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

Again it's probably due to demand in your area. Not much they can do about over demand. Other's are getting better service but maybe that's because the demand is serviceable there. I'm on a midweek pass, spend around £100 per week and have done for a couple of years. Ocado hasn't been going much longer around here. As a result I don't know many people who actually use Ocado. I've had a weekly slot throughout not problems.

I’m keeping my smart pass until this is over, as I am desperate to get slots for my Mum, but as soon as I can I will cancel. Been shopping with them 15 years, spend around £10k a year with them. Got one of the sickly ‘you’re loyal’ emails promising 3 slots a month. I’m struggling getting 2. And the price rises are astronomical. Waitrose are just the same. Both so keen to tell how wonderful they are, helping the elderly and vulnerable. I have emailed them both, offering to send copies of Proof my Mums illnesses, but because she is not on the magic government list they dont want to know. Well when this is all over I hope the people on those lists sustain them, because I will be shopping with neither again. That’s hardly going to harm them, but I do hope there are others like me that vote with their feet.

www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/05/ocado-shareholder-revolt-bonus-payout-royal-london

So I wonder what people will think of this especially with all the difficulties encountered!!

Makes a mockery of my 0.68 voucher that I can't use because even shielded and a regular customer im not a priority
My neighbours go to to the supermarket and have a weekly slot

Anyone else now blocked from entering the Ocado site? I’m supposed to have a slot every seven days and now get a message telling me:

“If you are an existing customer, please log in. If you are returned to this page, you are not on the priority access list and there are no slots available for you at the moment.“

Bloody sick of them now. I can’t even get into my account to edit my order.

@GCAcademic the site seems normal to me at the moment, but it has been very glitchy in recent weeks. Try logging in from your phone, or deleting cookies?

@GCAcademic does it kick you back to that if you click the log in link?

Do you have a different computer you could try or incognito mode on the phone?

www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/06/ocado-sales-rise-covid-19-online-shopping-surge?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

@GCAcademic My parents were having the same problem; even when clicking on log in they never got to a place to enter their details.

What worked for them was going incognito (I think they were on Edge so used an InPrivate window), then used this link: www.ocado.com/webshop/startWebshop.do

The problem doing this is then they still can't use a regular browsing window; the problem remains. However at least they can shop in that way for now.

Thank you all! Deleting cookies and clearing the cache has worked.

I was in the group who got one slot every week (on the same day of the week) and could book three weeks at a time. Never had to queue after the groups were organised.

I can now book a 4th slot, any day of that week. Has anyone else noticed this? Not sure if they are reducing the restrictions, or if it was just a glitch.

GCAcademic exactly the same thing has happened to me. I have 3 deliveries booked up to the end of May, and I now apparently do not have priority access anymore as I can't get onto the site. Really fed up.

Fallpoetry I’m the same as you

I’ve been lucky to get weekly slots for the next 3 weeks. The next slot only became available after my last delivery

On the back of this thread I went in before and loads of slots 4 weeks in advance were available

Maybe people struggling could delete all cookies etc like GCAcademic did and might get a slot now?

I’ve managed to get fortnightly slots but can only book on the day of my previous delivery for 14 days time (and I need to go online early morning for those slots). A lot of the cheaper brands are sold out so shopping is costing a lot more though am seeing some improvement there, and the start of some discounting again.

Cross though because yesterday they delivered most ordered foods but was missing flour, all ice cream and all frozen veg - so will have to make a trip out regardless.

I've been able to book every 10 days but as of today that seems to have improved to every 7 days. Can still only see a few weeks ahead though so my next 2 deliveries are booked.
And they seem to have fixed the glitch that meant for 2 deliveries in a row I was unable to edit once the order had been placed. I've had no trouble editing for the past week or so.
My orders have had very few missing items. Lots of reasonable substitutions.
The only things I can't ever seem to get are double deckers

Order delivered complete this morning. One sub, but only one brand of mozzarella for another so happy with that.
As soon as I was no longer able to edit the order it let me book another slot 3 weeks ahead. I still have a weekly, Thursday slot until the end of the month.

Also an hour early.

Hmm ... Bright breezy email saying that as a result of their own brilliant efforts over the past few weeks I now have the chance to book every seven days, and to see slots up to eighteen days in advance.

As I'd been standing dolefully in front of the fridge (and regretting that I'd decided against another veg box) I naturally jumped at the 'chance' to place an order for much sooner than the week after next.

But it's still all so random ...

I also had the email saying I can now book every 7 days .

"We have some good news. You can now book deliveries up to 28 days in advance. That means you’ll see available delivery slots before others, and can still have a delivery every 7 days."

Interesting, is demand dying down?

And off topic but has anyone else found the quality of all the salad items is awful at the moment? All arriving rotten for me, and the apples too...

I can now book every 7 days, suggests to me people have given up.

I've been able to book every seven days and up to four weeks in advance for weeks. Only the first couple of weeks were difficult and even then I still managed to get deliveries after queuing. I do feel grateful. I have been an ocado customer, buying our entire week shop with them for around four years though but don't have a smart pass.

I also had one on those weeks are amazing’ emails.
Mine says I have the chance to have one delivery every 7 days and I’ll also see slot availability up to 18 days in advance.

So roughly translated to I can have a delivery every 7 days if I’m lucky because we’ve told you you have a ‘chance’ not a ‘guarantee’. To get this chance I have to spend my life constantly looking at your website to see if I’m lucky enough.

Interesting that it looks like it’s back to the emails sent out in March giving people a different number of days that they will see in advance.
I have 18 days but Fallpoetry has 28 days.

I also think they’ve lost a lot of customers which does not shock me.

We will see.

This is mine

I'm still stuck with one delivery at a time, 14 days apart

We’ve still got this.
😩