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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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?

Dp and I have agreed we are definitely leaving Ocado as soon as lockdown ends because

1. we are paying EIGHT times more for smartpass than others on this thread even though we have similar shop sizes

2. incredibly poor communication

3. cancellation of our shop with no warning on the day lockdown began (one hour notice)

4. the way the prices of goods have gone up at this time without any explanation

5. the M & S tie up - no interest in M & S food

And we are actually among those lucky to actually have been able to book orders. I think they have very badly misjudged this

With no exaggeration I have spent hours trying to log on over the last few weeks

@Milky77 - sorry I’m definitely NOT referring to you at all. There have been a couple of posters who haven’t been very nice and have come across very smug. I don’t believe they’ve returned.

The smug ones and those praising the magnificent job they are doing have been doing so on social media and getting immediate responses from Ocado. They have then bullied and dismissed those others who haven’t been fortunate.

I know two local families with accounts exactly the same as mine - I’m smack bang between them and we are all served by the same depot. Neither of these people need to have online shopping delivered. In fact one is still going to the shops almost daily . The other is buying for a couple of elderly relatives too, but neither are shielding.

They’ve had regular slots since end of
March and have slots booked weekly for 3-4 weeks. At this point I’d like to say I introduced BOTH families to the wonders of Ocado .

My dm also has an account with them and has heard nothing. Me too. Dm is shielding and fortunately is able to get basics from milk and more (BIG BIG BIG up to those guys) she would be in real trouble without them.

Does any of that seem right? Whilst there are some posts on here about being unable to books slots as vulnerable, there are also many on SM about not even getting access or put on the priority list when they should be.

I know there are other supermarkets, ones that these customers haven’t used before and don’t pay a monthly premium for. For the older it can be confusing, for others they might not deliver to the area or have slots available either.

The very WORST thing about this is that the local users to me have said that I am being selfish by not staying at home and using a delivery service....., 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

must nothing to do with perceived quality. I'm repeatedly trying every supermarket I had an account with already (not even going to bother trying to sign up with new ones! ). There are none for me.

@Wordofwarning not right at all

I’m surprised some of the people saying how wonderfully Ocado are doing don’t seem to have RTFT and seen how awful it is for some

@Quarantino have you tried veg/meat box schemes? We are getting one for the first time now and my elderly parents are too

It is a definite “I’m alright jack” attitude but there we go. I’m actively putting everyone at risk, apparently, and I shouldn’t be. Notice no one has offered to shop for their neighbour!!!!

Anyway - I’ve tried, I’ve failed, I’ll continue to q at actual shops AND ask Ocado wtf they’re doing about it. On an hourly basis if necessary as they continue to tell me to keep checking. If I poke the hornets nest each and every time I might get somewhere - or have a lot of satisfaction trying.

They won’t be getting any of my business in the future.

As an aside - quality? My last delivery in March had a substitution or red peppers from waitrose to Ocado own brand. Two of them were less than the size of one waitrose
one. It was laughable!

To be clear, I am definitely not accusing anyone on here of having too high standards or anything!! Yesterday when I was trying to get a slot for my in laws, my husband was very much 'oh god, not Asda for them!!' so I had to say 'hang on a minute, do they want food or not, people are really struggling so it's incredibly fortunate I've found them ANY slots', at which point he backed down. If it's a question of zero delivery, or any, i think the majority of people would take any. I'm just hoping for no complaints about what I have managed to source!

We are going to Morrisons @onceaupon.
Ocado profits will rocket during this time. I hope their subscription base drops enough to hurt them but I doubt it will.

@wordofwarning who are you talking about that hasn't 8ffeeed to help their neighbour?? Just because we don't mention it on here doesn't mean we aren't!

@Milky77 sorry I’m referring to my personal circumstances :) my neighbours with deliveries know they situation with my parent and have not offered to add to their weekly shop. It’s not a huge deal, but they are also then telling me how awful I am to be putting my shielded dm at risk by shopping on store.

They don’t seem to get the point that I can’t get a delivery and that they are just winding me up and not being helpful, although they could be.

Genuinely, I’m so pleased you started this thread and that it is beginning to work out for you I’m just very pisses off personally that:

1. my friends and neighbours are in the super lucky 7 day group
2. they are telling me what an awful person I am for not getting deliveries
3. they say all that and don’t ask if we’d like to add anything for my dm to eliminate some of the risk
4. they are still going out to the shops - but apparently it doesn’t count as it’s for a very short period of time.

I have too much time to think about it, too much time looking on Sm and being abused there for suggesting Ocado are not the wonder company they claim to be, for being promised a service and then ignored.

Without this thread I would have imploded by now, you have brought so many people together and knowing it’s not just me is very comforting and supportive. I’m so grateful and you started it.

I don’t think they are treating people fairly, they have lied and been inconsistent. The majority of those on here now are the ones having huge issues. Some, like you, have started to get a service but not the one they were originally offered and that is NOT good enough - the ones having a problem (including you) have always stated they were helping neighbours too who were elderly but not considered.

