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

So it seems all the stuff I thought was out of stock is coming, only 2 subs, and they are even bringing hand gel and strong flour

I can now see slots on the 14th and only the 14th. Seeing as I can have a choice of slots 4 weeks in advance from Tesco I can’t see me ordering from Ocado until they go back to normal

I've had this before @FlyingFlamingo it's in stock and earmarked for you, just not available to order more as KingKuta says. Just causes a bit of a panic when you see it doesn't it?

I think flour is area specific. None when I checked but then things seem to have appeared and disappeared quite quickly. Couldn't get Tracker bars for this weeks shop at all, checked before my cut off and back in stock,

I'm now booked in for 7th, 14th and 21st which is great and quite a relief.

I can place a delivery but half the items I want are out of stock again! I wonder if that is why the slots are becoming somewhat easier to get? People aren't placing orders or are placing smaller orders with the items they can go without?

I certainly gave up!

Some of the things I can’t get (not just from Ocado but Tesco too) are really random, like macaroni and ham

FlyingFlamingo I can't get orzo pasta. Not the end of the world of course. Also can't get cornflakes. I don't care too much because I think they are incredibly boring, but husband is devastated.

Have you thought about buying a piece of gammon and cooking it to make ham? It's much more cost effective than buying ready sliced ham and there are some very inexpensive pieces of gammon on the site.

A question for any of you.
Ocado are being of no help to me at all but I wanted to check if anyone was having a similar problem.

When I click on the ‘calendar’ to see if there are any slots, only Wednesday 14th is highlighted in white. Ocado keep saying that only dates highlighted in white will have available slots yet whenever I click on the 14th it shows absolutely nothing available.

I keep telling them and have sent them screen shots but they just keep repeating the same thing that slots are available on highlighted dates.

Has anyone else’s had the same issue?

I think it’s because that’s the only day you are ‘allowed’ to book but there aren’t actually any slots. I am ‘allowed’ the 14th and 15th (14/15 days since my last shop), I can see free slots though. Not that I’ll be booking one, I already have a Tesco slot that week (and for the 2 weeks after)

@Yellowbutterfly1 have you tried clearing cookies and a different device/browser?

I had an interesting delivery this morning.7.30 to 8.30 had phone call at 8.30 saying 15 minutes late, no problem.
But I had ordered 2 x Indian for £10. None of the 4 mains were available and all the sides were subs. What is the point of substituting rice, saag aloo and nans If the mains aren't available.

fyingflamingo. Conveniently for Ocado on the 1 occasion any slots have come up its been for a Saturday when I would be expected to pay an extra £6.99 on top of my midweek delivery pass. My husband refuses to pay that and says he would rather risk going to our local Tesco Express and getting a few bits and pieces.
I’ve sent numerous emails to Ocado about it but all they say is that if the day is highlighted then there are slots available for me but that’s clearly not the case. (Probably because on a Wednesday I am covered with my delivery pass so they won’t be able to make extra money from me.)

bookgirl1982, thanks. Unfortunately I’ve tried that and still no joy.

I wonder if @MNHQ might have any success in getting someone from Ocado to investigate the problems/anomalies?

I do hope so BoreaOfWhabylon

Interestingly after writing my post I looked yet again on the Ocado website and after days of having the 14th highlighted they have now decided to remove it and highlight Friday 8th and Saturday 9th and 2 seconds later the 9th disappeared.

Of course these highlighted dates have slots available at £6.99 each plus delivery pass amount.
It certainly does appear that Ocado are trying to force midweek pass holders to pay them more money by conveniently only showing slots on days not included in their smart pass.
They really are the worst.

To be fair, I expect there is more demand for midweek slots too.

I’ve had enough of them. The glitchy calendar, the not being allowed to book slots. We are a large family and spend a lot on our shopping only to be limited to 14 days and then ten. Due to the glitchy calendar, I never know if I can book. Our last shop was £350 and it will be my last, I’ve got a slot booked with Tesco now. More offers, which Ocado took away and they still are not back. What annoys me is having to wait and see if I can get a slot (I have but that’s not the point) we are both keyworkers so I cannot just wait. When people on here are booking weeks in advance. It’s wrong. I personally see them failing after all of this, people are using them now, but their regular big spenders will not.

