Ocado tips, hacks, Toblerone and Christmas

[GaryUnicorn]

Carrying on from the old thread....

Still no email about the Christmas slots.

Got a free bar of Tony's chocolate today - dark with almonds and salted caramel, I think. It was excellent.

Had a few subs but all sensible and not resulting in a price hike.

Mine was the dark chocolate pretzel toffee. Novel but a better experience than the plain dark I tried before. Not sure why.

Delivery driver yesterday was as willing and helpful as ever. A few, reasonable subs. But Still No App. And they're still trying to tempt me with non-existent Christmas slots.

The salted almond Tony's is rather good. I made a point of reading the inner wrapper about slavery on African chocolate plantations.

No app or Christmas slots for us (not that I usually bother).

I was indifferent to the Tony’s milk. I really wanted to love it but didn’t. I prefer Waitrose 1.

Our salted almond Tony's was substituted. We've had quite a lot of items substituted since it changed from Waitrose and a number of items out of stock and not substituted at all. I've also noticed whilst placing my latest order that the prices have started jumping up on items they were matching previously from Waitrose. We've never had the app back and although we had a Christmas slotI'm not convinced the sell by or use by dates will last until Christmas. I've really noticed with M&S they are a lot shorter.

I got a tesco order instead yesterday I book a 3gr slot for £3
They were late but did give me a 30 minute window.
2 subs
Ordered lotus spread and got tesco own brand chocolate spread. Not great as ds wanted to make a speculoos cake and also has nut allergy
Othe sub was muller corner for different flavour., i forgot the milk but that was my fault

If anyone missed their Christmas delivery e mail and their slot as I did the other week, I just wanted to come on and say there is hope!
I have been able to book a Christmas slot today even though for the last week or so there were no slots, I checked pretty much every day and randomly today I got one.
Feeling slightly relieved.

I am getting tired of Ocado after 15 years.

I have the app - I get those new notifications, but search is completely off. No chance - you have to use website or delve through aisles & all the sub categories.

I have unhelpful substitutions. At full price or higher.

I have rude drivers who come early, dump it in front of my door, ring the bell & run...I book an order around my life, ie at a convenient time. If it's an early slot eg 9-10am, it is so that I can shower, dress & be ready for 9am. An 8.30 delivery, carefully piled against my porch door so that I can't open it, is fucking annoying! And it has happened twice this month alone.

They are definitely putting prices up, after initial discount. Eg organic carrot 550gm was originally priced at 76p, will be 85p. Now it's £1, and many more like that.

Ocado own brand range is being reduced.

I have added in waitrose orders 3 times now since Sept 1st, and with careful use of offers & a decent list of favourites built up, their website is less of a pita. Their price reduction on essentials is very good.

I couldn't get a decent Ocado Xmas slot!!! I put it in my calendar & went on very early on October 3rd - only December 20 at 6am or 10pm. Waitrose offered me one on 22 or 23 December, no extra charge.

I am sad, but I now feel that PP was right. Ocado is a tech co selling its software, not a grocer. They don't care about customers.

Ocado is a tech co selling its software, not a grocer. They don't care about customers

I've had no problem with ocado drivers - always been friendly and pleasant.

However I'm feeling much the same way about the stock and service. Packing is terrible compared to Tesco or Waitrose, prices seem to have risen more steeply and they are the only delivery service which mandates chargeable plastic bags. Now that they have replaced Waitrose with the more expensive M&S stuff I'm ordering less from Ocado simply because they don't have so many of my regular items. Stock has also been flakey recently.

Has anyone else been caught out by the new carrier bag returns poilcy and handed a lockdown bundle back to find they only get a handful refunded?

Apparently now they only refund the number of bags from the previous delivery however I can't find anywhere i was told this before being stung. If I'd known I'd have kept the bags and used them as bin liners. My driver reported everyone handing back lockdown bundles, a nice scam if you can work it.

No one got charged for any bags during lockdown though C8H10N4O2 so hardly a scam to only refund what you have charged for. You can't expect to get money back on bags you got for free surely. Im quite happy to pay for bags in the knowledge they all get refunded when I pass back for recycling unlike other stores. The only thing that's annoying me post swapover to M&S is the due by dates which week to be a lot shorter. Subs seem to have been sorted out in recent weeks.

No one got charged for any bags during lockdown though C8H10N4O2 so hardly a scam to only refund what you have charged for

Most of my bills from during that period of "no bag returns" show charges for bags. I also had bags from before the "no returns" policy.

I'd be quite happy if they offered no bags as i don't want them and Ocado is the only delivery service which mandates them.

No Dowe Egberts coffee and no sub. So no coffee at the entire warehouse?

