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

[Milky77]

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

-
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
Terms & Conditions

Whilst in place, these measures override the relevant provisions of our Terms & Conditions.
You’ve received this message as it contains important information about your ocado account.
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© 2020 Ocado Retail Limited. Registered address: Apollo Court, 2 Bishop Square, Hatfield Business Park, Hatfield, Herts, AL10 9EX. Registered in England – company number: 03875000.

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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?

No reason to apologise @qinstonwolf
All emotions are intensified at the moment

I still haven't had an email to say I have access and still can't get past the holding page. The text on that page had changed though and now says if you aren't yet on the priority list they will release any remaining slots for the next day at 6pm. Whether there actually will be any left is a whole other issue.

@WinstonWolf sending you and wishing I could bring you around some groceries

@winstonwolf I dont blame you for being at the end of your tether.

I think ocado have made a massive balls up of it all. Lack of consistency and lack of communication is awful.

(And they still havent charged me for the delivery I had yesterday morning.)

Winston I'm sorry that Ocado have failed you so badly. Are you managing to get food at all?

I wasn’t told I am a loyal customer (I am been using them for year and for a three years was having two shops a week one for work one for home).

Anyway for the email that i would be able to have a slot every 10 days and I should start to check on Saturday which I have been doing. Most of the time the place an order button isn’t there and if it was April all greyed out. Assumed it’s because I had a precooked order for weeks ago for the 11April.

Login again at 12 today (already check this morning) and I have the 20th or 21st available all slots free on that day. So I’m hoping this means they are sorting it out but I’m not holding my breath.

Definitely happy with every 10 days but would be a lot more relaxed about it if I knew it was going to happen. I hate relying on Ocado and on friends to drop bits off (I’m on the shielding list).

I got the "loyal customer" email with a slot every 10 days, to start checking for slots from Saturday. Haven't been able to find a slot but my next delivery is coming 11/4 so I wasn't expecting to be able to book another one yet.

Logged in last night around 00:30 to add something to my order and lo and behold, a full day of slots for 21/4 only.

I also haven't had to queue for several days now, I've been able to just log straight on, has anyone else noticed that?

@Squiffy01 I think they have slowly sorted themselves out. That's what I've been seeing where slots suddenly appear where there is a whole day of free slots.

@ElephantsAlltheWayDown same here, I've been able to get on the site almost instantly now. In the evenings, there are still queues, but only a minute or so.

@Splitsunrise thank you, I may have to do that, but I really want to avoid it if I can as there are so many people in financial need and I feel like ideally the government food parcels should go to them.

@ElephantsAlltheWayDown same. Slot booked on 11th and I have just a couple of hours ago booked one for the 21, although I did have the 20 open as well.
Have also been able to get straight on the site for days now. Not sure if it’s because I had an upcoming order or not

Here's The Guardian on supermarkets using data on vulnerable people:

www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/07/uk-supermarkets-contacting-vulnerable-patients-must-delete-data-when-crisis-abates?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

I am beyond exasperated with them.
I’ve been with them ten years. I’m a SmartPass holder.
I contacted them three weeks ago to give them the heads up about our situation, that I’m a lone parent to a child with disabilities and medical vulnerabilities and that we have no family support locally. I’ve had nothing but trouble since. I can’t even log on to the website, I keep getting the message stating that we are not yet on the priority list, despite last Thursday a pop up message appearing telling me that I was, it then let me place an order. But ever since then I haven’t been able to get in, not even to exit my order and I have no idea when I’ll be able to get another one as I can’t even get logged in. I might get lucky and get a slot for next week but I can’t wing it assuming I will so really need to know if I can rely on being able to get on the site and get a slot. I’ve tried emailing, I’ve sent messages via twitter, after filling out a contact form and emailing didn’t result in a reply after 7 days. I’ve since had responses from 9 different people which has often meant repeating myself as they don’t seem to be able to see the message I’ve sent before.
I’m beside myself with frustration and I am appalled and disgusted that despite our situation they don’t see fit to help us when other smart pass customers without vulnerabilities are getting a slot each week.

