At least we have clementines

[redbird]

I put in a grocery order from Fresh Direct yesterday, to arrive between 3 and 5 this afternoon (they work in 2-hour windows).

At 5:15, I called to ask about it; the person who answered the phone had me hold on a moment, then said she'd contacted the driver and he'd be there in five minutes.

At 5:25, a nice man rang my doorbell, apologized for the delay, and started carrying in boxes and bags (a bag for the frozen stuff). One of the boxes was leaking, white liquid dripping over the hallway. I thought it was the heavy cream.

It was the yogurt. I'd decided to try Ronnybrook Farms yogurt, since their milk is good and I like encouraging local businesses, so I ordered one quart. The foil top had somehow torn open in packaging, and by the time we got to it, almost all the yogurt was somewhere other than the container. (Based on how much we wiped up, I suspect that "somewhere" includes the building hallway, elevator, and possibly the truck.)

The problem is, I'm out of yogurt. Yes, they brought us chicken, and duck confit, and tarragon (in flower!) and two kinds of ice cream. Tampons and tissues and lots of laundry detergent (because there was a good price if we bought four boxes). But I'm out of yogurt, and I'll be pleasantly surprised if the bodega downstairs has anything I can deal with (i.e., no aspartame and preferably not plain fat-free either) to get me through tomorrow morning.

I called customer service, and the phone person offered me a credit on my next order. I explained, in somewhat aggrieved tones, that I hadn't gotten the product and I wanted the price of the yogurt refunded to my credit card. At the moment, I'm not sure there's going to be a next order--this was more trouble than it ought to have been; they made me fill out an annoying survey before I could place the order last night; and I get very grumpy when deprived of my yogurt. Even if there is, it's not going to be Tuesday, it might be January or April, and there's no reason they should have my money until then.

Comments

[deepstarrysky.livejournal.com]

My sympathies. That's one of my pet peeves too - companies wanting to keep my money when they're the ones that double-charged me or whatever. I've been on the point of mentioning the phrase "credit card fraud" on a couple of occasions when people "couldn't" refund to my card, but somehow they've always found a way.

[wouldyoueva.livejournal.com]

I have similar peeves about Peapod.

I find using the phrase, "I am unhappy about this. What are you going to do to make me happy about this?" sometimes works to induce a financial reward in excess of the price in question.

And I would attempt to make the nice delivery man deliver some more yogurt.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Lovely phrase. I'm going to use it in other contexts. Thanks.

[firecat]

I have used several different grocery delivery services. I don't think I've ever gotten a delivery that was exactly as I ordered it. And at least one was resistant to giving me credit card refunds.

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

We have to do pickups, 'cause they won't deliver, and they *still* manage to fuck up the packaging. Improperly sealed packages --> eggs exploding. I lost half a carton on the last pickup. Grrr. I wouldn't use them if I lived in the city. (Though now that I've started, I might continue, just for certain items only they provide. Enablers!)

[redbird]

If I had to pick it up myself, I wouldn't bother, I'd do my own shopping and select my own vegetables and fruit. But the nearby supermarkets don't have some of the nice things they do: Fairway does, but there are limits to how much I want to schlep on the subway.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

Yes, well, you're about 6 years behind where the UK is on grocery delivery, and most of our services are still pretty poor.

Ocado, who are by some margin the best, have gone through a breaking-our-eggs phase (they even have a poster in which they say how great they are, and explain that one of the reasons is that they don't break eggs -- which given that they had broken our eggs twice in a row at that point didn't go down well).

The UK services instantly refund anything that's damaged or missing, and normally add a little bit on. Though we point out that a £5 voucher doesn't really help if we have to go and make another trip to a supermarket. Services that fulfil from a warehouse are much better than services that fulfil from shops -- the latter are subject to ordinary shoppers buying the groceries that would have fulfilled your order. My worst ever case was trying to do my pre-Christmas grocery shop with Sainsburys; dozens of missing items, including most of the veg for Xmas lunch.