Ocado tips, hacks, Toblerone and Christmas

[GaryUnicorn]

Carrying on from the old thread....

Still no email about the Christmas slots.

@Onceuponatimethen

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

Agree about Jolly Hog sausages. Bloody lovely!

www.ocado.com/products/the-jolly-hog-proper-porker-sausages-298608011

Well I’ve had the app back for a while now. Got my Xmas slot too. No free chocolate, however. Swings and roundabouts..

No substitutions in my latest Ocado order, but no refund has been processed for returned bags. I would use Waitrose more, but every time I've had a delivery from them the milk has had a very short shelf life, which is useless if trying to do one weekly shop. Both Ocado and Tesco have performed much better on this in my experience.

Just had my delivery, driver right up to the door with no mask. I give up.

Also received some poor persons fish pie & ice cream.

I’ve been an Ocado customer for 15 years, and am finally thinking of giving up. No ground nut oil, chocolate chips or wraps in stock when I did my order - and have just received the text to say that I have multiple substitutions including Coke Zero for Diet Coke (really? In all those massive warehouses there are literally no cans of Diet Coke, which has a long shelf life . And don’t get me started on all the basic M&S stuff they don’t have, for eg pittas, where the only M&S ones available are gluten free, and the Ocado ones are huge and chewy. Sorry to rant but it is so sad to see a company that did everything right for so long just screwing it up. (first world problem I realise )

I’ve been shopping for soup. Didn’t Ocado used to do Baxter’s?

@StanfordPines

I’ve been shopping for soup. Didn’t Ocado used to do Baxter’s?

Yes, they've stopped recently (post M&S although I don't know if it's related). Effectively their range of soups has just shrunk massively and I can't fathom why they would do that - it's really annoying.

Yes, Ocado did used to sell Baxter's soups, but now no longer do so. They were a good store cupboard standby during the winter, and the consommé was always useful.
When I queried stocking Baxter's with Ocado customer services, they replied that they didn't know whether they stocked it or not!

Well, customer services are meant to find out answers to queries; that is their function.

I'm suspicious of all the branded lines that seem to have vanished. I wonder if part of the deal for m&s producing tons more products was a guarantee of a higher % of the market that Waitrose was getting? Ie they want to reduce the number of potential rival products to make it worth their while making so many new lines.

I don’t even buy many different things as a rule but I’ve already found several of my favourites have vanished in favour of M&S - both branded & Ocado

My order arrived, unavailable : butter???? Really?

Yes I’ve also noticed the shrinking of certain lines - we used to buy Baxter’s soup and now can’t. We don’t like the m & s soups so are struggling to know what to order.

For veg soups we do like Amy’s kitchen ones

@ByebyeOcado. I had no butter last week too. M&S def have some weird deal with Ocado. I just hope it’s time limited.

I had a lovely tideford spinach and lentil soup last week

@tootyfruitypickle thank you - will try that!

Joining in here with the complaints. I have been a diehard Ocado fan for around 15 years. This switch to M&S may finally have turned me off. Loads of my non-Waitrose branded products have disappeared. The M&S vegetables are such poor quality. The range of everything has shrunk. Today I had my first ever Sainsbury's delivery which went very well. I am not ready to jump ship yet as there are some products I can only get through Ocado (for now anyway) but definitely planning to have less Ocado deliveries and more from other supermarkets.

I would be going if it wasn’t for lockdown fears. I’m scared of being stuck without deliveries if I move!!

I've just booked a Sainsburys order. They have some of the products I used to buy regularly from Ocado. Delivery only 50p so this is probably something I'll do often in future. What with this and my regular Waitrose orders (for free delivery) Ocado are losing a lot of my supermarket spending.

Me too! Have a tesco delivery booked this weekend; if m&s are offering rubbish veggies & fruit (honourable exceptions being their radish & muscat grapes) then I might as well pay less with Tesco. Next weekend will be waitrose & then Sainsburys. Ocado, you have lost 75% of my custom (& climbing)

@Onceuponatimethen

I would be going if it wasn’t for lockdown fears. I’m scared of being stuck without deliveries if I move!!

I think once all this is over Ocado may bitterly regret how they have treated customers. They may be making hay whilst the sun shines as it were, but when normality returns people will leave in droves.

Like you that’s the only reason I’m keeping my smart pass going and I realise it’s an epic waste of money as at least half of my monthly deliveries I now get from Waitrose.

@Fuss I couldn’t agree more! I was horrified when I realised I’m paying way more for my smart pass than other customers, thanks to this thread

I have a hunch that Ocado's strategy is to become "the back office/infrastructure" for online supermarkets (and earn their money from licensing fees) and let the supermarkets (in UK that is Morrisons and now M&S, I think they help several overseas supermarket chains too) deal with price competition/profit margins on the actual groceries.

Let's just think of ourselves as guinea pigs who helped create their complex algorithms!

On the plus side, I've established that M&S Ricotta & Porcini Mezzelune are a reasonable substitute for the Garofalo ones that disappeared over the summer (a bit larger, but same price we were paying in April).

They have no matches available at all. Not even there but listed as out of stock. There's a category called Matches and firelighters, but it has no matches listed. Why on earth not? That's something I hate to be without, as we have a gas hob and if the electricity fails we have to light the gas with matches. So that's another trip to an actual shop . The more of those I have to make the less the Smart Pass seems like any sort of value for money. Once we get through the winter and any further lockdown, it may have to go.

Very glad I’ve found this thread, so disappointed with Ocado recently!

I’ve managed to get a Christmas slot after our plans have had to change (thanks covid!) BUT most of the Christmas food is showing as out of stock. I’ve never used Ocado for Christmas shop before, do they usually update stock closer to the time or am
I doomed to the supermarkets?!

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

They have no matches available at all. Not even there but listed as out of stock. There's a category called Matches and firelighters, but it has no matches listed. Why on earth not? That's something I hate to be without, as we have a gas hob and if the electricity fails we have to light the gas with matches. So that's another trip to an actual shop . The more of those I have to make the less the Smart Pass seems like any sort of value for money. Once we get through the winter and any further lockdown, it may have to go.

You need a clicky gas lighter, @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Our ignition spark doesn’t always work (grubby burners ) so I’ve got one of these.

www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/256892622