A COUPLE who are self-isolating near Dundee have been struggling to get their groceries delivered from their nearest supermarket branch, despite being classed as “vulnerable”.
Gordon Macmillan said his household was part of Sainsbury’s Delivery Pass scheme, where customers pay an upfront fee and no delivery charges for up to12 months.
But he has been unable to book a delivery slot following changes to the Sainsbury’s app.
“We are struggling to register as a vulnerable customer with Sainsbury’s for home deliveries,” he told The National.
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“We are Delivery Pass customers living in a rural location near Dundee and have been barred from booking a delivery slot since the company changed its app this week.
“I had to break our self-isolation today to drive 15 miles to Dundee to collect our groceries.
“We’ve been customers for 20 years and pay an annual fee for home delivery, but they have abandoned us when we need them the most.
“My wife is undergoing hospital treatment which makes her very vulnerable in the current health crisis and therefore we are self-isolating.
“Sainsbury’s call centre is unable to handle the volume of calls currently and a recorded message asks for people to register as vulnerable on the webpage so they can be added to the home delivery list.”
However, after trying to use the link, Macmillan added: “Unfortunately it applies to people living in England only. I don’t know of any effective way of getting through to the company to ask them for help.
“There must be many others in the same position in Scotland.”
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A spokesperson for the chain said elderly customers in Scotland were given priority slots for delivery.
“We are working hard with the Government to secure details for vulnerable people living in Scotland, that we have not already identified with the existing data we have available,” they said. “We are doing our absolute best to offer online delivery slots to elderly and vulnerable customers ... they have priority over all slots.
“Our customer care line is working at full capacity to help other vulnerable customers and we are able to give an additional 8000 customers a day access to delivery slots over the phone.
“We have already booked in slots for 115,000 elderly and vulnerable customers this week and this number is growing every day.”
The spokesperson highlighted a recent message from Sainsbury’s CEO Mike Coupe, in which he appealed for customers who were able to shop in-store to also shop for others who could not.
“We really are doing our best to manage a very difficult situation,” said Coupe.
“Demand for online grocery delivery is higher now than it has ever been.
“We are working hard to increase our online capacity and we are adding more slots in every day. But it is not possible for us to create enough slots to meet the current level of demand. We are seeing communities come together to work on this issue.
“We know that many people who are able to come into a store to shop are also shopping for others who can’t access food online or get to a shop.
“We want to encourage and support this. If everyone who shops in store also shops for a person who is less able, it will go a long way towards getting food to everyone who needs it.”
The spokesperson said the company was trying to obtain Scottish customers’ data to enable them to help more people as quickly as they could.
They added: “We are working to deliver to our vulnerable customers as quickly as we possibly can, which is why we are advising customers that we have not already contacted with details of priority slots to keep trying to get through to us.”
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