Supermarket delivery didn't arrive, they claim it did

bassthing

It looks like Sainsbury's have decided to have some fun with me. It seems like there are a number of ways I can proceed and I wonder if anyone would care to recommend their favourite?

I have tried searching for this situation but nearly all references to supermarket grocery deliveries are about smaller problems - missing items or missed deliveries, while this is about the entire £170 order going AWOL.

I had a delivery scheduled for 25 April but was called during my delivery slot to be told that due to technical problems they would not be able to fulfill my order at all, and a full refund would be made.

So far so irritating; so I waited a few days for the refund to not arrive before contacting them by email. Thought I'd try to avoid the long waits on the phone, especially as a quick glance at the news that day showed they did indeed have major issues in my region so I figured there'd be long queues.

After a bit of email ping-pong, it sounds like their system is now registering my delivery as having been received.
By me.
Which it wasn't.
I emailed again with precise details of the time I was called and as much info as possible, to receive their latest epistle which I provisionally titled "It wasn't us guv":
"This is to inform you that we have further investigated on this query and covered that we had delivered number of orders on 25/04 which we had taken payments and your order was one of them.  Alternately to discuss further please call our team..."

As far as I can tell Sainsbury's are fans of Lewis Carroll. But reading between the riddles, it sounds like they want to question the nature of reality and claim that I did actually receive the delivery. I've fired off another missive, politely enquiring "You wot?" and pointing out the clear breach of their customer agreement.

A bit of searching on MSE suggests that for non-delivery of goods I can request chargeback to my credit card, and I don't see why that wouldn't include groceries. That will be particularly interesting as it's a Sainsbury's Mastercard. (Gets you extra points you see, if you spend it at Sainsbury's!) I am wondering though, if that is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. I can see I'm going to have to call them next week but if they again claim innocence and fulfillment of my order ... would anybody care to weigh in with the most enjoyable course of action?

It was never like this when Doctor Who was in charge.

Thanks for reading, and in advance for any advice, sympathy, or enjoyable jokes at their expense.

born_again

Yes you could do a chargeback.
But...
All they have to do is prove delivery, if that is what they systems state, then with that evidence they would win. 

You could also run the risk of them refusing to supply you again.

If you know which store delivery comes from you could ask there. 

Jono111

Can you show them your receipt for the shop you did after the order didn't arrive, it may help sway them

Okell

I've never taken advantage of supermarket home delivery so I don't know how it works, but don't you as the consumer have to acknowledge receipt of the delivery in some way?

I don't think much of the chargeback process as it seems to me to be deficient in many ways.  One of those is (as born_again has pointed out) that if the trader has proof of delivery (even to the wrong address) then you will lose any chargeback claim - apparently...

I presume you wouldn't be able to make a s75 claim - even though you paid by credit card - because each item on the receipt would be priced at less than £100.

I think you're going to have to argue it through with Sainsburys.  If they don't accept that the delivery never happened you'll have to consider suing them

(I'm not sure what @Jono111 is getting at unless they mean that because the original order was never delivered then you must have had to make a replacement order.  Why would you have needed to place a second order if the first had been successfully delivered?  But if you didn't place a second order, why didn't you need to?)

bassthing

Thanks for this enlightenment, folks!

It does sound like my instinct was right and the chargeback option is somewhat lacking. Maybe worth a shot, but presumably they get a chance to argue - by charging again or "clawing back" the chargeback, I believe. It's not clear to me what prevents a tug-of-war with my money in that circumstance, but presumably there comes a point when I can no longer get it back. I did wonder about the individual items versus the entire order, for s75 purposes - sadly, you may have a point Okell. Both you and born_again believe that Sainsbury's own records will be a deciding factor in a chargeback dispute. Well, it obviously isn't fair if they can set their records to say whatever they like and then use it as the deciding factor in a dispute! But this may be the world we're in.

