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

Mines 9.99 I think

I used to be a weekly shopper with Ocado and had a smart pass. I stopped using them when they started getting my order wrong virtually every week, to the extent that I was having to schedule in a top-up trip to Tesco’s following every Ocado delivery. That hasn’t stopped Ocado emailing me frequently with vouchers etc to tempt me back. However I’m currently shielding - and have been identified as extremely vulnerable - and it won’t even let me on the website. That’s fine because I’m using Sainsbury’s delivery and I’m no longer a regular Ocado customer - but it’s interesting that their marketing emails have been trying to entice me back for months and months, and yet the reality is that I can’t even log on. Sainsbury’s all the way for me!

Mine was an anytime 12 month free trial to start with as well, about 4 maybe 5 years ago.

It was then £6.99 pm until late last year till I cancelled and got offered my £59.99 annual deal.

Like most companies it seems if you stay loyal and keep paying you end up paying more

I've discovered with Morrison's that even when it says no slots, if you keep refreshing eventually slots pop up.

My anytime Smart Pass is £8.99 at the moment - it used to be £10.99 but they emailed me sometime last year to say they were discounting it for me. Have been an Ocado customer for well over 10 years now, averaging about an order every 5-8 days throughout that time.

I seem to be one of the lucky ones now, I get on the website almost with no queue (only takes about 2 minutes to wait if that) and have now managed to book two deliveries 10 days apart later in April. Feel a bit guilty after reading these threads as most seem to think I shouldn't get deliveries if I can physically get to a store... but I don't have a car and the nearest supermarket is a 20 minute bus journey away, I really don't want to risk it. Live alone too so no one to help out if I got ill... So I'm just going to continue doing what I've done for the past decade and getting an Ocado shop as they let me.

Noone should feel guilty for using a service they are paying for nor should anyone justify it..

I used to manually book a slot every week for the upcoming month or two. I find not being able to do that, esp at the moment very unsettling.

Anyone using Ocado Zoom? It's apparently an express service maybe like Prime Now?

I’m in the 14-days group now.

I had a delivery on Friday 10th - calendar was grey thereafter, & all day yesterday, but this thread has nudged me to check again & lo and behold! Slots on Fri 24th! Like clockwork

My anytime smart pass was on a deal £49.99 for 12 months. Randomly got an email offer last summer, after not having had a smart pass for a couple of years.

I’ve had a smart pass for years and used to be a weekly shopper until they went through a spate of messing up my orders and having loads of missing items about a year ago. I kept my smart pass up just in case but tended to use Tesco. I got one slot that I’d booked in before lock down l, then got the once a week email, then nothing since. No slots, no communications, can’t even access the site. I’d just like to know what’s going on and why they’re going back on their once a week email (from Ocado, I mean, I’ve learnt why on here but think it’s poor show from Ocado to not communicate).

Milky77

Zoom not working here yet (we don’t even have cable here, we’re practically off-grid ) - is it cities only, like that amazon service?

No Ocado Zoom here. No Prime Now either, we do have Amazon Fresh but they've not had any slots available for a couple of weeks now after they changed the booking system.

I'm on the extremely vulnerable shielding list but can't get a delivery slot. I have any anytime smart pass and did have a weekly reserved slot, so I thought I'd be ok for food during this. Then it was cancelled with no notice.

Ocado have told me that they can see me on the government list but will not give me a priority slot as I do not have a purchase history in 2019 and prior to that.

Do you want to know why that is? Because they only started delivering here at the beginning of the year! As soon as they launched, I booked a weekly slot and I had been spending £50-60 a week with them until they pulled the reserved slots.

So basically I'm being penalised for not shopping with them before they started to deliver here.

Ironic @YorkshirePuddingsGreatestFan - thought the government were encouraging delivery services to prioritise the vulnerable group - regardless of historical purchases.
With that response I’d send it to your local MP and ask them to help on your behalf x

Yorkshire same here, I am not on the list so resigned myself to the "computer says no" category and then just seen a whole email of laughing emjois when they ask if I wish to extend my 3 month free pass.

I've sent them an email today, doubt I'll get a response but not being able to see or
book any slots when you can't leave the house isn't ideal.

@giantkitten I don't know anything about Zoom. I guess it's for cities. A pp mentioned it the other day but I didn't register that it was ocado.

@YorkshirePuddingsGreatestFan that's just ridiculous. I wonder if they've blocked off your whole region from being able to have deliveries then

Please see attached in case useful to anyone....

I can get zoom where we are but there are no slots.

Never heard of it before.

I got an email telling me I can book a slot every 10 days but it’s letting me book every week.
There were lots of slots available a week after my next delivery when I looked at about 8am. There are still lots there now.

It’s such a weird process “ here some of you can get on and book lots of deliveries and some of you won’t even be able to log on” like a lottery process.

I’ve been trying different addresses with Morrison’s and the system is obviously the same, so again really odd, can only have been set by Ocado’s IT dept/system and must just be a pot luck drawer :).

Bet they are kicking themselves or the person who sent out the original email telling people they were super special and not following through 😂

I think at least some of the discrepancies are due to what area you're in.

My partner had a long conversation over DM on Twitter. They avoided every question as to why we were on priority and now aren't. They kept saying loyalty and we said we order every week at least £80 each time. They didn't respond to that just said they had to do it on loyalty 🙄🙄
They told us to have a go tonight

@decisionsdecision this is the thing /being dropped off with no communication or reason 🤷‍♀️

The comms and the different tiers have really caused me to lose faith in Ocado. Its not right now they've treated so many people.