Ocado priority, tips and hacks and Toblerone

[FredAstaireAteMyHamSandwich]

Carrying on from the last Ocado thread that is about to fill up. Still haven’t been given a toblerone yet.

I got mine today too - 16 years since my first shop apparently.

does anyone know is some M&S stuff on Ocado only available on Ocado?

I think so, yes - as they apparently massively increased their product range to join Ocado (in order to offer equivalents to the Waitrose products). No idea whether they plan to keep that stuff for Ocado only or roll it out into the food halls though.

This morning:

"Sorry but we’ve had to swap:
• 1 x M&S Organic Walnuts
with
• 1 x M&S Toasted Pumpkin & Sunflower Seeds
• 1 x M&S Extra Virgin Olive Oil
with
• 1 x Filippo Berio Olive Oil Extra Virgin
• 2 x Biona Organic Chopped Peeled Tomatoes
with
• 2 x M&S Remarksable Chopped Italian Tomatoes"

I rejected the oil, but reluctantly kept the other two, mostly because I didn't like the idea of the (remarkably cheery!) driver scrabbling about in the bags for tiny things.

Can't say I'm impressed with "Remarksable" as a brand name. Someone was paid to come up with that?

Disaster here! I cocked up and this morning we have 3 sheets of toilet paper left.....

The toilet roll I ordered has been substituted for M&S toilet paper which has ten one star reviews already!!! I'll have to accept as I can't even get to the shops without going to the loo, but could they not have given me a different substitute!! I'm going to accept but then if it's rubbish ask for a refund on quality / inappropriate substitution.

Looks like they're giving M&S products as subs in all cases.

16 years here too, @CouldBeOuting. Got my voucher yesterday, free bottle of Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc arriving tomorrow (fingers crossed).

In other voucher-related news, Waitrose has done what it always does in the autumn and sent me some vouchers, each for £8 off a £100 online shop . Very high minimum shop and there are six of them, all expiring in about a month. Why don't they take a leaf out of Sainsbury's book and give a series of vouchers to use in successive weeks, £3 off £30 minimum shop? Not that I've used those either, to be fair, but there's more chance of that happening than spending hundreds of pounds with Waitrose in the next month.

Remarkable as a name is truly naff but their everyday stuff (coffee, cleaning products, peanut butter, tins) is good and not expensive. The tempura prawns on 3 for £10 are going to be a regular item for us.

I am pathetically grateful that I don't have to spend hours in a supermarket and lugging things home.

But it's Remark s able, lex.

Just. Awful.

Or, if you like - Re marks able.

Barrel well and truly scraped.

Yes - I initially thought remarksable was a typo in the email from them yesterday. Took me a couple of seconds and when I realised the pun, I was not particularly impressed, and I am someone who quite likes inventive use of language.

Waitrose has done what it always does in the autumn and sent me some vouchers, each for £8 off a £100 online shop yes got this mail too. Totally unrealistic for me. What was really annoying was that it was only a minimum spend of £40 if I went instore.
I tend to overbuy online and buy the minimum instore (in normal time when I went instore) simply because I used to find the instore experience (and customers) stressful. So they haven't really understood the psychology of a certain sector of their customer base.
And agree, a smaller amount off a smaller shop would definitely encourage me to use them rather than their competitors.

I hate Remarksable as a word! Looks stupid and I just thought it was a misprint!!

Seems to be no meat here. Aside from a ridiculously priced chicken and some eye watering cuts of beef there was nothing for sunday lunch. To add to that the steak I ordered was missing with no substitutions.

Good excuse to nip to Waitrose I guess.

Some interesting substitutions going on up thread. One of the few things I like about Waitrose online is that you can indicate whether and what would be okay as a sub. The fishmonger and veg picker were really good at choosing the right portion sizes.

I find it a bit cheeky the way the Ocado-bot has transferred my "you last bought this on" dates to what they consider to be comparable M&S things. I hope they haven't done that with reviews too.

No sign of a Happy 11th Ocadoversary gift for me, but I am pleased to see they will be taking a bag full of bags back from 22nd.

