Woolworths’ customers hit out at delivery chaos amid outbreak

Queenslanders who can’t leave their houses amid the Omicron surge have shared horror stories of having Covid but no food as home delivery mayhem continues amid supermarket staff and product shortages.

Botched, cancelled, and on hold for hours — these are the delivery issues faced by isolating Queenslanders trying to stock up with online shopping from Australia’s ‘fresh food people’.

It comes as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk today asked Queenslanders to stay at home as much as possible for the next six weeks, as the state battles the Omicron wave.

Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci has apologised to customers following a deluge of complaints on social media.

He says the number of workers in isolation was playing havoc with systems.

Woolworths customers have shared their horror stories on social media about late or cancelled orders being marked as delivered, drivers cancelling jobs and if they could get past Woolies’ virtual assistant ‘Olive’, lengthy on-hold calls listening to “that one freaking song playing on repeat”.

Supermarket shelves are almost empty, and Woolworths’ online delivery service is also struggling.

— “My family are stuck at home and we all have Covid and have no food, we ordered at 2pm to get our food delivered by 5pm, it got cancelled and when I called TWICE to ask why, through your online orders phone number, I got hung up on after being on hold for 45 mins both times. My family are sitting here with no food for dinner and we can’t leave the house. Please do better,” Larni West posted on social media.
— “Didn‘t receive any of my orders. Olive only refers me to call the number that never gets through. Spent 59 mins to get through first call, then after 35 mins talk check and confirm. The order was never delivered coz the driver cancelled all the jobs today. But I don’t get why they messaged me (and) said it was picked up from Woolworths, and delivered at my place even with a specific time. Very messy,” Katherin Cao posted.

— “Ordered on Tuesday with a Thursday delivery slot for 7-10pm as it was the only time available. Thursday came and I received a text saying the delivery was delayed for 10:36-11:06pm. We waited. 11:30pm and still no delivery so I called the call centre number and was put on hold. Half an hour (with the worst call hold music) and no-one answered, I stayed on with the hope that maybe the delivery would still arrive … I was told that the delivery driver did not want to deliver because it was ‘heavily raining, at 9:45pm’. It wasn’t raining. To make things worse I was offered a redelivery or refund. The next delivery slot was on SUNDAY, five days since I placed the original order,” wrote Buster Wallace.

— “Day 2 of my online order nightmare dealing with your attempt at customer service. Yesterday was the dumpster fire that is Olive and 60 minutes on hold waiting to talk to a real person. Today Olive actually tried to rip me off with a refund, missing items totalling $27. Olive (said) ‘I‘ll refund you $19 for them’. So back on hold being tortured by that one freaking song playing on repeat, 25 minutes waiting so far. I know companies do everything they cannot to actually deal directly with the public but this is beyond a bloody joke,” wrote David Paull.

— “Woolies, don’t give people an available timeslot for delivery if you can’t fulfil your obligation. My delivery is now over 24 hours late, with no word on when it might arrive. (Says between 1.56am and 2.56am this morning). You can’t get through on the phone, and I think Olive has Covid because she is a little foggy. No option to cancel either,” said Monique Blankenstein.

Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci has apologised to shoppers. Picture: John Feder/The Australian.

— “I actually didn’t receive ANY of my order. None of it and now I’ve spent 3 hours on hold trying to get a refund of an order Olive can see was delivered!!!,” wrote Jodi Herbert.

— “This is day 3 for me on hold, we have been in isolation for 5 days,” replied Marisa Ridolfi Cicchini.

— “My online order hasn’t arrived. I’m in isolation with no groceries. These are of course challenging times, but if your system can’t handle the demand, then at least provide a refund, immediately, at the absolute minimum,” said Ayshe Bell.

Mr Banducci said the company’s suppliers, delivery drivers and distributors had been cut by more than 20 per cent due to the number of workers now in isolation.

“To give you a sense of the magnitude of the challenge, we are experiencing Covid-driven absences of more than 20 per cent in our distribution centres and more than 10 per cent in our stores,” he wrote.

“This is because of the number of people in our supply chain in isolation – from suppliers to truck drivers and distribution centre team members – which in turn is causing material delays to store deliveries.

“It’s not yet clear how soon the system will come back into balance as we move through the Omicron wave.”

To cope with the service strain, Woolworths has decided to implement a new online shopping rule which automatically substitutes out-of-stock items.

“As a temporary measure we are automatically activating substitutions on all orders,” said Mr Banducci.

Woolworths online customers are struggling to have their orders filled and delivered. File picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

“We know this isn’t ideal, but it does mean there’s less chance of missing out on something you really need. We’ll revert to your preference as soon as possible.”

However, the new rule was met with backlash, with customers saying they would not be able to obtain specific products for food allergies or dietary requirements.

“Again removing choice for profit Brad!!! The automatic substitution does not work for people with allergies who know their safe products and often cannot have the substitutes provided. It’s a great idea in theory but it would still be useful for some to state substitutions not wanted,” wrote Stephen Parsonage.

“We have very specific food needs within my household making substitutions largely unsuitable even if it’s a similar product. I’d rather go without so I can track it down somewhere else,” said Fe Galvin.

Mr Banducci thanked customers for their patience.

“We understand how frustrating it is when you can’t find the product you’re looking for and, together with our suppliers and supply chain partners, we’re working hard to get all products back on shelf as quickly as we can (including Rapid Antigen Tests),” he said.

“Thank you again for your support and understanding as we go over the Omicron hump.”