why is asda delivery so bad nowadays?
Posted by obliviousfoxy@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 86 comments
I’ve ordered from ASDA for, well basically forever. I’ve ordered Tesco and Sainsbury’s a few times but the prices never got good (I’m vegetarian and I like to eat quorn stuff a lotttt so I need to spend the money)
I’m disabled so I get my food shop delivered. Tell me why every single time I order from ASDA, food comes and it’s really expired? Especially Broccoli, this is full year round. I order Broccoli every time and it’s always coming going brown or black.. Or baby potatoes, which are sprouting or green as I’m unpacking my stuff… And recently the only reason I kept ordering (the nature valley fat free cottage cheese) keeps getting substituted every time. This post is probably the most first world problem rubbish ever but every time I have to chase a refund, I call ASDA and their customer service number is the only way to contact them, only to barely be able to converse with the person on the phone who sounds like they’re reading an AI script, and who will misunderstand everything you say. Then I have to order from Tesco Whoosh and spend like 20 quid to order a few items…
One of my orders (31st October) came fully inedible. They refuse to give me a refund still, it was £100. Their stance was ‘you need to send us individual pictures of everything’ 2 months on. I sent them the pictures I had (a month later) and they say to me ‘sorry but we can’t refund anything without picture’ to which I reply with the picture again saying I attached the picture, to which the same guy replies with the same thing…
What is going on? Is it just me? The substitutions are getting worse each time and I don’t know if there’s someone else I should be getting food from that’s reasonable price wise? Tesco’s vegetables I find are so hit and miss. Their new potatoes always separate from the skin and have a weird taste. (Maybe I’m too picky).
Awayebam@reddit
I might be the exception here but our Asda are great. Substitutions are always sensible, returns rare and drivers friendly and helpful. Asda Elgin seem to be exceptional
Ashamed_Link_2502@reddit
I used to work in that Asda for 6 years. Used to hate when they rounded us up to help with the home shopping picking haha.
Awayebam@reddit
Hate it or not, you guys did (and do) a sterling job. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's appreciative!
DisgruntledSheep@reddit
It's equally as bad in store these days. We've shopped there for close on 20 years and it's got progressively worse, more so since COVID. Shelves with food way past it's sell by date. Shelves empty, especially the meat section. Virtually no fruit during the summer months when other supermarkets had shelves full of fruit etc etc etc
Ashamed_Link_2502@reddit
You should complain to your local council about the use by dates. Things naturally get missed here and there on occasion but if it's systemic then they need brought into line.
SufficientRead1@reddit
I was shopping in Asda not long ago, looking for peppers. Every single packet was mouldy, some were so bad they’d turned to slimy mush. I told the person working there, who just shrugged and carried on stocking shelves.
Missing-Caffeine@reddit
Point is: the person working there knows. They are 100% aware of how shitty the situation is, probably because they have to do the job of 2 or 3 employees. They have no power to do anything and still get all the grief.
Spaztic_monkey@reddit
It is now majority owned by private equity and is being run into the ground. Don’t expect it to get better.
Ashamed_Link_2502@reddit
They have rehired a former executive from their early Walmart days so things might get better but I won't hold my breath. Private equity is a cancer.
jungleboy1234@reddit
Issa Brothers bought the company from Walmart and drove it into the ground. Nothing left of it. It will get stripped to the bare bone then sold on.
huxberry73@reddit
Asda are terrible, I've shopped there exclusively for nearly ten years and the service and quality has gone downhill over that time. They make it particularly difficult to make a complaint. The last straw for me was my last few click and collect orders where I sat in my vehicle for 45 minutes waiting for my order to be brought out. I was told I should have called the store after using the app to tell them I was there (I did). I deleted the app and my account the same day. Ocado are amazing for home delivery, comes in bags, fresh fruit and veg, long dates, and if you're a new customer you get a three month free delivery pass.
Nels8192@reddit
Personally I don’t like Asda, never have. But Interestingly the market doesn’t share that sentiment, they’ve had the best growth in the industry this year and are back to being a comfortable 3rd biggest supermarket retailer.
huxberry73@reddit
Because they're cheap, not good. I'm sure if you looked further you'd find growth in the low end of most markets in the current climate.
Nels8192@reddit
You would, but naturally people would expect there to be a higher growth in Aldi and/or Lidl under the same premise, but there isn’t.
marlonoranges@reddit
We're in Scotland and use Tesco. Never had a missed delivery and it's fairly rare that something won't be available or be substituted. Used to alternate between Asda and Tesco but Asda got so bad we gave up on them.
obliviousfoxy@reddit (OP)
Tesco is SOOO much better in scotland. I don’t know what it is from my experience in the UK but the Tescos my gran used to go to in the west coast of Scotland whenever I went over were great. Or when I lived in Edinburgh. It’s here in north easterly corner of England where it becomes an issue.
