ASDA delivers out of date mouldy food - bleurgh!

LyndsM

Hello all

Well, we decided to give the ASDA home delivery service a whirl, as we had a money off coupon for it.
We chose 'no substitutes' (after hearing some horror/amusing stories) so ended up without some of the more complex items, like cheese, beer etc. Ho hum, no surprises there (us, cynical, never!).

Anyway, we checked the items thoroughly later on - I didn't have time to unpack every item while the delivery woman was still there - and discovered that the box of 6 eggs only contained 5 and two of those were cracked, but worst: the bread was mouldy and it's 'best before' date was the day before the delivery! Yuk!
We have found out since that it's NOT illegal to sell stuff beyond a 'best before' date as that is a guideline (it would be if it was a 'sell by' date), but even so, they should either tell you that they only have out of date goods available, so you can have the choice of whether or not to accept it, or not sell it at all!
We emailed ASDA but they didn't reply so we phoned them too - they refunded us the price of the eggs and bread automatically so that's all fine (aside from us not having much in the way of dinner that evening).

It's not a refund that bothers me about this, as that's what we would expect and demand from them, but it's more the whole lack of interest from them: not replying to emails, sending out missing/damaged/out of date goods in the first place.
And then the whole tiresome rigmarole of having to chase them and faff about. It seems to be the way with everything these days, we've come to expect rubbish service or shoddy goods and we all just take it as a given that so long as the price is refunded then all the time and effort that goes into chasing the problems up is just something to be expected.

Anyway, this is less of a vent (I don't have the energy) and more of a un-recommendation - they obviously don't give a monkey's about their customers! I shan't be bothering with them anymore, I'll spend my hard-earned somewhere else! (Like they care!!?!)
I know it's not anything to do with the driver, she seemed really nice, but even so, I do wish I'd stood there and checked each individual item (several bags worth) and unpacked everything when it was delivered and saved us the bother of going round in circles getting it sorted out later on.

What happened to businesses having some PRIDE in the quality of their service/goods and not just how much dosh/market share they can grab?!

Now where's the smilie that shows "bored with wasting my life in a futile attempt to get the goods I've paid for, in decent condition, first time"!!!??

:rolleyes:

Lynds

looby75

It really must depend on where you are because our asda home delivery service is spot on! Everything I get has good long dates on and the substitutions are usually spot on too, I've only ever had to send one item back.

I agree with you about the email bit though, they never reply

buses7675

Hi All,

We've had deliveries a few times from ASDA Huyton (who supply our bit of Liverpool) and deliveries are brilliant.

One time they incorrectly brought Diet Pepsi instead of Pepsi (but came back about an hour later with the correct one after I told the driver), another two of of a box of six eggs were broken. They came back too with a replacement box and let us keep the good four from the original without charge!

Customter service is often about how they deal with mistakes (as mistakes do happen), so for ASDA Huyton delivery, I'm very impressed!

Cheers

Steve

hardpressed

Get in touch with Trading Standards or the Public Health Inspector at yourdistrict or town council, they'll be interested in Asda selling mouldy bread and short measures.

carol9uk

i have had three deliveries from asda, two of them had problems, missing items etc.
my work has asda delivered and they delivered too much stuff today, the manager rung them up and asda was not bothered, so came home with some goodies today for free, notlhing nice through. (chocalte, cakes)

jinkssick

Done it once and never again. I like the experience of making the money and actually going out to spend it on products i hold in my hand. And I do shop online but something as fundamental as food!

The subtitutes was never chosen but regardless, we were given them, no milk (a necessity at this home, no bread) some smoothies we liked, were properly chosen by flavour (5 diff ones). All came in the same flavour.

I wouldnt mind this imcompetance if it was free, but I am actually paying for this privilige.

asdaprice

That is shocking - but I am not surprised!

I gave up on home delivery as it doesn't compare with selecting it off the shelf yourself to get the longest dates - a month's shopping is no good to me if it is all dated for the day after

We did bring home 2 packs of gluten free rolls last week only to find they were 3 weeks past their date (found out after we'd eaten some!) and another store had gluten free rolls (different type) on the shelves with large mould spots

I didnt bother reporting it as last time I had a problem with a store which I wont name here (open packs of peanuts on the shelves spilling out nothing but...mice droppings...I got in touch with the authorities who said they visited the store 10 days later (yes seriously!) and saw no sign of rodent infestation

My response was that a quick check of the CCTV footage would reveal all the shocked customers backing away in horror at the sight on the shelves on the day I visited

Whats the point!

LyndsM

Cheers all
Yeah, we only shopped online because of the discount code - not worth it in the end!
I just find it really depressing that a lot of us - I've talked to lots of people about this, it must be my 'bug bear'! - now expect either bad service or rubbish goods but mainly just the 'who cares' attitude. It's not just the superstores though, it's everywhere!
We get really over excited now if we get good service, or someone treats us well and has a friendly chat with us etc.
And if someone actually goes out of their way (even just the tiniest bit) to help you out these days it's talked about for weeks!
I just think it's really sad.
I've worked in a lot of industries, and I've noticed a real change over the last 15 years or so, the last 5 especially. I hate moaning and complaining and getting aggro about things as it brings everyone down, but I don't see how we can all get ourselves out of the rut (collectively) and start making things better. It's just a shame.

Anyway - in the sprit of the above: Thanks everyone! For letting me have a little moan! Much apprieciated and I am going to go and spend my day being helpful to people!!! (whether they like it or not!)

Lynds

PS. It's just occured to me that it might seem like I'm dissatisifed with having got a refund! I'm not, I'm very glad! But it was the 'yeah, happens all the time, here's your refund' attitude (of the store, not the member of staff) that made my heart sink. I just got the impression that there could be a million instances like this every week, but the company was never going to look at it overall and say "blimey, this happens a lot, let's do something about it".
I guess it's just easier for them not to, and they have a massive share of the market now so why would they need to bother?

Fifer

We've been using Asda home delivery service for months and the service has been great until recently. Unfortunately the service which used to be provided from our next nearest store (Dunfermline) has transferred to our nearest store (Kirkcaldy) and we've had problems with every delivery since. Problem items do get refunded by the 'help'-line (never an apology though) but I do feel that the delivery charge should be refunded too as there's little point in paying for delivery, then having to drive to the store to purchase the items that they managed to screw up. We're hoping the Kirkcaldy store is suffering teething problems and that it will get better. We'll see ...

RAMBLER

Saying that though any company can have a bad experience. I may try again depending on how I felt, but mouldy food and the apparant lack of help would irritate me as well.

Good luck with what ever you do

F.T.B_2

I make no secret when I pop on that I am a Tesco Dot Com manager and should be glad that Asda seem to have made a huge mistake here, however I cannot see them being so stupid as to send out mouldy food, especially bread which is a "danger" product and dates should be checked on each and every pick.

I wouldnt let it put you off home shopping though.