The say they will refund a smart pass if you didn't use it in March. Oh very smart, most people were able to book normally until mid March. And they say we can donate it to the food scheme if we wish... ( they will get tax relief on charitable donations) And they will no doubt be patting themselves on the back about how wonderful they are (with money we have donated) Bunch of tossers.
I can't risk cancelling my pass at the moment as I want to look after my Mum; but the minute this is over....

I had an email on Saturday to advise that I should attempt to book a delivery from Monday (yesterday). I logged onto the site around 40 times during the day only to see 3 days ahead, all slots booked. I tried at around 7pm and managed to book a slot for tonight.

Just a heads up though, the site was terrible. I'd type an item into the search box, it'd direct to a 'something went wrong page'. Took me over an hour to do the shop. Then when attempting to check out, it booted me off and put me in a 19 minute long queue which took me over the cut-off time to checkout. After loads of faffing I managed to rebook the slot before it refused my debit card for absolutely no reason, refused my credit card and finally I got the order through using my husband's debit card - for the joint account mine was declined from. Makes no sense. But I know I'm one of the lucky ones.

Best of luck to those of you still waiting.

Haven't read the full thread, but! I haven't received the email- but I can get access to the website and it says I can book a delivery every 7 days.

Some people sound as if they are just sitting waiting for Ocado to email them instead of actually trying the website!

Go on the website and try booking!

Click on book, then click calendar and if you are edible it shows the dates available to you!

If not- then I guess your not in the club! Just doing my shop for the 25th of April now and have one booked for every saturday before that too!

I just keep checking for future dates.

@FreakStar. So you really think we are all sitting around in our arses waiting for an email? REALLY? We have been told we are priority, we’ve tried logging on, we’ve sometimes managed to get onto the Homs page. We’ve tried to book slots and been sent to the q page and today sent to the access denied page so we can’t even cancel our smart passes. Bully for you getting on but don’t tell us that we are sitting around waiting for an invitation. That’s bollocks. We aren’t getting any response from them either.

Unfortunately being
Loyal customers of over 10 years (many of us with the problem!!!) has meant that we’ve not used other supermarket deliveries and now are unable to start accounts with them.

But don’t try and blame this on us ffs.

It's a truth universally acknowledged that arriving on a thread which already has over 700 posts, not reading the thread, but offering one's wisdom nonetheless - is probably not the best idea in the world!

@Wordofwarning access denied sounds like it's HTTP status 403. You have lost your session somehow. Not sure what browser and operation system you are using, but I've not had one of those except in the peak days a week or so ago.

I’m not the only one apparently 🙄 really irritated now by their total lack of anything sensible to say. Don’t send out emails if you aren’t going to fulfil the contents.

I want to know how long those who haven’t had access yet have been members. I think they’ve a date thing going on and anyone over a certain period isn’t getting on’

@Wordofwarning if you aren't the only one, then I can only assume it means you really are being denied access by ocado for reasons no one can understand. I can only guess it's their new way of handling people who shouldn't be on the queue. So those who are gets in, and those who aren't gets 403 access denied. Maybe that's why those who gets in says the site is quick

By the way, just checked and I can land right onto the front page.

It would be kinder to allow us on and not have any slots available. I pay per
Month, I can’t cancel online only by phone but they’ve Closed the phone lines. I can’t get a refund as I had a delivery 13 days ago - in March.

I wouldn’t be so utterly fucked off had they not sent me an email reassuring me of access to the site and a slot once a week. But they did. They lied. They are giving other people more frequent access and anytime pass members no access at all.

Shoddy.

You try and get hold of them and all you get is a standard response. I hope people remember this in the future. You can see from this thread that many of those they’ve fucked over are in the vulnerable category and have been long term loyal customers. We’ve had their back for years (since they were in a proper partnership with Waitrose -2002) and they think we mean nothing, not even one slot in a month.

They can join the likes of Wetherspoons in their treatment of people during the pandemic.

Oh you get a slot once a week email. Then you should be able to get in. That’s shocking really.

I’m clutching straws here. Have you tried clearing your browser cache or using incognito browsing in chrome. It does work sometimes if it’s something on your browser side. By using this method, you start a brand new session.

I have one for 20 April hoping for 27th but nothing