Be careful - Sainsbury's substitution policy

PhoenixPoint

Hi,
I've used Sainsbury's online for several years now, with my first shop being over 10 years ago.

As with other providers they substitute items, but also reimburse you the difference compared to the original price.

So, if you order a 5 litre bottle of X brand water, they might send you a 5 litre bottle of the more expensive Y brand water instead, but refund you the difference.

I've never paid much attention to this until now.

I ordered 5 boxes of 18 fish fingers (@ £2 each), but they instead sent me 2 boxes of 18 (@ £2 each) and 3 boxes of 10 (@ £1.90 each). So 66 fish fingers for £9.70 rather than 90 for £10 (all the same brand).

This wasn't a problem, because I assumed that they would refund me to take into account that I had paid more for less, and 1 would get a pro-rata refund on that basis (the driver confirmed this at the time).

However, it turns out that the policy doesn't work that way, instead I was considered to have accepted those fish fingers at that price.

I spoke with a very helpful consumer rep who did agree to refund me in this case, but explained that it is one of the catches with the substitution policy, that they don't take quantity into account when calculating refunds.

I did point out that not taking quantity into account does make deciding whether to accept substitutions more complicated (at the time I said to the driver that I wouldn't waste him time, trying to figure out how much I'd paid per fish finger). The rep didn't disagree.

I don't want to have to stand at the front door with a calculator, poring over the receipt, nor do I want to be sending substitutions back, and then having to go to the shop anyway.

Personally, I am going to look at some other providers who have used in the past, to see what their policy is, and I would suggest that everybody else (whoever you use) takes a closer look at the small print of the substitutions policy.

sarah1972

PhoenixPoint wrote: »

Hi,
I've used Sainsbury's online for several years now, with my first shop being over 10 years ago.

As with other providers they substitute items, but also reimburse you the difference compared to the original price.

So, if you order a 5 litre bottle of X brand water, they might send you a 5 litre bottle of the more expensive Y brand water instead, but refund you the difference.

I've never paid much attention to this until now.

I ordered 5 boxes of 18 fish fingers (@ £2 each), but they instead sent me 2 boxes of 18 (@ £2 each) and 3 boxes of 10 (@ £1.90 each). So 66 fish fingers for £9.70 rather than 90 for £10 (all the same brand).

This wasn't a problem, because I assumed that they would refund me to take into account that I had paid more for less, and 1 would get a pro-rata refund on that basis (the driver confirmed this at the time).

However, it turns out that the policy doesn't work that way, instead I was considered to have accepted those fish fingers at that price.

I spoke with a very helpful consumer rep who did agree to refund me in this case, but explained that it is one of the catches with the substitution policy, that they don't take quantity into account when calculating refunds.

I did point out that not taking quantity into account does make deciding whether to accept substitutions more complicated (at the time I said to the driver that I wouldn't waste him time, trying to figure out how much I'd paid per fish finger). The rep didn't disagree.

I don't want to have to stand at the front door with a calculator, poring over the receipt, nor do I want to be sending substitutions back, and then having to go to the shop anyway.

Personally, I am going to look at some other providers who have used in the past, to see what their policy is, and I would suggest that everybody else (whoever you use) takes a closer look at the small print of the substitutions policy.

I have never known Sainsbury’s to price match any substitutions which is why I rarely use them.

Asda and Tesco always have though

MataNui

This is sort of one of the reasons i gave up with the online food shopping ages ago. It was taking so long to check the substitutions (and i did make the driver wait while i did) then still ended up refusing half the shop.


Its not a convenience if you end up waiting several days for a refund of half the shop and still have to go to town to get whats missing.

A._Badger

MataNui wrote: »

This is sort of one of the reasons i gave up with the online food shopping ages ago. It was taking so long to check the substitutions (and i did make the driver wait while i did) then still ended up refusing half the shop.


Its not a convenience if you end up waiting several days for a refund of half the shop and still have to go to town to get whats missing.

I have to take my hat off to Ocado in this respect. The last few orders I've placed with them haven't included a single substitution. In fact everything about the process worked like clockwork.

Everything about the last order I placed with Sainsbury's, on the other hand, worked like a broken Mickey Mouse wristwatch. Which is just another reason why I now rarely shop with them.