Best supermarket for home delivery

triade

Hello,

I'm pretty upset just now, I planned all my meals for this week and got my ingredients list ready and ordered from tesco.

Today I got an email saying cauliflower is unavailable and no substitutions are available so they bring NOTHING. So I was a bit concerned about what I could do, I can't even amend my order or ask them for something different that might fit the bill, I have nothing to make those meals with so am I meant to simply miss four entire meals this week and throw the other ingredients away? obviously I need some recourse, and I'm looking on tesco store and it looks like they have cauliflower, not the head of cauli that i ordered, but they have 1 in a bag and 2 frozen versions. I'm like "WHAT THE HELL" and i got on the phone to them and asking what is up with that.. She tells me, the one in the bag is probably not actually in the store and they WON'T substitute frozen for fresh. even though i need cauliflower and frozen cauli is cauli. I'm like, why the hell could they not phone me or give me some mechanism to resolve this, but I'm charged £3 for a food delivery even though I'm not getting what I ordered and no option for any different items and left without the ability to put food on my table on 4 days. I'm beyond upset. I told her that because they don't seem to have made adequate effort to deliver anything like what I ordered, I'd like a full refund and cancel the order. I haven't received any of it yet, it's not out for delivery, they haven't given me what I paid for, I want the whole thing cancelled, but she says they won't refund the 'pick pack and deliver'. I don't know what the law is with regards to that but I'll probably deal with that my own way.

What I want to know is, I want to choose a different supermarket in future, one that will actually help me out and give me some options if they can't decide on a decent substitute (although i'd prefer they can recognise frozen veg is the same veg as non frozen), maybe phone me or let me phone them and pick something different... Snappy shopper allows it, I can phone my local spar if something is changed on the order, but they don't have a good range of products. I want a big store, that isn't going to leave me in the lurch.

maisie_cat

If they don't have it and substitute something the customers rejects they throw it away, they simply cannot please all the people all the time.
The service is low cost so they do not have the staff available to create a personal shopping service, would you be prepared to pay for it if they did?

sarah1972

maisie_cat said:

If they don't have it and substitute something the customers rejects they throw it away, they simply cannot please all the people all the time.
The service is low cost so they do not have the staff available to create a personal shopping service, would you be prepared to pay for it if they did?

I have to completely agree with you Maisie !

I have things missing from Asda, waitrose, Ocado & Tesco. It happens so I just pop to the local convenience store and pick up any missing items or if they don’t stock it and I particularly need it I either walk into town to get it or ask a friend if they are going shopping. 

Sorry @triade but do you really expect them to call every customer after their shopping has been picked for us then to say ok can I have x,y and z instead and then they have to pass that on to a picker to do that? That is not possible nor reasonable. 

And not subbing frozen for fresh is totally reasonable, if they turned up with frozen cauli instead of fresh I would certainly turn it away ! 

Misslayed

There's an option on the Tesco website to leave a message for the picker. Tick the substitution box and leave message eg 'If unavailable please sub with florets/brocolli/frozen'. Or if no substitute is acceptable just untick that box. 

triade

maisie_cat said:

If they don't have it and substitute something the customers rejects they throw it away, they simply cannot please all the people all the time.
The service is low cost so they do not have the staff available to create a personal shopping service, would you be prepared to pay for it if they did?

If it means I'm not left to go hungry then yes I would. But I'm unsure of why you say that, substitutions is a normal thing, that is built into the service, that's not 'personal shopping', it's simply the well established fact that some food is better than no food.  They even have tick boxes on the products to tell them "do not substitute" for anyone who really specifically wants that item.

This is not me being picky or contrary, this is me essentially left to go hungry for four days.

Have you ever tried to make cauliflower cheese without the cauliflower?

It's not a simple matter of sourcing a replacement. sometimes we have very little available funds and maybe unable to go out. (not saying that completely applies to me, but I do have a lot of difficulty in that area due to mental health)

GaleSF63

If not getting something means you are really stuck you need to make more use of the comments box - suggest things other than cauliflower eg potatoes, broccoli, carrots so that you are pretty certain to get something. 

PLRFD

triade said:

maisie_cat said:

If they don't have it and substitute something the customers rejects they throw it away, they simply cannot please all the people all the time.
The service is low cost so they do not have the staff available to create a personal shopping service, would you be prepared to pay for it if they did?

Have you ever tried to make cauliflower cheese without the cauliflower? 

Yes i have I call it cauliflower cheese surprise I also do a lobster version.

newlywed

I agree that Tesco is better than sains as Tesco actually give you a comments box to say what sub you would like.  Sains only give you a tick box to sub or not.  I use it quite a bit and have more issues with them removing a product on the order day because it’s not in stock, but then is in stock on delivery day (for me is often a week later).

p00hsticks

triade said:

 (although i'd prefer they can recognise frozen veg is the same veg as non frozen),

Not everyone has a freezer - they'd be pretty annoyed if they asked for fresh and got sent frozen as a substitute.

YoungBlueEyes

triade said:

<snip> 

This is not me being picky or contrary, this is me essentially left to go hungry for four days.

Wow. 

Ok. Are you honestly going to go hungry for four days because you didn’t get a cauliflower delivered? It’ll beggar up your meal plan, but could you write another one around the ingredients you do have? Or are you completely without food now? 

diystarter7

Tesco all day long.
We;v used odd times Saisnbuty/asda/ocado/morriosns and have family friends that use them - we have been with tescos since covid and when we talk shopping, we feel they are the best

We have two massive fridage freezers and keep well stocked up and shops inc supemrkets barely 5 mins walk - plus some shops near us that will deliver

thanks