On line supermarket orders - substitutes

I ordered a frozen beef curry and got a tin of stewed beef and a tub of curry powder.

I once had a phone call from Tesco querying my order. Did I mean to order 22 leeks? No, it should have been 2, but my finger must have stuttered. They said they thought they were going to have to put an extra delivery van on the route. When it turned up the two leeks were huge and filled a bag on their own! ?

SunnySusie

I ordered a frozen beef curry and got a tin of stewed beef and a tub of curry powder.

Did it work please?

I ordered tinned chopped tomatoes and got coconut milk ?

There's been a few threads on mumsnet about the inappropriate substitutions made by supermarkets, some of them hysterical. If interested, have a search for them. May be a few years old as I think they might have upped their game by now.

My friend tells the story of her substitute for potatoes being a wooden sweeping brush regularly ? Neither of us can understand that logic

I always opt for no subs but occasionally the Tesco picker takes a punt, I get the invoice emailed before the delivery arrives so if there are any iffy items I can pass them straigth back to the driver. When I start an order if an item is unavaiablle the computer will make suggestions my favourite was I wanted coconut pieces they offered pineapple fingers well they are both fruit I suppose but...

I ordered AA batteries because they were on a BOGOF….when they came they were AAA’s…. when I pointed this out to driver he said “ well they are the same brand”( Duracell) …I pointed out it was not the brand that was the salient point but the power! It was lost on him!

I use click and collect from two supermarkets.

If there are any substitutions, I just hand them back.

I’m usually informed prior to my collection if there are going to be any substitutions.

My daughter works Nights for Waitrose. She says that when the 'pickers' are choosing the products, if they are out of stock of a particular item, the electronic pad they carry around with the orders suggests what to substitute. But she also says that if the 'picker' has half a brain and sees something as a much better substitute they can ignore the pad and put their own substitute instead.

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.

I think thats because Ocado is a warehouse so its easier for then to keep their website uo to date "in real time" with what is in stock; whereas if the orders come from a store they won't know that a customer has taken the last lemon.

I ordered fresh broccoli and they sent me frozen broccoli and cauliflowers florets!

I do a supermarket shop every few months as I like to drink sparkling water and do not have a car to transport it. One month my order contained 10 bottles of still water instead of the sparkling one. I noticed and rejected them but it meant that I still had no sparkling water in the house and that was the only reason I had done an online shop! I have given up now and do my shop and get a taxi home, it is the same cost as the delivery charge and I know I have the right things.