Ocado smart pass trials, tribulations and tiers

[Milky77]

Background

On March 23, Ocado divided anytime and midweek smartpass members into random groups for access then realised that didn't work so divided us again into most loyal, loyal and near to miscellaneous tiers with having different levels of frequency for order delivery and indeed how many slots you can book in advance.

Certainly the most loyal and probably generally high average spend compared to local populations are the only ones being treated well. They are allowed to still book every seven days, can book 2-3 weeks in advance and are encouraged to book several slots over this time.

The rest of us are being treated with varying levels or service, disappointingly some have not had a single email since March 23 and still don't have access.

Those anytime pass members on the extremely vulnerable list by NHS England should be able to book every 7 days though aren't given the ability to book 2-3 weeks in advance. A few are apparently being called for fortnightly orders.

Ocado has been too greedy. They blame poor service on helping the extremely vulnerable but actually they let too many new and infrequent shoppers place orders putting too much stress on the system.

Complaints on social media are typically met with cut and paste replies. Both the call centre and chat comms have been shut down.

Those with weekly Reserved slots have had their places cancelled. The technology failed, or maybe actually wasn't fit for purpose anyhow

Here was our first thread
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/3862959-Ocado-Anytime-Smart-Pass-holders-have-you-received-priority-access-yet

Let's hope we don't go to a third

Top tip is to try other companies including Morrisons who also deliver from warehouses.

Good luck to all

OK
So we have the 7 day tier, and the 14 day tier which seems to be based on peoples' shopping habits. I wonder if there is going to be a 3 weekly or monthly tier added for those that haven't had access yet.

How often did you get previously deliveries for those that can't log in yet?

I’ve been using my work pc to login (never have befire) so it can’t be cookies

I’ve had regular weekly deliveries for years so yes makes sense , but bet there are other people who’ve had weekly that can’t get in! I’m still convinced it’s just a complete cockup!

I think it's the opposite of having cookies...

I had an email telling me I had priority access about ten days ago but the link never worked and just threw me out... Then I randomly tried it on my phone (usually only use laptop) and I got straight and have been able to book two deliveries. (Website, not app, but I had my password saved on chrome). I had never used my phone for Ocado before.

My phones been better too, i was having issues getting past the payment page which was causing hyperventilation.

my last delivery as 23/3/20 - weirdly when booking this on 17/3 i got straight in with no issue. Last time I was allowed on. SIL tried logging in as me and Poof out goes she...

i’m mortally offended to not even be on the General Release Tier whatever that is! it’s like they’ve seen my name and and thought - nah doesn’t fit with our wanted profile or something 🤷‍♀️ or it’s done on when pass payment is taken. it’s the ONLY thing i can think of. It’s pretty unclear and more than a bit shit!

Previously I only ever used the app. Could the app usage be how they are allocating ? And if so what would be the thinking there ?

I've never used the app- don't even have it so it can't be that- always use my laptop. I am always a weekly orderer and spend over £100.

I do think those that can't log on is caused by some sort of error. If you are as you all say long-term smartpass users and regular shoppers then I can't see why some would be deliberately left of the access list. It makes no sense.

@FreakStar if you are not one of the chosen ones and try to sneak in by using a different browser, browsing incognito, deleting cookies etc, all that happens is you have to wait in a queue for an hour to log on and be kicked out rather than getting kicked out straightaway!

I wasn't as regular a shopper as some on here. Most months I would get 1or 2 deliveries, and very occasionally none. So maybe there is going to be a 3 weekly or monthly tier, but who knows as they haven't bothered to tell us.

It seems those that have a priority access are the regular weekly or fortnightly shoppers. They are the ones they want to keep of course! If you are a sporadic shopper you aren't going to be as much of a loss if they piss you off. It's poor form not to contact everyone though and put them in the picture.

word So you can't get in at all? I can at least get in and there are always slots for the next day.

