Late Supermarket Delivery

pumpkin89

It sounds like the customer service along the way was pretty poor, but the resolution seems very fair.  They didn't deliver at the time you paid for, so you had a legal right to have the delivery charge refunded, and they've then given you some goodwill in the form of the voucher.

Morrisons weren't to know that you didn't have anything in that you could have eaten for breakfast and lunch (most people would have had), nor that a quick trip to the local shop would entirely disrupt your work plans.

JaneDoeJohnDoe

It happens. Have a Plan B.....
Greedily as it sounds have another delivery booked somewhere else in a couple of days & cancel it once the original delivery arrives. Or, lots of cans & frozen food in the home.

yksi

I think you need a reality check. As someone who worked in the home delivery department that very week, you haven't the faintest clue what goes on when workload shoots up to four times normal. Just imagine what it would look like in, say, your local florist, etc, or your corner shop. Four times as many people wanting to buy stuff but the same single person at the till, huge queues, nobody available to give assistance. That's what it looked like in Home Delivery on the 21st. They still had the same number of staff (it's impossible to hire any more) and on top of that, some had Covid, some had taken days off. The staff that did come in worked about triple their usual contracted hours, and I'm not exaggerating. I'm one of the duty managers in a 30-aisle supermarket and even I was pushing home delivery trolleys for hours and picking your groceries for you. As were every one of my senior colleagues. I begged staff to stay on hours past home time. I begged them to work extra days. I bribed them with free lunches, I bought them bottles of Prosecco, I picked them up for work. I drove them home. I walked around afterwards, searching for items they couldn't pick, so that you wouldn't call me and complain about peanuts being out of stock. I handled the rude callers, the crying callers, the shielding old ladies who didn't have any way to get any dinner. I took down emergency shopping lists over the phone and personally drove that rescue package to their doorstop so they wouldn't go hungry that night.

As for why they didn't call you I personally apologise. I could guess why. Maybe it's because the driver was on his third day in the job, and as he called the store asking what to do, the home delivery manager was pushing a trolley around the shop picking orders, six hours after they should have gone home, having been on their feet for fifteen hours straight. Or perhaps they missed your call because the team leader was physically hauling those heavy crates out of the coolroom. Or they were wheeling yet another trolley out to the carpark, where the click and collect queue extended out of the carpark and onto the street, because we were using the click and collect van to try and get more deliveries done.

Did they let you down? Undoubtedly. Was the compensation reasonable? Yeah, I think it was. Do they deserve a little bit of leniency before someone declares it an unacceptable service levels On the 21st of December I definitely think they do!

greyteam1959

@yksi
Excellent post.
That's what I would call customer service.
I for one can't thank people like you enough.

Rosalynda

I agree with greyteam.  Excellent post. They sometimes get it wrong but with all that's been going on and the rude people they get at times i think they do a brilliant job. Our Tesco deliverers are always very pleasant and helpful. I applaud them all.

calleyw

yksi said:

I think you need a reality check. As someone who worked in the home delivery department that very week, you haven't the faintest clue what goes on when workload shoots up to four times normal....

Wish I could like your post a million times.  I see it time and time again on these threads lack of understanding and empathy. Of course one reply would be to get more staff and vans in. Yep that just so easy to do!!! I get you are paying for a service but nothing is perfect and stuff happens.  I am sure most of the posters have never been late for anything or been ill off work or broken down and caused their colleagues extra work?  All of these things and more have an impact on everything else.

I remember many years ago when I did customer services for a mail order company.  There was really bad snow over most of the country late november/early december.  It was causing chaos for postal services.  People would ring up and when I explained about the snow causing delays.  They accused me of being a liar because it was beyond their comphension that Y company was in a different part of the country so there post went a different route to ours to get to their house!

For an important/special occasion I would never jsut rely on a home delivery.  I would have a back up plan as well.  As in the real world things do happen

MrsStepford

The pandemic has completely changed the way I shop. I don't have delivery passes anymore, because I don't rely on supermarkets. Even though I'm buying organic, I'm not struggling to get to the £40 minimum and buying things I don't need, only to find that the things I want, are out of stock and I'm having to try another supermarket. 

I am buying from Abel & Cole (Box or £12 minimum, 1.99 delivery fee, delivery once a week), Riverford (Box or minimum £15 meat no delivery fee or £15 minimum no delivery fee for non meat, delivery once a week), Milk & More (no minimum spend, no delivery fee, delivery 3x a week), Watts Farm (£30 minimum order £4 delivery) and direct from farms ( no minimum order, courier from £5 order for any date AM/PM)

Monday, I bought a dozen eggs, 4 litres of milk, 200ml French creme fraiche, 500ml double cream and with delivery charge it was 16.34. Wednesday, I paid 16.50 for 8 types of organic veg from Milk & More. Monday Watts Farm is delivering a mix of things and with a 20% off code it will cost £26 odd including delivery and Abel & Cole will deliver same again. Total 75.18 for two weeks saving over £125 on the fortnight's budget and everything ordered WILL turn up.