According to a recent survey of more than 2,000 online shoppers, 69% of them have suffered some form of problem with their delivery in the past year.
The survey, carried out by Citizen’s Advice, found that more than half of people don’t take any action, such as complaining or asking for a refund, if their parcel is late. It also showed that half of consumers aren’t clear that retailers are responsible for ensuring that their goods reach customers, as Which? Conversation commenter Sue reported:
‘Just had a call from a complete stranger to say he has picked part of an order due to be delivered today up from the middle of the road containing my name address and phone number and goodness knows what else. Who is responsible for this? I’m not happy my details were all over a public highway for anyone to pick up.’
Tesco tech glitch
On Tuesday last week, Tesco had to cancel thousands of customers’ home deliveries following an IT issue that affected some Grocery Home Shopping orders. According to a Tesco spokesperson, up to 10% of customers could have been affected.
Whether your order is a day late or doesn’t show up at all, not receiving your online order of groceries in time can be a bit of a pain if you don’t live nearby a supermarket or local grocery store. Add in a full-time job and hungry children, and you’ve got quite the perfect storm on your hands.
What are your online shopping rights?
Under the Consumer Rights Act, which came into force on 1 October 2015, goods should be delivered within 30 days unless a different time period is agreed.
In the case of online groceries, there would usually be a specific date and time allocated.
If your planned grocery delivery is late in getting to you and you need to get your goods, you should get in touch with the retailer to make a complaint.
If you told the supplier when ordering the goods that delivery by a date or timeframe was essential or you can show that it should have been clear or obvious to the trader it was essential, then you don’t need to give a further opportunity to deliver.
Do you order your groceries online? Do you regularly experience delays or cancellations with online orders? Has your experience with online orders gotten better or worse recently?