The best and the worst so far

Our local corner shop, award winning butcher and popular pub/restaurant have been absolutely brilliant during the lockdown. Service and quality have been second to none and all three have delivered.

I've had two deliveries and a click and collect from Asda. They were the only supermarket taking new online customers when shopping went pear shaped, so I'm grateful for that, but things I've definitely ordered seem to drop off the list with no information or explanation. I thought I was going batty the first time it happened but my son (lives here) saw me order certain things that disappeared from the list last time so I was reassured! However, one of the things was bread so that was awkward. I won't shop online with them after this crazy situation is over.

First class service from our local chemist and local family run plant nursery. Tesco are the only supermarket I can get either a Click and Collect or a delivery from and they have been great. Excellent service from an independent butchers and from Shipton mill for bread flour (even though I did need to buy rather a lot!)

My housing association, rang me to see if i was ok,and did i need any help with shopping etc
Also reported my bathroom light packing upl [they have to repair] they were here within 2 hours
Not so good, iceland delivery sent me milk when i ordered bleach, to make the price i paid up, so ended up with 4 litres of milk

Scottish power ; never had a worse energy company
Tring to switch, no refused as i apparently had a debt of £25 for Electricity, although in the first place when i told them the monthly payment they asked me for wouldn't be enough to cover winter ,but wouldn't let me increase it at first,
I have always paid more than asked to cover winter fuel bills
Later decided i could, but then asked me for £114 a month, which took 3/4 of my pension, so stopped DD ,next payment went down to £50 , next payment was £58. then 2 of £60,, i was fed up with these erratic payments and £114 was out of the question every month
When i applied to switch, it was refused, i sent a reading every month so none were estimated, but knowing i wanted to leave submitted an earler reading, of the times when the weather was hot so hardly used any extra gas or electric,then they wanted £78 based on that reading which i had paid only 2 weeks earlier, so paid that was told i could go ahead and switch, when i had paid the £25. so emailed new supplier, but yesterday got another email from SP saying i couldn't again, asking for the £25 i had just paid,and another £52,, for gas
I will never go with SP again and been advised to contact Ofgem
Their website says anyone in financial difficulties or vulnerable people could make arrangements to pay. not offered to me, and i'm on their priority scheme,because of age and when i tried to speak to someone,was told, sorry can't access your account,ring later
I have rung several times and can't get to speak to anyone
I find their attitude disgusting
Very sorry it's so long ,just needed a rant

NHS. - DH was in hospital for two weeks after becoming ill with Covid 19 in nursing home. A doctor called me every second day to give me an update. It wasn't rushed, and they always invited me to ask questions. The speech therapist and dietician both also called regarding his difficulty in swallowing and diet.
No major grouses, but I was disappointed when I went to Tesco during their hour for older people, and discovered people of all ages, including children, there. Also I've thought in two large stores, that the staff haven't been careful to keep their distance pat times.

Good: Amazon, Moonpig, Wild and Bloom for flowers, Asda click & collect, our local post person, Nicky.

Poor: Thompson and Morgan, who seem to be very slow off the mark. I'm still waiting for plants ordered weeks ago. No response to my emailed enquiry.

Improving after a poor start: Morrisons home delivery.

Shopping mainly at local farm shop. They are friendly and serving from door. Customers calm and queueing sensibly outside with no tape to tell us how to. Only buying essentials. Anything else can wait

We’ve shopped at Sainsbury’s every week for years and years but they let us down big time over deliveries. Never any slots even when I contacted them to say we are shielding because my husband received a letter from the NHS suggesting he should stay at home for three months.

We have never shopped at Asda, not even once, but they gave us a slot and now turn up every Friday regular as clockwork.

Thanks, Asda we will never go back to Sainsbury’s.

Our local deli shop, butchers and small Spar who have kept going throughout with good stocks.

Other local shops like hardware and electrical shops who will do deliveries now.

Our local Tesco, which is not one of the very big ones, but is being very careful about enforcing the one-way system and proper distancing.

Hermes, which seems (here at least) to be a lot more efficient than it used to be, including their tracking system.

BT, who not only fixed the problem with the local landlines and broadband a day earlier than they had estimated, but kept us well-informed at all times.

The worst would be National Savings. I wanted to register to manage my accounts online and apparently I don't exist in a way that they can check on, and I can't print off their form as the printer has packed up (not their fault, I will admit) and their phone number is not answered except to say that there is a 45 minute wait - yeah, right!

