MilkandMore - a total shambles!
A few months ago we had a note from our milkman suggesting that we signed up with the milk&more website.
It seemed to be a very good idea, in that you can order extra items to be delivered, and generally manage your doorstep deliveries. However, I have to say that their service leaves much to be desired.
Whilst they have recently "upgraded" their website, for many months it was dreadful, and certainly not user friendly. In particular, once the delivery day arrived it did not even allow you to check what items you had ordered. Even at the end of the month you only got a composite list of items - so if you didn't keep a manual record of your orders you could not check your bill.
They have now solved some of these issues with the new website - but it is still heavy going, and takes several steps to order extra items. It is also often difficult to find items, as there is no real logic in the menus.
The biggest issue for me however, is that there are frequent shortages with the delivery. When the service first started, I would say that half of my deliveries either had items missing, or the weights were short, or items were substituted. When supermarkets deliver they generally tell you when items are out of stock, or have been substituted - but not this lot. No apology, no explanation!
Since the website upgrade things have got even worse. During the first week, out of three orders, two did not turn up at all, and the one that did arrive was incorrect.
The problem seems to have been down to a stupid decision that customers needed to reregister their payment details after the change (which was completed on a Sunday morning). What they did not make clear was that this also had to be done before any further deliveries would be made - farcical to say the least!
The result was that anyone who had a delivery due on the Monday, and who failed to reregister their details between 9am and 9pm on the Sunday of the changeover, did not receive their deliveries.
What made things worse was that their new system would not recognise a whole raft of debit cards that had previously been fully acceptable. This was a total shambles, and meant that the service was effectively cancelled for those customers.
To make matters worse, when things go wrong you would at least expect that they would want to deal with your complaint. Well, over the last nine months I have had to complain on numerous occasions. On only a couple of those occasions have I had a response - in fact I have found that it is only when I escalate complaints to senior management that anything is ever done.
My latest problem was yet another missed delivery last Monday. Despite numerous promises from a manager that someone would ring me, we finally had a call yesterday afternoon - but unfortunately I was out. The caller promised she would get back to me at 4pm - but no call has been made since, and it is now 10.30am the following morning.
I have no doubt that when (and indeed if) they call back it will be to simply say that the items are not being charged - really that is the very least I would expect!!. Unfortunately their "customer service" is dealt with by a call centre that basically logs complaints and puts refunds on accounts. There seems to be no real work done to resolve a delivery system that does not work.
Doorstep deliveries are by far the most expensive way of buying milk - and the products available from milk&more are priced on (or often above) the level of a corner shop.
The only real advantage is that it is convenient to be able to place an order up to 9pm on the day before delivery. Unfortunately, if the local dairies are unable to maintain a reasonable level of stock then the system will not work. The system will also fail where the central administration cannot handle the orders properly, and effectively blocks customers from upgrading and managing their accounts properly.
To sum up - milk&more largely ignore complaints made via the internet. Indeed they have closed their online complaints system because they were unable to cope with it. Their phone lines often don't open on time, and they are frequently engaged, their website (despite being upgraded) is not very user friendly, and they are expensive.
If the service did what it claimed, I would not mind paying the price, but when I have to go to the shops to pick up the items that they have failed to deliver, it rather defeats the object of using them!
You have been warned!!
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written by bonzo26, June 24, 2009
I could not agree more with the assessment "Milkandmore - a total shambles". My experience is almost identical to that described and because of their multiple and consistent failures I am not prepared to trust this ill managed organisation with a direct debit authority. Because of this they say they are going to suspend my deliveries - so be it. The people I feel sorry are the poor devils getting up in the dead of night to do the deliveries. Our guy has never let us down over many years whatever the weather but we had to move on from a payment method which was a cheque in an empty bottle! It is a great pity that I will be buying from the supermarket in future but Milkandmore brought it on themselves.
