Online customers brought to tears as grocery orders left incomplete or undelivered for days

Customers forced into isolation are raging at the supermarket giants after online deliveries didn’t show up or had scores of critical items missing that left them ‘starving’ with no food.

Customer complaints have skyrocketed as major supermarket shelves are left bare, online orders are incomplete, and disgruntled shoppers sit on hold for hours.

Supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths have had their social media pages flooded in recent days with complaints relating to incomplete online orders, shortages of essential goods and customers frustrated with how complaints are processed.

The sustained pressure on supermarkets has continued in recent days as online customers can’t leave their homes as the Omicron variant rapidly spreads across the state.

Coles customer complains as online order was 'thrown on their doorstep' with bags torn and items damaged. Picture: Theresa James.

Gold Coast woman, Jodie Smethurst said she was brought to tears and did not know where her next meal would come from after a Coles online order was severely incomplete leaving her with nothing but plain wraps for the week.

“What happened to me was all my frozen and fridge food was stolen or given to the wrong person … I was furious door dash didn’t give a crap and Coles were useless on their phone,” Mrs Smethurst said.
“When you’re in isolation your mental state just does not cope with issues like this, I cried the first time I said to the lady I have no food, this was my food for the week,” she said.

Coles' meat shelves took the day off yesterday, with a limited meat supply at the Woolloongabba store.

Brisbane resident, Kate Shelby was left “starving” after Woolworths failed to get her fortnightly shop delivered to her Brisbane home in time.

”We struggled getting a delivery time that would do more than 40 plus items for our fortnightly shop, only for that delivery to not be delivered,” Mrs Shelby wrote.

“And look, these are difficult times, but Woolworths really need to implement the ability to reschedule online,” she wrote.

“An hour and 20 min phone wait time just isn’t acceptable and now we’re starving.”

The issue is affecting people around the country, with customers outraged following their experience.

Ekle Shantelle shared pictures of a substandard bag of lettuce she received after her boyfriend was forced to drive an hour to collect her Woolies’ items and deliver them directly to her door in Melbourne.

Elke Shantelle was not impressed when she received this bag of wilted lettuce with her delivery order.

Karen Walker was not impressed with Woolworths’ decision to outsource their delivery drivers.

”Woollies shame on you, you sent my shopping with a taxi driver who left me two bags short,” she commented.

”Really over it so now I have none of the things I needed to see us through to Sunday when I should be out of isolation and you won’t even refund me for several days.”

A Coles spokeswoman said the elevated demand for online orders paired with limited staff numbers had exacerbated the problem for some online customers.

“Recent increases in Covid case numbers in the community have required more people to isolate, which has impacted the availability of labour throughout the food supply chain,” the spokeswoman said.

“At a time when inventory levels were already reduced in the post-Christmas period, our distribution centres are receiving fewer inbound deliveries and we have fewer team members available to process and dispatch stock to our stores,” she said.

A Woolworths spokesman said high “absenteeism” was compounding delays for some customers.

“Despite our best efforts, some deliveries may be delayed due to higher than usual absenteeism within our supply chain,” the spokesman said.

“We thank our customers for their patience and apologise for the inconvenience, particularly in these challenging times,” he said.

Woolworths is encouraging customers to consider other online options such as Direct to Boot and Pick Up which currently have more available windows.