BBC Watchdog: Asda home deliveries

Asda Electricals...... there's a story and a half to tell there!

Basically, it involves non-delivery and them telling me, the customer, to chase up the courier company, and when I put my complaint in writing they responded that delivery is "out of their control" and they hope I use their service again.... not likely. Never again.

Re: ASDA cheating on products

I have sent the letter below to ASDA. I know they will not reply in time. Now I have the delivered items untouched, including the tomatoes that they charged me for 1kg while the actual weight is 740g. We are trusting people, but we should not do so anymore. Learn from my experience and read on!

Customer Services
ASDA stores Ltd
ASDA House
Great Wilson Street
Southbank
LS11 5AD


Re: Complaint, Order No. 523756568

Dear Sir/Madam,

This is not my first order with you. Also, this is not my first problem that I experienced with every order. But this is the first time I decided to put the complaint in writing, and I am sorry I had to do so.
Today I’ve received my order (No. 523756568) for my on line shopping.
Few things I would like to mention to you:
1. Tomatoes: I’ve ordered 800gm. The actual weight on my scale is 740gm. I did not open the item, and I kept it as it is delivered in the tied clear bag. You mentioned on the receipt that you delivered 1kg, and I was charged for 1 kg. That was astonishing.
2. ASDA smart price lemon, 500 g/bag. I have ordered 2 bags. The weight of each one bag is 250 g., the other one is 240 g. (Copy of the label attached).
3. ASDA smart price oranges 1kg. I have ordered 2 bags. Each of the delivered bags is 600 g (3 oranges) NOT 1 kg as expected and written on the receipt (copy of the label attached) or as shown on the website (6-7 oranges/bag).
What you delivered is really “smart” to sell, not to buy!
P.S.My scale was checked by weighing a 1kg sugar pack and deemed to be near accurate (about 10 g difference).

4. I’ve ordered 2 Tilda Basmati rice, 12kg each. The price is £13.49/bag, with a total £26.98.

You delivered 10 kg bag for £19.98 as a replacement for the two original orders.
I told the driver that 24 kg replaced by 10kg does not sound right and he agreed. He said there is only one 10kg bag in my order and if I accept it, I will have to pay £19.98 not £26.98 (which is the price for the 2 original bags)! That was very amusing replacement for me to pay more for a 10 kg item that substitute 24 kg weight of the SAME PRODUCT. I’ve declined to take the 10kg bag.

I contacted the customer services, which is not a free line of course. While the staffs were very polite, they kept telling me about the T&C of sale and substitution not bearing in mind that any unfair contract is unlawful even if you sign for it. There is something called “Common sense” when you substitute items. How would I pay more for a 10 kg item that is replacing 24 kg item of the SAME PRODUCT? The staff told me that the driver did not give me the right information! The receipt mentioned that the two 12kg bags are replaced by 1 10 kg bag, how any one would interpret this!!

The warehouse store staff range me back and said the 12 kg items are rarely seen in stock, even the 10 kg item are rarely in stock too! Also, she was surprised that I have got 10kg bag of rice to replace 24 kg. I wonder why you put items on the website that does not seem to exist in your warehouse! I’ve asked the staff to re-deliver the item latter on but they said they cannot guarantee the availability!


I put my order mainly to get the rice, as I cannot find the product in my local store and the items are heavy too. So, I paid £4.50 for the delivery items that are always in stock. Also, I would not have bought the lemons and oranges. Also, I would have paid for the exact weight of the tomatoes without being overcharged. Also, I would have saved money on delivery. A taxi from home to the local shop return would have cost me £3.50 return. Or if I’m using my own car, it would have cost me £1.10.
Talking to your staff today made me feel there is no point of complaining. They do absolutely nothing to resolve issue. The only thing the do is saying “sorry” which in legal terms is not an admission of liability.
I do shop with Tesco. When you send e-mail regarding an order that was not right, they reply with an answer within 2 days, and they call you home to apologise. Also, when they refund any money, they send you e-mail to confirm the refund. That is what I call “Smart”.
ASDA can do better than Tesco if they want to. It is for our advantages as customers to have ASDA stores in our towns, cities and even villages.



Regards,




Essam Aly

Letter (3 pages) sent by post and fax too on 8/3/2010.
P.S. Could you please e-mail me the complaint procedure?

