Sainsburys Online Groceries

On 12/10 2012 I purchased a Techlink B3B Bench Corner TV Stand £99.99. After a long wait, it did not arrive, and there was no contact from Sainsburys. After a ridiculous amount of hassle and phone calls, a TV Corner Unit eventually arrived. This was the second one that they had "apparently" sent, and this particular delay was because they had to carry out an "investigation" into the whereabouts of the first one. SAINSBURYS MADE ME FEEL LIKE IT WAS MY FAULT, when the truth was that the first item had not even made it to the delivery company. CEVA LOGISTICS told me this in a phone call. As a business owner myself, I am amazed that a "popular" company can treat customers in this way. I was eventually offered a £10 voucher to use online. This was meant to be emailed to me, but even this did not turn up. No great surprise there. The £10 would not have even covered the cost of being put on hold numerous times, whilst on the mobile phone. This was to return their calls, after they had left voicemail messages saying to urgently phone a particular number. I would phone that number, only to be told that they did not have a clue as to why I was phoning them, and then I would be put on hold. "Let's Go Fly a Kite" is the hold music of choice. No wonder they are getting a bad reputation. I for one am very happy to allocate a reasonable time to leaving appropriate feedback and opinion where I see fit. "Let's Go Shop Somewhere Else".

I’ve always been pleased when ordering groceries with Sainsburys. Their website is user-friendly and I find it wasy to find what I want. What makes them better than all the others is the fact that they offer 1-hour delivery slots rather than 2, and in my experience, their deliveries have always been on time. Their delivery charges are relatively low as well, and they even offer free delivery at certain times during the week, provided you spend at least £100 on groceries. They are probably a bit pricier than Asda and Tesco though, but I still think that Sainsburys offer reasonably good value for money.

Note: the address above is not a store AFAIK: it is just the one listed on the website.

When shopping, are you fed up with finding somewhere to park, entering an over-full supermarket, tripping over pushchairs, queuing up for hours and all that stuff? Fed up because the store keeps moving the stuff around to stimulate impulse purchases? ;-)) Hacked off by people standing yacking in mid-aisle to enrich their shopping experience? Suffering from arthitis/rheumatism/an old war wound?

Several supermarkets do home delivery in many areas (e.g. Asda, Tescos). I’ve tried all of them, but Sainsbury’s are by the far the best IMO. Maybe not the cheapest, but I think the best value.

You can login 24/7. Then you have find out whether you are in fact within their “catchment area”, and register to provide the usual details. Having done that, you first have to agree a “delivery window”, which you can select (best to go to the site about 4 days prior to delivery for maximum delivery slots).

So you’re ready to rock!

You click your way round their ‘e-aisles’ and ‘add to basket’ as required. This takes a while first time round, but it adds your purchases to your “My usuals” log, which will show up next time you login.

All that happens then is that you remember to be at home and wait for them to cruise round.

You have reduced your carbon footprint and saved yourself a lot of grief! ;-)

It costs £6 per delivery, but if they are late, you don’t pay. They will make “suggested replacements” which you can either accept or send back. These are usually O.K. You will also instantly see what is on special offer (e.g. at the time of writing for example, wine is 25% off!

For the benefit of the “geekish” I am sure that they use CRM software to log transactions, because the number of our “suggested replacements” seems to just go down and down.

Busy, no time for shopping, grumpy, fed up with all the other aspects mentioned above?

Then go for it!