Sainsburys.co.uk > Reviews (109)

22/12/02 Update - I finally received a refund on 20/12/02 - three weeks after it was promised. HOWEVER, I was also charged for the shopping again on this date, thereby meaning that Sainsburys are sitting on my money until they choose to give it back. No sign of it yet - and when I phoned up the guy on the phone seemed to not really believe me at first. He pointed out that it was a lot of money to refund to my bank account without investigating first - I KNOW THIS, as it is a lot of money to me too. I am absolutely spitting, let me tell you.

Original opinion

I have used Sainsbury's to you on three occasions to date. On the first occasion, everything went swimmingly, on the second, the delivery was late, but I had a phone call to warn me, and the third time was unmitigated disaster.

The site itself is very good, except for being a bit slow at times. You can find most things, and quite often stumble on offers to take advantage of. The navigation is fairly easy, and the site stores a list of things you've had before, so once you've been there once, you only really need to scroll through and tick some boxes. There is also an option for going through all the aisles and shelves to find what you want, and most things are where you would expect to find them. As an alternative, you can type in a quick shop list, and it will show you every item in the catagory you've asked for. As an example, if you type "Carrots" here, it will show you fresh, pre-packed. pre-prepared, tinned and frozen varieties, so it's very easy to make price comparisons.

The payment process is very easy to follow, and seems to be as secure as you could ask for.

However, onto the reason for this opinion - this weeks shopping experience. I can tell you now that it was no fun. Just to give you an idea, I've included times, so you can see why I'm so annoyed. I have left all the names out to protect the "innocent".

So, Monday 25th Novemeber - placed my online order today. I received some vouchers in the post, and deliveries on Tuesday - Thursday are free until the 19th December. So far so good.

Thursday 28th Novemeber - Delivery is booked for 20:00 - 22:00. This is a bit later than I'd like, but this free delivery lark looks to be quite popular.

22:05 No shopping yet - called the Customer Care Line. This is a bit of a joke because they don't seem to answer the phone much (I called five times the next day and never spoke to a single live human) I was on hold listening to Toploaders "Dancing in the Moonlight" for FIFTEEN MINUTES. I was repeatedly told that my call was important, and that Sainsbury's was desperatly upset to have kept me waiting. Finally, I took the option to leave a message - only to be told that I couldn't as the mail box was full.

22:25 Called my local store and spoke to a very nice lady who said she would look into the matter and call me back in five minutes.

22:50 Store called me back - I was told that my order had been returned to the store as deliveries were running late, and the driver felt he couldn't call after 20:00.

Agreed to take delivery between 15:00 and 16:00 the next day.

29th November
15:25 No shopping yet. I phoned the store, just to check on things, and was told it had gone out, and woould be with me maybe just a few minutes after four. Ok then.

16:25 No shopping yet. Phoned the store to be told it was sent out in a taxi at 15:10. The man I spoke to offered to investigate and call me back.

16:50 A knock on the door. Shopping has landed. Woo-hoo!

16:55 Have unpacked shopping. Several items are missing. Also, to rub salt in the wound I have been charged £5 for delivery, and the till receipt shows the transaction time as 15:25. So the git I spoke to earlier was lying through his teeth.

17:00 Phoned store and asked to speak to a manager. My wish was granted and I spoke to a manager - not the right one. However, he did listen to my tale of woe, and promised that the correct manager would call me back in just a few short minutes. It was at this point I decided to go and have a bath.

18:30 Have just got out of bath - phone hasn't rang once. I called the store again, and put on my most pleasant, happy camper voice. This got me through to the correct manager. I expressed the view that one of the reasons I was so hopping mad was that one of his staff had lied through his teeth, obviously just to get me off the phone. We had a long discussion about sick staff, broken tills and crap engineers, before he offered me a satisfactory "goodwill gesture" I have accepted his offer, but it has not yet materialised, so I will update when it does.

So, to sum up, this service isn't the best I have tried. I normally list Sainbury's as my supermarket of choice, but to be honest, I don't think I'll use the online service ever again. This week I have been tied to the house waiting for shopping for four hours, I've spent over an hour listening to Toploader, and at least another two hours waiting for people to call me back. It's never taken me seven hours to get round the supermarket - not even on Christmas Eve (The one year I did this, it took three hours, but I did get exactly all the items I had paid for!!)

If you do try this service, I hope you have a better experience than me. Forewarned is forearmed as they say!!