On line supermarket orders - substitutes

Sainsburys are pretty good. They email to let you know of any substitutions & you can return them if not right. A lot of the time the subs are better than what has been ordered so no complaints! You have the chance at Checkout to refuse any substitutions for a particular item.

Apple Sauce not available last week at Tesco, substitute on offer was Tartare Sauce! Ironing Water not available either, substitute was Fabric Conditioner.

My friend ordered Tenna pads and got............nappies?

My son order beer and got baby food!! ? only this week I ordered walkers cheese and onion crisps 6 pack and got 12 instead I can live with that.

Asda allows you to select No Substitutions for each item you order. Otherwise you will receive subs but you just hand them back fir a refund.

I once ordered a can of WD40 with something called a smart straw attached. Instead, I got a packet of drinking straws!

The best I've heard is a packet of cornflakes and a jar of peanut butter as a sub for crunchy nut cornflakes. I've had a few iffy ones like slices of Polish cheese for cheddar but usually OK-ish!

Brilliant thread, love it!
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MawtheMerrier

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! ???

So not only the same colour but also the same colour in a different language!

Oldnproud

To be fair to Tesco, most of the substitutions they have made on my orders have been good.
I buy a lot of cheap brands, so substitutions of those are normally for more expensive ones, and i dont get charged extra for them.

Personally, I am not tempted to tick the 'no substitutions^' box, because I can send any I don't want straight back with the driver.
All I need to do is remember to read the invoice they've emailed to me in advance, rather than rely on spotting them as I empty the trays onto the kitchen table. I forget quite often!

I find those electronic invoices sent a few hours earlier are a big improvement. One week I had a substitution that I was not sure about (was it free of gluten?) so I had time to look it up on the Tesco website and check the ingredients.

Someone ordered Marmite and got fast-acting yeast. I think the pickers were taking the rise!

Someone else ordered toilet paper and got scouring pads.

To be fair to Tesco, most of the substitutions they have made on my orders have been good.
I buy a lot of cheap brands, so substitutions of those are normally for more expensive ones, and i dont get charged extra for them.

Personally, I am not tempted to tick the 'no substitutions^' box, because I can send any I don't want straight back with the driver.
All I need to do is remember to read the invoice they've emailed to me in advance, rather than rely on spotting them as I empty the trays onto the kitchen table. I forget quite often!

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! ???

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.

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 always select no substitution to avoid this problem.

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.

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.

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! ?

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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