missing the beetroot pie, which was one of the main parts of our vegan Christmas dinner.

How frustrating op!

Had my sainsburys shop come today, no disasters but still had to make a trip to town.

• No Jacobs crackers and no alternative apparently - really struggle to believe there wasn’t a single cracker like item at the giant sainsburys they pick from
• No mixed nuts
• Subbed something BIL gf likes to drink for Smirnoff ice so that went back and replaced turkey gravy with onion gravy - who wants onion gravy with xmas dinner?!
• No Twiglets in the little tin (a DP xmas must have)

Could have coped find without those things but we are hosting and I want everyone to have everything they want so off to the small sainsburys in town at 8 o’clock this morning, was filling up a lot when I was leaving at 9!

I had this with an M&S click and collect order a couple of years ago - my first year of hosting. The meat just didn't turn up. The store were absolutely fantastic though, let me choose a more expensive option for no extra cost and then took a hefty amount off the final bill. The customer service makes all the difference, so sorry you've had such a bad experience OP. Hope the stores near you aren't too horrendous!