Ocado: supermarket shopping 4+

Deletes items at will

I’ve been using Ocado for years and have always had the same issue with the app; after you place items in the trolley, it will decide to delete some of them before checking out. This is incredibly frustrating because, like many people, I add things to my trolley as I think of them or notice we need them, then checkout once I’ve gone through all the cupboards and done the full shop. During this time (I assume if things temporarily go out of stock) the app will delete items but not notify the customer. With a full shop it’s impossible to go through and remember everything you’ve added and see anything that’s missing, so you then end up not receiving items you were expecting and needed. This desperately needs to be fixed, so that items stay in the trolley even when they’re out of stock, then the customer can be notified *if* they’re still out of stock when checking out. The only other way around this is to keep a physical list and cross check on checkout, which is more work and requires more time nobody has. Please sort it out, Ocado.

Developer Response ,

Hi there, thanks for the review. We're sorry that you've had the problem of items being removed from your trolley before you have a chance to checkout. This isn't an issue that we're currently aware of, would you be able to contact us via one of our social media channels in order for us to look into this further? -Jack

“High demand” is now a poor excuse

There’s something incredibly backward about the Ocado app experience now. I was a regular Ocado customer and loved the app, it demonstrated great progression in app development and made shopping a doddle. When lockdown hit, the app was taken down due to a huge surge in demand, which I understood - no app is built for hundreds of percent increase in traffic. That was 6 months ago. Even now, over a month after the app was supposedly back online, it still says they’re trying it out for a small number of customers - is the experience that bad that they still have to throttle it? What’s running the back-end, an ageing Windows XP server? Cloud computing is now of such intelligence, complexity and power that it can scale up to an almost infinite level of compute resource in a matter of seconds. The fact that Ocado is still hiding behind a resource ceiling from April is frankly poor IT management; If a supermarket that operates entirely online in the digital realm cannot run their app for half a year, they either need a new digital ops team or a new cloud computing solution (I can recommend Microsoft Azure). If you want to retain any shred of integrity as an online business, you’ll sort this out in time for your Christmas peak season.

Not as great beyond intro offers

Started using Ocado when we were sent those free shipping offers everyone gets in the post. Was pleased at the time as selection was very good and pricing seemed reasonable. However just had a recent shopping experience that let me down. During my latest shop I had two items in my cart that were on offer, yet when I got to checkout was told they were no longer in stock and had been removed. Seems odd as when shopping on other websites once you add something to cart the item is effectively held for you for a certain amount of time. This was not the case with Ocado. I also found the delivery costs misleading as it says one price when you pick it, then on the next screen goes up! Apparently you have to spend above a certain amount to qualify for lower pricing - which does make sense - was just unsatisfied by how unclear they make that. All seems a bit misleading and I will be using a different shop from now on.

Developer Response ,

Hello, we’re sorry items on offer were removed when you went to check out. We always suggest booking your delivery slot prior to adding anything to your trolley. That way you’ll only see what’s in stock for your area. Our delivery prices vary for certain days and times of day – If your order is less than £75, there's a minimum charge of £2.99 and a maximum of £6.99. If it’s £75 or more, you may be offered free delivery. Thanks, the Ocado iOS team.