Ocado shoppers slam online grocer after deliveries are delayed

Furious shoppers have slammed online supermarket Ocado after orders were cancelled or delayed by over two hours this morning.

The firm was inundated with complaints from customers after they received a message informing them that their deliveries were running late.

Others saw their orders cancelled completely, forcing them to rearrange delivery slots for another day.

In response to the outrage on social media, Ocado blamed ‘operational issues’ in a warehouse. The supermarket is yet to explain what the issues were that caused the problems.

Dozens of customers took to Twitter to complain, with one saying: ‘Can you advise when I can expect my 7.30 to 8.30 order? I received two texts to say it’s ‘late’ and to check the website but the website still claims it’ll be on time.

The online supermarket was inundated with complaints from customers after they received a message informing them that their deliveries were running late

Furious shoppers took to social media to slam online supermarket Ocado after orders were delayed by over two hours this morning

Furious shoppers took to social media to slam online supermarket Ocado after orders were delayed by over two hours this morning

 ‘I’ve a full of beans toddler that needs to go out to play but we’re cooped up indoors waiting indefinitely.’

Another said: ‘@Ocado first delivery ever and this! I woke up at 6am for nothing and my food hasn’t arrived yet #hungry.’

One added: ‘Not happy to receive a call from a driver before 8am on a Monday morning, especially when he tells us he’ll be two hours late with no explanation as to why. Very poor.’ 

Others said they had received an email during the night informing them that their deliveries would not be arriving on time, and many were complaining about not being able to contact them to rearrange deliveries.

Some have been offered £25 vouchers as a goodwill gesture. 

Others told how they received messages from the supermarket saying their orders were over two hours late

Others told how they received messages from the supermarket saying their orders were over two hours late

One said: ‘@Ocado what’s going on. You accepted our order last week to deliver today at 9.30am. 

‘In the middle of the night (mere hours before delivery) you email cancelling the order because you’re busy

‘What am I supposed to do now? Skive off work to get the shopping in?’

The customer continued: ‘So furious with this let down/ I relied on you to deliver this morning! I could have ordered through @tesco instead. Or gone myself over the weekend, Totally ruined my morning. What kind of customer experience is this?

A customer added: ‘Ocado, constant problems with deliveries at the moment, but I can’t get through to anyone to speak.’

And Another said: ‘Ocado, may I ask why the deliveries are delayed today? 

‘Have received an email saying they’ll be a delay, so guessing the delivery will be later than the 9/30 to 10/30 slot.’

In response to some of the tweets this morning Ocado blamed 'operational issues' in its warehouse for the delays

In response to some of the tweets this morning Ocado blamed ‘operational issues’ in its warehouse for the delays

In a tweet the supermarket replied: ‘Unfortunately we’ve experienced operational issues in our warehouse which has resulted in delays.’

Others said they were missing items. One user wrote: ‘Ocado first online shop running 2.5 hours late, missing items and substitutions #notimpressed

Another said: ‘@Ocado constant problems with deliveries at the moment, but I can’t get through to anyone to speak.’

Another said: ‘Hi @ocado, die to delivery today, opened app and saw this msg. 2hs20min late but no phone call/email to tell me?! Massive inconvenience, bad communication, poor show indeed!’

Mailonline has contacted Ocado for comment. 

Earlier this month Ocado announced plans to take on Amazon in offering a super-fast delivery service.

Shoppers who pay for Amazon’s Prime Now service can get items such as bread, sun cream and batteries delivered to their home within two hours. 

Duncan Tatton-Brown, Ocado’s finance director, hinted that the rapid delivery programme could be offered through Morrisons – pitting it against the Silicon Valley titan.

‘There’s massive opportunity to grow our existing business, to make it more efficient, to support Morrisons,’ he told The Grocer magazine. ‘This is just the icing on the cake.’ 

Ocado employs around 300 people in its technology division and is ploughing money into the faster delivery service.

Ocado’s first warehouse in Andover, Hampshire, is the size of three football pitches and is run by hundreds of battery-operated robots which pick and pack items to be loaded into delivery trucks.

It takes just five minutes to pick 50 items for an order, compared to two hours for a human.

Tatton-Brown said that its robotic picking ‘will take efficiency to another level’. He refused to reveal a timeline for the faster service but said it was coming ‘relatively soon’.    

In May Ocado revealed it had been forced to discipline some of its drivers for making sexual advances to women when dropping off their shopping.

It said  it had tightened its training procedures following a number of incidents.

In a statement, Ocado said: ‘Instances of complaints are very low but we take every complaint seriously.’ 



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