Ocado Anytime Smart Pass holders - have you received priority access yet?

[Milky77]

Email sent to anytime pass holders (at least) on Thursday

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We have experienced such extraordinary levels of demand in recent days that despite our best efforts, we simply have not had enough capacity to serve all our customers.
To put it into context, practically every Ocado customer, no matter how infrequently they may have shopped previously, is now looking to place an order every week. At the same time, with families at home, the average size of orders has almost doubled. This means there is an unceasing level of demand several times our current delivery capacity.
We’ve already taken decisive steps to manage this demand, closing our doors to new customers, and limiting customers to one delivery slot every seven days. However, despite these measures, we can see that not all Smart Pass customers have been able to book a delivery.
As an Anytime Smart Pass member, we consider you to be one of our best customers, so we’ve set up a temporary priority queue to enable you to book a delivery slot each week.
How you will get access:
We have divided all paying Anytime Smart Pass members who joined before 2020 into a number of equal-sized, randomised groups. You will be placed in one of these groups.
At spaced intervals, we will give each group access to the priority queue, enabling them to quickly get in and choose a slot for their weekly delivery. We will do this by sending each group an email and text message between the hours of 9am and 5pm, starting tomorrow.
Once you get your email, you’ll have the rest of the day to place and check out your order. Please wait for your message, as you won’t be able to access the priority queue at other times.
Please be aware that there is still high demand for slots, and you may not see full availability for all time slots. But, because we can now prioritise the customers we let on to the website, and each customer can only have one slot, you can be confident that there are enough slots – and groceries – to go around.
Our developers continue to work on a better solution which will allow us to manage this in a simpler way but, for now, this fix at least helps us to prioritise you in the short-term. It makes access fair, and helps to keep traffic to our website at manageable levels, ensuring you the best possible shopping experience in the circumstances.
Please note: our usually all-knowing Customer Service team can’t set-up or change this temporary process, so they won’t be able to tell you which group you are in, or when you will get your email.
Thank you for your continued understanding and patience. We all understand the huge responsibility placed on us, and we are working tirelessly to help feed the nation at this challenging time.
Your Ocado team
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Will be v glad to have a slot confirmed. I would have cancelled my Ocado subscription otherwise. As a customer who orders weekly and should also be screened, I was getting quite concerned what the next few months would be like.

Anyone had their priority access yet?

• far more deliveries and less miles

They say they're limiting people to one delivery per week.

I am getting rather tired of constantly checking my emails and counting how many carrots are left. But I know it's not the biggest problem in the world.

@Furball not sure. I've just had my last Ocado reserved delivery this morning. I'm awaiting my email or text to let me book my next one.

Now ...

I have just had a delivery with no bread as chemicals spilled on it. I managed to speak to someone at head office, they wont replace the damaged items and I was told it is highly unlikely that anyone not on the vulnerable list will be able to get a slot in the future.

I asked to cancel and was put on hold and then the line went dead. No one had called me back.

So has anyone actually got a slot since they have said it is limited to one a week who is NOT vulnerable? I think the communication is appalling. Fair enough that priority should be given to the vulnerable but if we are not going to be able to book slots at all they should just say so.

I am a smart pass holder, and am still waiting for my email. I have tried every day as well just in case but no luck. I emailed them last week to explain that while I am not shielding I am vulnerable (am right on the edge of 'shield' due to prescribed inhaler dose). No reply, obviously. This week I am self isolating and am starting to get worried about food. My neighbour managed by a miracle to get a Tesco click and collect slot (she was an existing customer) and added a couple of things for me but I didn't order more because Ocado had promised this email!

I agree, if they can't do it they should just say so, then people can make other arrangements. I deliberately didn't overstock on my last delivery on 15 March but wish now that I had done!

I don’t get this at all. 1.5m people on the vulnerable (shielded) list in total and only a % of them will have been Ocado customers. Or do they mean that all their normal customers have been binned in favour of the listed vulnerable? Many of whom won’t have used online supermarkets before and potentially don’t have the wherewithal to do so. I’ve got a letter this morning that I’m in the shielded category and can’t go out at all so I’m getting worried now. Based on the threads on here if you need to use volunteers woe betide you if you request anything but basic rations. I’ve been using Ocado weekly for years and have an anytime smart pass. I don’t really see why I should step aside for someone who suddenly doesn’t fancy going to the shops.

Same here. Had the first email as a smart pass customer. But not had the one to give me access yet. I do check every day on the website too.

Sorry I haven’t read whole thread but I’m a Smartpass customer who has had one priority access email. But first available delivery was 12 days later... (London)

Does anyone else get the tantalising view of the home screen for half a second before it boots you out back to the no new slots screen?

