Review rated by 13 Ciao members on average: very helpful
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I started using Sainsbury's To You about a year ago, prompted by a coupon that gave me free delivery which is normally £5. Since I live close to a big Sainsbury's and normally would carry my groceries home on foot, it seemed a bit too expensive to pay £5 to have it delivered.
Since then I have used the service about half a dozen times (either when I had to buy a lot and would have had to pay for a cab, or when I had a coupon), and my experience overall has been pretty good.
Here is how it works: YOu first pick a delivery slot from their timetable, which is easy to understand. The slots are in 2-hour increments, so it's not too hard to plan to be home at that time. Once you have your slot, (and you have registered your postcode and other details), you are ready to "walk around the aisles". The very first time, it takes a while to find what you are looking for, especially when you are used to buying certain brands.
However, the site saves your shopping list, so next time you come back, you don't have to look for the same things and can just add them to your basket again. My main gripe is that some products are not obvious to find - take garbage bags - are they to be found under garbage, litter, waste, ... and in what department? So you have to use the search box, which tends to come up with way too many possibilities.
Or take salt: they have hundreds of different salts it appears, coarse, ground, seasalt, fine salt...if you just want basic household salt, it will take a while. This process is made more difficult by the fact that many products don't come with pictures, so it's even harder to pick the one you really want. Surprisingly, Sainsbury's only put pictures of their own label brand in many categories - I wonder why ;)
Once you have made your selection, and added all the products to your basket, you go to the checkout. Here they will ask for your credit card. Once you have entered all the details and confirmed, you will get an email with your shopping list and the estimated price. The final price can change if products are not available or are being substituted for.
The substitutions become important at the time of delivery: the delivery man will bring an extra bag with products that their pickers decided to substitute for the ones you bought that were not in stock. My experience with this is mixed: so far, I have not had a single delivery with all products available, despite living within 1 mile of a huge Sainsbury's. Apparently, they pick your things at a local smaller store. I have rejected nearly all their suggestions as I tend to be quite picky about what I buy. If you do not accept their substitutes, you will not be charged for them.
One of the nice features of this service is that you can make changes to your trolley AFTER you already checked out, and almost until the last hour before your delivery. That makes it easy if you forgot something or decide you need more than you thought. YOu simply go through the checkout process again.
One of my complaints is the use of the loyalty (Nectar) card. You have to go to a completely different section of the SB site, and it does not link automatically to their shopping section, so they won't tell you your balance after your shopping. This could be much better integrated. In fact, they did not tell you that you had to change your card numbers from the SB card to the Nectar card BOTH online and offline, so I lost a ton of points because I did not change the info on the site. Very annoying.
My overall opinion: their service has always been on time, the delivery guys are always nice and polite, and if you get a £5 off coupon, it's definitely worth it. The substitution issue could still be improved, but overall, I highly recommend shopping from the comfort of your slippers instead of queueing up and carrying the bags yourself!
Good op, my mum used this and says thats it's good. Even the £5 isn't too bad if you would have spent this on a cab or petrol. I always wonder how much the supermarkets lose on 'impulse' buying though!? Benn
This is a really good review - I agree with you about the £5 charge but with the number of vouchers they send me (my post and e-mail) I sometimes wonder why they bother.
by (8%):
28.04.2003 21:39
Good op, my mum used this and says thats it's good. Even the £5 isn't too bad if you would have spent this on a cab or petrol. I always wonder how much the supermarkets lose on 'impulse' buying though!? Benn
12.02.2003 21:01
I really dislike this nectar card thing but great op!
12.02.2003 19:34
This is a really good review - I agree with you about the £5 charge but with the number of vouchers they send me (my post and e-mail) I sometimes wonder why they bother.