Where’s the cat food? (tesco.com)

Member Name: Shazzy

Product:	tesco.com
Date:	29/08/01 (365 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: No queues, No marching up and down the aisles trying to find what you need

Disadvantages: Everything you order might not arrive

Being between cars at the moment, I decided to give online grocery shopping a try, so armed with my shopping list I logged on to Tesco.com.

As expected, it’s necessary to register. Unlike some online shopping sites, registering as a customer at Tesco.com is a quick and simple process. Click on “Shopping” in the menu at the top. On entering the shopping area, you’ll be met with yet another screen offering you all kinds of products and services, and not necessarily those you’d expect to find at Tesco. At the top of this page you need to click on “Groceries from your Tesco store”. Another screen. Choose the “Register” button. First up you’ll be asked for your name and postcode. Up pops a list of properties belonging to that postcode and you just click the appropriate tickbox. You’ll also be asked for your telephone contact details and email address. You’re email address will be your log-in name. Obviously, you’ll also have to select a password.

That’s it. Registration complete. An email will be sent to you with your registration details.

Now the shopping can start!

Another page! This one takes a while to load so don’t be too impatient.

Top 10 offers are displayed on this page. Worth taking a look to see if there’s anything you might need listed. I chose some smoked salmon slices that were on offer for £4.99 (usual price £9.99)

I’ve found that the best way to find the products I need is by using the search facility. Some keywords will give you too many hits, like “bread”. Narrow your search down to something like “medium sliced bread” or “wholemeal bread”. Also, “toilet paper” brought up nothing! You’ll need to use “toilet tissue” (posh eh?) Once I’d got the idea of how to narrow down my searches, I got through my entire shopping list, which con
sisted of 36 items, in about 10 minutes.

On checking out, I had to type in my card details and choose a delivery date time. There were plenty of slots available for the day succeeding my order so I chose to have delivery between 10am and 1pm.

The next day I eagerly awaited the Tesco van. At about 11am the telephone rang. A polite young lady informed that the van was running at about an hour late. That wasn’t a problem for me, but it isn’t always convenient to wait around. I did find it quite refreshing to actually be informed though.

The van arrived at about 1.15pm with a very nice, polite deliveryman. He explained that a couple of the products had been substituted and that he could take them back if I wasn’t happy with the substitutions and a credit would be sent back to my card. I was perfectly satisfied with 2 small packets of biscuits instead of one large, and pink toilet paper is better than none at all so there wasn’t a problem. If you really don’t want substitutes there’s an option for this when ordering.

I signed for my groceries and went into the kitchen to start unpacking. Hmm, no washing powder and no cat food. Daisy isn’t going to be impressed by Tesco.com when I tell her she’s going to have to share the dog’s food today.

I phoned the helpline that is printed on the checklist that’s supplied with the shopping and again, the customer service was excellent. No waiting around listening to a computer generated version of The Blue Danube or Ticket to Ride, just one short menu and straight through to a real person.

I explained what had happened and was immediately offered a credit for the goods to my card. No quibbles. No questions asked. I would have preferred to have the cat food (Daisy isn’t a nice cat when she doesn’t have her food) but I suppose a walk to the corner shop to get some is good for me.

All in all I’d
say that the service was excellent. I wouldn’t be too happy if missing products became a regular occurrence but the service was quick and friendly. There’s now food in our cupboards and the delivery charge was only £5, not much more than I’d have had to pay for a taxi home from the store, with none of the hassle of traditional grocery shopping.

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Summary: