Sainsbury's...my negative experience with home delivery

Mrs_Potato_Head_2

I just had a really bad experience with Sainsburys and thought others should know. I ordered their 'feed a family of four for 50' thinking brilliant, easy to order and I got £10 pounds off. However, not wanting to pay more, I opted for the 'no swap items' option. What a farce.

The delivery turned up with £15 pounds of items that they had run out of which meant I had to go into the store to get the rest of it (not liking the petrol spend PLUS home delivery fee) or it would have cost me a lot more than £50 pounds had I allowed them to swap items. Not only that but the lettuce supplied didn't last a day, it turned all sludgy and bleugh. And on top of it all, the reciept didn't add up, there was a mistake of £0.80, not alot I know, but times that by the number of shoppers who shop at Sainsburys and you are talking big money for no extra work.

londongal796

Just a heads up -- if you allow substitutions (the 'swaps') and they have no stock on an item you ordered, they will do their best to give you a similar item. They then price match the cost of the original item OR if the item they are substituting it with costs less, they will deduct the difference.

For instance (a made up example with pricing):

You ordered 250g of Sainsbury's Basics Broccoli for £.75

None is in stock, so they replace it with

300g of Sainsbury's Organic Broccoli at £1.50

They then deduct £.75 to price match the item you originally ordered.

In most cases, you end up with a better product for the same price. Only occasionally they will susbtitute it with something you didn't really want/need or something that is a lesser value (for instance, rather than 250g of Broccoli they will substitute it for 150g Broccoli and since it's a more expensive brand it costs 'less' than the equivalent 250g worth of it, so you actually get ripped off. Still--this is uncommon).

I am sorry that you felt the experience was less than stellar but if you use their substitutions feature you will find that the shopping experience goes better. I have been a long-time Tesco delivery customer and just recently switched to Sainsbury's delivery and I've been very happy with them. Both Sainsbury's and Tesco's are pretty good with their substitutions. Asda is the one to look out for!

SophieCat

londongal796 wrote: »

Just a heads up -- if you allow substitutions (the 'swaps') and they have no stock on an item you ordered, they will do their best to give you a similar item. They then price match the cost of the original item OR if the item they are substituting it with costs less, they will deduct the difference.

For instance (a made up example with pricing):

You ordered 250g of Sainsbury's Basics Broccoli for £.75

None is in stock, so they replace it with

300g of Sainsbury's Organic Broccoli at £1.50

They then deduct £.75 to price match the item you originally ordered.

In most cases, you end up with a better product for the same price. Only occasionally they will susbtitute it with something you didn't really want/need or something that is a lesser value (for instance, rather than 250g of Broccoli they will substitute it for 150g Broccoli and since it's a more expensive brand it costs 'less' than the equivalent 250g worth of it, so you actually get ripped off. Still--this is uncommon).

I am sorry that you felt the experience was less than stellar but if you use their substitutions feature you will find that the shopping experience goes better. I have been a long-time Tesco delivery customer and just recently switched to Sainsbury's delivery and I've been very happy with them. Both Sainsbury's and Tesco's are pretty good with their substitutions. Asda is the one to look out for!

Sainsbury's don't price match substitutions (Asda & Tesco do). If you order something for £1 & it is substituted for something that costs £2, you are charged £2

pogofish

I must say that I tried Sainsbury's delivery several times and every one of them was a complete banjax.

The last straw was having someone else's shopping delivered and having to get mine exchanged and retrieved from the other side of town.

Thing is, I can't say they were any better or worse than all the other major stores that deliver here. Only one local store has a good record there IME and last winter they were the only firm who continued to do their best in the bad weather - Which is kind of important, esp where pensioners were concerned.

Pink_elephants_n_lemonade

Today, I received £8's worth of food that expires today (including a whole chicken). 5 hours later & I'm still waiting for a 'promised' call back :mad: Customer services were very sh!tty when I called them this morning. Oh, & apparently all their managers are in a meeting :rotfl:

davidlizard

I have found Sainsburys to be the best of a mediocre bunch - we have tried them all and gone back to Sainsburys as we found them the most reliable.

They generally turn up when they say they will, and usually give us a call to let us know approx what time, we get sensible substitutions and rarely anything too date-limited. On the occasions we have complained we have they have sorted the problem straight away with no quibbling.

We have had someone elses shopping delivered :-) by mistake - we were refunded for our shopping and told to keep the stuff that had been delivered.

Probably something to do with how good the local shop is?

JodyBPM

I found Sainsbury's really bad, for exactly the reasons OP said.

Like them, I did the feed your family for £50 deal, and I did allow subs, but when my "£50" shopping arrived, it was over £70! So much stuff was out of stock (at least a quarter) and subs for things 3 or 4 times the price.

In store, I find Sainsbury's one of the best supermarkets, I think their products are better quality, if a touch more expensive. But their delivery service really lets them down, its not even up to the standard of the likes of Tesco and Asda.