Horrible experience with VONS

brockash

DIS Legend
Joined
Jul 16, 2008
Messages
10,219
Just wanted to give our experience with using Vons just so it's out there in case anyone wants to reconsider their grocery delivery company while at Disneyland.

This was our first time ordering groceries from them, and I will never use them again. We mainly placed an order because we wanted a case of water. We drink a lot of water, and would much rather order a case then spend $3 every time we wanted a bottle of water. We placed our $50 order, and we arrived last week and received the order about an hour after checking in. We talked to the front desk when we first arrived and they said that they would call us as soon as the delivery person was there (I had read on here, that unlike at Disney World, Disneyland hotels won't accept grocery deliveries and that the person has to come down and get it in person.) This wasn't a problem and this is what the person at the front desk said would happen, however when we finally called again to check on the groceries; the person at the front desk said they had been delivered and that they would bring them up:confused3 Not a big deal, so they brought them up and guess what was missing...yep the water.

I called Vons immediately and spoke to a guy who stated that the water wasn't delivered because they were out of that particular brand and that supposedly I had not indicated that I would want a substitute brand for the water (he said I did indicate that I would want a substitute brand for every other item on my list however.) I knew he was wrong, as I remember specifically indicating to substitute any brand for all the items, as I thought it was odd it was even asked, because I never noticed it in all my years of ordering groceries for our World trips. He basically said that there was nothing they could do, and that I would need to place a brand new order (spend another $50 -on junk I didn't need nor would I use) to get the water.:mad::mad: I explained that I obviously did not need another $50 worth of groceries, to which he replied that my other option would be that I could find transportation to a store and purchase it myself...:mad::mad:Oh well thank you very much for allowing me to find my own transportation to purchase water myself...such an idiot. I then asked to speak to a manager, he got really rude and then said that a manager wouldn't be available until the morning.

The next morning I call, asked to speak to a manager and the person was a little rude and put me on hold....on hold for 15 minutes (I know this because I was standing in line in the bag check line waiting to be let through.) Finally a lady came on the line explaining she was the manager, and explained that the issue wasn't that I did not indicate a substitute brand (she said that she could see that I indicated a substitute brand for all items) but that their entire store was out of all water....What??? What store in the world runs completely out of water. Supposedly they did not have 1 drop of water in stock and that they didn't know when they would be receiving any.- Those are the words she actually used. I told her that it was completely unacceptable and that reason I placed the order in the first place was for the water etc. She then tried to make me feel better by telling me that they did not charge me for the water since they didn't deliver it...ummm, no crap, that would be illegal:confused3 I felt like I was talking to absolute idiots. She finally told me that she would look into it and would call me back to see if there was anything they could do. She verified my phone number, however I never heard back from her. I could not believe the horrible customer service.

We go to Disney World every year, and every year I order groceries from garden grocer, and not once have we EVER had any problems at all with them, always received what we have ordered and they have always been pleasant to deal with. I was absolutely disgusted by the Vons company in general, which apparently is part of Safeway. Just a warning for anyone that wants it.
 
Ok, so if you are out of water, and you want to provide good customer services, have your delivery drive go to another store and buy some so you can fill the customer's order. I hate it when we go out to eat and they are out of something. I went to Taco Bell one time and ordered a tostada (which can be rather sloppy to eat) and after I ordered and went to get my condements etc found out they were out of forks. They said "oh sorry, we are out and our truck doesn't come in until tomorrow". Well either get your butt down to the local Costco and buy some or tell customers as they are placing their orders that you don't have any.
 
He basically said that there was nothing they could do, and that I would need to place a brand new order (spend another $50 -on junk I didn't need nor would I use) to get the water. I explained that I obviously did not need another $50 worth of groceries, to which he replied that my other option would be that I could find transportation to a store and purchase it myself...

If they really were totally out of water, wouldn't it have been awesome if you had made another $50 order and it came without water? Or you took a taxi to the store to discover they were out? :eek:
 

(I had read on here, that unlike at Disney World, Disneyland hotels won't accept grocery deliveries and that the person has to come down and get it in person.)

OK that's not correct. If you have alcohol in your order THEN Disney hotels won't accept it for you, but for a non-booze order they'll accept it just fine.

Garden Grocer is a company that shops for you, and CAN go around to different stores.

Vons IS a store. Though their delivery system works out of a separate warehouse, not an actual store, from what I was able to figure out when we were ordering from Safeway.com when DS was bitty (yay for orders being delivered just after a snowstorm when I literally could not get the car up the driveway...DH actually had to take off two days of work because we could not get up the hill). So it's *possible* that the warehouse was out of water.

I'm sorry you didn't get your water. Water is one of the reasons we always rent a car at WDW and DLR, so we have the freedom to get it whenever we want to get it.
 
Ok, so if you are out of water, and you want to provide good customer services, have your delivery drive go to another store and buy some so you can fill the customer's order. I hate it when we go out to eat and they are out of something. I went to Taco Bell one time and ordered a tostada (which can be rather sloppy to eat) and after I ordered and went to get my condements etc found out they were out of forks. They said "oh sorry, we are out and our truck doesn't come in until tomorrow". Well either get your butt down to the local Costco and buy some or tell customers as they are placing their orders that you don't have any.

Totally agree!

My brother worked delivery at a pizza joint as a teen. If they ran out of something, he was sent to a local store to pick it up, even if it was a loss for the restaurant. I believe they called it...customer service. :scratchin
 
We've never used the Von's delivery because they don't carry soy formula for my little one, but now I certainly won't now! What terrible customer service!

I know this doesn't help you now, but for next time, I highly recommend ordering bottled water from Diapers.com or Amazon.com. We have done both for Disneyland trips and it works perfectly. Since we have the little one, we order a case of water, formula, wipes, diapers, and baby food and have it arrive at the resort a few days before we get there. We call the resort and tell them the package is on it's way and it's been awesome. There are also usually free shipping codes out there for diapers.com. Plus, if you have amazon.com prime, the two day shipping is free. Even on a case of water. We've also done it with Gatorade for half marathon trips.

Anyway, sorry about the terrible experience. I hope the rest of the trip was magical!
 
Ok, so if you are out of water, and you want to provide good customer services, have your delivery drive go to another store and buy some so you can fill the customer's order. I hate it when we go out to eat and they are out of something. I went to Taco Bell one time and ordered a tostada (which can be rather sloppy to eat) and after I ordered and went to get my condements etc found out they were out of forks. They said "oh sorry, we are out and our truck doesn't come in until tomorrow". Well either get your butt down to the local Costco and buy some or tell customers as they are placing their orders that you don't have any.

When I worked at a movie theater, we ran out of lids for our large cups, which of course is a huge problem. We had to send one of our managers to the McDonalds down the street to barter with their manager for some lids. :laughing:
 
This is why I don't even deal with grocery delivery. Last trip thankfully I was able to meet up with some friends who lived in So. Cal and they were gracious enough to run us to Target to get some supplies we couldn't bring on a plane. Typically we drive and same thing, even after 6+ hours of driving, i'd still rather just drive the mile or two to Target on Harbor, get what I need and be set from there.
 





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