I’m disillusioned with Waitrose. I’ve been an online customer of theirs for years. I’m well into my seventies, but when I contacted them because they had not contacted me, I was basically told that they could not do anything to help. I guess that as long as their slots fill up and they’re making a big profit they don’t really care. On the bright side, I managed to get a slot with Tesco and my bill was almost £50 less! (I am feeding two adults and two teenagers in lockdown.)

I can only speak as I find..... Been with Barclays 51 years.... never had one problem with them. Our life flows smoothly because of the way they handle our affairs.

Very pleased with the Card Factory. Choose a card, personalise it and add greeting/verse inside. Most are 99p small, £1.99 medium and £2.99 large + postage, which can be sent straight to recipient or to your home with a stamped addressed envelope. Order a bit earlier than needed and they have never failed so far.
For our Golden Wedding meal, instead of a lunch for family and friends, we had fish & chips from our favourite shop delivered by Just Eat. Within half an hour of requested time and piping hot.
But most of all, my DD who, despite working long hours as a paramedic, delivers our shopping every week, without error and with good substitutions.

Miss Foodlove. You are right about Hermes. They make it virtually impossible to find a number or address to contact if anything goes wrong. However, I have sometimes actually fielded a delivery and found that my usual delivery man lives in the next village when I asked him at 7 in the evening if he would like to use my loo. If you have seen the film "Sorry I Missed You" you will understand the brutal hours that drivers work. As I have no porch, drive or anything else, outside my cottage which opens on to the street, the shop opposite kindly takes in my numerous parcels as I can't get out to shop any more The other thing I can say in favour of the big delivery firms is that the tracking works right down to the likely two hour slot they hope to deliver. If you know you will,be out, in normal times, you can divert the parcel, in my case to the village shop. However, I think of all the millions living in blocks of flats. This must be a nightmare for all concerned.as far as deliveries go.

Only good from me .

John Lewis click and collect for collection with my weekly Waitrose shop , great as usual . Cheerful staff, working really well with the queuers . Feel like a VIP with the greeting and chat from the service desk staff . Free tulips ? too !

Great service and shed delivery from a local saw mill . Fantastic quality and service beyond the normal . Carried a long way to the end of my garden for me .

Postman smiling away as he runs along the road delivering . Assume he uses it as his exercise? He’s too fast for me to ask him!

The Postmen have been great Always cheerful and asking how we are. Tesco Extra has been excellent at organising social distancing and sanitising trolleys. They are constantly cleaning shelves and maintaining good hygiene practices. Local garden centres have been good too. One in particular came out specially with a delivery of potting compost because they had promised delivery the day before but had the wrong address.
Hermes deliveries have been very efficient. It’s the same person who does the deliveries, so no problems.

Morrison’s however have been appalling. Yes there is a queueing system, but when you get into the store there are no arrows , social distancing is difficult because the aisles are so narrow and the staff don’t seem to know what social distancing means, standing in groups chatting and pushing past customers - yeuk! I shall never go into that store again.

Our local Home Bargains and Iceland have no sanitising equipment available, so I shan’t be going there again either until lockdown is lifted.

It seems from reading other posts that there is a lack of consistency in procedures across the country by the large supermarket chains

Boots have been very good, and they don't charge for delivery. Amazon, which usually delivers within a couple of days. My daughter manages to get me Morrisons deliveries from 6,000 miles away! She can go on the website when we are all asleep.

Online delivery from Waitrose has been excellent and reliable as has been our local garden centre. Also immediate delivery from Cass Arts. Boots is always 'out of stock' and John Lewis allowed me to pay in full before informing me that two of the main items ordered were 'out of stock. How does that work then? I went to Selfridges online and got everything I wanted in the first place with free delivery to arrive the next day (all items were the same price).

I've found it impossible to get a delivery slot with any supermarket except Asda, and t h e n unfortunately they seem to have lots of stuff unavailable. I found a village shop, several miles away from me, who advertised delivery on FB. Twice now they have brought me a 'community box' with eggs,milk, bread and fruits and veg. Good value and free, friendly and safe delivery, they even had flour. I also found online a butchers who did hamper deliveries. It came the next day, still well chilled and filled my freezer. It worked out cheaper than the supermarket too.I hope they continue delivering after this ends, I'd certainly carry on using them

I forgot to give a big BOO to TravelUp. They keep sending me emails, making excuses for not refunding my flights. I was happy to cut them some slack, knowing how many people they had to deal with, but the latest message states that, if a want a refund, they will deduct £50 for their expenses, which is illegal. Otherwise, I must accept a voucher. Heaven knows when I can use that, and how much flights will be when they finally get going again. I might have popped my clogs by then!