I completely agree itisasecret
It’s not right as you say that some are being allowed to book weekly, the rest of us are then being expected to be constantly checking to see if there are any of the leftovers for us mere mortals.

I really need to step away from this for my own sanity. Ocado have made my need for food shopping a nightmare. To think, I’m still having to pay them each month for the privilege.

I've heard back from MNHQ, who say can they have a resume of the main problems, and they will see if they can take it forward.

Could someone oblige with a list of the main problems? I've been getting my weekly slot so haven't kept up with the difficulties others have been having.

@boreofwhabylon
Primarily not being able to access the site at all 😩

@BoreOfWhabylon same here only once ever got past the dreaded page of doom ‘you are not a priority’ brief glimpse of the homepage then thrown back to page of doom😭

Daughter just had an email saying her midweek smart pass payment has failed and to click on a link to update the details (she's changed her card)
Link takes her to yellow page of doom that doesn't even have a queue now, just a virtual 'sod off'.

She's FB messaged and told them where to stick it. I don't blame her.

@BoreOfWhabylon the blatant playing off with their customers. Some are paying pence for their smart pass others are paying over £10.

Some customers like myself who are an anytime pass holder, can only book slots every ten days (originally 14). Yet we cannot see if we will get a slot on day ten, we have to hope we are lucky when the Ocado gods deem us worthy of seeing the dates. Yet people on here, sat at home all week, can see a whole month in advance, booking weekly slots, taking all the cushy times. When we, a house full of key workers take what we can, when Ocado deem we are allowed and if we are allowed.

I'm hoping MNHQ will have a look at the thread, so perhaps keep listing the main gripes to save them combing through the whole thing.

It does all sound a bit hit or miss

No way am I going to shop with them anymore.
Their prices have rocketed, they’re charging £6.99 for delivery even if you choose a green slot and the availability is virtually zilch here.
I reckon my final shop with them cost me £40 more than pre the virus.
RIP off merchants.
I haven’t had a match with Tesco voucher for more than 6 weeks.

Some customers like myself who are an anytime pass holder, can only book slots every ten days (originally 14). Yet we cannot see if we will get a slot on day ten, we have to hope we are lucky when the Ocado gods deem us worthy of seeing the dates. Yet people on here, sat at home all week, can see a whole month in advance, booking weekly slots, taking all the cushy times
I absolutely agree 😡

It is telling me that my free pass is about to expire, but doesn't allow me on the site to renew it. (I don't want to, but that's not the point.)

My issues :

• I’m a midweek pass holder and couldn’t see any availability for weeks - then I could only see weekend slots which would have cost £6.99 despite already paying for a pass
• when I emailed to query this instead of actually responding in a helpful way I got a generic email saying I wasn’t entitled to a refund because I had ‘ ‘used my pass once in a March’ (at the start of March before the whole site crashed and was inaccessible/required up to 2 hours of virtual queuing to access it). I hadn’t asked for a refund and they didn’t acknowledge my issue at all. My reply wasn’t answered.
• I have had no contact from them regarding my ‘status’. I have only been able to work out what’s going on by reading this thread
• I can only book a slot every 2 weeks. At the moment I can see the 14th and 15th of May, nothing beyond that. I luckily have slots booked with Tesco for the next 3 weeks so Ocado have lost me as a customer because I am going to go with the company that actually wants my custom and are trying to keep it - Ocado clearly don’t want it!
• the app is still switched off. I also think that if you want people to use your site and get off it quickly to move the queue up it would probably help if checking out didn’t involve clicking through several pages of ‘are you sure you have finished? Look at all this random stuff first before we let you go!’

The drivers when I have ordered in the past, and for my one order in April, have been polite and helpful. It’s the people in charge who are appearing clueless!

I appreciate my issues are minor compared to others but compared to Tesco Ocado are performing very badly here and are likely to lose a lot of customers over this - not that they seem bothered!