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

I don't know if anyone has already mentioned this scenario:

I've been trying to book a delivery for most of the past week without luck, kept getting the 'not priority' message, then logged-in around 17.00 and found myself in the queue which was 38 minutes long, but I actually went up the queue in about 25 mins, only to find there were no slots! Very frustrating but I filled my trolley anyway.

Successfully logged back in about an hour later, direct no queue, and lo and behold I was able to book for Sunday! Of course some of the things in the trolley were then unavailable but that was no big problem I just replaced them.

Westfacing

My front door is westfacing as it happens, & my order was mostly chilled (milk & meat) - surely they wouldn’t leave that on the doorstep 1-2 hours early?

@Yellowbutterfly1 I was in the same boat - midweek pass holder but only able to book an order every 14 days on a weekend day, as my last order before life went to hell in a handcart was at a weekend. I asked Ocado if I could upgrade my pass, if they wouldn't give me a midweek slot, rather than pay for the pass AND a £7 delivery charge twice a month. They obliged, and have given me 3 months free on the anytime pass to make up for it. Email the contact centre and ask.

Seriously annoyed now
Finally got a slot for Monday coming, been waiting weeks for this slot to come round
Tried to edit basket this afternoon to add all my mums stuff, won’t let me check out
Phoned ocado, thirty minutes on hold then spoke to a lovely lady who couldn’t understand what the issue was as wouldn’t let her do it either, goes away, finds it guy, comes back and says it’s a site issue as busy, try again after 9 pm but not to worry as they are there till midnight and I can call back if not working
Not working still so call back just before 11, recorded message saying phone line closed as so busy
Emailed and just got helpful reply saying they would pass it to it dept but in the meantime gave me a list of things to try including making sure I had latest version of the app, um that will be the app that’s been disabled for weeks then ....
They could at least edit the flipping auto reply !

How frustrating!

I'm still habitually clicking on the app once or twice a week. It's pinned to my home screen, next to the coffee bean suppliers, and I would normally browse through both in idle moments. Always a moment of confusion when they tell me the app is closed ...

@Nearlyoldenoughtowearpurple I’ve just had the same issue. The guy said they’re working on it but that he would keep my ticket open and try and get it checked out over the course of the day. I got through straight away this morning!

Mango, if it’s any help mine turned out to be one item
This morning I called again and was told that it wasn’t an it issue it was that capacity had been reached and they had brought cut off point forward so nothing he could do, didn’t know why they had told me it was a technical issue blah blah , he was massively confident but I didn’t believe him !
So.. had a play , dumped everything but my original order and started adding bits at a time, tried light stuff first in case a weight issue and only one of everything, didn’t seem to matter. Kept checking out a bit at a time , all ok , then added last few bits , including a garden trowel, nope, got error message , removed trowel and added other bits, all fine.
So basically some kind of technical glitch where they weren’t going to let me order trowel , maybe it was at a different warehouse or something ?
So now have been able to check out whole order minus trowel, despite being categorically told by ocado that it was basically my fault for not doing it earlier.
Worth trying that way, do you have any odd non food items in order?

That’s really interesting as I was trying to add some notebooks and playdoh. (And remove potatoes!!)
He’s assured me that if I can’t check out the edits will disappear and revert to the last successful check out which will be absolutely fine as nothin I was trying to add was essential!

We managed to get a delivery yesterday (24 April) which was booked on 2 April. Delivery driver was an hour and a half early. The shop included bits for my elderly father who is on the vulnerable list and has received his letter from the government but hasn't been offered a delivery with any online supermarket. The delivery driver told me they (delivery drivers) now get priority bookings so he is now shopping for himself and four other families.

I think I saw somewhere the cut off could be 72 hours earlier. To avoid last minute rushes we’ve been trying to plan ahead and asked my parents for their list 4 days in advance of the delivery day.

Cut off for my Friday morning slot is Wednesday 11.30 atm

My Friday 7pm slot cut off at 11.30pm on Wednesday (they texted a reminder)

@Nearlyoldenoughtowearpurple I removed the notebooks and playdoh and it checked out no problem! Obviously a problem with non food items! Phew!