I do find the substitutes (that I haven't agreed to as I wasn't aware of them) really annoying. If, when I hit submit I'm told that all the groceries I've asked for are available, what happens in the interim period. When you're working from a recipe often the substitutes aren't good enough. Also, I quite often seem to find two of something in my bag as opposed to one. Is this just me clicking the wrong amount into my basket or not? It seems to happen quite a lot!

went to my friends house for a party in january, on the way to her house one of the bottles of wine broke and made the food taste a little...different.

also years ago when i worked at a supermarket they were short of drivers so they sent me as navigator with one of the trolley boys as the driver. in a word: disaster.

i doubt if some of those people ever got their food

Ha ha - god I can't believe that - that's terrible. But did make me laugh!

ASDA HOME DELIVERY IS RUBBISH!!!

So this is the third time i've used Asda Home delivery Services having made my purchases online.
the first time the delivery was on time. the second time it was late, but within 30min.
now... no delivery.

so the delivery was suppose to be on sunday 27th Feb 2011 between 12pm - 2pm.
from about 2:15pm i started to call the customer services online help line (0800 952 6060 UK). there was on answer. i continued to hold and call back several times, but to no avail even after calling for 90min there are no answer.

i decided to call my Asda Shopping centre in Leyton. this is the response that i got from them;

ring ring.... can i help you...
so i explained the problem.
they couldnt help me so they transfered me 4 times, until the fourth person said
,
sorry we dont know anything about the home delivery services, we cant help you.

So i then decided to call another local branch in Beckton.

they just put the phone down on me, so i called back and once again... sorry we cant help you.

i've decided i cant do anything about it..... i'm still waiting for my delivery...

Asda... your home delivery service is (S)ugar (H)oney (I)ce (T)ea..... straight up non-sense.

Hello, I work for Asda as a delivery driver. For obvious reasons im not going to give out any personal details such as my name or anything. Just thought I would let you know that Asda Homeshopping in my area is a disgrace and the majority of drivers that i know of agree. We only put up with it because we need the job for very different reasons. I, for example, need my job to get through uni.

Stories I can tell you range from customers shopping being STOLEN!!! by the people who load the van (obviously edible things like doughnuts or sweets). The green crates which your shopping is carried in are so dirty that you might as well carry the shopping in dustbins, customers orders being cancelled in the store because we are overbooked with out any notice being given.

One person posted on this forum about "substitutes" I will back Asda up on this one. Substitutes are a great idea from ASDA ONLY!!!! if you ordered say an asda home brand can of baked beans and they give the heinz variety- you get it for the original price. Tesco and sainsbury do not offer this.

Finally I speak to drivers from Tesco, sainsbury and waitrose on the road all the time (all three major brands drivers get on very well, we always help each other out with traffic problems etc) Other than waitrose the other drivers tell me horror stories about their stores shopping as well....its not just asda, its just asda are a lot more sloppy.....

ASDA are **** stop being a cheapscate and buy from Tesco. problem solved!!

Hello,

I am a new member who's signed up specifically to comment on just how dreadful Asda home delivery service is... I have far too many complaints to take up your time reading them all but my main grievances are:

1. Why do they feel the need to take the payment for the order twice then refund one payment if the amount differs by as little as a penny?!?! This can leave the customer out of pocket for as much as 10 days

2. Why do they advertise a £5 cashback on QuidCo then say they are unable to fulfil it?

3. Their call centre has to be the worst trained group of people I have ever had to deal with. On one occasion it took over 5 calls to rebook an order and, even better, after 3 phone calls they cancelled it instead!

4. Finally, to add insult to injury, when I sent them the above complaint using their extra unhelpful online form (no more than 1,000 characters) they decided a free delivery was an appropriate compensation - as if I would ever let them loose with my card details again.

I am disgusted with their service, have given up on any hope of being treated like a proper customer and am very keen to spread the word of just why never to use their service!!!!

NEVER using ASDA again - this is the 2nd home delivery in a row that half the items are missing and the contact center is about as much use as a chocolate teapot!!! Totally raging!!!!!!!!

Idriveavan said:

Hello, I work for Asda as a delivery driver. For obvious reasons im not going to give out any personal details such as my name or anything. Just thought I would let you know that Asda Homeshopping in my area is a disgrace and the majority of drivers that i know of agree. We only put up with it because we need the job for very different reasons. I, for example, need my job to get through uni.

