If you regularly order your supermarket shopping online, chances are you’ll have had a delivery turn up late at least once.
The bad news is that if you didn’t try to claim back any extra you paid for a specific delivery slot, you may have missed out.
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The good news is you now know for the future.
Consumer group Which says: “If you paid extra for special delivery and your order arrived later than agreed, you can claim back the extra delivery cost as the service wasn’t delivered.”
We asked Scott Dixon, from The Complaints Resolver, to go into a bit more detail – and he flagged S49 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which states: “Every contract to supply a service is to be treated as including a term that the trader must perform the service with reasonable care and skill.”
Scott says: “Late delivery would be considered as a breach of contract under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, as you paid for a time-specific delivery as part of the contract you entered into.
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“You could request a refund of the delivery charge as the time-specific part of the contract constitutes a breach and has not been fulfilled.
“I would contact customer services and be nice about it, as you are more likely to elicit a better outcome that way, given the value involved.”
The inspiration for this post was one of the Money team seeing their shopping arrive 45 minutes late last weekend.
They rang Tesco’s customer service team who, full marks, took down the details and refunded the £7 delivery charge without much fuss.
Tesco’s media team later told us they judge things case by case – but they do encourage you to contact their customer relations teams if there’s any delay.
We asked the other supermarkets for their policies.
Asda said…
“Asda always aims to deliver goods within the delivery slot agreed with the customer. However, if an order is delivered outside of this slot, we will let the customer know and they are then able to request a refund for the delivery charge.”
Ocado…
“We offer customers a one-hour delivery slot of their choice. If we’re running late, we’ll always contact the customer directly to let them know. On the rare occasion that we’re really late, our customer hub advisors can issue refunds – these are assessed on a case-by-case basis.”
Morrisons...
“We work with customers on a case-by-case basis to resolve any late delivery issues.”
Waitrose…
“In the event of a delay, the shop makes every effort to contact each customer directly in advance of their delivery to explain the situation and provide an updated ETA. If the customer is no longer able to accept the delivery, we work with them to reschedule it at a time that suits. While delays are often beyond our control, we assess each situation on a case-by-case basis, and Partners can offer a gesture of goodwill when customers are inconvenienced.”
Regardless of their policies, it’s worth (politely) pushing – as the law is on your side.