Thumbs down for Moonpig from me. I have been a customer for a long time but earlier in the lockdown their website was impossible to navigate and they let me get as far as checkout before saying cards were out of stock. E- cards were problematic as well.

Thumbs up to our bin men who circumnavigated our Jack Russell who stood in the middle of the road and refused to move. Definitely a David &Goliath moment.

Scottish Power, who phoned asking me if I wanted to arrange my annual gas boiler service. It was done the following week, fully compliant with all the Covid precautions.
Amazon, for delivering my books and new toaster promptly.
I haven’t tried to order food online, but go to the supermarket once a week. They all seem to be dealing safely and efficiently with their customers. Although, at 80, I could get deliveries, I prefer to leave them for people who can’t get out to shop.
As for my ‘thumbs down.” I moved from Barclays after the Libor scandal, and would never deal with them again.
The only other problems I’ve had have been postal ones. Probably because there are a lot fewer planes travelling to Australia my son’s birthday card and a small parcel to my GD still haven’t arrived after two months. I hope the hand-knitted sweater I so lovingly made has not gone missing.

Tesco have been great. First few weeks I struggled to get a slot. I used Morrison's. They were only delivering a third of my order ?.
Amazon themselves are fantastic.... until they pass on deliveries to Hermes who are a shower of sh**!!! Ridiculous company to try and deal with!! ?
Ringtons have been amazing too.
As have Holland and Barrett although they too use Hermes! I understand Hermes are cheap but there is a reason for that!!!

Our local butcher has been amazing, no shortage of any meat you can think of plus EGGS! which are are in short supply around here. And our tiny little local shop which sells all manner of things has kept up a supply of flour. He knows someone who knows if you get my drift!
Awful service from an online plant co. called YOU Garden that has kept us waiting 8 weeks for an order and all the plants have either died or are close to it. No phone line open only an email that just keeps coming back with FAQs and a line that says sorry things are taking longer to arrive.

Having had two hip replacements in six years, but made aware there is only so much that can be done for the rest of me. Consequently there have been days over these years when having to take extra meds and for my own safety do not drive I rely on a Tesco delivery. Never had problems with this before now in getting a slot and furious when I got a CEO email message as no doubt did many others like me saying 'to go to the store leaving slots for the 'aged and 'vulnerable'.I responded asking would they like a copy of my BC and lists of Meds for them to decide ' if I am not one of the vulnerable'. It will be interesting to observe just how many slots become available once restrictions are lifted.
Strange ? how all of a sudden I am able to obtain a slot.

I haven't really had any problem with bad service. My first online order from Sainsburys had no milk so I went to the shop (the last time I went out to shop since the start) and it was difficult to get the next delivery slot but at least I got one by trying from 6am. I couldn't get another one from them but managed from Iceland who delivered most stuff but light on fresh veg which is not really surprising considering its not their main business. Now I have another Sainsbury's delivery tomorrow.
I think considering that they have all had to totally change their business model, they have done well. I am lucky though that I am in an area where they all deliver plus some more unusual food retailers.
I have not been able to get slots from Morrisons or Waitrose but I see Waitrose vans often so they are obviously getting stuff out.
My dentists office rang me to ask if I was ok and needed any help with shopping or anything which is definitely going above and beyond and was quite touching. I told them I was fine and they told me to let them know if I needed anything in future.
I haven't tried to order anything non foodish as I don't really want the delivery people to have to do too much.
A BT engineer came out and spent ages getting my internet back about 3 weeks ago and he was very nice. He managed to do it without coming into the flat and it has been much better since. It was always dropping before.
Also a Slade repairman came out to repair our front door and did it quickly, he had to board it up and I thought that would be it until things were back to a semblance of normal but he has been back and replaced the glass.
I had a delivery from Hermes of shoes that I had won in a competition and I felt a bit guilty that someone had to come out for that. It could have waited especially as they weren't very nice. Had a staple at the back and hard soles so it was like walking on flippers. I don't think they are even nice enough to give to a charity shop.

Tesco have been brilliant when we have managed to get a slot and they have refunded our Delivery Saver, extended our vouchers etc to make sure we don't miss out. Asda has had more slots but their online shopping is a nightmare. The little town I live in has set up a local alliance so you can order your shopping through all the different local shops in one place; that was impressive.