Could it be over a certain amount of items ,

Off topic, I'm going to miss the frozen Pain aux Raisins when they go to M&S , found a nice farm shop that do frozen pastries so going to have a few trips there when lockdown is over

Mango, glad to be more use than the entire ocado IT dept 🤣

Bruffin, no, I thought that but in my experiments, since deleting the trowel, I can add any number of food items and still check out. Am finishing now though on basis of quit while you are ahead .
I’ve been looking forward to the m and s tie up but am really torn about carrying on with ocado after this. I feel they have really not handled this well. The whole who gets a slot and who doesn’t, still paying for a smart pass even if you only have one delivery, this recent lying and passive aggression by their customer service ( it’s an it issue, it’s not an it issue, it’s your fault you should have checked out earlier ...) has just about tipped me over the edge.
Tesco have been so transparent and helpful. You can get a slot or you can’t, full refund no quibbles on delivery pass, for everyone and you feel like they want to still give good customer service.
Even the ocado tweets are like they don’t give a toss about keeping the customers, you can apply for a refund of your smart pass or if you want to cancel just click here ( subtext ..we don’t care either way )

I am also quitting while I’m ahead! Once minday has been delivered I will try and add the notebooks to my subsequent order! With time to rectify! I don’t want to anger the Ocado gods!

I will say that this weeks order is half the price of my last one for what is a similar amount of food, I think they might have offers back, or maybe tesco have also lower their prices and they’re comparable again, but of a relief really.

I think we’ll probably move to once a month post COVID, maybe with some M&S treats, but I really like the waitrose stuff so will be moving to them I expect. I’m all about their cooks ingredients!

I've just edited my order for next weekend and there were several (unneeded) offers as I checked out again.

Deleted all the fresh vegetables because I've discovered the local veg box is much nicer. Deleted the cheese; will order elsewhere from now on. Have given up on them for fish (except tinned); the fishmonger will deliver. Have halved the milk, eggs, bread as some will come with the veg box. (I obviously won't be ordering a million separate deliveries every week, that would seem to defeat the purpose of lockdown, but I'll definitely be broadening my grocery horizons again and interspersing Ocado with other suppliers.)

I've just read on another thread about Ocado sending texts offering guaranteed slots to customers who haven't shopped with them in three years (and don't have a smart pass).

They now have a weekly slot.

Winston they might be shielded and Ocado are having to do their bit. I don’t know for sure obviously but when they finally got confirmation I’m shielded and gave me a weekly slot I also got emails from Sainsburys and Waitrose within a couple of days offering me priority access although I’m not an existing customer. It’s batshit really, I’ve gone from fighting for a slot at 6pm despite being a loyal customer to being inundated with offers, including a bloke turning up with a government food package.

Not wanting you anger the Ocado gods made me laugh @mangocoveredlamb

I’m guessing they figure there is a much higher chance than usual of someone being in.

DM had her first delivery, via my account, the other day. It was about 10am and I called her in the morning to tell her about the couple of things that were missing. She headed off to the village shop to get replacements.
Father said that he wouldn’t get in the shower in case Ocado was early. Mother pointed out that this was Ocado and if he said he would be there between 10 and 11 then he would be.
She was most upset when he turned up at 9!

My delivery on Saturday was due between 12 and 1pm and arrived at about 10.30 with no warning, but that was fine by me. We usually go for our walk in the early evening, so I will make sure we don't go out till the delivery arrives.

I told the driver that we didn't care when it turned up as long as it did and he told us that lots of customers are saying the same thing.

Is anyone else finding that they can get deliveries now, but most of the food is out of stock?

I am now able to order a delivery every 7 days, up to 3 weeks in advance and have deliveries booked for tonight, and every Sunday up to 17th May. But I was just filling in my 17th May order and attempting to update my other booked orders (in the hope that products had come back in stock) but very little of what I usually buy is available at all this month.

Things that seem to be impossible to buy this month include turnips, lettuce, lactose free milk, Parmesan, mozzarella, lasagna sheets, feta, plain yoghurt, salami, bread flour, pasta flour, peas, quark, rhubarb, minced pork and risotto rice.

Obviously I don’t actually need any of these things, and we definitely won’t starve, but I do find myself having to think of different foods than I would usually buy and it seems that most of my rather extensive favourites list is blocked out as out of stock (although some do have alternatives like buying a different type of tea than I usually would).

I wondered if anyone else was finding this, and whether there are food shortage issues or is it just coincidentally the stuff I am trying to buy?

It has made me really conscious of the level of food privilege I had previously, where I only considered factors such as cost and healthiness, but was pretty much always able to assume availability of anything I wanted.

They're just toying with me now

I'm in the group that can only book one slot at a time, every 2 weeks - but that doesn't stop me checking. I looked at the calendar just now and the 17th (which would be 2 weeks from my booked delivery) was showing in white on the calendar - along with the 18th, 19th and 20th! Clicked those dates and got the "no slots available" message for the whole lot. Clicked the calendar again and they were greyed out again