Stories I can tell you range from customers shopping being STOLEN!!! by the people who load the van (obviously edible things like doughnuts or sweets). The green crates which your shopping is carried in are so dirty that you might as well carry the shopping in dustbins, customers orders being cancelled in the store because we are overbooked with out any notice being given.

Click to expand...

Until recently, I worked as an ASDA Home Shopping Delivery Driver and I can confrim that what "Idriveavan" has posted is true. Although most of the colleagues are quite personable, the constant pressure, stress and overall bs they endure means that they may come across as snappy, miserable, and withdrawn to the general public. It is a miserable department to work on and other colleagues know as this as it is very rare that people come to work on home-shopping from other departments. Filling home-shopping vacancies seems to be an impossible task due to the high-turnover of staff within the department (I eventually moved on elsewhere!!). In the current economic climate, you'd think ASDA would have a queue of prospective employees waiting for their chance to work, but, alas, no - it seems nobody wants to work for us. This adds to the existing pressure already put upon staff as more often than not they are expected to do the jobs of two people.

A solution to their staff problem would be a reduction in delivery slots (re: overbooking) to reflect actual staffing levels. But this is something that ASDA will not consider. Instead, they'll try and get every order picked (regardless of whether there's a driver to take them out or even a picker to pick them) which leads to confusion all round as these orders are usually rushed due to time-constraints, and because of that, these orders usually contain a high-volume "nil-picked" (unavailable) or subsituted items. It also explains why some orders are late as they are sometimes not picked in time for the load to go out. If there is no driver available for the load, it has to be fitted on to another load which also leads to lateness.

In the run up to christmas, I'd expect many problems. As shoppers, I'd advise you to book a delivery slot between 7-9, 8-10, 9-11, 10-12, or 11-1 (all am) as there will be staff in before these times to pick your order. If you book a slot after this then whether or not your delivery will successfully be deilvered is anyones guess.

As a ASDA home shopper in the past, I never had any problems with them before. Apart from a broken egg or yogurt cup. I was always refunded my money for them. It wasn't until recently, I have changed my mind on ASDA altogether.

My dilemma start just last week. I decided to start ordering my groceries again because I started a new job and the late hours don't let me fit grocery shopping on my to-do list. My husband is a full-time student, so neither of us have much time for any thing really. So I put my order through online to have my groceries delivered Tuesday between 1-3pm. My husband volunteered to stay home and wait for the groceries. I went off to work and didn't think anything would go wrong. I had been sent out a text a few days before that they had given me a free delivery, but when I put my order through, no such luck. I figured it probably expired and still ordered. I called my husband at my break about about 6pm asking if everything arrived okay, but he said nothing arrived. I didn't have a chance to phone asda at that point in time because I didn't have their number. So I made it home around 8pm and called asda and they said that the driver had tried to make the delivery, but no one was home. My husband assured me that he did not move away from the living room so he wouldn't miss the delivery. They told me that the home shopping dept was gone for the night and to phone early in the morning. I called the next day before work and managed to speak to someone at the local store and schedule a delivery for that day after 6pm. I phoned my husband as I was leaving work at 7pm and he said the order came through but the driver didn't have a receipt and so my husband couldn't check to see if items were missing. So I got home and compared the order to my list online and seen that about 4 items were missing. I called the store and heard that the home shopping dept was away for the day, but she took my details and said someone would phone me in the morning. I didn't want to chance it and phoned them in the morning before work and ask these items sent out to me after 6pm. They said they would and surprise, surprise no items arrived Thursday evening. I called up friday morning to solve this situation and took the afternoon off to wait for the items that were promised. Yet again, no items. I phoned at about 7.30 that evening and asked what happened to my delivery. The woman on the phone said that the home shopping dept was away and she took my details down again and told me I would get a call back. I was due for work on saturday, but phoned early and spoke to some in the right dept and they said my order would be delivered. I finished work at 7.30 and called my husband to see if the items had arrived, but no. I called one final time and heard the old excuse that the home shopping dept was gone. Left my details one more time, but did not hear from them at all on sunday.

