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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Whilst in place, these measures override the relevant provisions of our Terms & Conditions.
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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?

Having just reread my first ever email This morning from Ocado about all this it would appear I am not considered a ‘loyal’ smart pass customer and may not get a delivery each week.

But I am allowed to look at the website on Wednesday for a slot which will only show 4 days in advance.

So it’s one set of conditions for some and not for others it seems.

So it’s one set of conditions for some and not for others it seems

I have accounts with four grocery delivery orgs including the anytime smart pass with Ocado. They have easily been the most shambolic and disorganised response.

Lack of information, incorrect communications and a website which had to be taken down for 48 hours to upgrade (and still didn't work).

I only kept the account because they stock some items I can't get from other supermarkets but after this I'm unlikely to renew. Anyone who is vulnerable and only has Ocado as an option is going to be stuck I suspect.

I was able to book a slot for my mum on 16 Apr. Nothing was left in my area for the next month. They sent me the loyal customer letter and told me I could book one slot every 10 days. Now people on the FB forum said they have now booked the next three Saturdays... I should have been greedy and picked a few for myself. I’ll say it again, they are an absolute shambles. Do they not think people will discuss this and realise we are all being told different things?

I'm seriously unimpressed never mind totally baffled. I've shopped with them for the last 3 years, sometimes twice weekly, smartpass holder etc etc. I'm not even fussed about how loyal they deem me to be but the emails have been confusing, the slot bookings rarely work either! I think I might be about to give up....

Thanks, @Milky77

She has been an Ocado customer since they started in her area a few years ago, she just doesn't use them every week. She actually currently has a active "3 month free smart pass" that hasn't expired that they sent her a couple of months ago before everyone signed up because of coronavirus that she has been using for her last few deliveries. Bizarrely, until the latest shut down of the site a week or so ago, she was able to get a delivery slot within a few days every time. Her latest delivery was after they started saying delivery drivers were "identifying vulnerable customers". She spoke to the driver through the window, told him she is shielding and can't come to the door.

Waitrose have identified her as a priority customer, presumably because they have her date of birth from her MyWaitrose card but it is no help as they closed her local store recently.

I’ve been told I can have a delivery every 7 days but I can only get one (that I ordered in March) on the 11th and one 10 days later.

I’m sticking with them until after this is all over. There will have some explaining to do but I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt, which is rare for me This is an unprecedented situation. Ocado operate on a different model to the other supermarkets as they have no physical stores. We don’t know how many essential food deliveries they’ve been asked to provide. I know that the demand for home food deliveries is so ridiculously high at the moment that no company could satisfy it entirely.

They’re supposed to be swapping from Waitrose to M&S at the end of August so I suspect I’ll be moving my weekly shop from them anyway. If I go into M&S for one thing I come away having spent £30. I can’t order a weekly shop from there!

I reckon they've done it on weekly/monthly spend looking at the responses on here. So not most loyal, most lucrative

I don't know, I have been with them since they began in London and my average spend is £125. I haven't even had an email from them since 25 March. I doubt very much whether they will be getting my custom again.

It’s like they are just picking names out of a hat as to who gets emails / are they loyal or apparently not loyal / can they have a delivery every 7 days, 10 days or no guarantee at all. Etc Etc

Despite ordering every week and having a smart pass since pre 2021 I am not loyal or deemed worthy enough to have an order every 7 days according to my one and only email from them.

I’m not sure their mailing lists and systems are even accurate/working!

I think they may well find that they lose a lot of their "not loyal enough customers".

What rankles most is that up until yesterday they were telling the media that they are prioritising the elderly and vulnerable when they are actually prioritising their profits and their most lucrative customers. They aren't even pretending that any more, if you read their FAQs.

It seems that they haven't taken into account that many of their most loyal and lucrative customers have elderly parents who Ocado haven't prioritised.

As an aside, does anyone remember Ocado Annie?

Can the loyal and lucrative customers not use their slots to organise deliveries for their elderly parents? That's what we're doing.

