On line supermarket deliveries - advice please

henetha

I used Tesco delivery for ages, until they increased the fee to £4.50. So now I do click and collect instead which is much cheaper.

Henetha, have you thought of using the Tesco Delivery Saver plan? For £7.99 a month I get free delivery Tuesday to Thursday which is a big saving as I have a weekly delivery. It also gives you priority access to Christmas slots, a week before they are released to everyone else.

Elegran

Remember that you can add things to your order (or take them off it) up until late evening on the day before delivery. so you can start the order well in advance and keep adding things as they run out, or as they occur to you. That way you can see ahead of time if the order is likely to be less than the minimum spend, and have a good look round the store cupboard and the freezer to find things to add.

I am the only person who saves a slot with the easiest thing to get to the £40? In my case it is 4 boxes of DH's beer, which I delete when I actually do a shop. Only once I forgot to save my changes and all that appeared was 4 boxes of Fosters lager

My next door neighbour did a similar thing but she got 2 bottles of rum.

Elegran

I hscoave had very few substitutions from Tesco, but my nearest branch is a large one, so perhaps it holds a wider range of items than some.

I also rarely have substitutions with Tesco but any that are unsuitable get handed back to the store immediately ( I do click and collect) and I get a refund in a few days.

I also have the delivery saver and even though I have a weekly order, as Click and Collect is cheaper than deliveries, I have just had a refund voucher for £13 as I haven’t spent all my quarterly direct debit. I love being able to book a slot for four weeks ahead rather than the three weeks other customers get. I also like the favourites section where all my purchases I’ve made over 12 months are listed in department order so I can browse through and quickly order my regular items.

I live alone but must be very extravagant on my food shopping as I always spend more than £40, in fact it’s more like £60 plus! But I do buy loads of household items as well, in fact most months I do not need to go to another shop for things.

In fact, I think I am addicted to Tesco online! I do pop into Aldi every few months for a browse round, especially before Christmas as their mince pies are delicious.

No you're not the only one kitty. I reserve it with a few boxes of wine. Sometimes I take them out, sometimes I leave them in My daughter did this and ended up with a few bottles of vodka and no shopping!

kittylester

Elegran

Remember that you can add things to your order (or take them off it) up until late evening on the day before delivery. so you can start the order well in advance and keep adding things as they run out, or as they occur to you. That way you can see ahead of time if the order is likely to be less than the minimum spend, and have a good look round the store cupboard and the freezer to find things to add.

I am the only person who saves a slot with the easiest thing to get to the £40? In my case it is 4 boxes of DH's beer, which I delete when I actually do a shop. Only once I forgot to save my changes and all that appeared was 4 boxes of Fosters lager

My next door neighbour did a similar thing but she got 2 bottles of rum.

Kitty, you don’t need to put £40 in your basket to save it, I usually put in the loaf of bread I always have then go to the checkout to reserve my slot. I used to put in a bottle of gin until I had to give up alcohol with some new medication and didn’t want to forget to take it out!

My friend thought that if she went back to the basket to add something she ended up paying twice for the items already in it. It took me a while to convince her that wouldn’t happen!

I've used Sainsbury's for nearly a year now but do order over £40. The drivers are brilliant. I check all fresh fruit and veg and if not fresh, I refuse it. Think I've only done this twice. Had a bag of oranges once with one going off but the others were OK. I refused the bag and driver told me to keep them and he's marked them up as damaged - I got a full refund.

I really like their substitution promise. help.sainsburys.co.uk/help/terms-and-conditions/Substitution-promise-T-Cs
My order this week had my usual 500g of sultanas(99p). They were out of stock so they substituted it for 1kg bag of better quality £3.20. I've just received my £2.21 refund difference ?. Wish I'd ordered more ?

I now do a delivery pass £30 for a once a week delivery and I can choose the hour slot but it is Tuesday to Thursday only.

Tesco mid week delivery pass is £36 a year. Pay for it with £12 of Tesco vouchers (worth x3 when you buy this), therefore costs nothing. Even gave me 3 months free because of difficulty booking slots. Also delivery pass allows you to book slots 4 weeks in advance. It is just not worth getting the car out for a 50 mile round trip.

I have been online grocery shopping for around 10 years now and love it. My current favourites are ocado and waitrose but I am also registered with sainsburys and tesco.

oh PS to make the minimum spend I wait to buy things like loo roll and washing up liquid until I need to increase my spend to make the minimum

Kate1949

We've been using Tesco's since the start of the pandemic. We never had deliveries before. Tesco's have been fantastic. It can be expensive if you don't spend £40 but we usually do. We have their 'delivery saver' which we pay twice a year and saves us money. Our delivery driver told us one day that he had just delivered to a flat on the 17th floor so I don't think flats are a problem. Iceland have also been good. We tried Asda. They were hopeless.

