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 finally am now allowed to have a weekly slot although only on the same day each week.
I have noticed that I’m receiving more unsuitable substitutes and quiet a few things have very poor packaging.
My pack of eggs were upside down at the bottom about the of the carrier bag with broken eggs, leaking milk, packaging on crackers, bread rolls split, rotten fruit and vegetables

That sounds like an awful shop @Yellowbutterfly1 hope you managed to get refunded all of those things.

I can't decide if I'm got lucky, after the start of things going to pot in March, because I am 'loyal' or because I'm on the shielded list.

Can anyone tell me for definite what happens to substitutions you don't want? I always thought they took them back to the warehouse as long as they weren't out of driver sight. But in my receipt email it says please accept as many as possible to prevent waste. They don't bin them do they?

I sent back 2 unsuitable substitutes in one shop, potato salad and pork loin steaks.
The driver took the steaks but not the salad even though they were in the same bag, he said he had to take the highest value product back but that it would be binned anyway.

I argued about very expensive subs a couple of weeks back. I got subbed sirloin steak for the cheap 3 for £10 steaks, double the price chicken etc and added £15 to my bill and a few other bits. I get my orders early and didnt know about the subs until i had unpacked and too late to return and if i had returned it i would have been missing 3 meals
Ocado begrudgingly gave me £10 refund,

thankfully todays subs were more sensible

Someone earlier in the thread or on a previous thread said that even before coronavirus, returned substitutions got binned because they have no way of inserting them back into the warehouse.

If Sainsburys give you a more expensive substitution, they refund you the price the difference. I wish Ocado did that!

Tesco also charge you the cheaper price if your subs are more expensive.
Ocado never seem to give a ‘cheaper’ substitution

You can just request a refund online and say the packaging is damaged if you get a more expensive sub, much easier, I usually just select something that is equal to the extra cost .

@Yellowbutterfly1 I knew someone gave you the cheaper price for more expensive subs.
I've never really minded before cause I can no accept and go get cheaper somewhere else but I can't really do that now.

You can go to the refund page and select "incorrect substitution" and then "dissatisfied with price" if you are unhappy with the sub.

If your substitution was on offer then Ocado give the substituted item at the same price so I have benefitted from that quite a few times. Otherwise I just send the sub back if its unwanted.

If your substitution was on offer then Ocado give the substituted item at the same price so I have benefitted from that quite a few times. Otherwise I just send the sub back if its unwanted.

Are you sure that's how it works? In my experience, if I order an item that's £1 with a 20% off offer, and Ocado substitutes it for a £3 item, they apply the same offer to the substituted item - not the same price. So it would be 20% off of £3 - meaning I end up paying £2.40.

@PowerslidePanda that's how it works!

My drivers have always offered me to keep unwanted perishable subs to save taking them back for disposal. I believe that non-perishable returns (tins etc) are all donated to foodbanks.

If your substitution was on offer then Ocado give the substituted item at the same price so I have benefitted from that quite a few times.

Thats not the case anymore. They will offer the same discount ie a 3rd off, of original was a 3rd off . But swapping small packet of rump for a large sirloin still doubled the price even with discount, which i thinl in my case was incorrectly applied as i had bought 3 for £10 and they just gave a 3rd off. My original steak was 6.67 and i paid £14

I've been accepting the subs as I didn't want them to be binned and then sending anything suitable for the food bank there (if we really didn't want it - today they'd subbed spinach and ricotta tortelloni with spinach and ricotta ravioli which is no big deal!). And other stuff to the local WhatsApp group of it's something we really won't use (the time the milkman went mad and left double our usual order)

I think I've only just realised that they don't show you the review/rating for a product if you've bought it before, unless you click onto that product's individual page. So if you're comparing, say, potatoes, they all appear with only some having star-ratings. I always vaguely assumed (hadn't thought about it) that lots of products didn't have any ratings yet but they just don't show them if you've previously bought it! Bit weird...? Like, I can see the logic in a way but if I remembered I was choosing between two similar ones and I remembered I wanted the one with the high rating rather than the low one it'd confuse me to come back and see one no longer seemed to have a rating.

I've just got the email re M&S products, had fun reading out the dizzying 8 types of butter to DH... I'm still pissed off they seem to be stopping loads of Waitrose products already though - I guess they've reduced manufacture if they're no longer going to be selling a chunk through Ocado longterm?

I hate that you can't see the rating if you've bought it before. That used not to be the case and I hated the change.

Ah another email ! I’m baffled why I’m not getting these ! What’s the M&S email?!

I’d never have known about the priority slot thing early on if it hadn’t been for mumsnet. So that’s another thing mumsnet has sorted for me - helped me LTB and helped me get food during a pandemic 😁 Pretty good going !

The thread is just about to end. New thread here:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/3942081-Ocado-priority-tips-and-hacks-and-Toblerone

New thread here:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/3942081-Ocado-priority-tips-and-hacks-and-Toblerone