That is dreadful - you smart pass holder with regular deliveries since 2010 - me joined Feb 2020, 3 deliveries in Feb and 2 in March. (My first was bigger, but as I got the new customer discount is was around £60, I had one big delivery around £100 and then the other 3 around £50 I think.) Yet I can get the 6pm access fairly easily. What are they playing at?

Must be postcode related too no?

it’s bonkers - obviously i’m no longer special. it seems however that they aren’t as special as they think they are any more . it was weird though as last order wouldn’t accept the logged card - i’ve literally used the same card since I opened my account (opened it as have JL credit card and they were doing waitrose style points at the time which was nice bonus) but last time i wanted to pay with it they wouldn’t accept it. Absolutely no reason for it! - Eg i’ve used it for shopping before and since with no issue!

@wordofwarning It does sound more like their has been some issue with your account rather than just being deliberately excluded from the priority list. You say they wouldn't accept your card last time you shopped- is it the same card you pay for Smartpass with? I wonder if your last smartpass payments have not gone through and that's why you are not on the priority list?

My Ocado also linked to vitality which I get through work - I wonder if that counts too

Are you clased as one of the 'very local' @actionhasmagic? I can see Ocado taking that into account.

@Freakstar the payment for March smart pass is definitely on there so I’m not sure.

I think it comes out again today/tomorrow so will see if that makes a difference - to be fair though at the time of my last shop the website was really clunky and it took ages to log in even with the right password. I think it could have been in the App too. Who knows? However they did still identify me at the end of March as a priority customer of theirs and to wait for an email/text to get on the site so I’m guessing at some point to the end of March I was ok on the system? It’s just been radio silence since then 😔

Have you gone on twitter Wordofwarning and told them about the problems you've? Nothing to lose by giving it a go.

Sorry, you've had

This thread prompted me to log in at 7.00 this morning and I got a slot for this Saturday morning. I pay £3.99 per month for SmartPass and had received an email a week last Saturday saying I was eligible for a weekly slot but when I immediately logged in there wasn't a slot available at all which really pissed me off. Don't email me and make promises you can't deliver !! I've managed to spend a lot of money as everything has definitely gone up, there's few offers and loads of out of stocks even on stuff you wouldn't imagine so can only assume a lot of food manufacturers have temporarily closed. I now need to try and keep us going until Saturday with what we have so I don't spend even more money !!

@knittingaddict all social media and emailed several times. I’ve had the standard cookie cutter response of no real answer. They win. It’s a shame, I was a good customer. I don’t intend to be again.

The way management have handled social media has not been great, or communications to everyone or their standard responses. Enough people have asked the same question and been given a dodgy politicians answer.

They’ve bugged themselves up on FB she actually they should have just kept quiet. They need some serious Comms management coming out of this. They shouldn’t only put things on social media - it should go to their database too, they should have had one clear message to all customers and the tier system has just made everyone who doesn’t have the 7 day book ability feel like shit. I will be really surprised if this isn’t picked up later in the press when we have all the breakdown of how it went and who did what.

I was on the last thread and bitched and moaned a lot there. But now I'm managing to get a slot every 7 days so I'm happy again. I still am unhappy to be paying £10.99 for my anytime smart pass, and I have no idea how some of you managed to pay only £3.99 without asking them to reduce the price!

But I'm posting here because some of you mentioned cookies and using a different phone or browser. I'm mentioned this in the old thread. You can clear your entire browsing cache with a completely new session with icognito window in Chrome. It's a feature that also exists in firefox (new private window), but of course firefox is less used. But do this if you want to test if it's your cookies and sessions that is throwing you out of the queue. It has produced different results for me being in or out of icognito browsing.

They seem to have released a lot of slots yesterday evening as when I logged on at 7:30pm there was a shorter queue and I could pick any day from today to next Monday.

I think in these times you can't really rely on the official communications to prompt you because they're going out to thousands at the same time - you have to be proactive and keep checking regularly.

(I cancelled my smart pass from the 5 March as I mostly shop at tesco and only used ocado once a month for naice things so I didn't want to pay the increase from £3.99 to £5.99 a month... that was shortsighted of me!)