Asda shoppers most likely to be sent substitutions finds Which?
Asda shoppers are most likely to be sent substitutions for their online orders, according to a survey from Which?. The consumer watchdog found that nearly half (47%) of shoppers surveyed had received a replacement item.
For its choice of substitution products in general, Asda received a rating of just two out of five stars, alongside both Morrisons and Iceland. No supermarket earned more than three stars.
However, Ocado and Waitrose were found to have the fewest items substituted, as only around one in five customers received a replacement in their latest order.
Commenting on the survey, Asda told the consumer watchdog: ”We always let our customers know when their order contains a substitution, and customers are able to opt out of receiving any at all. We always do our best to ensure that the customer receives a relevant sub if an item is missing, and we have colleagues to ensure that the best substitutions are being made.”
The grocer said that its own data showed that the “vast majority” of substitute items are accepted and overall customer satisfaction is “high”. It has asked Which? to provide details of the orders to investigate them.
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Which? also asked shoppers about the strangest substitutions they had received in the past 12 months, with one Morrisons customer claiming they had received sanitary towels instead of sandwich wraps. Another said fish steaks had been replaced with lemon cupcakes.
A Sainsbury’s shopper reported being sent beef dog treats instead of beef steaks and another said they got leeks instead of flowers.
At Tesco, customers told Which? about receiving orange-flavour vitamins instead of a Terry’s Chocolate Orange and toilet rolls in place of tissues, while Asda shoppers said they had received a roasting tin instead of roast potatoes and bananas instead of pizza.
An Iceland shopper said that pasta was delivered in place of a 24-pack of Pepsi Mango, while an Amazon Fresh customer said that six bags of jelly sweets had been delivered instead of free-range eggs.
Sainsbury’s told the watchdog: “If a product a customer has chosen for their groceries online order is no longer available, our colleagues are trained to pick an alternative that’s as close as possible to the original item.
“We’re sorry that on the rare occasion this might not be quite right, our customer satisfaction scores tell us that our substitutions have improved over the last few years.”
3 Comments. Leave new
As a weekly online asda shopper I can assure you they renage on their substitution promise regually…..Out of stock potatoes and chocolate without a substitution available..so appently no potatoes or chocolate available in the whole store
They are still advertising Smirnoff vodka 1 litre for £18.97 3 times in a week I ordered this and 3 times I was told it was out of stock but if you walk in the store the shelves are full of it that’s why I don’t really use Asda anymore and customer service ain’t any better in explaining why this is waste of air talking to them
I order fortnightly and the last 2 months haven’t gotten so much worse for subs. My last 2 deliveries, I’ve ordered over 100 items and had 13 subs each delivery. That’s more than 10% of my order. I’ve stuck with them as they’re the cheaper of the online supermarkets but it’s getting ridiculous. Their new website is also often unseable and their app is equally appalling. What’s going on?! Historically they have been so much better!