Service With A Smile And A Lot Of Consideration (Asda.com)

Member Name: janharper

Product:	Asda.com
Date:	20/02/08 (98 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, efficient service.

Disadvantages: Fewer branded items than their rival supermarkets.

I use Asda's home shopping service every week and although there seemed to be a little bit of confusion when our local branch first started to do deliveries, they seem to have things working smoothly now.

The Asda home shopping website is somewhat confusing to navigate. It is also slow to respond and I often resort to multiple, manic clicking, which makes matters worse. However, once you find the 'shelf' you want, it is easy to see the product, its description and any details regarding special offers and the dates of these promotions. It is important to check when an offer expires as sometimes offers shown on the site have been discontinued.

The 'special offers' section shows 'roll back prices' which are permanent Asda discounts, two for one and multi pack offers, but this is nothing but a huge list of products. It takes a long time to go through them one by one, checking them out by clicking on them and then going back to the list. These would be better if they were integrated into the sections for each 'shelf'.

It is easy to see how much you are paying and the total in your 'shopping basket'.

Delivery costs from £3.75 upwards depending on the day and time you choose. I have found this to be on time, or sometimes early, but the driver called me to ask if it was alright to call before the requested time. (Usually 2 hour slots).

The pickers in the store do a good job as everything is fresh and has the longest dates possible. I did have an occasion to call the customer help line because my eggs and cream cartons had been damaged in transit. The cost was refunded to my debit card, without query.

Asda will substitute another item if they don't have the one you ordered, if you agree to substitutions when you make your order. If the item they send costs more than the one you ordered, you get it for the lower price.

Asda will deliver the usual range of supermarket goods from food, to wines and spirits, household item and newspapers and magazines. They also include a selection from their electrical range, gardening items and home ware including small kitchen item and bedding. Unfortunately they don't include their entire range on the dot.com site. From my point of view it would be useful if they included their latest George Clothing Range.

Prices are generally low and I find that my weekly shopping bill is lower than it is with an order from Tesco.com (although Tesco sell a bigger range of branded items).

I certainly have no complaints about service. The delivery drivers are all helpful, friendly and polite and go out of their way to give good customers service. I had a 10pm delivery a few weeks ago and the driver called me from the van saying that he was outside my house and didn't want to knock on my door at that time of night without calling me first. Very considerate I thought.

There was also an incident last week when my order arrived minus the two bottles of red wine I had ordered. The driver found them in the van after he got back to the store and called me to apologise. The store manager dropped them off at my house on his way home. Splendid service, I say.

Summary: Excellent service and value for money.