On line supermarket orders - substitutes

I ordered cat litter liners for trays. What I received were ladies panty liners! Neither my cat nor I were impressed!

From that day on I have said no substitutions but few at Morrison's can read. I send the item back with the delivery driver if I do not want it.

Last week I had ordered four tins of rice pudding, but the substitution was four tins of custard.

Yes, the main ingredient of both is milk, but the similarity ends there.

The delivery man himself actually spotted it and commented, as he wasn't sure if I had seen the receipt, and thought it was a strange substitution. (I hadn't, but did notice as I was emptying the goods out of the trays.)

Charleygirl5, I think yours would be hard to beat as the silliest substitution ever

I ordered a bag of potatoes. They sent me one loose potato!

I've had one loose potatoe and one leek.
Now our Sainsburys send an email to warn of substitutions and you can give them back.l also got the largest bag of granulated sugar it was catering size and I did not realise you could send it back at the time.

I ordered a lemon once and got lemon cif. It was horrible with the fish - not really

The pickers are told what to get by the system. They don't choose the substitutions.

Tesco provides a space on the order for where you can specify what substitutes are acceptable .

The list given to the pickers has suggested substitutes when stock is not available, however, the picker can override this.

Pineapple for pomegranate would be because it is fruit beginning with p, lemon cif has lemon in the name, the substitutes match the words rather than the product type.

I use Ocado and very rarely get substitutes. That’s probably famous last words. I did get one last week - KitKat chunky instead of KitKat fingers. Not disastrous, I kept it.

I find the notes section under the product, Tesco, makes it easy to specify what is an acceptable substitute

With Sainsburys one can put no substitute for an item. I now do this after receiving panty liners instead of incontinence pads!
I did hear that they once substituted Tampax with a screwdriver.

I believe the substitutes are suggested by a computer. Blame whoever programmes the way the computer chooses - it only does what it is told.

I have a niece who ‘ picks and packs’ for Sainsburys. She says a computer suggests the substitution .

But we’re they the right size for dear Tara Charleygirl ?

I don't seem to get any inappropriate substitutes from Ocado only occasionally an M & S item like frozen seafood with which I make a Sunday paella.

It is not problem with substitutes with Sainsbury's, as I get an email before the delivery informing me of any, and I can always (as I have done with the pineapple) give them back to the delivery person.

Waitrose allow one to say 'no substitutes' for particular items. I've never had a silly substitute and sometimes one of higher price without extra charge. Over two years I've only sent one substitute back.

Grandma70s

I use Ocado and very rarely get substitutes. That’s probably famous last words. I did get one last week - KitKat chunky instead of KitKat fingers. Not disastrous, I kept it.

That could have been worse - they might have sent you Kitekat instead! ?

Morrisons also always tell you what substitutions they are sending in advance of the delivery and you can select ‘no substitution’ for each product if you want to.

With Tesco one supposedly gets no substitutions unless one ticks the box. There is a global box for allowing aubstitution for every item on the order if one wishes to use that and also individual check boxes for each type of item.

However, there is a Tesco policy to override and always substitute for some items, including milk and toilet rolls I was told. I don't know the full list.

However, one can usually override that override by explicitly writing not to substitute in the note.

The picker note of up to 55 characters including spaces, though a fewer-than-ASCII character choice allowed as, for exmple, a + sign is not allowed, can be used with or without using the substitution facility.

I am told that the picker note is displayed automatically to the personal shopper.

The picker note can be used to list alternatives and NOT alternatives, and also to request a choice where items are a mixture of manufactured items or are a food product that is variable.

For example, the notebooks are a mix of purple, white, black, so a picker note can be used to request a choice of colour.

For example, someone might request a mix of green bananas and yellow bananas, or, say, three large onions.

I wonder if the picker notes give the picker interest in the job, as the notes add variety to what would otherwise just be repetative.

I find that picker notes usually work.

I always select no substitution to avoid this problem.

Waitrose allows 'no substitution' for each individual item and in the notes you can always write what you'd like as a substitution (if you can be bothered). However, the substitutions they choose are always very close to the original item and nothing weird.

I have a WordPad text file with my substitution messages in it, and I copy from the file and paste into the picker note when I set up an order.

If I need to compose a new picker note, I copy it from the order and paste it into the file, then I save the updated file.

In the same WordPad text file I also keep a collection of delivery requests in a similar way. Delivery requests can have a maximum of 200 characters including spaces.

I will always remember the first Easter of the pandemic when I thought I would treat myself to a bottle of Rosé Prosecco as I was going to be on my own
Waitrose had run out and for my substitution I got a £38 bottle of pink champagne (at the Prosecco price of under £10)
I have never complained about substitutions since! ???