It’s So frustrating. I’ve also probably answered or meant to something on a post without mentioning the poster and the thread has moved on in the time I’ve taken to write.

I can genuinely say there is only one poster on here that has been noticeably “not very kind”. I’m won’t mention them but it certainly wasn’t you.

The whole thing is just a bucket of FRUSTRATION and sending me a little bonkers

Interesting that there only seem to be numerous threads about Ocado on here. Just goes to show how badly they have been treating their customers compared to other supermarkets.

mustbe I've used Morrisons a few times, I don't think I have ever had a complete shop though only 1 or 2 items. This was pre all this though. Usually it is my bread, but I have that with all the shops.

I am sorry that people are having such awful experiences with Ocado, I was full of high hopes when I signed up (just pre all this) I have been able to get on the site at 6pm, but I don't want to hold out to the night before and hope there is a slot. I haven't had any communication either, even if it was just a 'sorry'.

I am managing to book with Sainsbury's, thankfully they have toned back on the original very aggressive emails. All my Sainsbury's slots I have found randomly during the day, so worth checking in if you are needing somewhere. (I am a delivery pass holder though)

I've been an Ocado customer for many years, and had a Sainsbury's delivery subscription before that, my contract was up at the beginning of April, so I had effectively just signed up for another year, I can't get a slot so I've taken up the offer of cancelling.

I was paying very little for my smart pass, but it still made me feel that I needed to use it every week to get the benefit from it (which is what it's designed to do after all), if I find I want to go back to deliveries after the current situation is over I'll go back to Sainsbury's and get a mid week pass.

I'm already twitching about Christmas.

For me, what would make a difference (I think) is if the grey calendar of doom had some way to indicate what days were blocked out because of the restrictions (7/14 days etc) and which truly had no slots. That way I'd have more inkling whether I might get a slot in a few days and therefore stop going in every hour which must be slowing their site right down if everyone does the same.

@wordofwarning ha I see. Here have a it is so frustrating.

I was reading a vulnerable thread on here which were giving lots of praise to Asda so I'm going to check them out too.

Waitrose ordering is also near to non existent. Neither them or Ocado have done well in this. Am disappointed in both

We’ve been lucky that we’ve been able to get an Ocado delivery every week for the last month. The not so lucky part is that we’ve noticed the quality going down hill and last night a 2 pint of milk had burst, ended up all over our porch. The driver apologised said he’d take the 84p or whatever it is off. But that’s not the point, it’s meant to be convenient and they charge for the privilege. It’s just turning into a right palaver!!
Until all this is over we’re not using them again. We’re fairly well stocked and have a pretty good little Tesco in the village anyway and a butcher so no point.

Asda had slots for next Saturday when I looked for a friend this morning. I guess it will depend on your local store though for availability.

I've just booked Ocado for 2nd May so it is allowing you to book exactly 3 weeks in advance.

I’m furious with Ocado right now. I know I was lucky to have got my smart pass for £1.99 a month but suddenly today with no warning they have taken my payment and it has increased to £3.99. I’ve had an Ocado account for years and this current smart pass since Jan 2019 when I was able to get the lower monthly rate. I need to thoroughly go through the fine print to make sure I’ve not missed anything, but so far from what I can see, they need to inform me within the last 28 days if they are going to increase the price. This hasn’t happened. It would have pissed me off at the best of times but right now with everything going on it feels like naked profiteering to charge more. They have me over a barrel currently as I search for elusive much needed delivery slots but once this is all over, I’m another customer who will be getting rid of my account with them.

I shall wait with baited breath then @Toadz as my payment comes out in 3 days - although as yet I’ve STILL not had any emails from them and still have no access at anytime of day or night. I think they’ve selected be out to be completely fucked over so I suspect my anytime pass will spike up dramatically despite no deliveries. See ya Ocado - the percentage of satisfied customers is teeny and the M &S deal not to everyone’s liking apart from perhaps “Mel” who no doubt will be getting a mega kick back from previous colleagues, as will other board members who used to work for M&S and McKinley. Wonder what happened to their predecessors?

May 😪

So many of us are going to have no chance at all with slots

@Milky77 yup

Just looked on my account and see I'm paying 60 for 6 months. That's working out about 10 per delivery at the moment 🤬🤬🤬

I pay £2.99 a month for my smart pass, cannot believe how much some pp are getting ripped off.
I did manage to book a delivery for next week but then Ocado barely had anything in stock off my quite extensive list, it wasn't particularly exceptional or specialist. So I cancelled the delivery and will pop to the supermarket instead.

Ocado before was great, but I have found their communications long winded and confusing. It's changed each week what they're doing and I actually don't have time for the hassle. I will probably order from them going forward as I am pregnant so once baby is here I don't want us going out for a good couple of weeks.