Oct 21, 2001 01:22 PM
7057 Views
Tesco direct is a service that originally sold food online that was delivered to your front door (for a fee). However, the scheme has proved successful and the site now offers links to a whole range of other goods including electrical, entertainment, and insurance!
I begun to use the service a year or two ago now, and at first was impressed – as with most things at the beginning! Then: Christmas begun to fast approach, (as it is now actually). Being disabled I decided to order my Christmas drink from there. Now it’s not what you think, I am actually a teetotaller…honest!
Anyway, I placed my order which included several heavy bottles of fizzy drinks, and masses of crisps (I didn’t say I was a crisp-totaller)! Bear in mind that it that it is now about three weeks or less to Christmas. The delivery time came, and so did my order! When I checked it out I was horrified to find that I had NONE of the cola I had ordered and in fact had only got about 60% of my total drink order! As if that wasn’t enough, they also never delivered my Crisps!
I had also had a few problems with the service prior to this, but not anything this major! So I rung Tesco AND e-mailed them! I was told, “We pick the goods off the shelves that our normal customers use, and therefore we can not guarantee availability”. Erm! What’s the point in ordering online then? They agreed it was poor customer service and said all would change and they refunded my delivery fee!
Being the generous type I forgave them and actually believed them that things would change! How wrong can you be! The next order was missing items, as was the next and the next…etc. Needless to say I have since stopped using the service, and now use https://Iceland.co.uk which delivers free (for orders over £40), but doesn’t stock everything you need, so some offline shopping is necessary.
The idea of Tesco.com is great, especially for people like me with mobility problems, or the elderly, or those who just shopping. Online shopping does take a little while, as you have to log on to the site (Yes you have to register to use it), then you have to select the aisle you want, then the shelf etc…before finally picking your product. They do have a quick search where you type in your product and a list of options will come up when it’s found suitable requisites. If you order an item a few time from them, then this will become a ’favourite’. Making it slightly easier for you to order in the future.
All this comes at a fee – which is £5.00 (UK pounds). Now this isn’t an astronomic amount, it would buy you around 10 loaves of bread (at 50p per loaf) or one of Iceland’s great meal deals!
So would I recommend them? That’s a tough one, the service is a brilliant idea and if it were operated correctly then I would highly recommend it (despite the delivery cost), but until then they only get a 6 out of 10 from me!
Thanks for reading – Dave.
