Tesco Prescot Grocery - Do they ever deliver?

mikemoate

My first experience of Tesco’s grocery delivery service has been much less than satisfactory with both my first and then second orders cancelled within 48 hours!

Busy at home at the moment, decorating and laying new carpet pre-Christmas, so I thought I’d give Tesco home delivery a whirl. Placed my first order for delivery on Sunday between 2 and 4 pm, thinking this would give me time to go and pick my daughter up from work at 5 pm. She’d done some shopping for me in her lunch hour and because it was on the bulky side couldn’t be managed on the bus.

4.30 goes by with no delivery and I have to ring my daughter and tell her to get a taxi home, there is nowhere at her work she can safely store personal belongings. Sods law at 4.50 pm I get a call from one of the most unhelpful people I have ever spoken to telling me he was from the Tesco call centre. The store had been in touch to say that they had to cancel 3 orders today and mine was one of them. Wouldn’t or couldn’t give an explanation for the cancellation, and when I said I had just had to arrange a taxi for my daughter and would be seeking compensation was met with a laugh and the retort that Tesco ‘don’t offer compensation.’ I asked then what I could do and he said that I could book another delivery for another day or cancel; of course I chose the latter as some ‘offers’ may have expired.

A little later and having now paid daughters £15 taxi fare, I’m thinking how unsatisfactory all this is and decide to call Tesco customer services. Affable young lady, who is sympathetic, offers a £10 evoucher and promises to get the store to call me Monday evening and explain the reasons for the cancellation. Now review my shopping list, take out the expired offers, insert a few new ones and place a new order, utilising my evoucher, for delivery on Tuesday evening.

Monday evening 8.30 pm no telephone call, and I see from my online card account that Tesco have actually charged me for the none delivered order. Contact customer services who say they will refund the card in 4/5 working days, will contact the store and get them to call me. No phone call.

Tuesday afternoon, just miss a call at 3.50 pm as I’m coming through the door, but ‘phone goes again a minute later. Tesco are cancelling my order yet again saying the delivery van has broken down. Do they only have the 1 van? I suggest that they give me the number of the store so that I can express my displeasure directly to the people responsible. Once again offered evoucher. Given the store number, which is an 0845 number, ring but I’m told I need to speak to the dot com manger and they can’t put me through, but do give me the direct line which is a local number and has not been answered at all in the last hour.

Now have 2 evouchers, can I use them on the 1 order and hope that it really will be a case of 3rd time lucky?

mikemoate

Just to update on this.

Don't count on getting your deliveries from Tesco.

I've just spoken to the dot com manager of my local store, Prescot, Merseyside. She told me that lots of orders are being cancelled every day, and that in fact although the web site is still displaying available slots for Thursday and Friday of this week she knows she has no real slots until 27th December.

She says that basically she hasn't the staff or vehicles to cope, that the computers in store used to pick and price orders are crashing by the minute and she has been pleading with her bosses to get this sorted for weeks.

Lots of people are going to be disappointed, so make sure that you are not totally dependent on Tesco delivery.

She sounded really under pressure and explained she was having dozens of these conversations every day, after initially wanting to express my ire, I ended up feeling really very sorry for her and offering sympathy.