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written by alanfromderby, June 24, 2009
Whilst I have some sympathy for the views of the milkman expressed above, I would like to know on what basis you consider my comments to be full of mistakes. Interestingly, I did raise a complaint with the local dairy on one occasion, and was told that I must ring the call centre. As far as pricing is concerned, I will leave that for others to judge as the prices are clearly available to everyone on the website, as are the prices of those same items at the major supermarkets......
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written by alanfromderby, June 24, 2009
The fact is that MilkandMore acknowledge the prices are more expensive, but they rightly say that the prices are set to cover the cost of delivery - a perfectly reasonable argument in my opinion, and I have already said that if the service worked correctly, I consider the premium prices to be acceptable..................
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written by alanfromderby, June 24, 2009
It is also worth adding that I am still in discussions with MilkandMore about exactly what items I have received, and what my final bill should be. During the conversations I have asked on more than one occasion whether she could give a guarantee that the problems have now been resolved..................
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written by alanfromderby, June 24, 2009
Her response on each occasion was to say that they are still having problems with the system, and she was unable to give any guarantee that orders would be properly fulfilled for the time being. She was also unable to give me any idea on a time-scale for when the problems will be finally resolved...........
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written by stripey31, June 24, 2009
I can only say that I stand by my views and if you as a consumer are not happy with the online service then go back to traditional service as suggested where you can pay as you like and also use a direct debit option which as with the online service is guaranteed and if you know anything about direct debits the banks will only let reputable and financially sound businesses use them.
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written by stripey31, June 24, 2009
As a milkman having inside information I can tell you the problems with the website should be sorted out in the next 2/3 weeks. You have to understand that with a 24 hour website fixes can only be done at certain times without shutting down the complete site and as only a small amount of customers are affected this is not practical.
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written by stripey31, June 24, 2009
Going back to your delivery problems each time something is wrong phone the local depot and ask them to put it right as milk and more is still part of Dairy Crest. Any disputes with your account at the moment have to be dealt with by the call centre but I suggest you tell them what you think you owe and refuse to pay any more than that. I have told any of my customers the same and then go back traditional if you have too.
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written by stripey31, June 24, 2009
To Bonzo26 I would suggest you go back to your milkman and restart deliveries as we still accept cheques,cash or direct debit this way and although I serve nearly 300 customers online, I serve over 400 customers the traditional way so online is not the final option and certainly not the supermarket or corner shop.
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written by Meandthefamily, July 07, 2009
COmpletely agree that it is a shambles. Moved from offline to online, told that they are changing delivery dates 31 May, then no milk. No record of our account when we call, they have wrong postcode - after 5 years of delivering to us. No milk for whole of June, then start delivering back to usual days - then invoiced for milk in June bymilkmand,Everytime you call they tell you somethihg differrent, and accept no responsibility. Seem to be operating 2 seperate businesses and milkmen in our area, as online says they deliver Mon Wed Fri, but milkman actually delivers Tue Thu Sat! No way to email them. No way to cancel account online or dd card. Terrible terrible terrible.
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written by stripey31, July 08, 2009
The reason it is showing wrong delivery days is because delivery patterns are built using postcode data to build delivery patterns so if the wrong postcode is used then the wrong days are allocated and the data probably ended up on a different roundsmans computer system. Again these problems are being sorted out but with approx 9000 groups of postcodes affected it will take a while.
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written by stripey31, July 08, 2009
The reason you are getting deliveries on the right days is because the milkman for your area is actuslly using his brain and having found out what your order requirements are he then delivers them on the correct days for that area.
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written by martinrestorer, August 05, 2009
Have been a satisfied customer with dairy crest for many years with excellent delivery service from are milkman I had signed up with milkandmore, thinking the payment online would be easier as some times I can only pay one month at a time but haveing slipped behind with some payments i was not given an option to make a part payment and had to sign up to DirectDebit payment when I dont now when the money is going to be in the bank. so now I have no milk delivered any more. shame
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written by NW11851, December 04, 2009
PART !:
I have had little problems with milkandmore - until they delivered their Christmas brochure.
