When it's good it's very good and when it's bad it's awful (tesco.com)

Member Name: olly374

Product:	tesco.com
Date:	12/12/05 (841 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great for ordering heavy grocery items, some staff very helpful and cheerful, CDs

Disadvantages: Beware of ordering fresh grocery items, some staff miserable, Big brother clubcard

I have used Tesco online to order a TV, books and CDs in the past but when I injuried my knee I thought I would try online supermarket shopping as I live in a flat.

Website
-------
The website is www.tesco.com and to order you must first sign up with the website and give yourself a username and password. This takes about 4 minutes. Once you have done that you can order from a selection of extras, groceries, finance and insurance, telcoms and more.

Groceries
============
After clicking on the groceries tab, you log in and then chose a delivery slot. Delivery slots vary in price from £3.99 to £5.99 due to whether the time is peak or not. The slots are for 2 hour time periods and the site gives you 2 hours for you to do all your shopping.

Once you have selected a delivery slot you can then choose either to shop by department, food and drink, toiletry and baby or house and pet, or start shopping.

You should remember at all times that your shopping comes from the largest Tesco's superstore near you. So if the items in that store are not always fresh or they have restocking problems then it is not worth buying groceries online.

Grocery shopping tips
---------------------
Clicking on the departments can take a lot of time because some items for example dried fruit may not be in the section you expect them to be in from shopping a Tesco's store, therefore it is a good idea to just put the item you want into the search box and then click on "the rest of the shelf" link for the nearest item type.

Once you have found your item you are advised to click on the "write a note" and choose whether you want the item substituted with a suitable alternative, no subsitution or an particular item. I would advise you to choose either no substitution or put in a suitable alternative yourself as the person going round the store for you may not be the brightest. In my own case whenever I have left find a suitable alternative the person cannot guess one so I end up with nothing unless I put something down.

Checkout
-----------
Once you have written your note you should then add the item to your shopping cart. The items are added without any discounts. This means that your shopping always totals more than it is in reality.

Doing your first shop will take about an hour especially if you put in notes as I suggested. However doing your next shops (if you come back to the store) will not take you as long as you can simply click on "My favourites" and the put the items that you chose last time into your shopping cart.

After you have chosen all your goods you click on the checkout button and then get to put in your card details, and press submit to pay. As no online site is 100% secure I wouldn't advise you to let Tesco's store your card details.

Changes
-------
If you need to change your Grocery shopping then up to 24 hours before it's delivered you can log back in, and add and remove items. You do need to make sure you checkout and reenter your card details.

Delivery
---------
Within the 2 hour time slot you have chosen a delivery driver should turn up at your house. However this is if the delivery driver has not made the assumption that they cannot see your flat number from the road because they live in the area. If the driver has not turned up within the exact two hour time slot you should ring customer services immediately and ask them where the driver is. This is becasue if the driver has claimed to have attempted a delivery you lose your delivery fee.

The delivery drivers are suppose to bring the items to your door. If you live in a flat like I do this means they are to bring it up the stairs to your flat door.

Drivers and goods
-----------------
Apart from the last driver I had do a delivery all drivers that have delivered goods have been polite, helpful and cheerful. (This includes the one who try to claim he couldn't find my flat from the road.) They have made 2 or 3 trips to carry very heavy bags up 2 flights of stairs without complaining. This means cans, potatoes, bottles etc. They have also delivered everything on the list that was in stock on the store and the goods have not been crushed.

However the last delivery I had the driver decided he could walk up the stairs with 8 heavy carrier bags. Due to this he dropped and crushed several items. I then discovered that he had not bothered to deliver 3 items, which I immediately phoned up customer services and got reimbursed. Due to his polite manner and helpfulness I will now try a different supermarket. Unfortunately for Tesco's and fortunately for me they have competitors!

Insurance and Finance
=====================
Tesco refuses as a company to give financialjournalists information about their products so they cannot be compared in best buy tables. However having recently tried to buy home insurance I can say that Tesco's insurance was not the cheapest. In addition their credit card rate is not one of the best around. Therefore for this reason alone I have not Tesco financial products.

Electrical Goods
=================
I brought my TV from Tesco's about 4 years ago. I brought it because it was cheap and a well known brand. I remember the delivery time being 7 days to 2 weeks but as I lived in a shared house I knew that their was a high chance of someone being in to take the delivery. In actual fact a neighbour took the delivery in as it arrived at half term. I then had to get the neighbour's 12 year old son to help me carry the tv round to my house. I left it in it's hugh box and went out. I came home and found that one of my male housemates and managered to get it out of it's packing. The tv was well packaged and in one piece and still works.

I have not brought any more electrical products from Tesco's simply because the delivery time is much longer than anywhere else.

CDs
====
Tesco's is only cheaper on chart CDs and most of these come from Tesco Jersey. However Tesco Jersey will soon not exist due to the Jersey Government getting fed up of UK stores using this tax loophole. Again delivery takes about 2 weeks for the CDs. They do arrive well packaged and fit through the letter box.
The only hassle is in ordering the CDs for some reason that part of the website crashes frequently or doesn't allow you to do a proper search.


Clubcard
==========
The idea of clubcard is that for Tesco's collecting data on what you buy and when, they give you money of vouchers. However apart from their regular clubcard vouchers if you only buy stuff from Tesco's online then you can't use most of them.

I always find this clubcard thing amusing as I do my shopping in more than one supermarket/shop. So for example Tesco's may think it's odd that I buy diet coke and toilet roll but no cleaning products, and the occasional baby product.

I am personally fed up of clubcards and only really now use my nectarcard. This is because I have discovered I can get CDs back from it and collect points at Amazon. Thefefore if the range of products suits you the Tesco's clubcard made be worth it.

Advantages
=========
-some good priced chart CD's
-good for getting grocery heavy goods
-don't have to go to the store if you hate shopping


Disadvantages
=============
-some unhelpful drivers who drop things
-grocery basket takes a long time to set up if you are new
-grocery menu system not the best
-long delivery times on non-food items
- not value for money on financial products

Summary: When it's good it's good and when it's bad it's awful