Is anyone else annoyed with Ocado ditching Waitrose?

[lockdowndreamer]

Ocado what are you up to?? Ditching Waitrose for M&S? Is this really happening? Not a fan of M&S at all in the food department, always feel like they are trying too hard. Their food looks and taste like plastic and wrapped in a lot more plastic.

I will be setting up my account with Waitrose online right away. Such a hassle though moving as I have it all sorted on the Ocado website for speed shopping, with all my favs, shopping lists etc. and the Ocado service is amazing!

Hey Ocado, if you are reading this, can you set up a cloud service for us migrating customers so we can do a backup of all our favourites before moving to Waitrose? You know, like when moving from Android to iPhone..

Is anyone else annoyed at the situation?

I don’t pay much attention do just looked at my receipt. About half Waitrose essential and other half Ocado for fruit and vegetables. So I assume all with her Ocado. Also do a veg box now.

I don’t buy ready meals or M&S type desserts, and find their food plastic and processed.

It’s a shame but as I prefer the Ocado app I’ll probably still find a way to use it.

Thisis when a big sign went up in Liverpool outside the Labour Party conference in 2018 with the dictionary definition "women = adult human female", Ocado's twitter feed tweeted that they approved of the decision to have it removed as hate speech. A load of people got upset, some people boycotted, Ocado ended up deleting their tweets, I got an email apology saying they shouldn't have got involved. They probably had some wokey blokey social media bod working the twitter feed that day who got a bit carried away and forgot they were posting statements on behalf of a FTSE 100 company.

Ah...

Ocado, after a tortuous couple of weeks at the start, have been pretty straightforward for getting a weekly slot (I’m shielding)

I don’t shop at M&S and do like Waitrose.

I had been expecting to leave Ocado in Sept, but now expect I shall use Waitrose in addition to them, rather than instead of.

Because if one gets buggered up, I think it could be useful to be an existing customer of another as well. And during university holidays, the amount DC eat would probably cover another delivery!

I don't know about me ditching Ocado, they have ditched me by not having delivery slots or allowing me on the website.

I am absolutely thrilled as totally prefer M&S food to Waitrose.

But Ocado are 2 1/2 strike outs with me - 1. Presidents Dinner 2. Adult Woman bill board advertising and 2.5 the fiasco over online delivery and slots. I've needed to keep my account with them as they would deliver to my mum (over 70 and totally shielding) but cannot bear much more crap from them. (But love their drivers and C/S teams - lovely. How JL USED to be).

Nat6999 are they still not accepting any new customers? It's been so seamless for me the last couple of months that these kinds of things are invisible to me. Every so often I do log on at a "peak" time when I remember something I need and try to edit my basket and get a holding page but even that is increasingly rare. I generally do my shopping early on a Sunday morning though.

It seems quite random who had trouble getting Ocado slots at the beginning of lockdown (and going forward). We have a mid week pass and didn't do massive orders, but had no problem getting slots, but I've read on various threads on here stories of people with any-time passes who spend hundreds per week not being able to get a slot. We used to also get deliveries from Waitrose once every 6 weeks or so, but I haven't been able to get a slot since March, and their website is awful, so I think we will stick with Ocado and take our chances with the M&S products :)

Ocado is fine now, I think. I’m booking weekly deliveries without any problem.

Xioaxong I'm not a new customer, have an Ocado order in most normal times once a month, but haven't been able to get a slot at all during the crisis or get on the website despite being disabled.

JL signed the deal for 10 years only, back in 2010. So here we are!

You used to get JL partnership points for shopping at Ocado, before they went public, does anyone else remember?

I'm going to wait and see what M&S have to offer before I decide to jump ship.

@Xiaoxiong re getting deliveries slots. I threatened to leave them in Feb. Wonder if that's why I also have been able to get slots?

@Xiaoxiong - re Charlie Bigham - you are correct. According to Charlie Bighams website, they have an independent relationship with Ocado. (@WoahBodyforrrm @Thisbastardcomputer )

www.bighams.com/where-to-buy/

The only thing is, there's a bigger range when I go into a Waitrose. I like the make it yourself thai curry for example. Ocado just started stocking it. No idea how long for though, because as of late, they just suddenly stop stocking with no mention if it will ever come back.

@InescapableDeath - I saw Ocado chicken in a bag a few weeks ago. Some of their chicken smells bad though so I'm not sure if it's just better to wait and see if M&S will do the same.

@WoahBodyforrrm and @Northernsoullover - Ocado's website has a feature that tells you the shelf life so hopefully this will continue for the M&S products. Hopefully

@MyBeloved - yes you can still get Ocado own brand. Allegedly M&S are currently (or already have) creating new lines that will fill all of Waitrose gaps.

@Keepyourginup - would love to hear more of your thoughts and any tips of things you think we need to look out for!

@INeedNewShoes - I also have been having a go at the Ocado branded stuff. Thanks for the reminder re: fish fingers! Had a bad experience with Ocado branded chicken smelling bad though recently so now may consider waiting to see what the M&S offering will be like!