I called the contact centre today and explained the whole situation. I told the agent that I had been lied to over and over again. I had been promised deliveries and they never came. I was promised call backs and none were made. I demanded a full refund of the order which came to about £37. She said she would need to call the local store and check if that was possible, but she said it was unlikely. She called me back and said the store could have the items sent out to me today, but no refund. I asked she transfer me to the store and I would speak to the person in charge myself. I spoke to the woman on the phone (and it sounded like I spoke to her before) and she said the best they could do was send out my items and give me a £5 voucher for the whole ordeal. By this point, I had been patient and waited for ASDA to get it's act together, but no. I told the woman that I didn't want the items anymore because chances are I'm not going to get them. I told them what they were doing is basically theft because they are holding on to my money and not delivering my items. She said I wasn't being charged for the items, but how would I know that if I didn't get a receipt in the first place. I told her I wanted my money back for the items and the delivery. I told her that it was appalling how they just string customers along and lie to them. I assured her that this wouldn't be the last time she heard from me or about this issue.

So the reason I am sharing all of this, is to find out what I can do to push this further, so that this doesn't happen to other people. From what I've read, sending a stern letter to the complaints dept doesn't really amount to anything. Is there anything else I can do?

Elena345 said:

So the reason I am sharing all of this, is to find out what I can do to push this further, so that this doesn't happen to other people. From what I've read, sending a stern letter to the complaints dept doesn't really amount to anything. Is there anything else I can do?

Click to expand...

First of all, find out which store is responsible for the delivery of your shopping. Calling customer services is all well and good but all they do is contact the relevant store to see what is happening, then call you - the customer - with some sort of excuse. If you get the number of the store directly, you can find out what's going on with your order. If you want to be thorough, call both customer services and the store. See if you get the same response from both sources, and if you don't, then the problem will more than likely related to staffing levels (ie: no staff available to either pick or deliver your shopping).

Now that you have contact with the relevant store, get the name of the Home Shopping Manager. If you harrass them everytime there's something wrong, they will (unoffically of course) class you as a problem customer. You may find this label a bit harsh but it means that your order will be singled out for things like 'spot-checks' to ensure that all the shopping picked is at least there (although there are some things that are genuinely out of stock!!) to avoid any further complaints.

If this fails, find out the name of the General Store Manager and send a written letter of complaint. Trust me, letters to the GSM are taken seriously and people get their arses kicked in an attempt to resolve the complaint.

ello
I had to register to highlight the appalling and inhumane treatment my family have just been subjected to by ASDA.
Monday of this week my partner sat down in the Evening to do a home shop for Tuesday as we were expecting funds into our account that day to pay for the shopping.
However the funds did not go in so they rejected the order.That's fair enough if it had ended there.
But heres the issue.Two days later I go to make a purchase and my card is declined and We have three young disabled children and are both in poor health ourselves and the money We thought we had in our account was our only money.
I contacted the bank and was informed that Asda had taken the money from our account even though the order was rejected and cancelled. I contacted there number and found myself talking to a call centre in south AFRICA!! where I was in formed that they had made a mistake and a refund would take 3-5 working days(which in real terms is a week.I fully explained my families circumstances and the dire predicament this had put my family in to no avail.
This was in the evening.So Friday morning I rang back on the UK number and guess what was put back through to South Africa.After fully explaining the Emergency again I was told that they would speak to their accounts and see what they could dnly to be called back and told there was nothing but have a £20 VOUCHER!!!!. We live in an electronic age and even I from my simple bank account could make an instant money transfer to another.So knowing my families health and financial circumstances how inhumane for a large profitable organisation to have other peoples wrongly taken money held in interest making holding accounts instead of rectifying their admitted error in a Humane and just manor.

I like many people here have registered just to speak up on how appalling Asda is.

I have just spent the last 3 days with no electric or money because of Asda taking my money a second time and holding it. I called on Tuesday morning and asked them to release the funds asap but they didn’t release them until this morning (Friday). Everything in my house is electric so I couldn’t phone anyone, couldn’t cook my kids dinner and couldn’t even have a hot bath. I do not have an overdraft facility nor any friends or family where I live that I could ask for help. It was a horrible few days and all because of Asda!

This behavior is despicable. Ocado does not take your money until after the delivery has been made ensuring that you never have to deal with these kinds of complications whereas Asda is more concerned with money than they are their customers. Well consider me an Ocado shopper now I am never going back to Asda ever again. Customers should ALWAYS be more important than the bottom line!

