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

Make sure you check your spam for Ocado emails- some of mine are going there.

I’ve been with Ocado since they first set up. Of course there was confusion at the beginning of the lockdown and mistakes were made, just as there were with other companies, but I think they’ve done well in the circumstances.

I’m managing to get regular orders: they say I can have a slot every 5 days, but I don’t need that so I don’t take them. I’m booking a regular weekly order for us and neighbours.
Ocado have been told about certain circumstances, but they haven’t replied to my email and I wouldn’t expect them to. I can see they’ve acted on it.

My elderly relatives self-isolating in London also have a slot and have no complaints.

Groceries everywhere have been increasing in price for some time. I’m surprised regular shoppers haven’t noticed this. There have been threads on here about it for a couple of years now.

Yes some are paying £1.99 per month or £2.99 per month

GASP. Do we know why?

CrunchyCarrot are you clicking on the calendar icon?

Yup. It shows me one week ahead of the slot I've booked, and no further.

Customer going back over a decade here.
Single parent
Vulnerable child, on the gov list. We can’t leave the house for the foreseeable future.
No priority access. I can’t even get logged in. Despite being told I was getting priority access to slots I keep getting returned to the ‘fuck off you’re not on the list’ page.
Communication has been appalling. I was told two weeks ago to expect an email from the priority team ‘soon’. I got back in touch a few days later to ask for clarity on this - at this point I was skipping meals to make things last. I received a generic reply from someone who clearly hadn’t read my previous emails.
In the past week I have been contacted by Sainsbury’s, Asda and Iceland, none of whom I had ever shopped with, OFFERING me a weekly slot and a free delivery pass until October. What a great service.
I’ll be booking a slot every 8-10 days with one of them so that there is enough slots to go around for everybody else.
Meanwhile, Ocado, the company I’ve been shopping with every single week for the past 10/12 years can’t care less about us.

@ButtonMoonLoon - how heartening to hear about such great customer service from Sainsburys, Asda and Iceland. So pleased to hear that vulnerable people are getting this service.

I’m glad this thread exists. It’s useful to know what others experiences have been, especially smart pass holders.

I’m not really angry with Ocado - I got a full order 8 days ago and just had one delivered today with only a couple of subs - but communication has been confusing. I’m shopping for myself and my mum, who is shielding, so it would be good to have some idea of how often I can get access. It seems to have jumped all over the shop - first ‘priority every 7 days’, then every 14 days, but I actually got in within 3 days of my last order to order again. It’s all a bit chaotic.

@crunchycarrot I also have an order due in 4 days time that I can't edit. And my last order was uneditable from about 10 days before it came. Tried every day to edit without success and no relies to queries sent.
Very frustrating as there were some items that we no longer needed.

Hmmm. I logged in to Ocado just now and have been reading the FAQ section re deliveries and slots.

We’re doing all we can to deliver as much food to as many homes as possible. However, the reality is that demand continues to be several times our current capacity and no matter how hard we work, we simply cannot meet it all. As a result, we aren’t able to offer regular deliveries to all of our customers at the moment.

We’ve had to make the difficult decision to prioritise deliveries for some of our customers, particularly our extremely vulnerable customers on the government’s shield list and our longest-standing, most loyal customers.

If you’ve been given priority access you would have received an email explaining in more detail. Please log into the website to see availability of slots. Alternatively, you can check if you are a priority customer by trying to log on to ocado.com. If you can access the website, it means you have been given priority (although there may still be a queue at busy times).

For all remaining Ocado customers, those that haven’t received an email about priority access, we’ll be releasing any remaining next-day capacity after 6pm. This time may need to change in the future so please check ocado.com/coronavirus for the latest information.

Interesting about possible slot releases after 6 pm.

It won’t even let me get on the site despite being a regular customer and being registered vulnerable.

Hi,
Can I have my morning rant without getting jumped on?
We've been smart pass anytime members since jan 2018. My parents have as well.
They received an email on Friday saying they have access to slots every 14 days but we didn't.
Seems we've been put into the 'general' non priority queue but they haven't. I don't understand it at all

I was so shocked to hear from them, as I’d assumed I’d get the best service from the company I usually shopped with.
We had our first Sainsbury’s delivery on Saturday and I was very impressed, and it’s such a pleasure to actually be able to log straight on to the website to book a slot rather than hours of queueing on Ocado.
It’s a shame though as after so many years of shopping with one company we’re having to change some of our regular items which my little girl is struggling to adjust to. But I know where I’d rather spend my money in future. I’ll be cancelling my Ocado account - when I’m able to log in to do so, that is!

