Ocado tips, hacks, Toblerone and Christmas

[GaryUnicorn]

Carrying on from the old thread....

Still no email about the Christmas slots.

[BaileysforBreakfast]

Anyone else currently paying for a smart pass but only being offered restricted slots? I'm paying £7.99 and have shopped with Ocado for years, but can now only book slots a fortnight in advance and am only offered Tuesdays. So, I have a delivery today, which released a slot on 27th October. No other dates/times available for me to book. Basically, they are 'rationing' me to a weekly delivery and only on a Tuesday and only bookable a fortnight in advance.

This is in the south east. Anyone else the same?

[BaileysforBreakfast]

I should have RTFT before posting. I see CoteFolio is having exactly the same issue as me. Are you in the south east too, Cote?

[Mumdiva99]

I was able to book my Xmas slot earlier this week. Although I haven't had an email informing me yet. :)

I'm a smartness holder in (North of the) South East and can book lots of delivery slots - we are in quite a large town which helps i think.

[CoteFolie]

Are you in the south east too, Cote?

I'm in Yorkshire, Baileys

[GaryUnicorn]

I had a slot booked with Waitrose for 21 Dec, but just double checked last night and there was one available for 23 Dec. Yippee! Wandering round the Waitrose virtual aisles, it was like seeing an old friend. Didn’t realise how many products I had missed.

[EveLe]

@BaileysforBreakfast I’m having the same issue, but I can only see Wednesday. I had reserved set up for fortnightly Wednesday deliveries, and the only other time I can get a slot is the Wednesday in between.

So they are basically limiting me to one per week. If I cancel a delivery, suddenly I can see a weeks worth of slots, but availability always starts 7 days after my last delivery.

Starting to feel annoyed that I’m paying for an anytime slot, that is basically Wednesdays only! I might as well pay for a mid week pass!

I think I’ll be switching permanently to Sainsbury’s and Tesco after this. I have passes for both, as I have 2 ASD kids who like certain own brand products and can tell if they are swapped for a different brand.

Tesco have been fab! As a pass holder I can book 4 weeks in advance, and multiple orders per week if needed.

Sainsbury’s are only 2 weeks in advance, but there’s always plenty of choice. I prefer Sainsbury’s, but I’m nervous about only booking 2 weeks in advance in case slots are unavailable, so I book a weekly Tesco slot, then edit date of delivery if I manage to get Sainsbury’s.

That’s been working so well for me I think I will be cancelling Ocado. Was holding on for Christmas shop, but only slots available to me are on the 20th at 11pm which seems ridiculous!

[legoqueen]

Finally got the Xmas e mail & a slot but most M & S Xmas items are out of stock - very poor...grrr!

[AdaColeman]

Don't panic, those OOS items will appear closer to the time as they become available!

[BaileysforBreakfast]

Just tried changing my delivery slot to see if it would open up other days, but it doesn't. Basically, I can get a delivery on Tuesday 27th or I can get a delivery on Tuesday 27th. How fabulous.

Well worth paying for a Smart Pass for service like this

[BaileysforBreakfast]

It's interesting to see how Ocado compares with other supermarkets' delivery services. I do hope they are reading this thread, although their general disregard for customer service nowadays suggests they're probably not.

[Kazmerelda]

I have lurked here for a while (sorry!) but also literally just got a Christmas delivery slot with lots out of stock.

However, after this weekend I have already cancelled at least this week's Ocado delivery and am going to sit down tonight and do the rest.

For the last year, I have had alot of small niggles with the service such as them delivering up to an hour early, changing goalposts with editing times, loads of things out of stock/subs which are astronomical in price and have been feeling like food shopping should not be this stressful.

This Sunday was a humdinger....I moved my slot because I was looking after an elderly relative in the morning, I moved it with a week's notice. The driver turned up 50 mins earlier than the beginning of my slot time and left me a voicemail....to tell me they had delivered my shopping to a neighbour a few houses down. During a global pandemic. A neighbour I haven't spoken to much bar a hello. 16 shopping bags of heavy stuff we had to drag back to our house.

So I actually made a complaint for them to take it as feedback and send me a clearly template reply about taking what had happened on board yadah yadah. My shopping was fine and the neighbours are good people but WHY the heckers would they do this and think it was acceptable.

I refuse to get stressed this much about food shopping so am voting with my wallet.

