The most bizarre online replacement items in your delivered shopping?
- Reference: 1679920268
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/03/27/the_most_bizarre_online_replacement_grocery_items/
- Source link:
These were among some of the replacements that online grocery shoppers found in their deliveries rather than things they really wanted to buy but which were out of stock, according to a [1]survey by consumer campaign group Which?
It collated feedback from 1,200 people's online supermarket experiences and found in 47 percent of instances customers were sent alternative goods. Online shopping can be a convenience for those with busy lives, and a godsend to anyone with mobility issues, but sometimes the unexpected items in the bagged area can leave customers scratching their head.
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Who came out on top in the British survey? Six in 10 shoppers at British supermarket Asda found something they hadn't ordered in their delivery, with one hapless sort receiving toilet rolls instead of bread rolls (we see what you did there) and some picker at the supermarket deciding to replace plump chicken breasts with dog treats.
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Close behind was budget German retailer Aldi, where 59 percent of web shoppers said their groceries contained substitutions. The oddest one? A bag of onions instead of a loaf of bread.
Around half of polled Sainsburys customers had shopping with replacements, the most bizarre of which was someone getting fruit instead of shoe polish and BBQ flavored crisps rather than a packet of bacon.
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One unsuspecting Morrisons (51 percent) shopper reported they had a disappointed child at Easter when they were given hot dog rolls instead of an Easter Egg, and a tinfoil roll instead of a chocolate Santa was deemed an appropriate swap for another. Rolls seemed to confuse Amazon, too, as a confounded customer got Sellotape instead of loo paper.
[6]Dole production plants crippled by ransomware, stores run short
[7]Cleanup on aisle C: Tesco app back online after attack led to shopping app outages
[8]It was bound to happen: Amazon launches first grocery store
[9]Amazon.com mixes Marmite with .Mac
Frozen food retailer Iceland - which has the tag "food you can trust" - supplied strawberries instead of bin bags and high end market Waitrose - deemed the best at opting for the most suitable replacement items - decided, in a moment of madness, to thrust alcohol-free vino in the carrier bag rather than the bottle of boozy wine a customer had clicked on.
Others complained of getting meat instead vegetarian or vegan alternatives and one customer received non-halal meat rather than the halal choice they made. The same was said by Which? of those with food intolerances.
This situation can be “incredibly frustrating”, said Reena Sewraz, retail editor at the campaign, who reminded consumers: “You have the right to reject substitutions at the point of delivery, or you could opt out of receiving substitutions altogether.”
Ultimately, she said, “Ask for a refund.”
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So what’s the most bizarre thing to turn up in your weekly food shop? pics or it didn't happen. No you definitely ordered that, you aren't fooling any of us. ®
Get our [11]Tech Resources
[1] https://press.which.co.uk/whichpressreleases/dog-chews-instead-of-chicken-breasts-which-reveals-the-wackiest-supermarket-substitutions/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZCG9oAEBPz0mx8bMt0emWwAAAE4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZCG9oAEBPz0mx8bMt0emWwAAAE4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZCG9oAEBPz0mx8bMt0emWwAAAE4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZCG9oAEBPz0mx8bMt0emWwAAAE4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/23/dole_ransomware_attack/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/25/tesco_outage/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2017/05/26/amazon_grocery_stores/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2006/11/30/amazon_marmite_dotmac/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZCG9oAEBPz0mx8bMt0emWwAAAE4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
...or you could opt out of receiving substitutions altogether.
Yes, you can. Doesn't mean your choice will be considered. Because you still may end up getting substitutions (looking at you, Tesco).
Re: ...or you could opt out of receiving substitutions altogether.
> Doesn't mean your choice will be considered
Yes, you get a substitute choice...
Amazon 3rd Party Seller
I ordered a box of cable clips off Amazon and received a box of Beef Jerky. No idea how they messed that up.
Re: Amazon 3rd Party Seller
Think of the poor guy who had to eat those cable clips...
Re: Amazon 3rd Party Seller
Ordered a solar outdoor light from Amazon and what arrived was a wedding veil. They told me to keep the veil which can’t have been worth more than £1 and they’d send the light as well. Another one had a box of caged nuts and associated bolts on order what arrived was a round acrylic mirror. Again I was told to keep the mirror and they’d send on the correct item. I ordered a 1U 19inch rack shelf for home and this duly arrived. However it didn’t have a square 90 degree base at the mounting bracket it extended below the 1U size blocking the hole below. Obviously that was useless if you only had 1U of space, it wasn’t fair for the purpose for which it was sold, so I tried to return it. I initiated the returns process and found they were offering up to £15 postage to return it. Sadly the return address was an Amazon depot in Eastern Europe and £15 didn’t come any close to covering the postage. I’d actually lose money and it would be cheaper not to return it
Spoke to a nice lady at the customer service desk who reviewed my order. She said she could see other customers had spotted it wasn’t actually 1U as well (I subsequently found those reviews that I’d somehow inexplicably missed). As I had now ordered one from a different brand through Amazon directly they wouldn’t ask me to return the existing one. I said I would donate that one to a charity and call it quits.
