Coles partner delivery NON service

Food & Drink
1

Whilst I have always found that the employee Coles delivery drivers are prompt, friendly and professional, I have had several appalling experiences with Coles delivery partners. The Coles Help Centre last week advised that in my area they were using Door Dash as their delivery partners. I reported the partner delivery mistakes at the time to Coles, but am extremely dissatisfied with the response.

For example, last week I placed a grocery order for an unsigned grocery drop for Friday 27/5/22. Even though I was home that day, I’m still being cautious about close contact, and I’m happy to have my groceries left at the front patio and bring them inside myself. At lunchtime I received a grocery delivery meant for another customer. The driver had left so quickly that I wasn’t able to catch them to let them know there was a mistake. I promptly telephoned the Coles Help Centre, explained the situation and asked if the driver could be contacted immediately to come back, collect the groceries and take them to the correct customer. I assume that my own groceries might be with the driver still. I was placed on hold several times while the call centre staff member kept coming back to me and asking me to repeat my story. This took so long that while on hold I texted the Coles Help Centre which told me to keep the other customer’s groceries (what the!!), re-order my own groceries, pay for them again and I would receive a refund for the missing groceries in a few days time. Then I received a text message from Coles saying that my groceries would be delivered in a couple of minutes time. Instead, yet another customer’s grocery bags were dropped off by a partner delivery driver.

Customer’s names are printed on each grocery bag, so I don’t know exactly if the problem is that the delivery partner drivers are not given the correct address for each customer, or that the driver cannot read. I honestly don’t know because Coles never explained what went wrong.

I did not receive my own grocery order AT ALL that day. Not only did the Coles Help Centre say that nothing would be done to collect the deliveries and take them to the correct customers, but I was told to re-order my own groceries and I would receive a refund in several days. But I could keep the other customer’s groceries. Appalling!

On another occasion In 2021 my groceries did not get delivered at all, and after a great deal of chasing by me it turned out that the delivery partner driver had simply not going to work that day, yet nobody at the Coles store did anything about hiring a replacement delivery driver, or seemed to notice that my groceries were still there at the store ready for collection. It is shocking to me that the system is so slack that nobody noted that a delivery partner did not go to work, nor that customer’s groceries went uncollected at the store. call to not contact me to notify me that there was a problem. I had to contact them, and because it was a Friday night they call Centre was closed. I finally got hold of them the next day and once again was told that I would receive a refund but would have to re-order my groceries. There was no offer to have the store repack my groceries and arrange for their delivery to me. Oh, I was offered a credit of $14.10. I have no idea what that amount relates to. It is not the amount of the delivery fee nor a percentage of the cost of my missing groceries.

Even when I escalated my complaints there was no assurance that the problems with delivery partners would be fixed.

The quality of the delivery partners is substandard, and the delivery system, or lack thereof, leaves it to customers to notify Coles of a problem. It does not appear that store management is actually managing the quality of their delivery service, and the complaints system simply puts it back on the customer to reorder and wait for a refund.

I have now gone over to Woolworths and cancelled my Coles Plus delivery subscription.

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I actually have same experience with Woolworths delivery partners - mainly Uber.

They use Uber for partner deliveries and never do I get the items delivered to my door without a phone call or they need for me to meet that outside as they either can’t find a place to park or something. My house front door is on a main road. But Woolworths own delivery drivers never have a problem and deliver to my instructions most of the time.

I rarely use the Woolworths delivery partners because of this. In 2022, only used them twice.

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Coles and Woolworths don’t seem to have kept up with the increase in home deliveries when COVID kept us isolated. I’m sure it is also cheaper for them to hire delivery drivers rather than their own staff, yet we pay the same amount for delivery. I have had no response from Coles since my complaint was “escalated” a week ago.

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I’ve only had one issue with a delivery partner (Woolies) and since then won’t use them.

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I can only imagine how little Coles pays the partners. I felt sorry for my Uber guy who got so lost in the streets of Brisbane city. He was very distressed and apologetic


I have found that they are all under such pressure from unwell drivers and packers. Nevertheless my Woolies refunds a proportion when they are late and very quick to refund for less than perfect produce.

I have been impressed with the Woolies . service over past 5 years and much less so for Coles. I dropped them and received full refund on subscription.

So far in 5 years I have never had someone else’s groceries delivered to me. A costly mistake for the supermarket

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It wasn’t costly at all for Coles, unless, like me, the other customers chose to dump Coles altogether. Although I did receive a refund a few days after my groceries failed to arrive, Coles simply told me that I needed to re-order. I certainly re-ordered – with Woolworths!