To answer some questions - I made a dash for the nearest convenience store that evening (also a Sainsbury's, so perhaps there's a record on my Nectar account but only if they want to cooperate) and bought a few essentials such as veg, but never really replaced the full shop (much of which was "store cupboard" type items). Unfortunately I did not print the receipt.

You'd think I'd need to prove my age as there was alcohol included in the shop, but I'm not sure that's the case, I don't recall it happening before. Perhaps because I am "obviously over 25". I don't think they take pictures of the open front door, like parcel delivery firms do.

I don't mind upsetting Sainsbury's and moving to another supermarket, having seen this carcrash I am quite keen to do so.

The thought of suing Sainsbury's doesn't fill me with hope and sounds likely more costly than the money I'd get back, unless it's something a no-win no-fee would take on - which feels unlikely. Not sure if that's a thing for this kind of situation.

I did wonder if it could have been delivered to the wrong house, but that seems a bit of a coincidence given that they'd already told me the delivery would not be coming! It occurs to me that the most damning evidence would be if they have a record of the call they made (I've got a land line number stored in my phone log) maybe recorded, but they could easily "lose" that. A shame, because I was very polite to the worried-sounding young man on the phone at the time.

bassthing

Oh yes, and born_again asked about contacting the particular store. Unfortunately my first message from them read:

"Having spoken to our Hayes store they have advised that only the order with morning time slots were affected by our high publicised technical issues and the afternoon deliveries were made a bait slightly late. Our system does also show that your delivery was delivered successfully.
Please can you let us know if this was the case and if not we will need to investigate further."

I confirmed that it was the case and even gave them the number and time they'd called me from/at; their response was the gobbledegook email I quoted in my first post.

I'm beginning to think that they're not very good...

swingaloo

Its 2 weeks ago. Have you been to the store it was delivered from?

It should have been quite simple for them to sort out. If they say the delivery went ahead then there would be a record of which driver delivered to you. The longer time goes on the less chance there is of sorting it. 

bassthing

Yes, I lost a week waiting for the refund they promised on the phone, then wasn't surprised when it was late owing to the tech faults. It's only now becoming clear to me that they're arguing the toss.

IF it came from the Hayes store they mention in their email then I have never been near that store, it's not the closest one to me. Apart from the inconvenience of finding the place and going there, the tactic of walking in the front door and asking for a refund feels a bit hopeful to me in this day and age.

Going the route of following up with the particular driver does sound logical, presumably it should be recorded somewhere.

Okell

bassthing said:

... To answer some questions - I made a dash for the nearest convenience store that evening (also a Sainsbury's, so perhaps there's a record on my Nectar account but only if they want to cooperate) and bought a few essentials such as veg, but never really replaced the full shop (much of which was "store cupboard" type items). 

But presumably like many people you have established a failrly regular pattern of shopping?  If the original purchase complied with that pattern you would still have had to make it up somehow, and wouldn't just have rushed out to the nearest Sainsburys convenience store for some essential odds and ends.

Why did you decide to order the "store cupboard" items for that delivery on 25 April? If you haven't replaced them by now, why not?

bassthing said:

...  Unfortunately I did not print the receipt...

Always get a receipt.

user1977

bassthing said:

the tactic of walking in the front door and asking for a refund feels a bit hopeful to me in this day and age.

Hmm. I'd have said rather easier to dismiss a complaint via email rather than face to face with a customer.

born_again

bassthing said:

Yes, I lost a week waiting for the refund they promised on the phone, then wasn't surprised when it was late owing to the tech faults. It's only now becoming clear to me that they're arguing the toss.

IF it came from the Hayes store they mention in their email then I have never been near that store, it's not the closest one to me. Apart from the inconvenience of finding the place and going there, the tactic of walking in the front door and asking for a refund feels a bit hopeful to me in this day and age.

Going the route of following up with the particular driver does sound logical, presumably it should be recorded somewhere.

All van have GPS tracking (Drivers get fined for speeding) as we used to get deliveries from Sainsburys. So if it delivered to your address they will be able to see it parked up.