I need to hatch a plan to return to Scotland.
skybluepink77@reddit
It's not the delivery drivers who pack the food; it's the pickers instore, all the delivery guy does is deliver the crates to your door.
Instore, the pickers are under terrific pressure to pick as fast as possible; they don't look for the best produce/best dates, they grab off the shelves and fling into the trolley. All the near-to-expiry goods are on the edge of the shelves so the pickers just grab those.
They have a tough life and they are given targets [almost impossible ones] so it's not surprising the goods are in a bad state.
And the cheapest supermarkets are under the worst pressure.
I've tried all of them and Waitrose is the best but the most expensive. Ocado is ok though still pricey, and goods are usually within reasonable expiry dates [but not always.] 80% of drivers are ok, but there are always some a***s!
Morrisons stuff arrives dented and damaged sometimes, but in general the Morrisons delivery guys are helpful. I expect there to be at least two items which are 'on the turn' every time, but I prefer Morrisons to Asda and overall, I use them or Ocado most of the time.
I realise you may feel economically forced to use Asda, but as they are such pains and are really treating you badly, I think you'd be better off having Morrisons or Ocado, and maybe paying a but more/having a bit smaller order. You'd have more peace of mind and that's priceless.
obliviousfoxy@reddit (OP)
no, no, I know the drivers are not the problem necessarily, I used to work in a supermarket, so I’m always to keep me aware that a lot of these big companies do have issues, but I must say that when I was at Sainsbury’s, I never saw anything like this. all BS, that was back some years back now, but it genuinely confuses me as to why everything is so expensive for such prayer quality, like I guess it is a direct result of the economy, but like, I guess I’m just going to have to send more on the essential stuff like now, because it genuinely is so wasteful, all Asda shops do for me now is take up an unnecessary amount of space in my bin, because I literally have to chuck half of it out when it arrives. But on the other hand, if I’m spending an extra like 20 quid at a time on top of my £75 food shop, I guess there is no point trying to save money and I should probably just be ordering from Ocado in the first place.
skybluepink77@reddit
That really worries me, that your drivers are so rude and unhelpful...that's just not acceptable, what's wrong with these guys?
Asda is probably paying the worst rates for its drivers, so they get the worst people...
If I were you I'd try Ocado for a while...they have really good customer service, if you call them with a complaint they do their best to fix it. I've only had one or two unhelpful drivers, usually they are fine.
If you're really savvy about what you pick from Ocado's shelves, you don't need to pay a lot more; I too have to watch the pennies and they do have some good value stuff [and it lasts longer than Asda's.] - and like you say, if you're already throwing away so much Asda stuff, you're not really saving any money by shopping there.
JoesRealAccount@reddit
Recently ASDA failed to deliver because of bad traffic causing delays. Driver needed to finish his shift so never made it to my house. We had to contact ASDA to tell them that this had happened and request a refund which took about two weeks to process. During that time we had to re-order so we were out of pocket by an extra £150 for two weeks and we didn't get our shopping until about a week after the originally planned date. Fine if you have a bit of spare money and time to go shopping but if either of those are an issue for you then that's a really shit customer experience
obliviousfoxy@reddit (OP)
yep, i’ve had several orders not come up to drivers crashing, emergencies etc and never been refunded for them. it’s ridiculous it’s a lot of money to turn your eyes up at!
andercode@reddit
If you order cheap, you get poor quality... use Ocado instead, it's more expensive but I've never had this problem.
obliviousfoxy@reddit (OP)
i think i will, thank you. hadn’t heard much about it.
rebellious_gloaming@reddit
Can you not reject the trash picks at delivery time and have the driver refund you? That’s what we do with Asda.
obliviousfoxy@reddit (OP)
I do when I see it, but a lot of the time you can’t see it and the drivers race off or act really shifty about it, or if I’m not doing well that day and they do it for me then it’s a nightmare! their system doesn’t always accept your refund reason why randomly if you ‘do it too much’, and since bad stuff comes every week then you’re seen as asking too much.
mattamz@reddit
Idk but we get shopping delivered loads the only place to not show up Is Asda.
obliviousfoxy@reddit (OP)
i’ve had several asda drivers crash per month and then not received a refund after not receiving the order
sudden-arboreal-stop@reddit
Stop using Asda....?
obliviousfoxy@reddit (OP)
i should. yes. i personally have had nothing but issues with tesco around my area.
i didn’t know about ocado. i’ll try them.