Not to mention that even when these money issues do not arise, there are the missing items, changes in your original order (so many times I've clicked 2 and only received 1), late deliveries and of course the state of "fresh food" fruits that should be fresh and have about 5-7 days on them either are already inedible or only last for a day or 2 and most of it is squished or bruised.

This did not happen when I was a new customer however but after being with them for some time the service dropped considerably!

ASDA DIRECT DELIVERY to the STORE is just as worse. Ordered a PS3 for my son via the phone on Sunday. They promised it would arrive by Friday and a email on how i could track the parcel.

On tracking the parcel, it showed delivery on Wednesday to the store had happened, however I had received no text or email to collect item. Called Asda up who confirmed that delivery has been made! however the shop insisted that it is still in transit.

Finally on the Monday after getting the same reply, it is still in transit, I called them up, they stated it is lost. Arranged for refund, have to wait 10 days till i can re order or buy elsewhere.

Didnt expect this from Asda

Asda is my fav store I cant say how this happens this with you..

My Wife placed an order for home delivery with ASDA the middle of last week and booked a delivery slot for Friday evening (2/8/2013) between 6 and 8pm.

At 8.30 she rang the appropriate number to ask where the delivery was and was told it was still out for delivery and that there couldn't/shouldn't be a problem with the delivery/driver other than just running late, as, my wife was assured, the driver would call us if there was. Accepting that, although a little annoyed that the driver didn't have the courtesy to at least call and say he was running late, my wife agreed to call back half an hour later if the delivery still hadn't arrived.

An HOUR later, my wife called again, ASDA had no answer as to why the delivery had not been made, they said they had even contacted the driver and asked him to call my wife with an estimated time for the delivery. At this point my wife asked if they had actually given the driver her correct mobile number as she had recently updated this on her ASDA account. Looking over her shoulder at this point I could see in ALL THREE PLACES for contact phone numbers was my wife's correct phone number was in place. ASDA asked my wife for her correct phone number whilst she was on the phone and ASDA confirmed that was the number they had. ASDA said they would move the complaint up to a line manager and someone would call her back ASAP. My wife advised it was now 9.30 and that she was going to bed at 10pm. NO ONE CALLED BACK THAT NIGHT AND NO DELIVERY WAS MADE.

The following morning my wife called ASDA to find out how and where she could complain and was given an address to write to. ASDA said that they would try again to deliver the order on the Saturday. My wife explained that she had already given up her Friday evening and was not prepared to give up any more time so was cancelling the order completely and made it quite clear that was the last time she would do business with ASDA and that she now would spend her Saturday shopping at Tesco instead.

On Saturday evening, around 24 hours late, ASDA turned up at our door with a delivery. I pointed out that this couldn't be for us as our delivery was supposed to have been mad the evening before and that my wife had cancelled the delivery altogether that morning. The delivery driver then started making excuses on behalf of his colleague, saying that that he had tried to find the property the day before, but as he couldn't, he had tried to phone but had no reply. I asked to see the delivery note and guess what?. THE WRONG PHONE NUMBER WAS ON IT!!! So despite the correct number being on the account in three places and ASDA confirming that they had the correct phone number, a different number was on our delivery details. I asked the delivery driver why it was that despite not having the correct phone number his colleague still could not find our property, he said "well your property is hidden behind a high hedge" Can you believe that?!!! Our property can be seen quite clearly from any direction despite being behind a "high hedge" as the nearest properties to us are half a mile away in any direction! I told the delivery driver that there are only SIX cottages down our road, so surely it was not exactly rocket science for him to have found the correct one!! After yet more excuses from the delivery driver in defence of his colleague, I asked him how HE had found the property. His reply was "I called at one of the other cottages up the lane, they said the delivery wasn't for them, try the other cottages further up the lane" So I said, "So, you drove a little further up the lane and found us, despite being behind a "high hedge" and I'm guessing you also read the big A4 sized sign at the end of the driveway right where you have parked your van? "Yes" was the reply. "Goodbye" was mine.

ASDA. what farce of a service you provide!.

A little tip. When employing delivery drivers, make sure, as well as having a licence, that they are literate, numerate and have at least two brain cells. One to do the thinking and the other to keep the first one company, so that on those very tricky deliveries where properties in the countryside can be hidden behind "a high hedge" the delivery driver could double his thinking capacity.