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!

Apparently my most “loved” product was Thrive Chicken Treats for my cat. They’re £3.50 a bottle for a handful of freeze dried chicken, highway robbery. Darned feline is going to send me bankrupt. 😂

Where's my video???

I'm so embarrassed by the oven chips thing I'm considering buying them in Farm Foods moving forwards 😂

Apparently I am the top purchaser in my area of tomato puree (too much pizza making going on here) and the thing we buy most of - gluten free crumpets! We also were one of the first people to buy M+S walnuts

@Vivarium

Can't believe how shit Ocado has become now.

So many things out of stock. So few delivery slots. Such a massively early cut-off time for finalising any order.

It's just not working, is it? Have they tried to take on huge numbers of customers without taking on the staff (and improving the systems) to deal with them?

I will jump ship soon. I'm only sticking with them for the moment because I have 16 years' worth of brownie points and I get good priority on deliveries, and that could be handy with lockdowns and Brexit. But otherwise they are laughably shite.

There was a recent article in the Guardian about them with lots of "behind the scenes" type information.

One of the issues mentioned was that due to the way their warehouse works - the high level of automation in particular - it is almost impossible for them to scale up using the current warehouses as there just isn't enough capacity. It's much harder for them than it is for "normal" supermarkets that deliver from stores and have a larger network of stores and warehouses. They are building a new distribution centre (or more than one) but it won't be ready for some time yet. Obviously they didn't expect this level of growth in online shopping in 2020 in pre-pandemic times.

The article also made it clear their actual retail service is almost a sideline, their hopes of profit and growth rest on selling the technology to other companies worldwide. I think this partly explains why they just don't care about customer experience all that much at the moment if they are at capacity for deliveries and know they can't grow at the moment anyway.

We are Lincolshire's premier orderer of Castello Blue cheese and our favourite item ever is a four pack of peppers.

We need to get out more!

The expensive turkeys have finally appeared on my Ocado homepage!

Now to consider whether I actually want one. We had decided to just do salmon and buffet bits this year...

Actually scrolling through the Christmas stuff, I haven't hit the whited-out "sold out" stuff yet when it was pretty dire before. Looks like they're making an effort to add stock for the Christmas deliveries.

@BuntysTwinkle

The expensive turkeys have finally appeared on my Ocado homepage!

Now to consider whether I actually want one. We had decided to just do salmon and buffet bits this year...

Actually scrolling through the Christmas stuff, I haven't hit the whited-out "sold out" stuff yet when it was pretty dire before. Looks like they're making an effort to add stock for the Christmas deliveries.

I can forsee them shooting themselves in the foot here, because by the time they have finished making the effort most people will have purchased from elsewhere. Expect a sale in the New Year.

It's quite possible. But I'm pleased to finally be able to get some of these bits. Only thing is I think they're doing it literally now and some things are a bit glitchy - like some things in the offers aren't showing up as being in the offer once they're in the trolley.

Forget everything I said on the last page about fruit and veg, I nabbed that sticky toffee trifle

Some substitutions on today’s delivery. But out of stock on semi skimmed milk and no substitute... what the heck?! They can’t deliver milk that has been on that order since I placed it three weeks ago and have absolute no alternative??? Shocking.

Mid week smart pass renewed for 6 months at my usual price of £14.99 which I can’t grumble at seeing how much others pay per month but probably explains why I didn’t get any ‘free’ toblerone or shortbread.

Apparently I’m number one for Philadelphia snack pots and second was hovis white sandwich bread. Both those down to SN ds who eats only a limited number of things.

Don’t regret cancelling my Xmas slot given OOS on so many things still. Waitrose order coming next week and given they’ve said I can’t change the ‘entertaining’ parts shortly I’m pretty confident we’ll be getting the main bits for Xmas dinner after all.

The my video thing is quite fun. I'm apparently the county's top buyer of House Foods firm tofu . My favourite product is plain yoghurt. It's quite a fun thing.

I've been trying out Waitrose, and this week had 5 missing items and three substitutions with them this week. Very disappointed.

Next order is Ocado and I have fingers firmly crossed. I've not relied on online this close to Xmas before, and am always nervous when I read disaster stories! Last 2 Ocado orders have arrived complete

Only one sub in today's order, bread for bread which is the best we've had in a while, fingers crossed for the Christmas order next week!

I am still not getting emails from them but just edited an order and my video played after checking out. Top in the county for coffee and no 1 product is bagels (honestly thought it would be chocolate). A bit pedestrian isn't it? Time to up my game to make next years vid a bit more interesting

No video for me but then I haven't had a single email from Ocado since March, apart from order confirmations and receipts.

TBH I am rather glad as the early lockdown meltdown meant I got an order of a case of advocaat that I was using as a placeholder and couldn't get in to edit or cancel. I am not sure that I want to know that the system thinks I am an alcoholic, snowball-loving, time traveller from the 1970s.

I’m the biggest purchaser of a brand of butter in my county. How mortifying.

Kent's top orderer of sultanas. My mother will be proud!

My county's top purchaser of Vimto. Beyond proud.

I’m not ranking as a top buyer of anything, but my top purchases are cat food, cravendale milk and bananas.

Duller than dull!

@tootyfruitypickle

Top purchase is milk. God I’m dull 😂

Me too, tooty Milk and butter. Boring!

My top purchases are:

1. Peanut & almond propercorn popcorn
2. M&S plant kitchen cauliflower popcorn
3. Revels

I could swear I’d bought Revels only once or twice.

I was one of the first to buy M&S cream scones 🥇

Favourite item - bananas! First to buy - cheap M&S Squash. No top buyer of anything!

Also, no shortbread but I did wax them for four free bars of Tony's...

Top purchase was 4 pints semi skimmed milk. I'm a great rival to @tootyfruitypickle.

I was the top purchaser of green giant salt free sweetcorn in my county 🏅

I’m Gwents top orderer of Moy Park Chicken nuggets 😂

@GarytheRedNosedUnicorn Have you tried setting up Reserved? I had to wait 4 weeks for my first delivery, but once I had that It’s now booking me a regular slot 4 weeks ahead - so 12th December it created my order for 9th January. Might be worth considering if you have a smart pass.