Coles Vs Woolworths Shop Online + Pickup Experience

Hi all, just wanted to post about my recent online grocery shopping experience, and was wondering how others were faring with the same.

Made a roughly $100 shop order for pickup to take advantage of some cashback incentives by Coles.

More than 50% of the order was not available and out of stock which I was notified by email, and notified that the rest of the order was ready to collect. Being sale items, I decided to go in store and get a rain check, since they had a policy in-store to honour sale items if they're not in stock, which didn't apply online.

Arrived at the store, went straight to customer service and was told to look on the shelves first before they can give out a raincheck. Which I guess is fair, as I found an item that was refunded on my order, but then proceeded to waste time trying to find an out of stock item. Which is much harder when there is no stock of the item on the shelves, so you're looking through labels for an item which based on the online order you know is out of stock. Granted it's not an item i buy for myself, so I had no clue where this was on the shelf. A real PITA. Anyway after getting the rainchecks, went back to customer service to click and collect my online order, then was told they didn't have it with some story that new staff could have accidentally handed it out or it gets lost. Ultimately received less than 10% of the order in the end, $8 worth of items. Was told by staff to call customer service, at which point I asked is there some correspondence or something I could have in writing to confirm that I did not receive my order. Seemed to ignore the question and carried on apologizing so I decided to call customer service the next day.

Went home disgruntled, called customer service the next morning, who then called the store, was then accused that I had received my order. Had to advise that I took photos of what I received, then was offered a refund and a $15 credit for the trouble, which still hasn't appeared on my account and cbb chasing it up. Being on the Tuesday night, the sales weren't valid anymore as it was Wednesday by the time I, so don't have the items, lost out on the promos due to no rainchecks for online orders, wasted probably an hour going to the store to receive a paltry portion of the order itself.

After that experience, tried Woolworths the following week for a similar order amount. Tried direct to boot offering, arrived and went in the app looking for "I'm here" similar to Coles. Couldn't find anything so went in store for customer service and was told that once you decide on direct to boot it can only be collected from there. Thankfully was given instructions that the link as to notify my arrival was sent via SMS, so drove back to the pick up area. Got everything I ordered bar one, but I asked for a different substituted item on the spot which the staff kindly permitted.

What is everyone else's experience?
I find Coles commonly has a large portion of the order missing for click and collect, almost to the point it isn't worth bothering? It could just be difference experiences based on location. I've had multiple issues with Coles Online shopping and Click and Collect in the past.

I've noticed that Woolworths allows you to pick your substitute items now, which is a nice feature!

In my experience

Woolies > Coles.

Delivery > Pick up

Related Stores

Coles
Coles
Woolworths
Woolworths

Comments

  • +6

    I think you just missed out on this week's specials whilst compiling the above 🤔

  • +4

    Welcome to ozbargain Brad Banducci

  • +1

    Your right I am disabled so do most of my shopping online Coles is a nightmare always find my switch and vegetables are rotten or the worst on the shelf.
    I also hate when I order say peers when they arrive they are like concrete so I put them on the window to raping and they never do and you end up putting them in the bin. Or 12 Mandarins to find out they have over 20 pips in each one and you have to spend aegis cutting them up and taking the pips out. Or the are really sour it's like they no most people will just bin them. Potatoes is another one I have had 1\2 a bag rotten. And this week I have noticed things like bread and butter have gone up by 50c the staple foods are up in price. Never any one on checkouts

  • damn that sucks. maybe try milkrun and let us know how that goes

  • -1

    You send like a serial complaining even asking for another substituted item after one has been provided.

  • IMO Generally Woolies > Coles for C&C at my local stores.

    The closest Coles to me is woeful, we really try to avoid using that one unless desperate. Just this week we didn't get half our order, they said come back and we can sort it out, when I got there the woman was very apologetic saying the online team went home at 5pm, and are not answering her calls but she took me around the store to get my missing items…one was alcohol so we went to the connected Liquorland and the employee there said he got a refund message so didn't hand it over, told me to order directly on the Liquorland website next time 😂

    The Liquorland employee and Coles employee stood there talking in another language for a few minutes about it, seemed like he was saying must be a bug or something…

    The one a couple suburbs over is much better…as good as Woolies…

    Delivery haven't done in a while, but found them quite similar.

    Haven't had issues with CS or refunds yet.

    • The Liquorland employee and Coles employee stood there talking in another language for a few minutes about it

      Welcome to the 'new' Australia……

  • -2

    In my experience
    Woolies > Coles.
    Delivery > Pick up

    Ok….

  • +1

    IMO Generally Woolies > Coles
    I have almost completely stopped Coles.
    Their system of parking, then calling a number or pressing a button is appalling. Missing items, the site is slow, it's just a terrible experience.
    For CnC, I do Woolies. Specials only. For main shop, Aldi and other local stores. I'm not giving them any more of my money if I can help it.

    Woolies experience is brilliant. I get sms, email and app notification when order is ready. I then tap the link to let them know I'm on my way. Once arrived, I can notify which bay I'm parked in. Usually <5 minutes wait. Most items are on there. Woolies don't give rain checks anymore, I don't think. I don't bother with Rain checks. My time is too precious. Too much hassle. Just get a cheaper similar product from anywhere else and move on.

  • +1

    I have the woolies delivery service, which I got at 50% off I think on EOFY sales.
    Happy with it overall, the convenience of having my groceries, even if some items are out of stock, let's say 90% of my desired groceries arriving at my doorstep same or next day.
    I think overall I'm saving more money, by buying exactly what I need and not wandering the aisles picking up random things.

  • Woolies has much better customer service, which is what really matters. If something goes wrong with a woolies delivery it's either refunded instantly or very quickly afterwards, with Coles it has always been a runaround to get them to sort it out. Coles has more missing items and stock problems too, so it's a bit of a no brainer for me.

    I only use Coles for booze deals, they can have some real bargains (which get even better when they're inevitable out of stock of something).

  • I regularly on weekends see the 'direct to your boot' pickup queue at the local being 10-15 cars long snaked round the carpark going nowhere slow or fast.
    Who could be bothered waiting that long.

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