I can see when the next slot is but I'm not allowed it! I'm a smart pass customer and I'm technically vulnerable but not shielded so I feel a bit mixed about taking slot anyway

AMBE123 Where do you live? Is there not a local group or council who can help out?

Does anyone else get the tantalising view of the home screen for half a second before it boots you out back to the no new slots screen?

Repeatedly ...

I did not get an email as promised but I kept checking the website which always had a huge queue until yesterday when it recognised me as a smartpass customer and said that I was in a priority queue and wait time was 10 mins. So I waited and managed to get a slot for tomorrow. There were only a few slots to choose from and had to check out in an hour. Also quite a lot of stock unavailable and noticed that there were very few offers but hey ho I am grateful for what I can get.

I sometimes get the tantalising view of the home screen and then booted to queue-it. Sometimes I get landed on the home page. Currently I'm on the home page but I can't see any slots. It could be that I have a delivery today and they are allowing me to request refund for unsuitable subs. Who knows.

But I have only got a first email saying we'll be allocated to random groups, but not a single email telling me I can get in to book a slot. If it's 12 days later, it's not much use. Becuase I havne't bought 12 days of food! I have relied on it being 7 days. I'm not in a shielded group so I planned to just brave the shops if I need to.

Vargas, Thank you, I don't consider myself vulnerable under any normal circumstances and there are people who really do have significant health issues. I can ask friends or colleagues if I get totally desperate.

I just wish Ocado would tell people where they stand! They are literally set up for online shopping, so not sure why it has all totally fallen apart like this!

From Saturday I can go to the shops, at least it will be a change of scene 😁

I'm a smart pass member who supposedly has priority. I've checked multiple times a day for weeks and haven't been able to get a slot. We've had a smart pass for 10 bloody years. I wish they'd just assign slots.

So sick of the ‘Aren’t we wonderful’ Facebook posts. When the restrictions are over I am writing to ask for a refund of the cost of 2/3/4 however many months this situation lasts for. The staff are hardworking, and the drivers are doing a fantastic job, but the Management, and the publicity and marketing department are a pile o shite. They are hiding behind the excuse of the Governments Vunerable list. Hang your heads in shame Ocado. Waitrose are doing the same. Well between the two of them, that’s all the vunerable people on the million strong list covered.

I'm the same Shield I get priority for the queue but no slots.

And I'm vulnerable, at increased risk, but not enough to be on the "protected" Government list

I’m the same except we ARE on the government shielded list (due to a transplant) Go figure.

Do Waitrose have an anytime pass like Ocado do? If so does anyone know if the customers who aren't vul still have access?

I don't know what is going on. I'm a Smart Pass holder with a reserved slot (although admittedly one which I only booked about two months ago when I could see which way all of this was going). I thought my reserved slot was cancelled but then it let me log on yesterday and my order was all there, and I even managed to alter it, and have had the email to say it is coming. Whether it does, of course is a whole other kettle of fish.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to get a much more urgent regular delivery over to my elderly step mother, which is mostly why I am logging in, and can I do that, can I heck?

I'm a smart pass holder, who has shopped with Ocado every week for over 13 years.

I am unable to get a slot.

Appalling customer service. They should allocate a weekly or even fortnightly slot to loyal customers to accept or reject. I would be happy with fortnightly. I am not happy that after 13 YEARS of weekly shopping with them I am bumped off in favour of the millions of new shoppers that they greedily signed up, despite not having capacity to supply them.

Ocado have lost my custom now. I will never use them again.

I just had a look at Waitrose and it says they are prioritising vulnerable customers, based on their own existing records (I don't know what records they have of this?!) and the list the government will supply supermarkets with in due course. So basically, anybody that is meant to be 'stringently' socially distancing due to being eligible for a flu jab, but isn't in the 'shield' group, won't be prioritised. Maybe once the supermarkets between them have the Shield group sorted out they will look at other people. Not sure what they are doing meanwhile, as they don't actually have the list yet....

Its a total farce because there must be people in the shield category that have had to risk their lives and go shopping several times already through no choice. Its been a week and a half already since the NHS wrote to people who are vulnerable, and two weeks since they identified who was vulnerable. How were they supposed to eat all this time? And they still have to register on the Gov.UK website to say they have been told by the NHS they are vulnerable - not everyone has internet!!

Yeah I know Waitrose are prioritisijg vulnerable customers now. I was wondering if they have basically ditched a whole lot of regular customers in order to do this, and if so were any customers paying for an anytime type service.