No-Possible-3655@reddit
Use Ocado. 25% off your first order. Everything arrives in bags. Really good quality, never had any substitutions
Terrible-Group-9602@reddit
Plastic bags aren't biodegradable
huxberry73@reddit
They recycle them for you, you hand them back next time, they knock money per bag off your bill and recycle.
Terrible-Group-9602@reddit
They're made using oil.
huxberry73@reddit
sometimes they're made of fish oil. I found this out when my old cat started licking plastic bags and I googled for some information on them. But then by googling I guess that fired up something at a datacentre which uses power and water etc so assuming google isn't driven by wind and solar I'm guessing my curiosity undid any benefit that using fish oil to make the carrier bag ever had.
twignition@reddit
I used Morrisons but just got sick of them The More card was the final straw. The past 2 weeks I tried Ocado and then Sainsbury's. I am happy with both, but Ocado has thrown fantastic savings at me to help over the next 4 weeks, and Sainsbury's delivery is £7.50 if you don't spend £60. That's not a problem for me as our weekly bill brings it down to £4 delivery. As it stands, I'm happiest with Ocado, but we'll see how they fare against Sainsbury's properly once the vouchers die down.
OhGodNotHimAgain@reddit
same, what you order on the website is what you get and they'll even email you expiry dates (most of the time, some reason didn't have it on my last). That being said I only order twice a year when I get 25% off as it is expensive...
MisterIndecisive@reddit
Ocado costs a fuck load more though. Sainsburys are the best in between option between quality and price
SoggyWotsits@reddit
I wish Ocado delivered to me, I feel like I’m missing out!
Terrible-Group-9602@reddit
Waitrose delivery, order the essentials stuff
SecurityTemporary849@reddit
ASDA, shudder, more substitutions than a football match. Ocado for me, good quality, no substitutions.
BenjiTheSausage@reddit
I was a driver for Sainsbury's and the broccoli was often fucking awful, long story short, it's a combination of things.
First you got the person filling the shelves not giving a shit about what goes on the shelf, then the people that work in produce not having the care about what's on the shelf, the shopper not giving a toss and then to a lesser extent the person losing the van failing to spot it although in their defence it may not be visible.
It's something I often brought up but never ever got addressed
Psycho_Splodge@reddit
Because everything at Asda has gone to shit after being cut to the bone following their take over.
JocastaH-B@reddit
Asda has always been bad for delivery, bad quality, many substitutions every time. When I switched to Morrisons I was pleasantly surprised.
Biggeordiegeek@reddit
The new owners have been cutting costs at every corner, the whole company is now so much worse than it once was
Honestly we switched to Sainsbury’s and the prices aren’t really that much different for the most part, I think it’s a few £s more expensive than Asda was, less than a fiver
Aeouk@reddit
My GF got banned from Asda deliveries for rejecting too many items. One, one item she ever rejected, a bottle of alcohol that still had the alarm on it. They put a block on her account for this.
Iforgotmypassword126@reddit
That’s insane.
I ordered 2 tubs of baby formula from Asda recently and I put no substitutions. They gave me goat milk in a different formula brand and was visibly annoyed when I rejected it.
Iforgotmypassword126@reddit
Raise a charge back with your bank and send them the attempts you’ve had to resolve it with Asda. Your bank will refund you when Asda has provided inedible and expired food
impossiblejane@reddit
I have not had the same issues as you with my ASDA shop but I have noticed that ASDA has started removing items from the it's online store that I ordered for years such as store brand wheat biscuits or crumpets. A lot of store brand stuff is removed and it either forces you to buy the more expensive items or go elsewhere. About two weeks ago the person who packed my crates but two bottles of wine in top of my bread. It was salvageable at all. Even the driver agreed withe it was bad.
I've always found the drivers really lovely to be fair but never the same one so they either don't last long or work varied shifts.
I've got an ASDA delivery pass and I won't be renewing it when it expires. The challenge in my area is we have limited options because of how rural we are. We can get Morrison's but the slots are like gold dust.
AtLeastOneCat@reddit
You can now get Morrisons deliveries through Amazon prime. It's a limited selection of stock but I've found that it's always high quality. My bank occasionally throws out cashback offers on Morrisons at Amazon so I try to stock up then.
KindheartednessOwn45@reddit
Some of it’s still there. Depends on what you type into search.
Asda breakfast muffins no longer come up under muffins (the warburtons one do) you have to specify breakfast muffins
Also the revamped app is driving me insane.
