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

It literally arrived when I clicked post. Bit freaked lol

@yellowbutterfly1 that's rubbish of them. Really shows how arbitrary Ocado is being. Both of us were given the "1 order every 14 days" thing, both were midweek pass holders only being offered slots at weekends for which they charge us extra. But I ask to upgrade my pass and they're super-helpful; you ask and get told some random nonsense re why they can't. And they wonder why customers are annoyed.

To add to the random arbitrariness, I logged in just now to edit my next order with my mum's final changes and like @bookgirl1982 I can suddenly see lots more slots and book more than 1 at a time and closer together than 14 days. No comms about it. Maybe a website glitch, who knows any more. They are toying with us!

@Ceara I eventually got an email last night, so not a glitch. An upgrade until they change the policy again!

I am in the midweek pass one order every 14 days group, I have one coming tomorrow (with potentially loads missing - lots of my final basket were showing as no longer in stock ) and I haven’t had any kind of upgrade - I still can’t see any available slots after tomorrow’s. But then I never received any communication about my ‘level’ anyway!

FlyingFlamingo you should still get your order. The no longer in stock message means theres no further stock available, what you have already ordered is unaffected. It just means you cant order any more of it. This is what I have found anyway.

Yes I just got my "Ocado hath been pleased to smile upon you and increase your order frequency" email this morning. As you say - until the next random change!

So I didn’t need to delete a load of items and pick (more expensive!) substitutions?

Probably not!

They certainly don't make it very clear.

FlyingFlamingo Oh god no. Once they're locked in to your order that's it. The message just means theres no further stock though I can see how it would be confusing! I got my order yesterday and by last edit around half had that message on. It all arrived.

Has anyone had an email saying they've been able to increase frequency of deliveries as number of items ordered will be limited?
Would be helpful to know how limited item ordering actually works but no mention of this in the email, it just says

"...We’ve been able to unlock some extra capacity because we’ve limited the number of weekly deliveries to each customer, and the number of items in each delivery..."

I'm not sure what the limits are slartibarti. Im ordering for my parents as well and at the beginning of lockdown there were obvious limits on staples such as bread, eggs etc but for weeks now I've had no restrictions with a weekly largeish (£250+) order.

I’ve got over 100 items in my order coming Friday. I’ve not been told about a limit.

I've been in and out of this thread with great interest!

I shop at least once a month with them, use their partner company fetch for dog food every month also. Have had very little comms from them, I'm a smartpass anytime member and pay £3.99 a month, have done for years.... got an email to say I could book every 10 days, then they reviewed me and said every 13 days. The only slots left by time I can book are the late evening ones which aren't ideal with DD being in bed ... but am grateful I get a slot at least. So I seem to get one a month essentially.

Most of our shopping with them is expensive - we buy all our booze with them, and all our naice bits and bobs, plus dog food so we're talking about £300 a month which is double our usual Tesco order.

Been a bit disappointed really - I have a friend who calculated her spend weekly over the last few years with an app, and her average is about the same as mine.... so not really sure how they work it out. A bit like others, my orders have arrived with lots missing. I seem to be able to get a Tesco slot once a month and despite the 80 items limit, it's all turned up, it's all fresh and lovely and is holding us over well.... I'd like to think I won't be shopping with ocado again, but I guess realistically I will. I will just decrease the frequency and only go there when I need to

I’ve never had a price match voucher. Weekly shopper for years. More randomness!

You dont get one unless your shop I more expensive than Tesco tootyfruitypickle. Mine is very rarely more expensive so have only had a few over the years. This month I got a fiver back though

Well I sent another email to Ocado saying how unhappy I was that I am expected to pay £6.99 for a delivery slot on top of my delivery pass subscription, how unhappy I was that they are choosing to give some people regular slots/upgrade etc bu not others and how when I now look at the ‘calendar’ it shows me a Tuesday and Wednesday highlighted but when I click on them it never shows anything available.

I received a reply apologising and that they would pass the feedback regarding the calendar issue to the relevant dept but in the meantime to try one of their quick fixes.

Of course non of them work and now the highlighted Tuesday has disappeared (these are for 2 weeks time over 2 weeks since my last delivery and should be getting a slot every 14 days). So I emailed them back saying all of this.

Somebody else replied just saying sorry your having trouble, they have looked on my account and it seems there are no slots but to keep trying.

It’s a complete joke!

What’s the betting I will suddenly have slots become available on a Friday-Monday only when they know I have a midweek pass and will still think it’s ok for me to have to pay on top of my subscription.

Hmm interesting. I was on the priority list. Purple queue or no queue at all. I have a delivery due tomorrow which I cannot edit anymore. I wanted to pop in to look at the next delivery and am no longer in the priority list. This is as it should be! I have no issue but wanted to point out our status does not remain the same at all times......

I think the cut off your editing is now 2 days prior to delivery.

I think the cut off your editing is now 2 days prior to delivery

I have an order due between 12-1pm tomorrow, my cut off was 11.30am Tuesday morning. So yes, 2 days give or take a few hours is accurate.

I wanted to pop in to look at the next delivery if you’ve not got your next delivery booked already you should get a choice of slots appear tomorrow.

I said yesterday that I used to have a blue queue and now have a green one. As far as I can tell, I'm still on 14 days between deliveries but the difference is that I no longer to have to wait for the delivery to come before booking the next one.

I am a purple line I think, i can book 3 in advance but I usually go straight in so very rarely get to see the line.

My nocturnal wanderings paid off again last night. Managed to book a slot for 21st May. I now have weekly slots right up to that date.

This mornings delivery was almost two hours early but everything there, even the hand sanitiser and not a single sub. Still no sign of yeast or flour in stock though.