I buy a 6 month delivery saver with my Tesco coupons as you get three times their value so for about £16 of coupons I get free delivery for 6 months

We use Sainsbury's and we live in an old converted corn mill with the front door being up a flight of old (uneven) stone steps on the side of the building. And it's not a problem for the delivery people at all - apparently they do deliver to blocks of flats which are much more difficult to access than us. They are always so helpful and prior to the pandemic they would bring it in to the kitchen if I was ever on my own

Just placed a Waitrose order. They will now come in the house and unpack if you want, or they will put into your own bags on the doorstep. Delivery charge is £3.

During lockdown I started to use Amazon Prime now which works in conjunction with Morrisons. You can usually get a same day delivery if you need it. I wouldn’t use it for a main shop as it’s a bit limited in what you can order, but it’s really useful for smaller orders - minimum spend for free delivery is £40 and they pack your shopping into large sturdy brown paper sack bags which make great bin liners afterwards.

I use Asda, so possibly different again, but here is a run down of how it works.
1. Choose a delivery day and time. Prices vary accordingly. Click in your choice.
2. You can add to your shopping list for a good while after you've ordered. You can search for what you want then filter the results by price, brand, etc.
3. I use some really big bags and take them to the door.
The driver fetches the shopping in crates, so I load them, higgledy piggledy into the bags as they're only going to be unpacked in the kitchen.
The drivers are patient and chatty.
I will have been notified of any substitutes so i look out for those and hand them back if they arent wanted. The money is credited back to me when the driver hands them back in store.

Ditto here with Tesco and Waitrose.

It's one of those things that is a bit daunting to try for the first time.
It seems as if everyone else knows how to do it.

I had great difficulty getting a slot with any supermarkets at first last year even though I had a shielding letter.

Tesco were the only ones who listened after I sent a plea via a FB message.
It took 8 weeks but the systems are far better now, Franbern.

Having a fortnightly delivery so that your order is over the minimum £40 is a good idea, if you can go out for milk etc in between as annsixty said.

That's what I do.
I stock up on toilet rolls, tinned stuff to make it up to the £40 and usually choose a time that costs £2.50.

I see that Tesco are only offering ‘any day’ delivery saver. Even at nearly a £100 a year it is still worth buying especially if you have vouchers to use.

Some good ideas there, thank you. I had no idea we could use our tesco vouchers for this. And the delivery saver thing is great.

Thank you for the tip Pammie1 about Amazon Prime (which I already pay for) and Morrisons. I started using Morrison's during lockdown and pay £20 every 6 months to avoid delivery charges, but I only really order heavy things, as I live in a 2nd floor flat (delivery never a problem) but nice to know I can knock off those charges. I order multi-boxes of long life milk, large cartons of soft drinks and things that my very local Aldi do not carry.

Ocado here every fortnight and they are brilliant. Refund you for all plastic bags that you return to the driver so they are free in effect. I have a Smart Pass and my midweek deliveries are ‘free’. Have also already booked my Christmas slot.

That’s a million dollar question it depends on the driver some will carry to your door and some won’t. I live in a flat at min waiting to move. I had an Asda delivered and nothing was in a bag and he didn’t want to bring to my front door. He huff puffed and frowned as I stood at my front door waiting for him. I’ve got bruised shoulder and broken ribs. So you can imagine the fun I had. lol but I said customer should have choice if want bags or not. Me I stick with Iceland you have your choice if you want bags or not and the guys who have delivered for me even carry my bags into kitchen. Never moan always pleasant. I hand bags back and get refunded. Sainsbury’s not local so can’t comment but Tesco’s delivered to my front door too. What I would do and do is stand at your front door and smile at them and wait for them to bring up to you. I actually rang Asda and asked them and they said delivery is too your front door. You live in your flat not the block.

I used Sainsbury’s for a long time but daughter does it now, decided to do a shop last Christmas with a voucher I had, worked it out to almost the last penny but then delivery day I had a message it had been declined, got onto Sainsbury’s to ask why and was told one of the substitute items made it go over by a penny, asked if they could take that item off, no couldn’t do that as it was now packed so asked if I could pay the penny on another card, no, can’t mix payment methods so in the end I had to use my debit card to pay for all of the order so be careful with substitutes and if you don’t want them, tick the box to say that

I sometimes think the drivers are the best bit of the deliveries. I have never had a grumpy one, they are all helpful and cheerful. Nothing is too much trouble. One was not keen on my dogs and asked if he could hand it over the gate but was very apologetic about it - don’t think he lasted long round here where everyone has a dog.

Means I get someone to talk to other than husband once a week.