I used Woolies online a few times in 2017 and found it convenient and generally well run. However, in my experience their service has gone downhill dramatically since the start of 2018.
From time to time when I put through orders last year and the worst that would happen was that they'd be out of stock of one or two items. This was a nuisance, but no different from shopping instore - except that instore you can choose an alternative, whereas the online order pickers sometimes choose some really weird substitutes (apples for punnets of strawberries is the weirdest I've heard, but I guess that they're still a red fruit.)
Based on the good experiences I had in 2017, I purchased a 12 month delivery saver in January 2018 and have been gradually regretting it more and more each time I place an order. Predictability of delivery times has become harder. In 2017, they always seemed to come within the three hour time range. More recently, I think I've only had one of my last four orders arrive in my chosen time slot. A fortnight ago I used the 4-7 slot and had a delivery scheduled for 10:30 before I got them to reschedule it for the following day. Today they were supposed to deliver between 4 and 7 but at one point were telling me that the order arrive until after 9. When I cancelled the order, the delivery driver still turned up at 8:45 and woke the kids banging around on the front porch before I told him to go.
The switch to charging for plastic bags is also a con. The delivery saver was supposed to provide free delivery as long as you order $100 of goods. Now, however, they are forcing you to choose to pay $3.50 for an order without plastic bags or $1 to get bags that are supposedly 'reusable'. Therefore, their advertising of "same price online as an instore", is blatantly false. I also object to being forced to pay an extra $1 or $3.50 to get my order delivered when I've already entered into a contract for delivery that, at the time I entered it, made no mention of having to pay an extra fee to get 'free delivery'.
For anyone that hasn't shopped online, the 'reusable' bags used for delivery are inferior to the 15c ones instore. Despite being marketed as 'reusable' I've had several with the handles broken due to bags being over-filled or holes when they're received. Apparently the $1 'reusable bag fee' isn't refundable for failure to meet description unless every bag in an order is faulty/damaged. Although I haven't experienced it personally, I've also read online of people just ordering large items (eg boxes of softdrink or nappies) and being charged $1 and receiving no bags because the items don't fit in a bag.
My other gripe is the increase in damaged produce since they introduced the new large bags. The reusable bags are capable of holding a much larger volume, but staff seem to pay less attention to packing, with soft items like avocados, pears or bananas placed at the bottom and then stacked with tins, potatoes, UHT milk etc on top. Their call centre is generally reasonably good about providing refunds for damaged produce, but its a nuisance to order fresh fruit and veg, only to have to throw it straight in the bin because its unusable when it arrives or having fruit that you hoped would last a week remain edible for just 24 hours due to bruising.
I've also had some suspect advice from their online call centre. For example, despite their insistence that the Australian Consumer Law doesn't apply to Woolworths online and only to their bricks and mortar stores, I haven't been able to find any such exclusion in the legislation, on the ACCC website or NSW fair trading. I've also been told that the plastic bags used for delivery are not a consumer item are not covered by the ACL because they're purchased as part of the commercial arrangements with their delivery service.
I realise that the cost of initiating procedings means it doesn't make sense financially, but I am tempted to try out the NSW small claims process to make a point, otherwise no-one will do so and this big corporation will continue to ride roughshod over their customers.
Are my experiences unique or have others had similar experiences? Should I launch a small claims case or just write-off the delivery saver and switch to Coles online and getting friends and family to pick stuff up from Aldi for me?
As soon as I saw the wall of text I couldn't bear to read on to make a comment…