CUSTOMERS ordering groceries online are discovering some strange alternative food items in their shopping bags, according to consumer watchdogs.
One customer looking forward to enjoying a chocolate flake found a tin of broad beans instead.
Another ordered vanilla ice-cream but ended up with vanilla air freshener, while an order for fresh lemons turned into toilet cleaner.
Consumer wat
chdog Which? surveyed 2,255 online shoppers and found that almost half regularly have items changed.
Sainsbury's and Asda were the worst for substituting items, with 57 per cent and 56 per cent respectively of their customers claiming products were replaced in the last order they had made.
About 600,000 people a week now shop for food online, yet customers are not always satisfied with the overall service, according to Which?
Almost half of shoppers in some online supermarkets are still concerned that they receive food closer to the best-before date than customers who go into the shop. And more than a third of all Asda and Tesco online customers do not rate the quality of the fruit and vegetables they receive as good.
Customers also complained that items regularly go astray, it is difficult to work out the size of things they are buying, and one in ten said they received damaged items with their last order.
Online supermarket specialist Ocado was rated the best place to shop for groceries, with four in five customers happy with the service.
Tesco, which has the biggest share of the online grocery market, was bottom of the table with just 58 per cent of customers pleased with the quality of the service.
A Tesco spokeswoman said the supermarket tells customers at the point of delivery if items have been changed and they can immediately return them if not happy.
"One the whole, the fact that we have more than one million people that use our service regularly suggests that we are getting it right," she said.
"We do have a policy to ensure that no product is less that four days from its expiry date and we are looking to improve our service all the time."
Jess Ross, editor of the watchdog's website, said: "Going online for your grocery shop is a great way to save time, cut the hassle of supermarket shopping and help you stick to a budget.
"If you do have any hiccups with your order, such as vanilla air freshener instead of your vanilla ice-cream, don't be afraid to get in contact with the store and complain."
BASKET CASESSOME of the substitute items supplied by supermarkets border on the bizarre:
• A chocolate flake was substituted with a tin of broad beans
• An order for fresh lemons became lemon- scented toilet cleaner
• Vanilla ice cream turned into vanilla air freshener
The full article contains 471 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
