Online food shopping in Helsinki

If we want to replace our Saturday's general food shopping trip with online ordering, there seem to be only two major options in Helsinki ruoka.net and Alepa kauppakassi. We had been using ruoka.net before, but we stopped, because their online store was very user-unfriendly and the prices quite high. But maybe we should have another look, because Alepa kauppkassi's quality of service has deteriorated during the last few months.

We have been ordering our food via Alepa kauppakassi already for more than a year, but now that I have broken my leg this service is essential for us. Unfortunately, it has never been working without problems. E.g. when they delivered a week ago, they forgot completely to deliver all the frozen foods that we had ordered. They had forgotten the frozen food already once before, but back then, it was promptly delivered at the next possible time. Not so this time: It took them one week to deliver the rest. And we had to complain multiple times before anything happened. And what was the compensation? One lousy free delivery (worth 6.9€). But today, things got even worse:

Let me please reliably know if the delivery will be late
Yesterday, my wife placed an order for about 150€ and the delivery was supposed to happen today between 9-12 am. However, until 1:30 pm nobody had been ringing the door bell and I skyped my wife whether she had received any SMS or phone call. She had received an SMS at 8:30 am that the goods had been gathered and were awaiting delivery. Later she had received a call attempt from an unknown number while she was talking on the phone with her doctor. Later it appeared that this had probably been the delivery driver trying to announce that he would be late. However, what should my wife have done? Call back an unknown number? This is one of the things that went wrong. The driver should have sent an SMS message or called again.

Stuck in traffic in Helsinki? - Give me a break!
When I called the customer service at 1:30 pm, they promised they would figure out why the delivery is late and call me back asap, what they did. They said that the delivery was delayed due to the traffic situation and that he will be delivering in about 15-20 minutes. In fact, at 13:50 the food was delivered. Some stuff was temporarily finished and therefore missing from the delivery, but more importantly, all frozen foods had already melted. No surprise, as they were simply delivered in a plastic bag. From 8:30 am to 1:50 pm is 5 hours and 20 minutes - long enough for pizza to melt completely.

Traffic jams on Wednesday between 9 and 12 am in Helsinki? You must be kidding! You can pull this argument in New York or London, but in Helsinki? The driver told me that the delivery started only at 11:30 am... Apparently there was simply nobody available to start the delivery in time.

Don't sell stuff you don't have!
It is difficult to understand, why an online store would list food items that it cannot deliver. For example we have ordered already 5 or 6 six times frozen strawberries (including this order), but every single time the berries were not delivered due to "temporary shortage". Such a situation is called "permanent shortage". It is bad practise to list food items in the online store that the shop is never able to deliver. It makes frustrated customers.

Some tips against the melting of frozen goods
Now for the melted foods: This is dangerous and avoidable. It can be avoided by not delivering too late (or by not gathering too early). If this overstrains the logistic capabilities, there is still another option: a styrofoam box and a few cooling elements. I was talking to the driver and he told me that he started delivery at 11:30 am, which was 3 hours after the food had been gathered. Why that late? According to the driver they are permanently understaffed.

Customer service
Already during the first phone conversation I clearly indicated that my patience was already very stretched and that I did expect a decent apology and compensation. I received a phone call a bit later by Janina Henttilä (I hope I spelled her name correctly), asking me whether they can replace the frozen foods with a new delivery today in the evening between 7 and 9 pm. Yes, that would be ok. However, again a bit later, I got another call, telling me that they have run out of one of the pizzas that I have ordered and whether I want partial delivery today and the rest tomorrow or rather everything at once tomorrow. Tomorrow everything at once would be ok. Again a bit later, I got another call - they don't have that pizza at all and whether I want a similar type. No, I don't want replacements done by other people for me and we always check the box "don't replace products by similar ones when the exact product is temporarily not available". Bad things can happen: a Dr. Oetger pizza might get replaced by a Saarioinen pizza. That might be OK for some people but not for me. So I asked them to call back later, when I had the possibility to check from the computer what replacement options they offered. We also were promised some unspecified compensation for all the trouble. I was also asking for some names higher in the hierarchy to complain to, because I am very well aware, that the problems must be structural and not only due to somebody not doing his or her job. I got two names and two phone numbers which I will call once this online food shopping adventure is over.

P.S.: The replacement delivery was scheduled the next day between 9 and 12 am and it really happened. The "compensation" (a 20€ gift card for any shop of the S group) arrived timely 2 days later.

P.P.S.: I did the next online shopping exactly one week later. This time delivery was in time (sheduled between 9 and 12 am, delivered at 10:30 pm). Almost everything was ok except from the bill which overcharged us by 61 cents: They billed one 250g frozen strawberry bag (2.3€) instead of one 200g raspberry bag (1.69€). I really didn't feel like complaining again. It just shows how hard it is for them to get it right...