Poorly designed web site, consistently incorrect orders indicate lack of concern for customers' time
Written: Jul 22 '05 (Updated Jul 24 '05)
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Albertsons.com is a website that lets you order groceries online and have them delivered to your home ($9.95) or pick them up at the store ($4.95).
The first problem I experienced, which should have tipped me off about future experiences, occurred when I signed up and began my first order. Although I signed up using a Dallas, TX address, the site decided that I was actually in California and wouldn't let me complete my order. When I went and re-entered my address, it turned out that a lot of the items I'd ordered were not available in Texas and they were all deleted from my order, so I had to start over.
The web site itself is professional-looking, but once I started using it I became totally befuddled. This is not a common experience for me since I've been using the Web for about 11 years and I design user interfaces for a living. It took a good 5 to 6 lengthy, frustrating experiences before I figured out how to add items and move them around efficiently between my shopping lists and shopping cart. (Tip: you can't move items from one list to another; you have to use the cart as an intermediary.) The site uses a very confusing two-pane layout and each pane has multiple views, which is just asking for trouble. It is in desperate need of a makeover.
Aside from the poor experiences with the web site, I have been unhappy with the order timeliness, accuracy, and freshness. To me the whole point of ordering groceries online is that you don't have to go to the grocery store, but with this service, you always have to go to pick up things that were forgotten, incorrect, or spoiled.
Here are some of the problems I've encountered:
- Drivers continually show up early, sometimes by almost an hour.
- Several of even the most mundane items like pasta, milk, chicken, and toilet paper are missing in EVERY order, which invalidates the whole point of this service -- NOT HAVING TO GO TO THE GROCERY STORE. I have complained about this problem repeatedly to Customer Service and somehow they just do not understand this concept. Besides, how can a grocery distribution center even run out of this type of stuff?
- Delicate vegetables like salad, spinach, and asparagus often arrive in inedible condition.
- Substitute items are delivered even though i always check "No substitutions" on the form. One time they substituted pepper jack cheese for goat cheese... not even in the ballpark.
- Calls to customer service about missing and incorrect items are met with a blase attitude ("I can give you a credit, but don't even expect me to think of telling a manager about these continuing problems.") I've never had trouble getting a credit, but it's obvious that customer service reps and even their managers are not empowered in the least to communicate recurring problems up the management chain. And fixing problems is what the target audience of this service expects.
This last time they messed up $37.44 worth of groceries and I am locking myself out of my account so I can't be tempted to use it again. Two other times I attempted to accomplish the same thing by deleting all my shopping lists; but I really detest grocery shopping and nobody else delivers in my area, so I ended up re-creating them.
If you do decide to use Albertsons.com and you need to contact Customer Service, don't waste your time on the phone wading through the lengthy voice menus and waiting on 'terminal hold.' Instead, log in to your account and send them a message using the Customer Service link. They will still take care of the problem, and it's much less hassle.
Note: I did not rate the delivery timeliness because there was no option for "usually early."
Recommended:
No
Type of Products Delivered: Food
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Epinions.com ID:
dmarvanitis
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Reviews written: 1
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