Anyone else had issues with online deliveries?

I don't often use online shopping but just yesterday did an order online with Asda for some heavy goods like cat litter all marked as no substitutues as I have a couple of fussy cats.

For some reason my order was cancelled overnight and they have given me a £15 voucher to compensate. They emailed, texted and also called me and from what I gathered they had to cancel all deliveries.

I will reorder this week quite happily.

I started doing online food shopping when my husband (he was my boyfriend at the time btw) moved in together and we have no car. I used to use Morrisons a lot however I got quite bored with them plus they stopped doing certain items we order regularly online but do in store, volvic flavoured water is an example of this. In terms of the service, I highly recommend them, rarely got a substituted item and the fresh produce had good dates on them. I liked with them that if they were late, which they were once literally by minutes the driver apologised and took the cost of the delivery off straight away.

I started using Ocado last year and after several months was given a delivery pass free trial. When this came go an end they offered me the pass for £1.99 per month. I took this up as it paid for deliveries alone, plus I get free items and 10% off certain products. Never had an issue with dates or missing/substituted items.

The thing I like with both Ocado and Morrisons is that their websites look very similar. They are both very easy to use and that's because Ocado assisted Morrisons in setting up their online food shopping. Morrisons have taken a lot of the good things with Ocado and added it to their shopping experience. Both also do "flash sales" which give good discounts on food items. They also allow me to add items onto a shop that are on offer and as long as I "check out" they will deliver the item at the offer price, even if the offer is no longer available. They both text and email before a delivery. The email gives a receipt attached so it lists all the items purchased with expiry dates and any missing or substituted items. This allows me to plan the meals ahead as I refer back to it often.

Asda I have used a couple of times. I have no complaints with expiry dates or damaged items. I have had substitutes but it's been in my favour. I find their website frustrating to use though.

Sainsbury's had been the biggest disappointment for me. I used them I think 4 times and all of those 4 times I've been disappointed with them. Items been very short dated, fruit bruised and not well packaged. I complained to them and they pretty much dismissed my concerns and offered me a £3.50 voucher for one item dated the day after delivery, everything else (5 items dated the day after that so 2 days after delivery) was acceptable to them, well it wasn't to me. I haven't used them since and don't intend to. They send me £xx off a £xx spend but doesn't tempt me at all. Looking at their website recently I find them incredibly expensive, even more expensive than Ocado. I use our local one occasionally but that's it.

Tesco I've not used but my sister has and rates it

I avoid the supermarkets full stop. I use http://www.abelandcole.co.uk/ who deliver organic fish, meat, fruit, veg, snacks, bakery foods, dairy, alcohol, pizzas, pies, soups, household goods & just about anything else people eat & drink, most of which is organic. Substituting of unavailable items is almost non-existent (although it happens occasionally for certain salmon items, especially just before Christmas).

They always seem to be expanding their range & number of clients. They began by selling organic fruit & veg to people in London using vans so they're organic by nature.

Delivery is £1.25 but the minimum order is £12.50. Prices are reasonable to high but their non-organic stuff is cheaper. (Cheapest organic yoghurt is £1.60, 500g.) They also sell 5kg of fruit items like apples, which can be used for juicing too.

Their customer service is superb, as is their food, and their staff are always happy to talk to clients.

They like to use British farmers unlike the supermarkets who couldn't afford to. They talk to their farmers, who all love supplying them unlike the big supermarkets who abuse theirs (dairy farmers, for example, struggle badly.)

Deliveries are weekly but I phone my orders every two weeks (it's far quicker than using the Web site). It only takes a minute.

They are much more professional in avoiding mistakes with deliveries than the supermarkets. They also hold occasional free food events for Londoners.

When ordering apples you can't choose what type you'll get but they tend to be red & green, like Braeburn & Cox.

If you order, say, a soup or a loaf these are delivered fresh as they already know your delivery day. This isn't something any supermarket could achieve.

Every delivery has leaflets with information about their farmers, recipes & occasional cookery contests. Every once in a while they provide me with a free product of my liking for customer loyalty. Customer satisfaction is very high. If there's a problem they sort it out & if appropriate credit your account if they have made a mistake. (Their phone number can also be called using the 08452 code.)

They deliver to some locations (London, Essex, Leeds & Suffolk I know of) but you will have to check your post code in the FAQ. If they don't deliver to you contact them to tell them you'd like them to deliver to your area in future so they can make a note of which areas to expand to. I'm sure they can deliver to your place of work if you're not at home but you can arrange for them to use a key to some location.