But then they shouldn’t still keep charging my £10.99 per month. (I see some people only pay £9.99). They say they will refund if you haven’t managed a single delivery in March. That’s rather poor value to pay £10 for one delivery. If it’s that infrequent I will just go to waitrose once a week.

I also have Delivery Saver with Tesco and they have stopped taking payments until normal service is resumed, but delivery pass conditions still apply if I get a slot, so no delivery charge over £40.

I don't know, @TheFallenMadonna as I can't get on the site! It opens, I can see my automatic weekly order waiting in the basket but it throws me back to the holding page within a few seconds as I haven't been deemed loyal or lucrative enough.

I did wonder whether that might be possible or whether I won't be allowed to add a new address as I would assume Ocado have allocated the priority slots based on where your regular delivery goes. It's going to mess with their algorithm if everyone starts diverting their deliveries! Do your parents live in the same area? My DM is several hundred miles away so her deliveries come from a different Ocado hub.

Has anyone else NOT received an email? I seem to get access to the website randomly, and they booked another slot for me but no email. Same as a lot of you - customer for 10 years, done loads of shops...

I had a reserved slot but didn't even receive a message when it was clearly cancelled.

No email here but a text to say sorry no email have managed to get a couple of slots through chance.

I've had a "most loyal customer" email yesterday.

Am allowed to book a delivery every 7 days but will not be able to see slots within 6 days of a booked delivery.

In my experience orders are being closed for editing up to 3 days before so best to book as much as you can when you order.

Some things still being rationed-like milk-but plenty of things aren't.

No email here either @Greenpoppins. I had a reserved slot before they were cancelled. It lets me on to the site and I can see my regular order tantalisingly waiting for me in the basket before it throws me out to the holding page that says I haven't been identified as a priority customer.

@goingoverground No, they live about 150 miles away. I added their address in early March when they started self isolating and we have had one and they have had two since then. Now both currently booked future deliveries are going to them, none to us, and it seems to be OK.

I've been with Ocado for 10yrs in May, and had a smart pass for most of that.

Our shops rarely go over £100 as I'm a lone parent, and I've been reliant on them due to being largely housebound. Not registered with other sites as always used Ocado.

Dd is to be shielded so we're registered on gov site but waiting for letter via GP (similar to someone above).

We got the "you can have a look at slot availability starting next Tuesday" email.

Not even the promise of a shop every two weeks or monthly or whatever. This situation is causing me a lot of distress, and actually keeping me awake at night through worry

@TheFallenMadonna yes, our weekly slot is going to our in laws on the other side of the country. We will do what we have to do to get our food, but they are unable to shop or organise deliveries themselves.

Quite a few of the priority/vulnerable customers who’ve been promised weekly deliveries can’t get them as their accounts are broken since the recent maintenance- it’s a shambles all round. It’s impossible to speak to a human being and I can only take so many generic chat bot responses online... I’ve given up and will have to go out to the shops despite severe asthma and told by the doctors to stay inside..

I've been an Ocado customer for over 12 years. Never ordered from the other supermarkets even once.

According to Sainsburys and Adsa, the government says I'm so vulnerable, I get a slot with them.

Ocado still chucks me out of the site on the grounds I'm not registered as vulnerable.

I've got a Sainsbury's delivery coming tomorrow. If it doesn't have stupid substitutions, that might be the last time I try to log in to Ocado.

@NeverDropYourMoonCup how did you manage to get on with sainsburys if you have never shopped with them before?
Did they contact you?

I’m obviously not a ‘loyal’ or ‘most loyal’ customer.... My email just said

‘We are giving you access to the site to see slot availability.‘.

No indication of whether I’ll be able to get a slot every, 7, 10 or 14days - if at all! I’ve been ‘invited’ to start checking from Tuesday onwards.

I have an anytime pass - which I’ve had for years but I’m probably not as lucrative a customer as others on here.

I’m looking forward to Tuesday!