Has anyone else had their cut off time brought forward?
In normal times, and recently, my cut off for my evening delivery has been about 11pm the night before.
I just went to edit my order for 7pm tomorrow to find that the cut off was at 6pm today!

They had texted to so I can’t complain but as it was the regular ‘don’t miss your cut off time’ text I didn’t pay attention!

I am already over M&S.

Wasn't excited as do not consider M&S somewhere to actually do a food shop-more to pop in and pick up bits.
I don't buy ready meals.

I am so disappointed with the lack of basic stock-so many things out of stock (table salt for example) or no substitutions from my usual Waitrose. One of the things I was excited for was the produce-strawberries very manky-mouldy the next day and in the bin. So not even the produce to redeem them!

And interestingly I have been sent £10 price match voucher on the last two orders. So my gut that it is more expensive is right-at least for my shop.

What a pain. I don't want to have to go to waitrose as we are trying to cut down on unnecessary trips but I will use ocado for heavy things (I walk to shops) and top up with a Waitrose shop.

Just had an email from Waitrose telling me I’m a ‘priority customer’ and can book slots 25 days in advance. Yet when I wrote an email at the beginning of the lockdown, with a photo of my Mums Blue badge, and explaining her chronic health, and pleading for a one off delivery for her they were really quite rude. They have also bombarded me with vouchers for an instore shop. I bet they are feeling the pinch now. Their sales must have halved at least.

I've just done a waitrose order - got a slot for the 29th which is my first in 6 months - and got a message saying that I'm a priority customer, which was a surprise to me. I got the vouchers, too - £8 off £40 instore or £10 off £100 online. I shall just have to buy lots of wine if I can't get to my £100.

Apparently I meet their loyalty criteria.

@PickAChew

Apparently I meet their loyalty criteria.

Me too! Odd since I’ve never actually had a delivery from them. I did TRY several years ago but as my nearest store is very small they could provide most of what I wanted so I didn’t bother! I also tried during lockdown but I certainly wasn’t a priority then! No thanks Waitrose 😂

Just got the first price March money off voucher I've had in months. M&S frozen chips not a patch on Waitrose. Breaded "fresh" fish awful.

I think their "substitute picking" BOT needs a good tweaking, as the only link between the two types of cheese is that the Lancashire cheese has the word "creamy" in its name

That's exactly it. The algorithm can't differentiate between the importance of "Lancashire" over "creamy" @AdaColeman. It learns from what substitutions people reject, what people chose when they put search terms in and it makes suggestions, and what items people select if the item is out of stock. I searched for fresh porridge today and it offered me oatmeal pyjamas (as well as actual porridge).

We've temporarily gone back to the dark ages of online shopping, circa 2005, when people regularly got bizarre substitutions like a tube of Canestan instead of tub of Elmlea, while the computer learns all the new M&S products.

My nearest waitrose store is a small one, too. I've been this week but can't see me visiting again for a while since it's in an area on the verge of local lockdown.

Yes, exactly @orangenasturtium, Ocado’s search function has always been quite hit and miss, it likes company names spelt exactly correctly for instance. But now it’s useless, wallowing like a whale in the shallows. Search for “Chinese snacks” and all you get shown are a few packets of prawn crackers, but search for Sui-Mai or Bau buns and up pop those delicious dim-sum snacks! Search for Consommé and all you get are packs of condoms!

Ocado are going to have to sort out their various search functions, because failed searches will cost them money in lost sales and ultimately in lost customers.

You can’t walk up and down their aisles diligently searching yourself for what you need, you have to depend on finely tuned search functions. At the moment their search software seem to have been created by people with no stock knowledge at all, and with all the subtlety of an elephant!

You’re not wrong about stepping back in time.

In the early days of Sainsburys on line shopping, there were no pretty graphics, just an alphabetical text list of products. If what you ordered was out of stock, they sent the next thing on the list, so you had ordered bananas but would receive Bath buns! Happy days!

The problem is that the algorithm needs data @AdaColeman, which it can only gather with time. It would take even longer to write an algorithm that has all the information about how people make choices (that are different from product to product) about the actual stock than just leaving it to gather the data from millions of purchases. And we have all seen what a mess tinkering with the algorithms can cause recently

Well, yes quite!