This hopefully means if any of you decide to order from Asda online, you should actually get your stuff.

Now, I’m off to buy a coat…

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Dear George at Asda,

If I visit the website of a big UK retailer and click to buy something, and if the website says it is in stock and available in my size, and if I later get a confirmation email saying it’ll take 3 – 4 days for delivery, and notice that the money has gone out of my account, I do not expect to still be waiting ten days later with absolutely no sign of my purchase.

I particularly do not expect, having waiting so long, to log on to the tracking page of the site (expecting to perhaps find an apologetic note about postal strikes) and instead to find that said item is now ‘on backorder’ with no explanation of when (or indeed, if) it will ever get to me.

I understand that there is no way of adjusting stock levels on a website every second of the day, and that sometimes things sell out before the page can be changed, especially when they’re such good value. But it doesn’t take much to set up an automated email that goes out to customers to inform them when their order is going to be delayed indefinitely. Especially when they’ve already paid for it. Someone or something has to change the status from ‘processing’ to ‘dispatched’ or ‘on backorder’ and an email should go out at that time. It’s not brain surgery, it’s common sense. It should not be the customer’s responsibility to chase an order when it doesn’t arrive, the retailer should make the effort to keep in touch with them when there are problems or changes.

Waiting ten days with no word, then phoning up to find that it will be at least another 2 – 3 weeks for an order to arrive is Just. Not. On.

By the time my sodding coat actually arrives, It’ll be almost December and half the cold weather would have been spent wearing last year’s threadbare offering. Thus I have cancelled my order, and you have lost a(nother) customer. Well done!

When I ordered from the new Tesco clothing website, my order came in 2 days and my card wasn’t charged until after the items were dispatched. That is how it should be done.

Take note, Asda. Just because you’re a big name doesn’t mean you can fob off your customers with half-arsed customer service and bad communication. There’s always an alternative and from now on I will be pointing people elsewhere.