Big praise with little vent for Ocado this year.

Spark

I was going to have a Christmas delivery on the 21st from Ocado, no delivery happened obviously because of the snow. Called that evening and organise a redelivery for the 28th. They gave me back my delivery fee + another of their call centre person reinbourse me £10 on top of that. So at the end I had £20 back from my original order. + they did try to contact me the day after for a possible delivery before Christmas, but that didn't work as I cannot answer the phone while I'm working, so I tried to call them in the evening but it was closed.
No worries, my food will arrive on the 28th. My only concern was that whether I would have all of the items listed, as some of the stuff are only available for the Christmas period. The Ocado man reassured me that everything on my list was available to order.
So far so good, just changed my plans for Christmas, not too bothered at this point, and quite happy with how the Ocado staff have handled the crisis (compared to the last snowy time where Tesco where absolutely diabolical in dealing with the same kind of problems).
Today, got my shopping 1 hour earlier than the chosen slot, happy in the knowledge that I was told all my stuff would be there (meaning I didn't bother checking for substitutions, as usually Ocado don't often need to subtitute).
Well, I had a free bottle of wine added to my shopping as an apology for the problems, but this time I had 5 substitutes (mainly the festive stuff) .Two of the substitutes I will not eat, that would have easily been solved if I could have chosen whether I want a substitute or not for my items on the website when I am placing my order, as then I wouldn't have had the 2 things I won't eat. This is an option that every other online groceries shops are offering, but not Ocado.
Saying that, 2 hours after the delivery, an Ocado man called me to apologise for the number of substitutions I had this time, blaming the weather (again?) which would have created supplies problems.
Really, they have tried to do everything to solve the problem, you can't fault them, except for the fact that you cannot chose for substitutions or not (my only real gripe).
How could I ever go and shop somewhere else, in the knowledge that, when things go wrong, Ocado goes to that length to solve the problem?
Even though it wasn't 100% perfect, it was near enough....:T

Another thing, I always thought Ocado was the Waitrose online grocery shop, but I have discovered that Waitrose has its own online groceries website, called Waitrose deliver. Does that mean that eventually Ocado will be phased out or will be taken over by somebody else and will stop selling waitrose products?

mikeyboy

I must say I am very impressed with Ocado. I have been using them for the last year, without no real problems.

I must admit, their prices are a little more expensive but they do sometimes do special voucher codes for say 15% off certain delivery slots etc etc.

I did a large Chrismas shop with them, for delivery on Christmas Eve. When the order arrived there was an item missing and a subsitution as well, the driver was very apologetic. it wasn't so much of a big deal for me.

About 40 minutes after the drive had left, another van pulled up outside and a lovely chap passed me a bag and explained he is going round as many customers as possible with replacement goods collected from Waitrose stores locally. Not only did they provide me with the two items needed, but he said they were FOC and seasons greetings :-)

So, I am a very happy and loyal client of Ocado. :-)
It's nice when companies go out of the way!