Ocado

[SoupDragon]

I had my first delivery yesterday. I have no complaints but I wouldn't call their service stunning or anything - it's what I would expect from online shopping.

Anyway, tucked into my shopping ws my "free gift from Ocado". Can anyone tell me why they thought someone who had ordered 4 pints of milk, 4 packets of butter and 2 wedges of cheese might be interested in a 250ml carton of Alpro soya milk?

To keep your cholesterol levels down?

My free gift was a little trio of posh jam - very happy with that and thought they'd clocked my sweet tooth! Obviously just random good luck. Alpro's not bad though.

I've had crap free gifts too, all in the bin. There's things I like about Ocado - good prices, easy website, good range of products - and things I don't - shopping dumped on the floor in carrier bags (just like I've been myself), have to wait at least a day for delivery.

It must be where you live which dictates the level of service. I've had nothing but charming delivery men, willing to take my shopping to wherever I direct - including my kitchen at the back of the house. I don't normally ask them to do this as it means negotiating the dog who thinks that everything is for him and you can't get past him without a fight . Free gifts have been OK, very few substitutions (and substitutes' cost deducted from bill ), nearly always get a delivery suitable to me, etc.

Oh yeah, they'll bring it as far at the kitchen to dump the bags, also at the back of the house
I used to use Food Ferry which was wonderful, woudl put everything away, take stacks of drinks down to the cellar etc and same day delivery if ordered before 10.15am, very personla service, e.g. would phone if something not available BUT got expensive

I think they are great. Much better than Tesco.

Errr, Davros, do you expect them to put the shopping away for you or something?! Not sure what you mean by that!

Our Ocado people are unfailingly charming and punctual - they always make a big fuss off dd and seem to magic up some treats for the dog. I think it's a fantastic service.

I'm with CD. They're always sunny-natured and I once got rung warning me that they were out of follow-on milk so I had time to nip out and get some that afternoon (evening delivery).
I wouldn't want even the Ocadistes ferretting around in my cupboards...
Davros, you should try Sainsbury's "Sod You". They throw shopping at people...

If anyone tried to put anything in any of my cupboards they would probably die under the deluge of tins etc that topple out everytime you open the doors! You have to know it's coming and still have a very quick reaction or you're doomed. (stupid new build house with no storage space...)

Well, I mean my other people would unpack the stuff from their own crates and stack it all nicely, take heavy stuff down to the cellar, put stuff to go upstairs at the bottom of the stairs, make sure I'd got the cold stuff into the fridge/freezer etc. Ocado delivery men are nice but its just a clutter of carrier bags, even though they're colour coded.

And that's probably why it became too expensive. I'm sure that, if you were prepared to pay more, most of the other online supermarkets would get their delivery people to that bit further with the service.