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Original poster

Ocado suddenly gone right downhill?

141 replies

FattyArbuckel · 08/03/2011 19:28

My last few orders with Ocado have been full of damaged stuff and items that have gone off well before date.

Before the last few weeks I have been really happy with my deliveries - has anyone else had lots of problems recently?

I am fed up because I have just paid for a year's delivery up front so i feel a bit tied in now.

OP posts:
JessRabbit · 11/03/2011 08:56

Aaah yes, the flotation. That's when it all started to go wrong.

PorkChopSter · 11/03/2011 09:29

Had the same problem with close to date and/or damaged food and I don't like the website.

52Girls · 11/03/2011 09:39

My Sister had Asda eggs in her Ocado order once!

mamalocco · 11/03/2011 09:47

After years of championing Ocado have gone over to the dark side (aka Tesco) - if I shop for delivery with Ocado on certain days I know some items out of stock (eg lots of bakery items not available for Monday deliveries). Much more likely to have problems with late evening deliveries. Customer service line always busy ("you are 27th in the queque") and have decline last few attempts to fob me off with the apology bottle of wine.

Now saving £20 a week on grocery bill.

wannaBe · 11/03/2011 09:59

annie your post sounds like a sales pitch. It is not dissimilar to some I have seen on the apprentice!

Fwiw I hate the new website as well. It is immensely slow. I do like the new app, although that has only just become accessible with voiceover on the Iphone, if it wasn't for that ocado would have lost my business by now.

As I said I do think this is all a bit coincidental just as they're about to float on the stock market...

Alibabaandthe40nappies · 11/03/2011 10:03

wannaBe - agree. A business model that is aimed at taking share from Tesco is always going to look more attractive than one that is aimed at taking share from Waitrose, who have a relatively tiny but very loyal customer base.

GlynisIsFixed · 11/03/2011 11:52

don't know if it's any coincidence at all but i've just had an email survey from Ocado, asking about customer service and the delivery pass amongst other things ............

wannaBe · 11/03/2011 11:54

yep, just had one of those as well.

Fiddledee · 11/03/2011 13:31

filled in the questionnaire. Biggest problem is the slowness of the new website - I lose the will to live during the order and probably order less and less often due to the slowness.

OcadoAnnie · 11/03/2011 16:09

Don?t worry, I was listening and I?m really sorry you're having problems. And I'm not trying to sell anything to you! Shock I?m not allowed to answer specific queries on here but like I said, we?d be more than happy to look into your issues if you contact us at Customer Services. Customer feedback is so important to us ? as GlynisIsFixed said, we've just launched our customer survey today, which is the perfect opportunity to have your say; we've always made improvements and introduced new services based on the results, so it's definitely worth filling it out.

From our point of view the vast majority of shoppers are still telling us they love what we do and things like Which? seem to bear that out, so I?m sad that a few of you seem to not be experiencing the same good things. We don't always get it right, but we are always working as hard as we can to improve the service and are focussing on maintaining the high standards we set ourselves in the beginning.

We're more than aware of your issues though ? as I said, can you get in touch through [email protected] with more details and we'll try to help you all individually... reference Mumsnet and my name so we know it?s you.

meditrina · 11/03/2011 16:49

Please could you answer the question on the policy of compensation for late deliveries? How long after the end of the slot? This info isn't on the website.

And it isn't an individual enquiry, but a general one. I hope you will answer, if you read this.

But as this question on general procedure has already been ignored twice, I am beginning to wonder.

Original poster
FattyArbuckel · 11/03/2011 18:58

OcadoAnnie your customer services are rubbish, they don't try to address any issues and merely issue refunds for damaged items

OP posts:
Original poster
FattyArbuckel · 11/03/2011 19:00

"From our point of view the vast majority of shoppers are still telling us they love what we do" - well you are out of date then becaause I would have been one of those shoppers in the past, now disaffected Sad

OP posts:
Summersoon · 11/03/2011 19:05

I used to be a huge fan, too - but I would say that 3 out of 4 of the last several deliveries have been late. It is 19.04 as I write and the delivery booked for 17.00 to 18.00 still hasn't turned up.
And I find the new website really hard to navigate - much preferred the old site. OcadoAnnie are you reading this?

LessNarkyPuffin · 11/03/2011 19:07

Thank you for this thread. I've often thought about using Ocado and was actually planning on setting up an account this week! It sounds like it's really gone downhill.

LessNarkyPuffin · 11/03/2011 19:08

Has anyone used Waitrose online instead? Any good?

bigbadbarry · 11/03/2011 19:09

I agree with Ali's post too :) I want nice things not necessarily cheap things.

takingchances · 11/03/2011 19:22

Hi Ocado Annie - I didn't see your post and so I sent a link to this thread directly to [email protected].

Great that you posted here and made it clear you were an Ocado employee. I am sure some other companies post on here posing as members of the site.

I have had some disappointing experiences with Ocado recently but I absolutely love it when things go well. It makes a huge difference to me to not have to traipse around a supermarket and to get nice quality food and drinks delivered to my door.

The biggest things I want right (in order of priority) are:

  1. Delivery coming exactly when it's supposed to (otherwise it undoes all the good of online shopping)
  2. Items not being damaged
  3. Items having a decent sell-by date

I don't mind the substitutions, they're usually fine.

Hope that helps

NotaMopsa · 11/03/2011 20:42

I had that questionnaire today too Hmm

need weird ocado stalker emotion!!

TOO LONG that survey ocado!!

TheSkiingGardener · 12/03/2011 05:49

Waitrose deliver is excellent Narkypuffin. Free if you order over £50 and very nice people delivering. I had a lamb shoulder delivered on a Thursday, the lady said she hadn't charged mentor it since it went out of date on Saturday. When I said that was no good could I return it as we were away until Sunday lunchtime she told me to keep it and put it in the freezer.

I was excited to try Ocado a few months ago but it just wasn't good enough and the delivery was SO expensive.

JessRabbit · 12/03/2011 10:52

Had a delivery today, it was 5 minutes late but the driver was very pleasant (eastern European) the order was packed well and there was one substitution.

I can cope with that.

LessNarkyPuffin · 12/03/2011 11:33

Thank you SkiingGardener. I'll try them instead.

MillsAndDoom · 13/03/2011 17:24

Some of their multi buys are a bit dubious as well.

Waitrose stickered fruit was on a 3 for 2 recently, it included about 4 or 5 different things - grapes, pineapple, oranges and something else, however on Ocado you could only buy 3 pineapples or 3 lots of grapes, you couldn't combine, which is annoying as who wants to eat 3 punnets of grapes in 3 days? Confused

Oh and their packing is rubbish nowadays

NotaMopsa · 13/03/2011 20:02

another vote for the bad packing Ocado.... do you see a pattern?

Cinderellaslippers · 14/03/2011 13:27

I think they've gone downhill since the relationship between them and Waitrose became frosty. It will be interesting to see how things pan out for Ocado now that Waitrose is en route to becoming a competitor...

On a slightly separate and random note, does anyone happen to know the email address for an Ocado employee? I need to get in touch with someone who works there (I have a name) but I don't know how they format their emails - i.e. [email protected]?

I'd be extremely grateful for any input!