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.

To be honest paying £10 a month gives me peace of mind that I can get food delivered to my mum during a possible 2nd lockdown.

During the last lockdown they didn’t stop you setting up smart pass if you already had an account. So you can save 10 pounds a month until the next lockdown starts.

I've just tried to find an independent pork pie that I often buy. No sign of it. The only pork pies seem to be M&S. So much for the only products that have been removed are Waitrose

Oh Wolfcub ...

That rebellious, independently minded Pork Pie, barging around town, mask-free, knocking down small children on scooters, determined to find like-minded fellows - s/he'll be on my mind all day ...

My first few orders were good, but today’s had quite a few missing items and substitutions and one wrong item. Hopefully just teething problems.

My observations are that we are spending about £20 per week more, that M&S fruit and veg isn’t as good as the equivalent from Waitrose, and all fresh stuff has very short use by dates.

I don't know if I'm just narked because my favourite Charlie Bigham meal has been discontinued (Chicken Katsu, seemingly not available anywhere) but I don't feel hugely impressed so far. Harder to get a slot too.
I forgot that I find the range of bagged salad at M&S pretty woeful, I think the Waitrose Essential is great, and available in a smallish bag - I know I could and should just get an iceberg lettuce but I'm starting to miss a lot of Waitrose stuff I took for granted and the M&S things I was looking forward too aren't even there any more!

One thing that's better - you can get skinless salmon fillets. Most other supermarkets have moved to skin-on by default. Not a huge inconvenience but nice to have the choice!

Substitutions/missing items seems to be the norm now with M&S rather than the rare thing it was before...

Different yoghurt and different bread in today's delivery as subs - both fine and from the same brands although annoyingly the bread was more expensive. The yoghurt was an M&S one, the bread wasn't. It's not filling me with confidence though in general. What if they substitute Christmas main courses with something unsuitable?

One thing I've noticed is that the use by date on the receipt differs from the use by date on the actual item. Irritatingly, I've been caught out by that twice now. In a perfect world that shouldn't happen, and hopefully it's a small glitch they will soon sort out.

The dates on fresh items are still very short for me, so it's difficult to plan ahead. I very rarely have any food waste, but I've had to discard a couple of items, and I'm no "use by" date fanatic by any means!

Speaking of independent-minded pork pies, I’ve noticed the same with independent products now seeming to be gone

Has anyone else lost flash sale offerings. It was bad enough that it reduced from 50% to 33%, now nothing for 3 weeks. Is it just me because they think I overuse it? I used to really enjoy trying out the more unusual stuff on Flash.

I miss the flash sales. I still get the odd thing, but used to have a choice of about six things, this week one. Sounds sad, but I almost used to look forward to what was going to be on offer.

Ditto. Even during lockdown I was getting flash sale offers, although a lot of them were ludicrously expensive salads or ready meals (reduced price £7 or something like that! sorry, no). I miss them too. I often stocked up the freezer from flash sale offerings.

We have found the search function isnt very good now when looking for a particular M&S range. I asked the Social Media team if they could advise suitable search terms for the range. Apparently they couldnt. Now I dont mind looking through 100 items to find the one I want, but my mum really cant cope with that. I dont think the customer service is what it was - and that is Ocado and not M&S.

And please bring back the cardboard carriers for wine glass bottles.

I agree with the short dates and also missing the flash sales. But I love the Pesto houmous.

I’ve also noticed that several non-Waitrose items I buy have disappeared along with the Waitrose stock. The post-switchover deliveries I’ve had so far have been a disaster. Virtually all the M&S items were missing or inappropriately substituted.

Agree, hardly any flash sale items now.
No longer sell the bagged salad I purchased weekly even though it wasn’t a Waitrose item.

Also found over the last couple of weeks that there no longer any delivery slots available, if I hadn’t signed up to Reserved last month I think I would be back to no slots available at all just like in lockdown despite having a delivery pass.

We find the food has nice long dates, I was pleased that we are getting the M and S dine in for £10 offer.

I am spending relatively less I think per week, but we have just got a new freezer which I have been stocking with 1/2 price pizzas and fish on special offer.

I also miss the flash sales (and the supermarket knockdown aisles).

I’m actually getting a lot more flash sales items. Used to be 3-5, now it’s around 15.

I have had stuff delivered that was out of date! They refunded me, but it was a ball ache as it was something in the ‘dine in for £12’ deal. It was a couple of mains, so I had to use other stuff.

Just checked and Reserved not yet available in my county so it’s only back for certain areas

I'm a bit irritated that M&S items seem to go in and out of stock so fast. But I got a £10 anniversary voucher to spend on chocolate which was fun.

I love the Millionaire's Bites. A YouTuber I used to follow raved about them but I thought she meant Millionaire's Shortbread bites and tried Sainsbury's version. Not the same thing at all! I also love their Dirty Fries, and Colin the Caterpillar mini cakes. Good thing they sell knickers too, because I will need to go up a size if I carry on like this.

Has anyone managed to get 100 carrier bags into one bag? Even stamping on them (I hope they don't get re-used...) I can only get 70 in before they burst out. But I'm excited to think that soon, being surrounded by grey plastic bags will just be a memory. May take a couple of months but still.

I can't buy a smart pass. I get to the page then it gets an overlay telling me to sod off.

Just as well. I've just edited an order for the weekend then went to make an order for 2 weeks later and there are no slots available at all, any time. I might have to forgive Sainsburys for being a bit shit, last time I used them. Or just go there in person when i need stuff that markses don't sell in store.

My delivery came last night, on time and no substitutions. The dates are all fairly good as well. Also got a lovely bottle of wine due to my (delayed) anniversary.

Just as well. I've just edited an order for the weekend then went to make an order for 2 weeks later and there are no slots available at all, any time. I might have to forgive Sainsburys for being a bit shit, last time I used them. Or just go there in person when i need stuff that markses don't sell in store.

Earliest slot available for me this morning was 7 October! Yet Sainsbury's have full availability (like, tomorrow even), so it doesn't seem to be everyone rushing for online deliveries again - only Ocado.

Fortunately I'm having no trouble booking delivery slots (I'm in SE London). On delivery day, I put in an order for four weeks on. This is working well for us. It's not how I used to do things, but for the next few months I will stick to it to have some structure and predictability in these weird times.

The website is sometimes doing that irritating thing of saying I can't book a delivery because I haven't got £40 in my basket. This makes no sense! I want to book the slot first so that I get accurate out of stock information for that particular day as I put the stuff into the basket. First world problem, easily got round, but it annoys me.

I have just managed to register quite recently.

I can't see slots four weeks away only a few days.

What am I doing wrong?

If you look at the page of delivery slots, there's a little calendar symbol at the top. If you click on that, you can move forward more than three days and see what's available for up to four weeks. That's how it works for me, anyway.