I've had no problem with ocado drivers - always been friendly and pleasant

I've not had a driver that been cheerful for a long time. They are sneaky (hiding damages), do just dump and run, grunt a greeting in return and are generally just unhappy. I wonder if something has changed within their warerhouse's putting pressure on them. There certainly has been a marked change.

@C8H10N4O2

Ocado is a tech co selling its software, not a grocer. They don't care about customers

I've had no problem with ocado drivers - always been friendly and pleasant.

However I'm feeling much the same way about the stock and service. Packing is terrible compared to Tesco or Waitrose, prices seem to have risen more steeply and they are the only delivery service which mandates chargeable plastic bags. Now that they have replaced Waitrose with the more expensive M&S stuff I'm ordering less from Ocado simply because they don't have so many of my regular items. Stock has also been flakey recently.

Has anyone else been caught out by the new carrier bag returns poilcy and handed a lockdown bundle back to find they only get a handful refunded?

Apparently now they only refund the number of bags from the previous delivery however I can't find anywhere i was told this before being stung. If I'd known I'd have kept the bags and used them as bin liners. My driver reported everyone handing back lockdown bundles, a nice scam if you can work it.

I kicked up a fuss over the bag refund policy-which is no where to be found.

The drivers are always in a hurry and I hadn't handed them back after a few weeks of them charging. Feel like incredibly petty on their part and I told them they should refund me as many bags as they have charged me for since the beginning of charging. They did.
I think the packing has been diabolical and today there was a lot of shopping just chucked in the crate with no bag at all so I had to fish it al out.

I've had no problem with ocado drivers - always been friendly and pleasant.

I would have said the same until last week, always found them very professional, but last weeks was rude, hopefully just a one off.

Bin bags

The waitrose bin bags have gone with no alternative.

Yes @CovidClara my dp is livid about the big bags

For anyone struggling for decent sausages on Ocado in the post Waitrose world after several disasters we’ve discovered the Jolly sausages are really good

@CovidClara

Bin bags

The waitrose bin bags have gone with no alternative.

This!!!!

I hate the M&S swap over-I would never do a proper shop there and now I know why just too bitty and fancy and expensive. I never realised how much of the Waitrose basics range I use until now.

I miss Waitrose

Bin bags and food caddy liners.

Our driver today told us that they are no longer allowed to count the number of bags given back - the customer has to tell them how many and they add it to the system. Still annoyed by the driver last week who took bags but didn't refund them.

I am no longer placated by chocolate- just logged into DHs account and he can chose from many delivery slots for the next fortnight (including some free), whereas I, an anytime pass holder, am restricted to one every 7 days. I just can't work out what on earth they're playing at.

I’m also annoyed that thoughtful producer chickens seem to have gone

- just logged into DHs account and he can chose from many delivery slots for the next fortnight (including some free), whereas I, an anytime pass holder, am restricted to one every 7 days. I just can't work out what on earth they're playing at

^this!

I found out that my colleague has no trouble getting deliveries twice a week (we live fairly near each other) while I pay £8.99 per month and I’m lucky if I can get one every seven days!

I might open a new account in DHs name!

@CovidClara

No Dowe Egberts coffee and no sub. So no coffee at the entire warehouse?

I’ve had this 2 weeks running and although it was in my basket for the next 2 weeks when I clicked on it it’s no longer stocked even though it was still showing as on offer. No substitutions I guess because there are no alternatives to the large size, stupid system!

We're really missing the Waitrose essentials. The M&S equivalent range of fruit and veg has been really disappointing. The subs continued this week so I've booked a Waitrose slot for next week to try that.

I’ve also had no refund for bags (handed back 3 deliveries’ worth of paid bags last week - only 95p worth but that’s not the point!)

Have emailed but no response at all.

Yesterday’s delivery had the Tony’s choc on the receipt but it wasn’t there. Also 3 unsatisfactory subs which I refused (first time ever).

AND I still haven’t got the app.

(I know these are petty grumbles but I’m quite tolerant of these things usually!)

@Onceuponatimethen they can't ditch "Thoughtful". They are the only ones to include giblets (which the cats adore!).

M&S Oakham chickens aren't good. I do hope their plan isn't to eliminate the superior quality producers - that would be daft- it does feel like that is the plan.

Crisis averted this morning when I managed to stop DH filling his poncy butter cooler with M&S unsalted butter instead of lightly salted. Every other shop uses "red" to indicate their block butter has some salt in it (except Danish, so I'll forgive them, Lurpak). What's with the renegade labelling, M&S!

We have a butcher opening a shop near us (lockdown does have its advantages) so I think I'll be sticking to monthly(ish) Ocado orders.

I never really did understand why Ocado and Waitrose parted company, but I think the new collaboration is destroying the very things that I liked about their product ranges.