Did you contact the company? I'm sure they'd love to know that they have an employee that is driving away customers.

Did you give feedback to the company? Did they respond?

One of the things we've been enjoying in NZ, compared to Finland, is the friendly, often enthusiastic customer service. It is almost like living in a dream, at times. This makes me especially interested in how bad situations are dealt with.

Have you complained to the store manager? It's uncomfortable but might help.

Well, I haven't complained yet. Partly I'm curious to see what their systems are like for catching this sort of thing. Will I get a call, asking me why we have stopped buying groceries from them? Will we suddenly get e-mailed a questionnaire? Lots of interesting possibilities there, if they're doing things right.

So we'll leave it six months, or a year, and then maybe try them again to see if the surly bugger has moved on to a more suitable job. Recycled sewage tank salesman or something...

Partly, of course, I'm just naturally more into whining about this (i.e. blogging :-) to everyone around me, than I am into complaining to someone who can actually change things. Apparently I'm with about 95% of humanity in taking this approach - only 1 in 20 people will complain to your face.

Maybe that depends on the problem though - I do sometimes take great delight in complaining to the correct people.

Omg, we've had the exact same experience. The last guy has gone on to bidvest apparently - he told my wife his whole story :-)

the new guy just dumps the groceries on the deck and goes.

I appreciate it's probably a hard physical job but he needs to be made aware that HE is the public face of the supermarket.

Hi Andrew,

In Aust buying under Woolworths or Coles here... it seems to work quite well.

1. We have the choice of weather a replacement item is put in place or not.
2. Fruit and Veg are normally better quality than that on the shop floor.
3. Hours of delivery is quite good, and cheerful.. though I live on the ground floor. YMMV.
4. You pay a little more than walking in yourself, but as mentioned earlier the quality is better. So it's a conscious choice for us of quality over price.

I know people who work as online store pickers.
Apparently they pick the produce before it goes out on to the shop floor. That explains why the better quality.

We soon discovered, that it's best to report issues as they arise.
As a result they now know what to substitute and what not to when picking our order. In addition, we've found they do appreciate the feedback (we often get a bunch of 'samples' thrown in... mostly new products coming out ... but freebies are often quite welcome... :)) Often any issue we find with the order results in a $0 priced product. (Quite handy when you find that $25 washing detergent you buy was incorrectly charged) ;-)

As per grumpy delivery man... I would provide feedback to the store. Customer service is a large part of the delivery role. If he can't be bothered with it, and customer satisfaction doesn't rate high on his own radar, he's probably better off doing something else (or at least re-assessing his work demeanour).

Do let us know what you decide and how it turns out. Our own personal experience is that keeping an open dialogue between the store and yourself results in the best shopping experience.