Tesco items "out of stock"

[poshfrock]

I do a weekly online shop with Tesco. I usually buy a lot of their value range but I have started to notice more and more that the cheaper items that I order regularly are out of stock, not once or twice but for several weeks at a time.

So for example this week from my favourites list they didn't have:
Savoury rice
Chopped tinned tomatoes
Kidney beans
Multipack of crisps
Mango pulp
Sweet potatoes ( loose or packaged)
Counter garlic sausage
Counter liver sausage
Dishwasher tablets

With the exception of the mango pulp every item was available in the store when I went to collect my shopping. Some of the items like the counter meats haven't been available for 3 months or more although they are in store and I can order other counter meat items like v. expensive roast turkey.
The cynic in me says this is a deliberate ploy to get me to order a more expensive version of my favourite items - it doesn't work because I just make a note of the unavailable items and pop into the shop and buy them when I collect my groceries ( I do click and collect rather than home delivery). But I guess there are lots of people who will buy the more expensive items for convenience.
Has anyone else noticed this or is it just me ?

Its not just you, this happened to me several times. In the end I gave up online shopping.

The final incident with me was a beef joint that was priced at £6 per kg and I chose my maximum weight to not exceed 2kgs (around £12.00 in price) yet they delivered a joint that was priced at £27.00 despite my added notes to say they were not to send anything above my maximum cost/weight chosen. My weekly shop usually cost only around £60.00 so this was a rather expensive addition.

I have had exactly the same, really struggling to get hold of cheaper items e.g. nappies, Daisy dishwasher tablets. I'm considering stopping my delivery saver. Complained to customer services who were really non-commital. Glad it isn't just me.

But don't they still do the substitution. With price match thing?

I decided to try Tesco this week (instead of my usual Sainsburys online order) because I had some clubcard points I could use to pay for nappies. Never again, the nappies I'd ordered didn't come, or the wipes. No sensible substitutions either (i.e. same brand and size, different sized box). Several other items didn't arrive. So got to head out to the shops (two small children in tow) to buy emergency nappy supplies. Sainburys isn't perfect but a lot better than Tesco...

No you don't get substitutions, they are showing as out of stock on my favourites list so you cannot actually order them. That is the key issue - the cheaper things are not able to be ordered and the substitutions are more expensive. For me it is happening with cheaper items - own brand pull ups (only giving the Huggies option), Daisy dishwasher tablets (only giving brands), Everyday Value fromage frais (offering Petit Filous) etc.

It is very frustrating.

Is this the 'not available to pre-order' type message? I've been getting more and more of those. I won't upgrade, I have an Asda nearby so I pop in there instead.

It must be specific to certain stores as I am amazed at how often I have no substitutions or anything missing. They've always been sensible when I have had substitutions too. I've also never had anything be "out of stock" or "not available to pre-order" on the website. Have you tried phoning the online support line?

The counter items I could see being unavailable. I used to work in retail and stock management was much harder on the deli counter as everything has quite short dates.

But I buy the value chopped tomatoes every week on my online shop no problem. Also sweet potatoes, kidney beans etc. Clearly it's bollocks and they are "in stock". Being kind to Tesco I'd say error rather than malicious intent though.

I noticed this increasingly when I shopped with Tesco. Couldn't order a Value part baked baguette for months, but the tiny Tesco express round the corner had them. I think the best one was when I ordered BOGOF potatoes and they didn't have them and didn't substitute. Apparently one of the largest stores in the country didn't have a single spud in the whole shop. Yeah, right.
I'd be interested to know if anyone has done a study on these practices.

Send them an email they're good at vouchers/free delivery if nothing else!

Could they have changed the id, renamed or rebranded the product and retired the one on your favourites list? Trying searching for the product instead.

This really winds me up, asda are the same.When they do get more stock, it's almost guaranteed to have gone up in price, smartpruce tuna for eg.jumped from 49p to 95p a tin.

With Tesco i noticed that if I browsed first and then put my postcode in and tried to add to my basket, the choice of items went down - assume it relates to the store they pick your groceries at?

