Ocado customers left fuming as online grocery retailer says sorry and cancels deliveries at last minute

Ocado customers have taken to social media to vent spleen after the online grocery retailer cancelled deliveries at late notice both yesterday and today.

In an email sent to customers, Laura Harricks, Chief Customer Officer, Ocado Retail, said: “We’re very sorry, but we’re unable to deliver your Ocado order. Of course, you won’t be charged for this order.”

She added: “You can rebook the same order if you like. Just log in to ocado.com as normal and select ‘Rebook’ to choose a new date and time.To make it up to you, here’s a £20.00 voucher. It’s valid until 16/12/2024. Thank you for your understanding. Sincerest apologies.”

Harricks did not give a reason for the cancellations (more on that later in this article), but on X, Ocado’s customer service peeps told one disgruntled customer: “There is an operational reason preventing us from picking and packing the order, which is why the order has been cancelled. If you'd like to discuss this further, please DM us.”

The aforementioned email, somewhat unsurprisingly, resulted in an onslaught of unhappy shoppers.

Karen Garner said on X: “Order cancelled at short notice tonight for 6am delivery. Not much notice.”

“Shops shut so cannot go out now When I wanted to cancel at short notice you were not understanding at all - going to be charged for the items that had not even left the depot. Double standards.”

Darren J added: “Very disappointed in you Ocado, you cancelled my order as well. Will need to go shopping in town now!!! How do I refund my Smartpass I paid for?? £20.00 compensation very poor.”

Whilst Mark Woolard commented: “Really reassuring that your IT issue of last week continues with a £10.00 voucher sent out to me tonight as way of apology to a completely different person and of the opposite sex.”

“By way of example of customer service @Ocado cancel my order and offer £20.00 voucher.”

And last but not least, Lizzie fumed: “My delivery for today was just cancelled with only three hours notice. No slots until Wednesday. I’m not at all happy, and £20 compensation is not adequate for the inconvenience.”

Ocado responds

A spokesperson for Ocado told RTIH that it had been asked to evacuate its CFC in Erith, Kent, following a fire at a nearby factory.

“Due to an incident at another factory in the retail park, all businesses in the local area have been told to evacuate their sites as a precaution,” the spokesperson said.

“As a result, we’ve had to cancel orders going out from Erith CFC. We apologise to customers who’ve been affected and we'll resume deliveries as soon as we can."

The incident is ongoing, with Ocado waiting to hear from the authorities about next steps and when it will be able to return to the warehouse.

Tesco squares up to Ocado

Transcend Retail Solutions, a Tesco subsidiary led by its Strategy Director Oliver Vogt, is providing the UK supermarket giant’s software and hardware to international grocers, leveraging its vast experience in this space to enable them to fulfil online orders from their own stores.

According to The Sunday Times, a first deal has been signed with New Zealand’s biggest grocery retailer, Foodstuffs North Island, and talks are being held with other companies.

Tesco currently handles more than a million online orders a week, 85% of which are picked from its supermarkets.

“Our solutions are tried and tested,” Vogt told The Sunday Times. “We set up Transcend because we truly believe we have something to offer the market.”

Foodstuffs is tapping Tesco’s cloud-based picking software, which receives online orders and then maps, on handheld devices, the most efficient route for staff to pick the items from supermarket shelves.

The technology is live in two stores, operating under the PAK’nSAVE and New World brands, and plans are afoot to expand the roll-out across 150 locations. Transcend will also be able to deploy micro fulfilment centres inside retailers’ stores.

Tesco’s new venture sees it square up to rival Ocado, whose Ocado Solutions spin off offers smart e-commerce technology to global retailers.