Disregarding the fact that they have changed their suppliers and, crazily, no longer supply turkeys for Christmas (after more than 30 years of so doing) there are other, major problems.
At least two items in the Christmas brochure do not appear on the website. This is incompetence.
Admittedly the Customer Service Desk will take such orders - but what a cock-up! As one of the items is boxes of mince pies - surely one of their biggest sellers, it leads me to believe that the website/stock list has been compiled by someone with no knowledge or interest in western, Christian traditions.
I have had little problems with milkandmore - until they delivered their Christmas brochure.
Disregarding the fact that they have changed their suppliers and, crazily, no longer supply turkeys for Christmas (after more than 30 years of so doing) there are other, major problems.
At least two items in the Christmas brochure do not appear on the website. This is incompetence.
Admittedly the Customer Service Desk will take such orders - but what a cock-up! As one of the items is boxes of mince pies - surely one of their biggest sellers, it leads me to believe that the website/stock list has been compiled by someone with no knowledge or interest in western, Christian traditions.
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written by NW11851, December 04, 2009
PART 2:
Another problem, which I am trying to resolve, is that a lot of the order I did manage to cobble together was shown as due to be delivered on 01 December. A bit early, but, arriving early was to be better than not arriving at all.
New refinement. The stuff did not arrive, but that day's milk did. However, milkandmore and managed to show all of it as 'Delivered' on 01 December.
This is beyond farce. Whoever is responsible for this year's Christmas promotion should be summarily sacked and invited to sue at the Industrial Relations Tribunal. I would willingly give evidence against that person.
A merry Christmas to all readers. If they ever get their orders.
Another problem, which I am trying to resolve, is that a lot of the order I did manage to cobble together was shown as due to be delivered on 01 December. A bit early, but, arriving early was to be better than not arriving at all.
New refinement. The stuff did not arrive, but that day's milk did. However, milkandmore and managed to show all of it as 'Delivered' on 01 December.
This is beyond farce. Whoever is responsible for this year's Christmas promotion should be summarily sacked and invited to sue at the Industrial Relations Tribunal. I would willingly give evidence against that person.
A merry Christmas to all readers. If they ever get their orders.
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written by Anthony2505, December 17, 2009
Totally agree. An absolute shambles. The only thing I can say is that I am lucky in respect I dont have to argue over what I have had and what I havent had as I havent had anything! Three deliveries later, a £20 + bill and nothing whatsoever. I have phoned customer services who promised a call back that never came. I have phoned the local depot who were no help whatsoever and told me to phone customer services, that I did again, to no help. And the bill is still there. I have cancelled my direct debit with my bank so they cant take any money. Total waste of time and space everybody that I have delt with in both these companies!
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written by Annemieke, January 19, 2010
I must say that, after some teething problems, our online milk delivery works fine. You can change your order till 9 pm the day before which is very handy. The only minor problem with the site is that, having duly typed in my email and password, it always says "invalid username and/or password". However, if I don't pay attention and just click "go" again, it lets me in. Strange.
Through the recent awful weather they have delivered most of the time. Maybe a lot depends on your milkman and local branch.
I forgive them the hiccups for delivering fresh organic milk (in bottles!) to my doorstep in the depth of the countryside three times a week.
Through the recent awful weather they have delivered most of the time. Maybe a lot depends on your milkman and local branch.
I forgive them the hiccups for delivering fresh organic milk (in bottles!) to my doorstep in the depth of the countryside three times a week.
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Moving on to pricing I think you will find that most products are on par with the leading supermarkets and some are even cheaper. This is a totally new concept for home deliveries of food and grocery items and where else can you order up to 9.00pm for next day free delivery , certainly not any of the supermarkets and most non food retailers need an order by lunchtime and charge a premium delivery rate.