Once I’ve used all my reward vouchers that I’ve accumulated over the year for the Xmas shop I’ll be defecting (and I forgot to cancel my delivery pass)
impossiblejane@reddit
Trust me I have typed and searched the website through and through for store brand wheat biscuits. And just because it's on the website/app doesn't mean it'll be in your local store the shopping gets picked from.
stanley15@reddit
Just try somewhere else. I shop early in the morning every week and see the staff picking the deliveries. If it isn't on the shelf (not unusual at 7am) then you will get a substitution. Occasionally there will be a late delivery of milk even, so no milk at all by 7.30am and nothing to substitute either. We tried home deliveries many years ago but soon gave up due to substitutions. Imported fruit and veg has deteriorated since leaving the EU due to customs process delays.
CabinetOk4838@reddit
The OP is disabled; they might not be able to attend the shop in person.
stanley15@reddit
Of course, I meant try a delivery from somewhere else.
ThePodd222@reddit
Had a couple of disasters with Asda deliveries and vowed never to use them again. One time loads of items missing or short date, another time a no show without any communication, then the driver turned up hours later and dumped the crates on our doorstep after 11pm and just left.
As others have said Ocado are good. Waitrose are good too and they aren't that expensive. Iceland have some good offers but their delivery area isn't so big and they're not so good for fresh stuff.
Defiant-Avocado1988@reddit
I remember having my food delivered by Asda when I was at uni in 2008 when in self catering accommodation. It was utterly terrible then.
MattyLePew@reddit
Has Asda ever been good for delivery? Did a click and collect (I know it’s different) and picked up my order… SO MANY items missing. Went into the same shop straight after and found the majority of items that were supposedly ‘unavailable’.
mang0_milkshake@reddit
Can't speak for Asda but never liked their own brand food at all, always found it very lifeless and carboardy. I've never had a single issue from Tesco and been ordering weekly for years. Always on time and only get substitutions rarely (as in once every 5 shops ish?). The only thing is depending on what day of the week sometimes you get fresh veg with only a few days on, but we use all ours within the week so it's never been an issue for us, it just depends how much you order and how often. We pay £7 a month for unlimited priority slot delivery, and I find Tesco food is the best out of all supermarket brands for the price.
Substantial_Egg_4660@reddit
I have never had any trouble with Tesco..a couple of times I wasn’t happy with something and they apologised and refunded me the item cost
Clean_Government_822@reddit
There’s a reason why I call it ‘the dis-Asda’
Gauntlets28@reddit
Well for one thing they seem to use really fucking dreadful satnavs. At my previous place, they would regularly come around and try to deliver other people's food to us because they thought they were on a different road. One idiot actually tried to dump them on the doorstep without knocking, and then belted it back to the van without checking to see if anyone was home. If I hadn't spotted him at the window from the other room he would have definitely just buggered off, but I managed to call him back and tell him he'd screwed up in time.
Dopey_Armadillo_4140@reddit
I stopped getting Asda because of the quality of the fruit and veg. It’s really not a supermarket aimed at people cooking fresh food.
suzy_ko@reddit
Asda is in crippling debt, on the brink of bankruptcy so I expect they are cutting corners.
Fentwizler@reddit
Had a deep fat fryer catch into flames and set the kitchen on fire the same day I bought it in an online shop once, the plastic/rubber handle melted and when I went to lift the lid off it just sloughed off and the lid dropped into the oil and obviously went up in flames.
Had to call the fire brigade, ended up with kitchen damage, smoke damage, most of the non frozen and chilled food I'd bought was ruined.
Was told to email them and at first it seemed fine, but then they started asking for pictures and no matter how many pictures I sent them or which method I used of trying to send pictures they denied that they were receiving them or told me to try sending the pictures again.
On top of that they had me return the fryer to the local superstore where they were apparently to have it picked up and sent for an investigation.
They allegedly lost the fryer in transit, they never came to a conclusion, they never refunded the fryer let alone covered any of the damage or refunding any of the shopping.
Honestly it was the single most frustrating customer experience I have ever had with a business in the UK.
Quiet-Beat-4297@reddit
You should claim for all these costs using MCOL.
gigglesmcsdinosaur@reddit
If you ring the store's number (not customer service) and then extension 201, it'll put you through to the duty manager. They'll hen out you through to home shopping.
(I'd say to use extension 240 or 322 but I can't guarantee those extensions are home shopping in every store, where 201 is definitely the duty manager.)
27Sunflowers@reddit
I had to move from Asda to Tesco due to the terrible service too. Grew up with parents shopping at Asda so always shopped there as custom. During the pandemic, I was doing click & collect and I would pick up my order to lots of substitutions and they were always ridiculous ones. I picked up my order to 12 substitutes, one of them being a loaf of normal bread which had been put in place of gluten free pasta. I’m coeliac and had ticked that I could be given an alternative but I’d have expected either another gluten free pasta or nothing. Nobody is ordering gluten free pasta because they feel like it. That was the last time I used them, four years ago. I’ve had no issues with Tesco.
desperategimlet@reddit
Eurgh bad customer service is the worst!