My nearest large Tesco is around 10 miles away as is Asda but I found that Asda had more choice so have been online shopping with them in recent weeks.

I see that this thread is 9 years old. But, last night when I logged in to top up my weekly shop, there were more items on my 'favourites' list that were 'out-of-stock' than I could buy. And these were simple things like fruit. veg, milk. Now, 9 hours later, when I look again ( too late to order now for today's delivery ) many are suddenly available again. What is going on ? I am 79-y-o, and have been registered disabled for 35 years. I haven't had a car for 4 years and have been a 'priority customer' since covid. Is anyone else having a problem ?

I find a lot depends on the time of day you order. I did my Click & Collect order last night and there was no 400g wholemeal bread at all, and very little bread of any kind. I tried again this morning & the bread I usually buy was there- presumably they'd had a delivery in the meantime.

@pra456 a lot of supermarkets had to throw away fresh food after their fridges and freezers failed on Tuesday. Both of the big supermarkets in our city were affected, this week. Chances are, yours got fresh stock in, overnight.

Many of my friends have said the sage thing. I can't understand the logic. How does it help them? You then have to go to the trouble of going shopping to buy said things. Defeats the object. They are no better off. You are worse off.

Tesco used to be excellent. I think more and more online deliveries are not coming from actual stores so I've heard.
I think it's called a dark store or similar, it's basically a store that customers don't go in.
Sainsburys have done this recently and it's driving DM up the wall.

2013 thread

@pra456 Ring them & explain your situation. My local Tesco made an extra delivery to me in a similar situation. They were in the area anyway, so just added it to the drivers run free of charge & no smaller order charge either. . Very nice of them.

I book as many deliveries in advance as I can, for the same day & time every week & fill the basket with things I get every week and then the day before I go in & add/remove any items, making sure it's over £40 (no pick & pack charge then). That way I'm 'near the front of the queue to get those items, if they're running short (quite often it says number of this item cannot be increased). As it's picked from the shelves I don't know how it works, as surely someone could go in store and buy the last of them anyway, but it seems to. I no longer have 'substitutes' ticked as I live alone & have a restricted diet, so I'd rather do without than have a random item. I rarely don't get an item.

Do give them a call & best of luck!

if no luck I hope you can get someone to pick a few bits up for you! 💐

I did ring them, but got no help. I pressed the guy on when did they want us to order, if it us not up to 23:46. He was evasive, hiding behind 'overnight deliveries', but eventually said that I might be better topping up my order the day before. I will add my missing items to my daughter' Morrisons' order. Fingers crossed.
I'm only me, so my average is well below £40. So I save up some items to bunch together every few weeks.

I know this thread is 9 years old…

But lots of the Tesco deliveries pick the stock from a warehouse rather than the store, which is why your item might be out of stock but if you went to the nearest store they’d have it there

Similar experience with trying to do click and collect/delivery for Asda yesterday, only that there was absolutely NOTHING in stock online in terms of chilled meats, yoghurt, cheese, salad components, pre-prepped pasta salad, picky bits, basically anything fresh.

Abandoned my online basket in the end and went to Asda last night and the shelves were full with absolutely everything I needed/wanted. I assume in this case it was something to do with the timing of their delivery and a people stocking up due to the heatwave.

Another annoying thing happened locally on Monday and Tuesday where all of Tesco’s refrigeration failed due to overheating, when the fridges went off, instead of giving the produce to customers already in store who could feasibly whip it straight home and into their own fridges, it was all just thrown into great big boxes and thrown away. So wasteful and unnecessary.

@ZealAndArdour the reason it all had to be binned was due to the chillers being open fronted - there was no guarantee how long the food hadn't been at the correct temperature for, warm and cooled and warmed up again yogurts and cheeses wouldn't be good for anyone

When my ( much reduced ) delivery arrived today, the van driver said that he had heard that it was the chiller cabinets that had failed in the heatwave. At no point did Tesco say anything about this on their website, nor in a text message, nor on the telephone this morning. And no offer of an extra delivery. I am a 'priority customer', and I was left in the lurch. I am writing to them to ask what I and/or they can do.