Ocado is penalising loyal "Reserved" customers while other supermarkets are rewarding them!

MrsStepford

I have recently gone back to Ocado and become a SmartPass customer again. 

Some of the prices at Ocado are OTT, so I don't buy standard organic veg there. I check prices on Trolley and if ASDA has what I want at a cheaper price, I add it to my organic veg order.

I am finding that Ocado is saving me money with offers on things like cheese and the more unusual organic veg. Also got Finnebrogue pork sausages without nasties yesterday, 2 for £6. 

I wouldn't use Ocado Reserved because I don't buy the same things every week. With ASDA, I use the regulars list but I choose the individual products not ASDA. 

When I signed up for SmartPass I did notice that SmartPass is suspended over Christmas. Also noticed that if you haven't signed up to SmartPass by September, they won't give the option to get a Christmas slot priority at the Christmas higher delivery charge. 

tiny_girl

MrsStepford said:

When I signed up for SmartPass I did notice that SmartPass is suspended over Christmas. Also noticed that if you haven't signed up to SmartPass by September, they won't give the option to get a Christmas slot priority at the Christmas higher delivery charge. 

Yes, that's something else that's always been a bugbear for me.  I refuse to book and pay for a slot that week on principle, so have done my Christmas shop at Morrison's via Amazon instead ever since I became a smart pass customer.  They don't have as big a range as Ocado but I buy different things Christmas week so that doesn't bother me.  The way I see it, Ocado are happy to take loyal customers' money 51 weeks of the year but, when it comes to Christmas week,they want to be able to charge as much as they can for their delivery slots because they think they can get away with it.  I know they say it's because they have to pay more staff at Christmas but that's because they have more and bigger orders,so they're already making more money!  I bet they don't pay their staff any extra for working over Christmas and they don't actually deliver on Christmas Day or Boxing Day anyway.  Yet another example of punishing loyalty   

tiny_girl

Well,the decision to ditch Reserved has been made for me.  My credit card expires at the end of the month, so I got an email telling me they couldn't book my slot for 2nd October.  Fair enough, so I updated my payment details with a new card, only to be told that it will take 30 days to take effect!  So even though I now have a payment method that is valid for several years, they can't book my Reserved slot for over 4 weeks!! 

I bet if I had received my shopping and the payment hadn't gone through for whatever reason they wouldn't wait 30 days after I updated it to take the payment!!  

This must be the case for any Reserved customer that needs to change their payment method for any reason.  It's ridiculous!

I will be cancelling my Smart Pass when my current reserved slots run out and use the 4 week gap to try other supermarkets.  Ocado obviously don't value loyalty so they can jog on!

myself7

There are several issues making Ocado reserved inflexible. Ocado are using AI to replace staff to cut losses. Currently the algorithms are not good enough to respond to issues many customers want. Most want to choose their
own cart and don't trust the concept that the algorithm has accurately listed what has been ordered before. There is the concept Ocado preferentially choose their products over M&S. Why can't we have the option 'no subs'... I am fed up getting Cluck chicken tikka subbed by chicken piri piri when there is an M&S chicken tikka available. Cluck is never available on a tuesday?  Why do we have our Xmas reserved slot removed just when we most need it? However, the biggest issue concerns offers and having to order them 30 days before. Recognising the issues in the cart is not transparent and finding the error costing money is deeply  contrary to the British sense of fairness......