Re: Amazon 3rd Party Seller
Many years ago, I ordered a USB PCI card (remember them?) from Amazon, and got a firewire cable. When I returned it and requested the item I had ordered, they sent me a firewire cable again. So I ended up having to get a refund.....
Dog food as they'd run out of the brand of cat food my wife had specified (despite having other brands of cat food in stock when we had to drive there later)
Dog food as they'd run out of the brand of cat food my wife had specified
Perhaps a dumb question but.. Is there much difference? Or is there much difference in price? I've only had dogs, but remember tins of dog food being larger that cat. Figuring on both eating pretty much the same thing*, dog food might work out cheaper.
*Well, dogs perhaps win on that one given mine would eat anything. Bean bags, soap..
My mums dog will eat cat food, my cat will only eat certain specific brands and then it depends on the day of the week.
Dogs are food vacuums with legs, cats are far harder to keep satisfied
A couple of weeks ago my wife ordered some cooked chicken breasts (for lunches while at work) and we ended up with a whole cooked chicken. Well I guess that it did include two chicken breasts!
Several years ago we sent the entire delivery back since none of it related to our order. Seems like someone slapped the wrong labels on to our crates; goodness knows who got our order.
In case you are interested - this is Tesco.
Worst I've had from Tesco: Ordered 1 cauliflower, 1 broccoli. Got 2 broccoli (bit lacking in imagination there). Driver took the additional one away without a complaint and I got a refund within an hour.
Best I've had from Tesco; Ordered 75cl of whisky for my birthday. Got 1 litre replacement for the same price. Driver was not asked to take it back :)
I've been using Tesco delivery for many years and they don't sub. very often. At the moment eggs are a bit random but they've not let me down so far. I suspect it's down the store doing the delivery. In my case I suppose I have to thank Banbury Tesco for what frankly has been good service.
If the worst you've had is ordered two brassica oleracea, got two brassica oleracea I think you're doing pretty well.
One banana
I sometimes ordered one banana from Tesco and got one kilogram of bananas (and was charged for it). Thankfully they have a notes field, so next time I wrote "yes I really do want just one banana". And then forgot that note was still in the system when I confusingly ordered more than one. Poor Tesco picker....
ASDA
During lockdown we were doing online shopping and the wifes grandmother wanted some rum and raisin ice cream. When the order arrived it was stated it was going to be substituted at no extra cost.......A bottle of captains morgan rum, some dried fruit and some single cream. I guess they wanted us to make it ourselves.
Re: ASDA
I had a free 1 litre bottle of Tesco's brand dark rum thrown in with an order. It didn't appear as a substitution, just a mistake. I never drink rum, but It went down rather nicely with some ice and I've since bought the same on several occasions now, so they've recouped some of their loss.
Ingenious
Ordered "Orange Squash"
Received "1 small Pumpkin"
I suppose it is orange and part of the Squash family!
I think some picker was taking the Mikey!
Re: Ingenious
Actually that's a perfectly reasonable substitution for a picker who doesn't have English as their native language and doesn't know what orange squash is. I wouldn't blame the picker. If the software team had designed a better system, like one that told the picker exactly which aisle they should be in, which shelf they should be looking at and what the product looks like, mistakes like that wouldn't happen.
While I don't have deliveries, I do sometimes use click and collect.
The most annoying was when I was away for the weekend last week, so ordered stuff to pick up on the Monday so I had some food in the house.
At 1200 I had an email telling me I had 5 substitutes.
When I collected the order I walked into the store first, and picked up 4 of the substitute items off the shelf
This is just the online version of going to Aldi to buy some milk, and returning with a socket set and a wetsuit (and no milk).
A bit like this then...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11fCIGcCa9c
Sellotape instead of loo paper
That's a sticky situation... Keyboard please!!
Just wondering if it was desktop sized tape, or standard package shipping tape?
They don't make it easy.
Asda used to have a single tick box to globally ask for no substitutions. They deemed that too user friendly and changed it so you now have to tell them on a per item basis that yes you really do actually want it.
Terry Woagn (RIP)
One morning read out a message when asking this very question on his breakfast show.
A listener had order a 'Value' Kettle to take with them to their caravan but found it substituted with a Value iron instead
This is why I now go to the shops.
Stupid substitutions. Packing the cat litter on top of the bread and the bananas in with the raw fish. Arriving early for a delivery slot and being shitty that I'm not in. Not delivering part of the order and refusing to come back and deliver it. Quibbling about refunds for damaged or out of date items. Making a fuss about me checking everything against the delivery note to ensure that the previous two things have not reoccurred. I know not everyone has the option or will to go round supermarkets, and it isn't without its own issues, but for me it's a lot less stress.
Ordered: 1 PP3 9V battery
Received: 6 x AA 1.5V battery
Well, I got 9v worth I suppose