[chutchut]

Ah geez, I have to share this before I forget. XD

My second post or so, I think. Sorry to be negative my first time posting real content, but I'm honestly still laughing about it all, too.

I live in Mongkok and have lived here for only two weeks, so I've had trouble finding grocery items. The stores I've found are mostly small, and randomly tucked away, although I did spot a wellcome Superstore at Cheung Sha Wan that looked promising. Anyway, I was browsing ParknShop's website for store locations when I noticed they deliver! And free, if your order's over $400! Very exciting! Best of all, browsing the selection, I found lots of stuff I haven't yet seen in the half-dozen PnS stores I've visited! Lots of GOOD BEER!

Well, there's where the fun begins. I placed my meager beer order, padded it up nicely with some bulk oil and relatively expensive Japanese goods to get it over $400, clicked away my credit card #, and selected my delivery time: August 1, 7-10 PM.

At 11:30 on 8/1, I sent them a disappointed email and finally went out to buy food myself. Of course shopping isn't that much of a hassle -- a service like PnS's delivery would cost a good bit in the US, so I'm used to it -- but the waiting around sucks, and there remain a number of things from the website I haven't found. 8/2 in the morning (check out my Chinese-influenced sentence structure lol) they called me, and said sorry, the driver had had "trouble with the customer before [me]", and would I mind if they rescheduled for the same time that night? I had somewhere to be that night so I asked instead to be bumped up into the 2-6 PM delivery slot, which they kindly obliged me.

I waited around until 7, when I had to leave, fired them a fairly angry email this time, and told them to either call me the next day with a specific delivery time or cancel my order. Today, 8/3 at 11 AM, I received a phone call from the delivery guy who said he was coming up! Luckily I was home! I was so excited! XD Little treasures to be enjoyed in HK. He came up and proudly handed me my receipt and my goods (he offered to bring them to the kitchen, but my apartment's a hazardous mess right now so I declined), then grinned at me thankfully and it made me wonder if I should tip the guy. Then I realized he was two DAYS late with my order and shut the door. ^^;

Looking through my goods I had to laugh -- one of the beers was oozing from under the sealed top. Probably got shaken up a bit, or maybe stored in a hot car for a bit? However, add to this:

- Rolled wafer treats - crushed, and wrong flavor
- Lemon tea boxes - wrong brand
- Bacon - frozen
- Cheese - frozen
- Heavy Cream - not frozen, sort of lukewarm, and rather sweaty
- got two bottles of the wrong type of Erdinger beer, and then an additional bottle of the right type
- Ziploc bags -- wrong size, and smaller count box than I ordered
- missing bottle of green tea
- missing bottle of Hoegaarden

I could forgive everything but the missing Hoegaarden, obviously. :9~ Also, there was one additional bonus item: a 9-count package of "Good Nites" Pull Up Underpants, Size L (kids' training diapers)! All this on an order only about 25 items long -- of which 7 items, listed on the website as in stock, were out of stock.

Anyway, it was a pretty small order and it feels nitpicky to list every detail gone wrong, but I was finding the situation all rather humorous. Plus, I'll probably email this same message to ParknShop a bit later, so it's nice to get it typed out while it's fresh in my mind. I obviously won't be trying them again, but, like a moth to the flame, I may try wellcome's delivery, soon... >:9

[PDLM]

I haven't tried PnS, but I have to say that Wellcome's home delivery works well for me. When I first started using it a year or two ago they had a lot of "out of stock" problems, but they would always call and advise in advance. In the last few months they've always had everything I wanted (which isn't much: water, wine, household stuff like toilet rolls, etc.).

Personally I'm happy to check the "leave it outside if I'm not in box". I've never had any problem as a result.

Having said all of that I don't really consider it suitable for perishable stuff, and certainly not for anything that needs keeping cool...

[DaveD]

Call them and ask for the supervisor.... They will then say "Sorry, Sir" for approximately 24 times, but insist of having a compensation...
It might take a while but normally they agree then.... I have received this compensation twice already, one time they delivered 24 cans of Carlsberg for free, the other time 12 cans... not too bad...

But attention: They normally offer you a bottle of crappy Chinese wine. Insist of having another compensation and make a proposal.

I order online on parknshop.com regularly, quite satisfied with their performance in the past weeks....
But what I never do: Ordering fresh vegetables / fruits or frozen goods..... experience here was rather bad.

[chutchut]

Ahahaha, thanks for the replies! Good to see I'm not the only one -- I figured that service was bound to be worse in MK than on HK, but not this bad! ^^;;

Anyway I actually came to post an update -- I just got a call from the ParknShop dispatch or whatever-it-is desk, and they wanted to know if they could reschedule my delivery for 7-10 PM tonight! XD I hadn't yet emailed them about the delivery, see, and they were just responding to last night's angry email about not having received anything yet! As tempting as it was to accept a free delivery, I explained what had happened, and they said they'd be sure to replace things if I emailed them the discrepancies. Hopefully this will work out -- I just don't want to have to wait around for the replacements to arrive. =/

I didn't notice any "leave stuff at the door" option at ParknShop, but I'll certainly tick it when I try wellcome's service. I think this may be better for non-perishables, in general, too -- I'd just wanted to test things out (and pad my bill!). Thanks again for the advice.

[lowlight]

I've used both PnS and Wellcome for delivery (whenever I need to restock on beverages, and don't feel like lugging several litres of liquid containers up from the grocery store )

Wellcome has been a bit better. They will phone you the day of the delivery if something is out of stock. Then again, I've never had something out of stock from PnS, so maybe they'd do the same?

PnS used to have the better website, but Wellcome's new design is better.

Prices and PnS are a bit lower overall.

I'd never order things like fruit, veggies, or meat from a delivery service.. who knows what you're going to get!

[jimbo]

Or you could stop being lazy and actually go to the store itself and choose your own stuff and then arrange delivery for the non perishable items instore.

[lowlight]

If I go to the store, why would I need delivery? That makes no sense at all....

[jimbo]

Originally Posted by lowlight

If I go to the store, why would I need delivery? That makes no sense at all....

you go to the store and then you at least know whats in stock and know that the goods will be in a good condition.

[Bobbybo]

Originally Posted by lowlight

If I go to the store, why would I need delivery? That makes no sense at all....

You just have 2 hands and it's not easy to bring cans of soft drinks, beer, discounted toilet paper and other bulky items along with frozen food, vegetables and so on.
So I think it MAKES sense

[lowlight]

Originally Posted by jimbo

you go to the store and then you at least know whats in stock and know that the goods will be in a good condition.

That's what I do.. I am at either Wellcome or PnS every singe day, buying fresh fruit and veggies. Sometimes if we have fish for dinner, we'll buy fresh fish there (the wet market here has better selection, but it's messy and crowded).

For the rest of the stuff, like drinks, canned stuff, cat litter, toilet paper, etc, I sometimes order online. That way, I always have fresh fruit and veggies, and don't have to lug around large bags of stuff...

Not sure how that makes me lazy...