Ocado tips, tricks subs, M&S shortbread giveaways and defectors..

[Garyunicorn]

Carrying on from the old Ocado thread. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/a4045676-Ocado-tips-hacks-Toblerone-and-Christmas?msgid=102560793#102560793

I have been contributing, just changed my name to prevent being outed over something!

[quote NotGenerationAlpha]@beela What do you mean you have a weekly delivery and reserved slot? I have been just booking the same slot manually 4 weeks ahead. (I remember seeing an email about reserved slots are back but they are midweek only). I think it depends on the area. But I can get one for tomorrow if I want to. Otherwise, the next available is 5/1. But I've got every sunday booked until 17/1 currently.[/quote]
If you get Reserved sorted it automatically books the delivery slot for you.
I’m finding that it books it the day before it becomes available.

Waitrose have really messed me up.
Accidentally ordered two turkey crowns and none are going to be delivered.
I am in the shielded group and in London, so do not feel like chancing the shops.
Thank you Waitrose!
In the new year I am returning to Ocado.

two swaps (FF milk for FF milk, and fancy carrots for different fancy carrots) Goose fat OOS but I already have some. All in all, no big dramas here. But all my meat is from the butchers (no change there for me from other years).

I do miss Waitrose particularly the cheese but I can nip to two local WR easily so the convenience wins and I have had no problem with booking slots in advance since June. I will do an occasional on line WR shop for variety I think.

It's a shame the service is so patchy across the country though. A tough year to swap suppliers i think.

My order arrived an hour early as said above only thing missing was some baked bries

Glad to hear most have arrived ok!

@Fuss blimey that is awful and if you hadn’t had the cctv you couldn’t have proved it

I’m officially hacked off with Ocado. 2 unavailable items were things we were really looking forward to. There was a Vacherin cheese - mmmmm - which has been in my basket since I secured the slot back in November, and I have been offered a cheap Brie in substitution. Not The Same. We also decided to make tiramisu as a special pudding, but they have substituted ricotta for the mascarpone. (I’m not sure in what world ricotta would ever be an alternative to mascarpone, but maybe I am unimaginative ).

I get that these are 1st world problems, BTW, its just annoying when we have discussed nice treat eats as virtually the only differentiator between any other day in Tier 4, that Ocado lull you into thinking they are available, let you order them and then snatch them away.

I think there are real supply issues since the switch to M&S. They have really been quite pants. No sherry available last week - no sherry at Christmas? It’s not exactly festive ordering rocket science!

These threads are such a god send. App and reserved were down for us for months (definitely not back in Sept as I checked) and I was told I would get an email when they were back.

No email but just checked and both are now back for me. I know it means nothing (from experience in last lockdown!) but I’ve booked a weekly Reserved so fingers crossed.

@TawnyPippit I agree - just did an Ocado order on MIL’s account and for mid Jan no milk of the type she normally has

@TawnyPippit really sorry to hear about the missing treats - such a pain!

Lovely driver called to ask if he could come an hour early as he was nearly finished for the day. He said some customers this week have had up to 15 totes (boxes) of stuff delivered - either people have forgotten to edit their big Christmas order or are still hosting the whole family... (we're in London tier 4).

@beela the trick is to book as many slots in advance as you can, fill them with random stuff up to £40 then edit as needed. When you get a delivery go on and book another at the end of your bookings (if that makes sense). Works for me - I’m good till mid Jan

@VanCleefArpels I do the same.

No roast potatoes available in my Waitrose delivery coming tonight, despite them being one of the items supposedly 'locked in' last week. 8 items in total unavailable, including Chocolate Yule Log. Perhaps I should have stuck with Ocado!

New to the thread, or possibly I posted on one of the very early ones.

Ocado customer for 15 years. Have Smart Pass. Recently became a star reviewer although they haven't sent me any coupons for about one month. No idea how often they usually send them.
I've also had lots of freebies lately including Percy Pigs x3, Toblerone, Tony's Chocolate x2 and the tin of Reindeer shortbread.

