Live on 2nd floor? Sainsbury might not deliver

 

The idea of buying groceries online is promoted as the ultimate in convenience - no traipsing the aisles or having to lug the heavy bags home.

Sainsbury's shopper

Convenience: Shoppers opt for home delivery to avoid traipsing the aisles or lugging heavy bags home

Shoppers are prepared to pay the fee, typically around £3-£4, to have their food delivered to the door.

However, customers with Sainsbury's, specifically those who live above first floor level, may need to sign up for a get fit regime.

It appears the supermarket giant has told delivery drivers they can refuse to climb any higher than the first floor level if there is no lift.

Apparently, health and safety concerns for the nice men from Sainsbury's means they can drop the bags in the communal entrance and go.

The news has provided a marketing coup for rivals like Ocado, Tesco and Asda. All three said that they deliver to your door - with Tesco and Ocado even saying they will 'deliver to your kitchen table' no matter which floor you live on.

However, the terms and conditions on the Tesco website suggest that this may not always be the case.

Online forums are peppered with comments from dissatisfied Sainsbury's customers who say their groceries were 'abandoned' on the ground floor despite paying £3.95 for the home delivery service.

One shopper told the consumer rating website, Reviewcentre.com, said: 'I live on the second floor and the delivery guy told me that Sainsbury's delivers only to the first floor if the lift is not working.

'So I went downstairs to collect my heavy shopping, while the delivery driver just left all my bags unattended and left.

'What's the point of ordering home delivery if they don't deliver, what if I had my leg broken and couldn't walk?'

Another unhappy customer, calling herself Cashferret on the moneysavingexpert.com site, said she was housebound and relied on grocery deliveries straight to her door.

She said: 'I'm disabled and pretty much housebound. Until recently, Sainsbury's have been delivering my groceries to my second floor flat.

'However, apparently the drivers are no longer insured past the first floor so they carry the risk of being injured and unable to work if they have an accident bringing up my shopping.'

She said her driver told her he was no longer prepared to bring shopping above the first floor landing', adding: 'He said that disabled customers are expected now to get someone to help them - but I don't have anyone.'

Ocado said online shopping for groceries is booming and they are seeing a 26% increase in orders compared to last year.

A spokesman said: 'We deliver anywhere - we deliver to the kitchen table, which we gather not all of our competition does.

'Many customers are elderly or disabled and they need essentials to be delivered straight to their door. If the delivery is to the top of a tower block then we'll deliver it - our drivers will go the extra mile and we are getting new customers all the time.'

Tesco said its drivers would deliver to 'any floor' and that 'if asked they would deliver shopping to a customer's kitchen table'.

However, the terms and conditions on Tesco's website include a get-out clause. This allows the driver to drop an order at the main entrance of the delivery address, particularly if he believes it is not 'safe and practical' to go any further.

Asda said it delivers to the door of a shopper's home , saying: 'We deliver to any floor.'

The Sainsbury's website warns customers it may not be able to deliver groceries above the first floor.

It states: 'Our driver will not always be able to deliver beyond the communal entrance if there isn't a lift, which transports the shopping beyond the first floor of the building.

'If this is the case, the driver or a store colleague will discuss delivery options with you for subsequent deliveries.'

The store said its staff often have to cope with heavy and bulky items and its policy is based on a need to protect the 'wellbeing of our drivers'.

In an initial statement, a spokesman said: 'We are committed to providing a reliable and convenient online delivery service to 90% of UK households.

'However, the health and well-being of all our colleagues is of utmost important to us and, as a result, we may have to limit orders of certain bulky items.

'In addition, on the rare occasions where there aren't lifts to transport the shopping beyond the first floor, our drivers or store colleagues will discuss alternative delivery options with individual customers.'

Subsequently, the store said: 'There is no fixed policy preventing our delivery drivers from carrying orders upstairs and we take each delivery on a case by case basis.'

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