Ocado diverted their calls to my home!

Atomik1

Hi,

Not sure if anyone else has had this experience, but this morning at 8am my home phone starting ringing off the hook, I was upstairs and could just hear it ring, ring off , then ring again and again! Obviously I was very concerned as my house-mate had just left for work taking my daughter to school in the snow and ice, so I rang downstairs to get to it, but it rang off again. Then after a few seconds it was ringing once more, I saw on Caller Display that it was Ocado's number as they had called me last night regarding a complaint I had with my last delivery, so I picked it up... only to have some very unhappy individual ranting at me about being overcharged £9.99! Once I got a word in edgeways I asked her who she was trying to ring and she said Ocado. I thought it must be just her mistake, but then when I walked away it rang again and again. I picked it up to be greeted by yet another Ocado customer who was adamant she had rung the correct number.

So, I rang Ocado only to be told that the girl who spoke to us last night had mistakenly diverted calls to my home phone !! I was naturally furious and he simply offered £20 in compensation - no actual apology. I have also sent an email complaint and await their response.

Is this a common complaint? I am aghast at how such a large company can make such a mistake. I was firstly worried sick and then very frustrated by having to deal with disgruntled Ocado customers... and he didn't even apologise!! :mad:

Clark80

Doesn't sound common at all. Mistakes do happen though but no excuse for not apologising...

hollydays

Why would you be furious/worried sick!!?

post edited-mis read.

Atomik1

hollydays,

The reason I was worried was due to the early calls and that my house mate had just left in the car to take my daughter to school in the bad weather, so I was worried they were trying to get hold of me and then ringing off before I could get to the phone! The frustration was then having to deal with narked Ocado customers who were accusing me of overcharging them and some who could simply not believe they were not actually speaking to Ocado as they were insistent they had rung the correct number. The phone was ringing off the hook, I would call that frustrating.

An actual 'sorry' from the guy would have been nice

hollydays

fair enough,my mistake for not reading that fully.

hippyadam

For a while my home number was listed on BAE's website as human resources

I emailed BAE repeatedly to no avail and eventually had to call them to sort it out...

I must have rung back a dozen people to tell them i couldn't authorise holidays!

The_Mighty_Gusset

BT allocated me a defunct Adams Childrenswear phone number and I used to get phonecalls from stores asking where 'Eddie' and their deliveries had got to.
The first few times I was very polite and simply asked that they update their phone books.
After 6 months I started to get narked, so phoned Adams' head office and asked that they send a memo out to their stores asking that they please stop phoning what was now a private residential address.
I got a VERY snotty woman who first insisted that it was BT's problem, not theirs.
Then asked why I couldn't just carry on telling callers that they'd got the wrong number ?
When I pointed out that after 6 months of taking 3 or 4 calls a day I was getting fed up with it, and that these callers were Adams employees, calling what they thought was an Adams number, as it was listed on their invoices, and presumably they had good reason for wanting to contact the company, she offered to give me the correct number so that in future I could pass it on to any callers !
At that point I hung up.
From that point I left a series of risque messages on my answerphone, specifically for the (predominantly female) Adams Childrenswear staff who continued to call asking for 'Eddie'.
I got some very interesting replies - some of those ladies were very 'Mucky' !
After about a year I had a phonecall from Adams' head office, asking me why I was making suggestive comments to their staff and asking me to desist or face prosecution.
I pointed out that
1. Their staff were calling me.
2. The risque part of the message was preceeded by a message telling them they'd called the wrong number.
3. I'd informed Head Office that I was receiving these calls, and been given the 'bums rush'
4. I was more than happy for them to try and prosecute me and that I'd counter-sue.
I stopped getting calls not long after that.
The final few calls were from shop staff thanking me for giving them a laugh - some of them had been phoning for months after they'd discovered the error, just to see what new messages I'd left for them !

I realise this doesn't really help - I just thought you might like a laugh.
I'd take the £20 in the first instance, but I'd still pursue a written complaint, you might get a bit more.
At the end of the day though it was just a simple, if unfortunate, error.
I hope the girl who made the mistake keeps her job.

spike7451

My dad was constantly getting phonecalls for a local supplier of garden sheds as the was one different digit between their number & dads.

trumpton

You don't think she maliciously redirected calls do you, rather than it being done by accident? It just seems a bit weird that you called to complain and then start getting phone calls.

SandC

I would find all the details you can and write to MD or CEO at head office address (you will never get put through to anyone senior enough on the phone). For one thing, someone in customer services should never be able to mistakenly redirect calls to a member of the public's home number and you are quite right to be furious that you have had to put up all the ranting phone calls that are nothing to do with you. This is far more serious than BT giving you a number that used to be for a business!

I would write, demand a proper explanation, apology and something more than a £20 goodwill voucher.

Here's the name of the CEO - he will doubtless hand it over to someone who works for him but if you don't go to the top then they will never know that this happened and they do need to know - in my opinion.

http://www.ocado.com/webshop/content/corporate/team

dinglebert

I had to phone BMI end of last week, a long story some of the worst customer service I have ever not received but given they are based in India I ended up feeling I must be racist given the levels of hostility I felt toward them. Anyway in an effort to progress my attempt to actually purchase a flight I was given the number for customer relations which was an 020 number. However it went straight to some poor woman who did know the correct number but had been plagued by phonecalls for weeks.