Cold foods are packed with ice packs & enclosed in a woollen material to slow down heat dissipation. The packs remain as ice for many hours.

Unfortunately they don't produce brochures now due to them constantly changing things due to seasonality. They said they would be very happy to arrange a time convenient to me to talk about what new things they sell as I've been a long-time client.

You can get a 5kg bag of potatoes but it's unavailable in summer.

New clients get £20 off their first order if referred by an existing customer but I'm not allowed to post codes in this message.

I use http://www.mintonsgoodfood.co.uk for cheap organic bulk products like 25kg of rice & oats. They have a huge range of food, have super customer service & regularly send out brochures so I phone my orders. Deliveries are made using pallets unless your order is small.

Abel & Cole has cleaning products but I shop elsewhere for better ones. For washing powder I use one made from only natural ingredients. I used to use Bio D but found the best one is made by Sonett. It's cheaper to get it from Germany, £45 inc. post for 10kg, and this Web site delivers to the UK:

http://www.violey.com/en/sonett-washing-powder_p_8098.html?crn=gbp

I use Bio D for my washing-up liquid, £8 for 5 litres. It's very concentrated, unlike some of the natural ones, so it lasts well. It's widely available online (people have talked about it in the MSE forum). I get it at ethicalsuperstore com, which have frequent discounts & great customer service.

Natural liquid soap £14 for 5l:
http://www.realfoods.co.uk/product/30236/fragrance-free-hand-wash

It's by far the cheapest natural liquid soap I've found. 5l will lasts years. You could add drops of essential oils to it, not that it needs it, but you'll find essential oils in the best natural liquid soaps like Dr Bronner which I used to use.

http://www.mintonsgoodfood.co.uk sell a toothpaste made from 100% natural ingredients called Aloe Dent. It's the one I use and it's very effective at protecting the teeth. (Holland & Barrett also sell it.)

I do shop at one of the main supermarkets online every 5 months or so. It takes about 40 minutes so that's an average of 2 minutes a week. Therefore my average grocery shopping time per week is only 4-5 minutes.

Someone mentioned bottled water. Have you read the studies of their toxic contents? You can get an under-sink water filter from http://www.fountainfilters.co.uk It cost £45/year for a new filter that removes pesticides, chlorine, bacteria & heavy metals. I also have the filter that removes fluoride. I've found it best to place orders by phone & they have great customer service.

All this started around the time I began shopping with Abel and Cole. I began getting very suspicious about my washing powder. I though there was something phony about it so I looked online for an alternative & discovered the one made by Sonett sold by an English Web site and later discovered a cheaper one from Germany.

I've seen baked beans sold by the Web sites above but I like to make my own healthy beans. Here's my recipe:

Red kidney beans/cannellini beans with tomato puree, honey, rapeseed/olive oil, cider vinegar, cinnamon powder, sea salt, thyme. You could add cut-up orange or fruit peel too. Only takes one minute to heat as it hardly needs that much (I could do my weekly shop in that time). I eat it with slightly boiled potatoes.

Of the many types of vinegar available cider vinegar is the most special. It's good for probiotics, with many vitamins & minerals. It's one of the superfoods & is sold at most supermarkets, Holland & Barrett, http://www.mintonsgoodfood.co.uk & Abel & Cole. It even kills fleas & their eggs!

http://www.stylecraze.com/articles/apple-cider-vinegar-for-blood-pressure/?ref=popularsidebar

We have used all of the supermarkets and we are now using Morrisons. Since using them we have never had any substituted items and the whole delivery experience is by far the best. Nice drivers who are efficient and quick. All of the others are okay except Asda which every single time we have used we have experienced problems. Their subs are silly such as a chicken pizza instead of a chicken and dog food instead of cat food.

I've used most of them at some time or other, Asda used to be a regular offender for letting us down, short dates, bad subs and on a couple of occasions not even delivering at all with not even a phone call till it was too late or we phoned them to find out where it was. Waitrose do ok, but we found with our store there is quite a lot of short dated as its not a huge store, and it never appears busy enough for a quick turnover.
We do a weekly shop for a family of 6 and my budget normally rounds to around 120-130 pounds per week.
I have used Tesco the most and indeed one of my daughters works for Tesco in the bakery, so a few hints.
If you dont want, or at least want to keep subs to a minimum, then choose a morning slot, Tesco do two picks during the day for online shoppers, so you really want to be in the first pick, which starts really early before anyone's up.
Subs and short dated are always on the first page of your delivery paper work, so if the driver doesnt point them out (he should) then give them a read through.
Anything you dont want sub wise or short dated wise just give them back to the driver and ask for them to be refunded.