New to online supermarket shopping-any tips?

badger09

olgadapolga said:

badger09 said:

Tesco refund?
Does anyone know if there's a way to request a refund from Tesco, apart from phoning their CS number. 
I'd put 2 cucumbers in my trolley (1 large 1 medium), only 1 arrived but not sure which it is. Max refund would be £0.85 so not huge amount & I'd rather not tie up their phone lines for that.

You can email them @ online@tesco.co.uk. Might take a few days to get anything other than an auto- but they usually reply. 

I tried that. Received an auto response 

"Dear Customer,

We are exceptionally busy just now due to an increase in customer contact as a result of the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak. As a result, we are currently unable to respond to emails.

You can find the answer to most queries in our FAQs: https://www.tesco.com/help/groceries-faq/

If you wish to change, cancel, amend, track or reschedule an order already placed, you can do this in ‘My account’ on www.tesco.com/groceries

Please be aware that we are unable to check availability of our products online or in store and the current high demand for home deliveries means that delivery slots are extremely limited.

If you still need to contact us, please visit our Contact Us page: http://www.tesco.com/help/contact

Kind regards",

Hardly surprising but I'm sure they've got more pressing issues than my missing cucumber

Steve_L

Debran said:

Steve_L said:

Does anyone know what ASDA's definitions "out of stock" and "unavailable" are?  Items in my trolley have just come up with both.From where I'm sitting, in front of an ever-dwindling food cupboard, fridge & freezer, they look the same.  

I gather that "unavailable" means that they are not stocking the item at least for the time being and "out of stock" means they have temporarily sold out.

That would make sense.  However, I suspect that the phrases may be used interchangeably.

Steve_L

This week's order done. A lot of stuff was "out of stock". As they pick from a store, the shelves must be almost empty. What did I say about ASDA's old complacent stock (lack of) control re-appearing? I'd be intrigued to do an online shop from inside the store that it'll be picked from and compare what's on the screen and what's on the shelf. However, putting our own choice of alternatives in the trolley, so we could then delete any OOS ones, seems a good idea.

But, we were so pre-occupied with doing  this and then getting the order through the checkout before anything else changed, that we forgot to untick any of the substitutions. God knows what we'll get. I'm worried about the cauliflower: theoretically, we could get anything from dog food to a bunch of daffodils!

Stompa

Steve_L said:

But, we were so pre-occupied with doing  this and then getting the order through the checkout before anything else changed, that we forgot to untick any of the substitutions. God knows what we'll get. I'm worried about the cauliflower: theoretically, we could get anything from dog food to a bunch of daffodils!

For some reason they don't always seem to substitute even when you have allowed it. My last order had some items missing which were simply marked as unavailable. This was for fairly straightforward items like yogurt, where I'm pretty sure they could have substituted as they did deliver other types of yogurt.

Steve_L

Stompa said:

Steve_L said:

But, we were so pre-occupied with doing  this and then getting the order through the checkout before anything else changed, that we forgot to untick any of the substitutions. God knows what we'll get. I'm worried about the cauliflower: theoretically, we could get anything from dog food to a bunch of daffodils!

For some reason they don't always seem to substitute even when you have allowed it. My last order had some items missing which were simply marked as unavailable. This was for fairly straightforward items like yogurt, where I'm pretty sure they could have substituted as they did deliver other types of yogurt.

I know. We ordered just 5 loose white baking potatoes. Unavailable, but also not substituted. Did they not have any potatoes in the store?

What if someone had to go out to get something that this had happened with, bumped into something very small & very nasty, and this meeting didn't end well?

It's not good enough.

TheBanker

Steve_L said:

God knows what we'll get. I'm worried about the cauliflower: theoretically, we could get anything from dog food to a bunch of daffodils!

I received a cauliflower as a substitute for a cabbage. Not perfect but not crazy either. 

Bacman

Here's a good tip, hope you find it helpful. As always, simple tips can be good ones.

When you go into a supermarket normally you might have a basic shopping list of things you must get especially for less usually bought items, then after that it's a case of going around the isles and picking up what you want, if you miss something it's not too important usually as if it was it would be on your list, yes?

Online supermarket shopping takes a lot longer normally to do than even wandering around a supermarket. Yes, you can save your favourites when online shopping however far far too easy to checkout then thing "darn, forget to add the milk".

Simple tip is this - use a spreadsheet (if you use a computer) or A4 notepad if not, and write down ALL items you use in your household for food, including condiments; then when you're doing your online shopping look down each item and you're bound to think "ah, yes I need that added". It makes for quicker shopping and also less likely you forgot to add something you needed!

badger09

Bacman said:

Here's a good tip, hope you find it helpful. As always, simple tips can be good ones.

When you go into a supermarket normally you might have a basic shopping list of things you must get especially for less usually bought items, then after that it's a case of going around the isles and picking up what you want, if you miss something it's not too important usually as if it was it would be on your list, yes?

Online supermarket shopping takes a lot longer normally to do than even wandering around a supermarket. Yes, you can save your favourites when online shopping however far far too easy to checkout then thing "darn, forget to add the milk".

Simple tip is this - use a spreadsheet (if you use a computer) or A4 notepad if not, and write down ALL items you use in your household for food, including condiments; then when you're doing your online shopping look down each item and you're bound to think "ah, yes I need that added". It makes for quicker shopping and also less likely you forgot to add something you needed!

Under the 'old normal' I used to do a 'big shop' at Tesco every 10 - 14 days, with odd top ups from local small Co-op in between. I have a spreadsheet with everything I would usually buy, no matter whether it was each visit, monthly or whatever. I would highlight items I needed on that particular trip and it was difficult to miss anything. I've also grouped the items in the order I would walk round the store. (I like to be organised )

My 'favourites' list for online shopping at Tesco is about 10 times as long as my spreadsheet list, as it includes lots of alternatives and suggested substitutes since the 'new normal'. I'm tempted to spend an hour or so deleting everything so I can start afresh. I am grateful that I'm able to get delivery slots though!  

Steve_L

I had a very interesting (phone) conversation last night with a friend of Lynne's, who used to work for Sainsbury's. They regularly had cases, where food had been delivered and booked into the warehouse, so was in stock, but hadn't been put out onto the shelves. By the time someone found them still in the warehouse, they were usually well out-of-date and had to be disposed of.  Fresh stuff usually smelled after a while, but frozen stuff could be in limbo for years. Probably, someone was probably told to put them out, then either (at worst) didn't bother to do it or (at best) were collared by another supervisor, who told them to do something else. There were no checks to ensure that it had been done so no-one told anyone when it wasn't. The stuff was written off and no-one told anyone higher up what had gone wrong. She was unhappy about the waste of food at the time she worked there. But it could also explain what we see happening with our online shops. And now, the consequences of someone not being able to get something online and having to go out to get it could be a lot more serious.

mikb

That sort of "don't do that, do this!" management is probably why you sometimes find tinned goods that have almost no remaining time on them (compared to the usual months to 2 years, depending on contents) -- one day someone discovers a pile of stuff that was never put out, and stuffs it onto the shelves, quick, and hope no-one notices (or is expecting to store them for long!)