I've had loads of gripes recently, mostly poor stock levels and daft substitutions. But what I'm really getting pissed off with is the amount of damaged items I've been receiving during the last 3 or 4 months. Products leaking because they're squashed plus badly bruised apples and pears etc.

My Christmas delivery came this morning. On time. Lovely friendly driver.
No bacon - there was none in my delivery last Friday either. And one sub which was sensible. But two items in two separate bags had been crushed and were leaking.
I've had to request a refund for damaged items in about 95% of deliveries since the summer.

I think I'll have to get a Sainsburys delivery pass again at some point, to use in conjunction with Ocado. I let it lapse in February which in hindsight was a mistake. I find them more reliable for some products and rarely have damaged items.

Edit it's not a reindeer!

I am always happy with Ocado generally, but hardly a week goes by when I don’t need a refund for something squashed and open or leaking too! 😤

My Ocado order came last night. No potatoes. Were there really no others types to substitute? Missing stamps ( had been waiting for these to send Christmas cards) And one of my two cartons of Lactofree milk was also missing.

I'm fed up as I am shielding and have no way of getting the stamps or potatoes now.

But I am also intrigued to know how a carton of Morrison's blueberry and blackcurrant smoothie came to be in with my order (carton same size as missing Lactofree) Ocado don't even stock this item!

That's really odd msbevvy!

I have vegetables from the veggie company. They look great and plenty to see us through the next couple of weeks. Which is a relief.

That was a bit insensitive of me MsBevvy.
Can you ask on a local facebook group if anyone can help out? I'm sure that people would.

Msbevvy - It's because ocado have the contract to do morrisons deliveries.

@msbevvy

My Ocado order came last night. No potatoes. Were there really no others types to substitute? Missing stamps ( had been waiting for these to send Christmas cards) And one of my two cartons of Lactofree milk was also missing.

I'm fed up as I am shielding and have no way of getting the stamps or potatoes now.

But I am also intrigued to know how a carton of Morrison's blueberry and blackcurrant smoothie came to be in with my order (carton same size as missing Lactofree) Ocado don't even stock this item!

I had similar last year with Coffee - Taylors but Inkala rather than their Christmas coffee. Customer Services beyond bemused as Ocado didnt stock it. Months later they did. We all wondered at the time if the supplier had packed the wrong coffee in the box.

Oh no @ladybyron that’s terrible. Is there a local volunteer who could go to the shops for you?

And @msbevvy ditto.

I would be in a similar boat (shielding and some key dishes didn’t come) but luckily I have some back-up “will do” options in the freezer.

Very annoying @TawnyPippit. I hope you have enough things you like to still enjoy yourself.

I don’t know how they can mess up their stock levels so spectacularly.

@PoulePouletteEternellement

Presumably, spongedog, adding your mother's address to your account doesn't work well for you? (I guess it might mean too few deliveries between you?) But it would save your time, if she is able to sort and put away herself.

I used to have my mother on my account. Now she has her own and is allowed more deliveries than I am.

@PoulePouletteEternellement thank you for commenting. I didnt realise for months I could add my mum to my account, and others may not know. During 1st lockdown I added her. But there were problems - she couldnt log out properly. I showed her, and showed her, repeat, repeat. So my brother, who lives a lot further away, came up with a (male) brainwave. She couldnt manage to use my OCADO account, so he set her up with her own OCADO account! (I think her area must have low take -up). Funnily enough, there have been fewer log on issues, but I have had to listen to moans about slot availability and delivery charges for months - because of course Mum had benefited from my delivery pass without realising it! Things slightly improved until Christmas came on the horizon. My slot had been booked for months, reserved with 4 lovely bottles of champagne. But of course Mum couldnt get a Xmas week slot for love nor money, so her stuff went on my order. (And wow did the cost go up! What does an 85 year old eat on her own!) Order cut-off came, then Tier 4 so Xmas cancelled.

But I was chuckling at your comment about frequency of deliveries - our discrepancy is timeliness. My mum's deliveries inevitably come early; mine are often hours late. We live less than 10 miles apart.