Waitrose narrowly edged out Ocado/M&S in our latest test of online grocery customer service with a score of 92 points – two points more than its arch rival.
And delivery played a big part: not only was the delivery slot available, the driver arrived punctually after calling to give a more precise time of arrival.
The driver also noted it was our shopper’s first shop and welcomed her to Waitrose. “He made me feel part of the family,” she said. The driver was also efficient, careful and very welcoming: “a great service”.
Ocado’s score of 90 points was also underpinned by strong driver service; they were helpful, polite, and did not rush our shopper. And as a wheelchair user, our shopper particularly appreciated that Ocado used bags and separated out fridge, cupboard and freezer products.
But they didn’t check the condition of the items; and though availability and substitutions were better, they also lost points for not offering bagless delivery.
Third place Asda was also close with 86 points. The driver was polite, but did not mention the six substitutions, or check the condition of the goods.
At least three of the items, including meat, had best before dates that were two days away, which our shopper felt was a bit short.
Tesco’s score of 81 points was underpinned by fantastic availability with no substitutions, but few delivery slots were available, despite our shopper making the order three days before the shop, forcing them to make a booking on Sunday – two days late.
Our Sainsbury’s shop was also beset with delivery problems. When the delivery failed to show, our shopper called customer service and was told there was a delay. When she called again she was told the driver had not answered the store’s call and all the customers were waiting for delivery. Our shopper was then called back and told she had not answered the door when the driver came.
The delivery was finally made at 11pm, four-and-a-half hours after the delivery slot ended.
Amazon came sixth with 62 points and while it came out cheapest, availability was poor, not helped by no frozen food being sold in our shopper’s area due to a technical issue with the freezers, isolated to the Glasgow area.
Nine items were unavailable and the alternatives offered were poor substitutes.
Morrisons offered free delivery as it was a new customer, but the experience for our shopper was undermined by poor availability, with three items unavailable to order and no alterative suggestions offered.
Navigation-wise the website was also not very intuitive and could not correct items spelt wrong, or inform that an item was out of stock.
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