We are all aware that Woolworths lack delivery slots for remote and regional communities, in addition to this the website lets us down in a number of ways due to not being able to check out without a delivery slot.

- We cannot shop and checkout on the same day
- We miss out on Special Offers
- Are unable to amend orders
- It affects budgeting when waiting 5 days for a delivery slot (having to check the website daily for delivery slot releases) then an additional 7 days for delivery.

If you try to amend an order the pop up is contradictory to the IMPORTANT INFORMATION hidden behind the Terms and Conditions link. Hiding IMPORTANT INFORMATION behind a link named Terms and Conditions is incredibly misleading.

The automatic cancellation of delivery slots also removes the ability for regional / remote communities to amend their orders, when they are the people most at need due to the long waiting times for delivery and lack of alternative shopping options.

I am not the first person to be affected by this and Woolworths does not seem to be taking any action.

We need to be able to checkout without a delivery slot, in order to secure special offers, budget effectively and avoid being refunded if we try to amend an order.

Delivery slots should not be automatically canceled, there should be a half hour or hour window where we can make amendments without losing a delivery slot.

I got paid on Friday, so I began my shopping online with Woolworths. I finished filling my cart but there weren't any delivery slots available. I checked again on Saturday but there still weren't any slots available.

If I checked out before Sunday I would receive a $50 gift card as part of a special promotion but unfortunately, there weren't any delivery slots available, so I missed the special offer.

I continued to check daily until I secured a slot late on Tuesday night for delivery the following Monday and completed checkout.

On Wednesday I realised I had forgotten to add Cat Food to my order, so decided to use the 'amend order' option.

I read the popup window carefully and below is a copy of what the actual window says -
"
Before you amend your order, there are some things you need to know
Even if you make no changes, you must resubmit your order through checkout or your order will be cancelled and refunded
You may lose your chosen Delivery/Pick up window if you don't resubmit by the following times:
Same day windows: 10.30am that day
Next day windows: by 5.30pm for morning orders or 10.30pm for evening orders the day prior
Refunds for orders not resubmitted, take 3-5 business days depending on financial institution processing times
Current website pricing will apply, and may differ from previous pricing.
For more info, please see our Terms & Conditions, or FAQs.
"

This lead me to believe that as long as I completed the checkout and resubmitted my order the same day, as I still had 6 days before delivery my order would not be cancelled or refunded.

Little did I know that hiding behind the Terms & Conditions link is a section headed IMPORTANT INFORMATION which states by amending the order the delivery window will be cancelled. This seems to contradict the information in the popup which states that you MAY lose your delivery window IF you don't check out within a certain timeframe.

As a result I lost my Monday delivery slot, was unable to checkout with my amended cart, as there were no more delivery slots available. I began the cycle of checking for delivery slots morning and night each day and eventually secured a slot for the following Wednesday.

Once I got to the checkout I discovered due to the delay between me amending the order and checking out (through no fault of my own) my order had been refunded.
Checking my bank the funds had not cleared back into my account, so i no longer had the funds available to checkout.

The refund is expected to clear within 5 business days, so I expect to have funds available again by next Tuesday (the day after I originally expected my order delivered) so I will begin the process again of checking the site daily and looking for a delivery slot, hopefully I will secure a slot for the following week, which will then be a full month from when I began the process.

I'll know better than to amend my order next time but I doubt I'll be the last single mum or pensioner to get trapped in this ridiculous cycle. Woolworths can surely do better.