Shielding and very vulnerable
Ocado - can't even get logged on
Sainsbury's - priority but no slots available (goes up to 2nd May)
Morrison's - no slots
Asda - no slots
Tesco - I stay up and try and get on after midnight

So frustrating

I've been able to book reasonable regular deliveries (10-14 days apart) but my ability to find slots has been completely unconnected to the emails they have sent me. I've never managed to book when they told me I had priority access. And they told me I'd never be able to book 2 slots within 14 days, which is also not correct.
Their comms has been hopeless.

I’m a long standing and I think high spending customer with an anytime smart pass and a government shielding letter which I’ve registered with them. I can only get access to fight for a slot the following day after 6pm. I’ve managed this once and stock availability was absolutely crap. I’m incensed that people here have multiple slots bookable ahead, what possible justification could there be for such an unfair system?

@naturalbornwoman Ocado would have a jolly hard time trying to justify it and the disparity between us all is very unfair.

I cancelled my smart pass 2 months ago but have a slot booked for next week. Suddenly this week was able to log on and book no problems at all. No emails received, no priority, high spender. All very strange.

@CrunchyCarrot I pay £1.99 per month for anytime. Joined about 3 years ago, had a 12 month free trial, when that ran out I let it lapse, after a month or so they gave me a free 6 month mid week pass. When that ran out they offered me 6 months free anytime, followed by 6 months at £1.99. That was about 18 months ago, and they’ve just kept taking £1.99 per month so I’ve let it run.

I think when things are back to normal I will be ditching ocado! They’ve been so rubbish through this.

I originally had the 7 day email, was pleased with that as it basically replaced Reserved (which I’ve used weekly for around £120 each time for last 18 months) then that changed to invite you to check for slots on Wednesday (which was the day of my last delivery so presumed I’d be able to book the next delivery after each one took place)

But I’ve been checking daily since Wednesday, and calendar is all greyed out - today its suddenly changed to allow me to book 1 slot, lots available but all 14+ days since my last delivery, so think they’ve changed me to the 14 day group :(

I think I will be sticking to Asda and Tesco instead - been ordering for elderly parents and managing to get a slot each week from both ASDA and Tesco, simply by logging on when slots are released.

Much prefer this approach - both are giving priority slots if you have a priority code from
your gp, but are then putting the left over slots out for booking at the same time every day - a far better approach than the chaos of Ocado!

@ClientQ have you tried ASDA when they release slots? It’s 10pm for them, not midnight like Tesco.

I managed to book one for next Sunday for my mum at 10.30pm last night.

@NaturalBornWoman this is it exactly. I understand and am happy that other delivery services won’t deliver for me, they’ve told me as much from the start. Ocado told me they WOULD and would prioritise the vulnerable. Except they haven’t.

The cynical part of me suspects the vulnerable group would be seen as spending less but taking more deliveries but then having been their biggest advocate on here in the past their recent odd system means nothing would surprise me any more

buttonmoon Really pleased to hear that you have shopping sorted. Sainsbury's have really struggled but they seem to be getting there now, albeit slowly.

How come someone is able to book every 5 days?

client I usually manage to get a Sainsbury's slot if I log on randomly during the day. I managed yesterday about 11am to book one for next Thursday, and previously it has been about 2pm.

I am just a delivery pass holder though.

@EveLevine I check through the day and evening and nothing
Luckily Tesco I got a slot for the 19th April (about a week ago!) and then I grabbed another for the 29th April
I'm booking about every 10 days so I can be sure I can get food as can't leave the house

Do people pay extra for having Reserved (on top of what they pay for smartpass)? I’m not sure I am - I’m going to check!

I currently pay £2.99 a month for a midweek pass. I paid more in the past but haggled the price down a year ago. I have been with ocado for 10+ years and spend around £80 a week. I have been allowed to book fortnighly slots.

I pay £1.99 per month for anytime. Joined about 3 years ago, had a 12 month free trial, when that ran out I let it lapse, after a month or so they gave me a free 6 month mid week pass. When that ran out they offered me 6 months free anytime, followed by 6 months at £1.99. That was about 18 months ago, and they’ve just kept taking £1.99 per month so I’ve let it run.

Goodness! A 12 month free trial? I think mine was 3 months, certainly not more. I will most certainly be re-thinking my Ocado smart pass after this is over. I checked and I am paying £4.99 monthly (not 9.99! Think my brain muddled it with Amazon Prime). But still! That is way more than you pay. None of it makes any sense.