Late Supermarket Delivery

jbellj

Hello,

Ordered my Christmas shop from Morrisons, was due for delivery between 21:00-22:00 on the 21st.

No delivery arrived and no contact was made, and customer service was closed. I stayed up until midnight in case it was late. 

Next morning again no contact so called customer services to be told it would be delivered at some point that day (no time specified).

After a few calls it eventually arrived just before 13:00.

I had to purchase food for breakfast/lunches from local shop because of disruption, and was unable to carry out work plans (but still worked at home) as a result. 

I have made a complaint and have been offered a refund of £7 delivery fee, and a £5 voucher. I feel this is a disproportionate amount (essentially just £5) for the amount of disruption created? Late delivery (over 15 hours) , zero initiative from retailer to inform me etc, extra shopping, change in work plans. 

Anyone have any experience of this and know what I should be asking for? 

sarah1972

That’s more than reasonable from them. They refunded your delivery and gave you a goodwill £5. 

In answer to your question, you shouldn’t be asking for anything more. It happens, staff shortage, traffic, breakdowns etc. 

Farway

sarah1972 said:

That’s more than reasonable from them. They refunded your delivery and gave you a goodwill £5. 

In answer to your question, you shouldn’t be asking for anything more. It happens, staff shortage, traffic, breakdowns etc. 

I agree, but learn from it & hsop elsewhere. My Witrose order just before Christmas had all the fruit / veg missing, obviously the box had been left behind or went to wrong address

Waitrose phoned me prior to delivery to let me know the items were misiing, did I want a refund or those items sent later as seperate delivery?

I opted for later delivery, which duly arrived wiht more aplogies

In case you ay think I'd expect nothing less from Waitrose, that's true, but I've also had Iceland phone to tell me the van had broken down & it'll be later delivery. It's just basic Customer Service so go elsewhere

Bradden

In the current climate with Covid and staff shortages I think we need to cut retailers some slack.. not knowing how may staff will be absent is causing disruption for many businesses.

jbellj

To be clear it was a flat tyre, nothing covid related. 

My issue is with poor customer service which meant I was unable to plan my day properly. 

The t&cs state you would be contacted in case of any delay. The replacement driver said the original driver just didn't bother and went home. 

I was also promised a refund of delivery charge immediately, this only happened when I chased them post Xmas. 

I understand covid has caused issues, but not in this case. 

sarah1972

jbellj said:

To be clear it was a flat tyre, nothing covid related. 

My issue is with poor customer service which meant I was unable to plan my day properly. 

The t&cs state you would be contacted in case of any delay. The replacement driver said the original driver just didn't bother and went home. 

I was also promised a refund of delivery charge immediately, this only happened when I chased them post Xmas. 

I understand covid has caused issues, but not in this case. 

So they have explained what the problem was, the original driver may have been running late/didn’t want to use his personal phone credit/forgot ….. to call you. 

It’s happened, they refunded you AND gave you a goodwill gesture so it’s time to move on. 

If you feel that strongly about it then take your grocery shopping elsewhere but be warned, it’s a general thing that if errors occur, you will usually only ever get delivery refunded and maybe a voucher. 

MysteryMe

The lack of coms was poor but I think what they have offered is fair.

MrsStepford

Times have changed. We can't rely on supermarkets to have what we want in stock, and with a lack of drivers and Covid-19 on top, there may be inexperienced relief drivers who get lost or forget the frozen food. Pre-pandemic and pre-Brexit, I have experienced a delivery arriving 5 hrs late, a driver stuck in snow, flat tire, van breakdown. 

Supermarkets aren't the only places selling food. I can get it couriered overnight from a farm for a fiver or from a foodservice company for £4. Delivery is free from Milk & More, for example. 

izzitme

Assuming they use the same routing setup as we do at Mr T, the driver cannot "normally" get lost. He/she should have a company phone to contact the customer for directions if they are struggling to find the delivery point, but some customers deliberately input a non existent phone number. How do they expect to be contacted for payment issues, breakdown delays etc. if they do that?

P.S. I am not suggesting that this happened in the case of the OP.

GaleSF63

My last Waitrose order arrived 2 hours early! People off ill so they were trying fit deliveries in to other vans where they could. It was a 4pm delivery and they phoned me in the morning to ask if it was ok. 

I'm 25 miles from the shop - maybe it saved them a whole trip to this area. 

Claddagh_Noir

I have had issues with my regular supermarket shop, I even pay for the annual delivery pass.  I would say once every 6 months there is a problem.  Flat tyre or van breakdown / driver suddenly taken ill / having to wait overnight for the scheduled delivery.

I have had the same as you - the most they have given me was £5.00 towards the next shop and a refund on the delivery charge.  I could not really complain per se, I just expected it to be part and parcel of using such a service.  I was a little digruntled but just got on with it.   From now on, if there is anything out of stock I just pop to the local corner shop!