Iceland do free delivery over £40 which could be an alternative to your Quorn part of the shop? Then could you do a separate veg shop at another supermarket (Iceland do sell veg, but very limited)
nightm4re_boy@reddit
i’ve had this issue with asda delivery, though i don’t have this issue with their quality when i actually go into the shop
sainsbury’s, morrisons, and tesco are pretty good for delivery.
BastardsCryinInnit@reddit
It's no better in the shop itself - my one permanently looks like a plague of locusts has been through it, and item you used to not even think about them not having, you're turning up and they're out of stock.
ak09312629@reddit
As someone who works at Asda, the answer is simple. When the Issa brothers took ownership of the business a few years back, they absolutely ran the business into the ground. Corners were cut everywhere, there was no budget for anything, not enough staff to do anything properly. Now they have left, and the whole company is an absolute shambles. The staff that remain try their best but it is what it is. You can't do your job properly with one arm tied behind your back.
RemarkableKiwi3876@reddit
When I worked for Asda, it wasn’t this bad. But that was back in 2016-2020. Worked for the warehouse so you had a team who would fill the shelves and us who would pick the items of the order. Back then I would say quality was decent but the substitutions were awful bc it was up to the picker to decide what to give. But they changed later on so that if the original item wasn’t in stock, the picker would be given 3 automatic substitutions to avoid not giving appropriate substitutions. However where I worked was filled with quite a lot of older people and inadequate management that had an impact on delivering a good service to customers 🤷🏻♀️
Jolly_Constant_4913@reddit
Bad for us Uber drivers too. We spend an age hanging round the back door ringing the bell to collect the order. Most times you'll wait 5-15 minutes to be told it'll be another 5-15 minutes or sometimes a couple of hours. Complete waste of our time and petrol.and off we don't get paid even the lousy £3 we were promised since the delivery wasn't completed-through no fault of our own
TheDoctor66@reddit
Asda is an auto reject for me. Absolutely not worth the time.
They got loaded with debt when Walmart sold them so they are cutting costs (particularly staffing)
Jolly_Constant_4913@reddit
Depends on various factors for me but generally if I go for it I'll make nmw at best that hour
Weekly-Reveal9693@reddit
Glad others have noticed. I've switched to Sainsbury's and so far, price isn't that much different and quality better and no substitutions.
Noiisy@reddit
Ocado seems to be the benchmark right now, good dates, good customer service, delivery drivers sometimes actually smile, they deliver in bags instead of just tipping it all into your hallway. Places like Asda have gone down hill, wouldn’t be surprised if they get into financial issues in the next century.
AngryTudor1@reddit
Asda customer service has always been the worst by far, for years.
Now the stores are rough as hell. They are becoming the 2024 Kwik Save
another_online_idiot@reddit
Not all Asda deliveries are terrible. Where I live the drivers are great and the food that is picked is always in good condition and no where near expiry.
Zealousideal-Habit82@reddit
They have been leveraged with debt and have to make huge payments towards it (Morrisons are in the same boat) that money has to come from somewhere so it's an increase in prices and a drop in (less staff and infrastructure) service. Financially they can no longer compete with Tesco, Sainsbury's and I believe Aldi have now surpassed them in sales too. Their days are numbered, asset stripping is coming.
Knowlesdinho@reddit
It's gone downhill in recent years. I've started going to Sainsbury's instead. It's more expensive, but at least I can get everything I need there. I got sick of empty shelves at Asda.
Phoenyx_wilson@reddit
Morrisons might be a better deal for you.
ConfusionFun6682@reddit
Asda are dreadful these days. Gone off food, constant substitutions with their own brand stuff. Tesco had been good so far for me
Additional_Hippo_878@reddit
We stopped using asda delivery years ago. They were always the worst... and this was before it was taken over by the latest group of gouging bandits. Ocado was the best for veg when it was Waitrose, but pricier. Try googling your local delivery options for veggie info, and maybe some of those veggie-type monthly plan type companies, as they could be more particular about the veg. Plus, remember to check the complaints system reviews. A lot of the Lidl and Aldi veg seems good value, but don't deliver. Finally, we find Waitrose veg (in shop) to be the best locally. Often, 20% more expensive, but twice the quality. Much of their Essential range is very reasonable, too. Good luck.
CrystalQueen3000@reddit
Stop giving them your money and shop elsewhere
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