@MrsMcTats "The reason I stopped online shopping with Waitrose was because of a very high number of missing products or substitutions." - I almost forgot about that. I switched from Waitrose to Ocado about 3 or 4 years ago. I was given a voucher for a year of free delivery. The subs and missing were so much better than Waitrose. I seem to recall they used to give some funny replacement items.

@Aragog "Their recent email suggests it will affect a very small number if items. All their own brand and other brands will still be around." Yes I saw that. My first thought was, hmmmm, but I wonder how much of their sales were made up of waitrose branded stuff.

@Lovelydovey - Re cost implications I had a closer look at the Ocado rebate voucher scheme in Feb and it included a rebate on some Waitrose lines so I am hoping that some of the M&S new lines will also be included to keep the prices low. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

@WalterandWinifred "I thought that they were trying to match all the Waitrose products so that everything has a close equivalent, either from M&S or Ocado? It wouldn't make good business sense for them to just drop popular items so I assume there won't be many things that don't have a direct equivalent". I wrote to Ocado when I received the email this morning to clarify when we can have a peak at the new M&S lines so I can start planning accordingly.

I will watch with interest which products Ocado and M and S will develop to substitute with Waitrose. I cannot concieve of a full (or even half) a weekly shop from M and S as it is now.

But I alternate deliveries from Waitrose and Ocado now because Ocado were atrocious at the beginning of lockdown. They got their act together for me as a loyal customer and then when they realised I was on the vulnerable list they REDUCED my access , clearly their system couldn't cope with someone who was already a highspend long time user being also one of those lowly vulnerable sort that they were forced to serve. At least that's what I get from their actions. I am still more limited for slots than my non_vulnerable friend.

I’m really looking forward to the M&S collaboration. And you can’t persuade me that all the “own brand” items aren’t made in the same factory anyway 😁

@VanCleefArpels

I’m really looking forward to the M&S collaboration. And you can’t persuade me that all the “own brand” items aren’t made in the same factory anyway 😁

Of course they are. You literally pay for the packaging.

I’ve used Tesco delivery since it started over 20 years ago. I’ve been a consistent and loyal customer paying yearly or monthly in advance for deliveries since that option was introduced. The service since lockdown started has been appalling. I had several deliveries I had already booked cancelled at 3 hours notice. The pay upfront option was suspended and I have only been able to book 2 deliveries in the 3 months since then.

Waitrose has been much better locally. I can normally get a slot if I book a week or so in advance and I’ve discovered I much prefer a lot
of their products.

When things go back to normal I will probably use Tesco or Morrison’s for the occasional delivery of toiletries and cleaning products that seem to be better value there but my big shop will stay at Waitrose.

I've been shopping at Ocado for a very long time, and I'm really not looking forward to the change. Ocado have been good to us over lockdown, but I'm fully aware having following MN and Twitter that it is down to spend, not anything else.

I downloaded a list to see how many Waitrose items are in my favourites, over 350 with 150 ordered in the last 6 months. I am not sure how many M&S items are going to fully match the Waitrose products, but when I have shopped at M&S, the store products have been more expensive. ie. Grapes - which I think from memory are about 50p or more expensive. Which is fine for a small shop, but would definitely start to add up very quickly for a weekly shop.

Ocado already seem to be dropping some of the Waitrose products, either due to the lockdown situation or because of the changeover. Some of the alternatives (like Natoora) are good, but I'm not a great fan of Ocado own brand for fruit and vegetables.

I will wait and see, especially in the current climate as our family can't do physical shopping, but I am really disappointed to see Waitrose go.

Cannot look at Ocado without joining and no new customers can join so don't know what they sell. Mainly try to buy organic. Does anyone know a food delivering site which does mostly organic? ( Not a farm box) Waitrose is the main shop for that normally.

I’m so happy to have found this thread! It makes a nice change from the overwhelming amount of threads on here, news and other social media platforms about BLM and Covid-19, which have left me feeling very drained and emotional.

Thank you for a little bit of MN normality.

I love both shops and happy to order from Ocado with M&S. I’m also hopefully this may mean that my Christmas order that I usually get from M&S can now be delivered rather than collected.

*this isn’t a sarcastic post, just lovely for light relief.

I love Waitrose but it is impossible to get a delivery slot right now and I am nowhere near an actual shop. Ocado are also great and I can now get regular delivery slots so I will stay will them, going forward.

M@s food is so much better

We don’t have a Waitrose within an hours drive of us so Ocado was the only way to shop at Waitrose without travelling too far.
Not happy

Atun I have replaced the fruit & veg that was in my Ocado order almost entirely with a weekly Riverford fruit & veg box plus salad bag - worth a try?

I've already switched to Waitrose as they sell frozen herbs which I can't find everywhere. (Dill) And their line and basil washing up liquid is really good.
What's this butter that I've read about that people get from Waitrose?

I'm an internet dunderhead but I don't find the Waitrose site any more difficult than Ocado.