Coles won’t be out of pocket at all if customers do as they are told and re-order the same groceries from Coles again. How arrogant to put the disadvantaged customer to further disadvantage.

I still haven’t heard back from Coles despite their “escalation” of my complaint. It would be interesting to know if the other two customers whose groceries I received instead of mine also dumped Coles.

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If Coles refund d you the full value of your missing groceries they are indeed out of pocket. Same with all of he other customers. The margins are not huge in the supermarket game.
Plus no doubt the customers will dump Coles delivery service as they surely did.

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In the last 6 months I have had my Coles order delivered twice to the wrong address. In the past they used to include a packing list with the address, but now they are saving paper and there is no name and address so the recipients cannot re -deliver. Complaints to their support people didn’t go anywhere.
I even requested attended delivery with signature required, didn’t make any difference and when I asked them to investigate the lack of a signature I got the brush off

The only problem with switching to Woolies is you cannot stop them doing substitutions.

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In fact I did keep using Coles after the time in late 2021 when their delivery partner simply failed to go to work and my groceries sat unnoticed at the store. Coles told me to re-order, which I did on that occasion. Fool me twice though and I give Woolies a chance.

I understand your point about profit margins being fairly low, but Coles supermarkets still reported an after tax profit of over 1 billion dollars in 2021. They can therefore afford to be a little less generous to their shareholders, pay their delivery partners a decent wage in exchange for a better performance, and actually deliver (pun intended) groceries to paying customers.

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With Woolies you can say no substitutions, but with the supply issues, why would you? If you do not like the substitution they refund the amount as they did for me last week. They did that for me last week when I ordered the lean burgers and they substituted a lower grade (but 2 packs instead of one). Not only did they refund the full amount but also said I could keep or donate the substitute.

There is an order number on the delivered goods which matches to the supermarkets on line system with address of where misdelivered should go. Of course that is up to Coles as to how that works, and not your responsibility. The partner driver company doesn’t get paid for incorrect deliveries

Woolies drops the delivery to the door of my apartment and photographs the delivery when I answer the door and I check that it’s mine

The biggest issue is of course not enough packers, not enough drivers, not enough costs, price of fuel thus way too many deliveries per van or driver in each area thus overwork d and stressed workers trying to deliver within the selected time slots. It’s a mess. Plus delays in the call centres.

Overall I believe they are all doing the best they can. .

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It is a two edged security matter. With the increasing number of miscreants about do you really want some unknown person to receive your name and address and that you obviously have an account with the business, information that could be used for improper purposes?

No company ever delivers more than ‘the best they can’ and some companies ‘can’ achieve a better level than others. That becomes a point of distinction as to why consumers may prefer one over another.

Another aspect is how well they improve when fronted with repeated systemic failures. Some use ISO9001 principles (essentially 360 degree feedback and improvement), some make lists that often go nowhere in any systematic way, and others may not even go through the motions as viewed from the customer’s perspective.

It is challenging, all while they are pushing hard and harder for their customers to use their service, so every failure may ‘hurt’ more when one is experienced. An old adage is never confuse selling with installing/delivering, but if there is too much difference over time it can affect the brand reputation, so becomes a balancing act they should be stepping up to very crisply.

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Yeah I had Woolworths delivery that went to my neighbours place. At first was a bit peeved that invoice not included but it’s a privacy thing. Luckily my neighbour came over and knew it was my delivery so handed it back to me!

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I totally understand them telling you to keep the wrong groceries. They can’t sell them once they have been out of the fridge or whatever for who knows how long. I think 20 mins is the limit.

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The other reason is they have lost their chain of custody and don’t know what has happened to them after they leave their control. It is to limit their liabilities.

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15

During the lockdown I ordered from Liquorland. This was a big mistake. When the delivery doesn’t come they can’t be contacted. I tried phone, email FB Messenger several times , all to no avail, they didn’t contact me at all. I eventually got the delivery, over a week late. The frustrating thing is lack of professionalism on their part. I had a business, keeping the customer in the loop is paramount. Needless to say, I never have and never will use Liquorland ever again. They only had to let me know the status of the order instead of leaving me in limbo. Seems the big boys are all the same.

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Then why do they trust sub-contractors like Door Dash in the first place?

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In my area the Coles partnered deliveries were originally $4.00 during the worst of the Covid lock down (Victoria ) . I see now they are $11.00 . Not sure if a minimum spend of $50.00 is required as is required with the regular Coles deliveries .

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