[GaryUnicorn]

@AdaColeman

Don't panic, those OOS items will appear closer to the time as they become available!

And then they will go out of stock on the morning of your delivery. They are no longer a trustworthy company. Don’t want to take a chance, as they wouldn’t think twice about leaving out the turkey or meat joint, or things like bread, milk, potatoes. Last place I want to be on Christmas week is a jam packed supermarket.
I so miss the old Ocado; when they were reliable and dependable.

[PowerslidePanda]

@Kazmerelda Wow! They could maybe justify that if you weren't home during the slot you'd chosen, but if they're going to just rock up at a random time of their choosing, they have to take the risk you might not be in and deal with it themselves - not inconvenience you and your neighbour! Who even has the fridge and freezer space to store a neighbour's weekly shop for them?!

[Kazmerelda]

@PowerslidePanda yeah, thankfully we were back about 20 mins after this happened but still. So was all still in the bags in their hallway. It's one way to get to know your neighbours :D.

Ocado have offered me £5 for the inconvenience. It's not about the financials for me, so am still not going to shop with them unless I have to. Booked my next 3 shops with someone else.

[uniqlo]

@Kazmerelda that is terrible!! Crazy that they think that is ok but they can't take back a bag containing subs if you've handled the bag
On my last delivery the driver was a full hour late. No explanation or apology and I didn't question it either seeing as I was home anyway but I was expecting something by way of explanation. During the lockdown they were always either up to an hour early or on time. It seems to have gone the other way round now.

I managed to book a Christmas slot for the 23rd and when I looked there was quite a bit of availability including slots on the 24th too. This was just after midnight though (I didn't stay up especially - I'm a night owl ).

[uniqlo]

@Kazmerelda £5 is a joke!!

[CouldBeOuting]

Got an email yesterday telling me that as a smart pass holder I am getting priority access to Christmas slots before other customers and slots would be available to me from 13th October. I’m clearly not THAT valued as I know others booked slots a week ago.

So 6.30am today and only slots available are after 9pm on the 20th. Nothing closer to Christmas so I won’t be risking anything perishable but at least it will be cold so my elderly neighbours fridge items should be okay in the shed (she will be in bed by 9.30 and I can’t get my family shop AND hers in my fridge).

Apart one that one nighttime of Christmas slots I can’t see anything bookable beyond 21st October. Not exactly great service for £8.99 a month....

[StanfordPines]

I don’t need a Christmas slot but in the interest of this thread I’ve been checking them every so often.
I’ve just seen that loads more have been released. I could get a 24th right now if I wanted.

[PersephonePromotesEquanimity]

Oh, they're evil!

Went on trying to book an early November slot, but the right day not granted yet.

Still - I saw a star! Rushed. Clicked! Nothing, nothing, nothing ... Oh but wait - a slot on 24th December! Oh but no, between seeing the calendar and checking the times - it's gone!

Damn good thing I'm not relying on them (fingers crossed) for Christmas food.

[GaryUnicorn]

Finally got the email last night, so went on the site at 2seconds past midnight. There were 2 slots left. 6am on the 20th, or 11pm on the 21st. You’re really telling me that ALL the slots went in 2 seconds? They’re not saving them for staff, as they can’t get Christmas slots either. WHO are they holding them for? Thank god for Waitrose.

[Fuss]

I've had the email.

I've not taken them up on their very generous slot for the 19th December.... I was on the site at midnight as well.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

I'm not taking them up on it either. What good is the 20th for fresh stuff?

[Wolfcub]

Loads of subs today including something I gave a 1 star review to last time it was a sub because it was so foul. Really fed up. Ocado if you are listening this is getting beyond a joke

[bruffin]

I've taken to return subs when I didnt before.

[ArabellaPilkington]

@GaryUnicorn

Finally got the email last night, so went on the site at 2seconds past midnight. There were 2 slots left. 6am on the 20th, or 11pm on the 21st. You’re really telling me that ALL the slots went in 2 seconds? They’re not saving them for staff, as they can’t get Christmas slots either. WHO are they holding them for? Thank god for Waitrose.

They're not holding them at Ocado. They've already been booked by ppl that had access before today. By the looks of this thread and others lots of ppl have booked slots with both Ocado and Waitrose and will cancel one nearer the time. Not very fair, really.