to think Hello Fresh are a bunch of utter robdogs and should refund me?

[barstewards]

Probably going to get handed my arse now but I'm so upset I am crying and need to vent

Got a voucher for £25 off Hello Fresh with an Amazon order back in July. Ordered a box, which cost me £11 after the discount. Then tried to cancel but its really hard to do so. Even harder on a phone screen which is my usual method of internetting - it involves tiny print and multiple clicks and ticks in tiny boxes (presumably its intentionally hard to cancel to make sure people keep getting boxes whether or not they want them), so I ended up pausing the deliveries for 2 months with the intention of going back to cancel asap.

Things happened, I forgot to cancel, mea culpa.

But today I got a PayPal notification that I'd paid them £36 for next weeks delivery.

No email from Hello Fresh themselves, to tell me a box was due or to offer me the chance to do a meal swap etc. I had no idea, the first I knew was when Paypal told me I'd paid for the fucking thing.

Within moments of getting the Paypal reciept I was online trying to cancel it but it wouldn't let me, so I emailed them but they claim its too late to stop the one that is being sent out NEXT FUCKING WEEK my arse.

I am actually weeping, we don't have thirty six fucking quid to spend on 3 meals at the moment. I'm self employed and my workload is low at the moment, we are on a £40 a week food budget, I simply cannot afford this box.

AIBU to think that they should email customers BEFORE a box is in transit to give them the chance to cancel, especially after a 9 week pause in deliveries?

[InfinitySeven]

Nowhere does, though, because most of their business is probably through people who take out a subscription and forget about it.

You could try cancelling through PayPal, who will most likely refund you. If Hello Fresh chases them, though, you'll probably either have to pay again or lose your PayPal account.

[ClapHandsIfYouBelieveInFatties]

Have you gone on their social media? Do that...LOUDLY. Be polite but firm.

[barstewards]

Didn't think of Paypal - would they even care?

I mean I know I should have remembered to cancel but you;d think they'd send out an email or something before it was completely unchangeable

[barstewards]

I don't want my real name all over it else I would. I just so gutted, we simply don't have that sort of money spare right now. And honestly, cancelling is a multi step process that is a real faff and clearly designed to make you go, oh fuck it and give up

[InfinitySeven]

PayPal will refund you - they have to keep customers happy.

The problem will arise if Hello Fresh then chase PayPal. PayPal will pay, and put your account to -£36. If you don't then top it up, they'll email you a few times, and eventually close your PayPal account.

If you're that short of money, I'd get a refund through PayPal, then argue with Hello Fresh. You'll have the money back, then.

With regards to the email, the merchant sets up the PayPal email, so they've presumably decided that it's not worth sending two at the same time - one from HelloFresh and one from Pay Pal.

[InfinitySeven]

As for cancelling, It doesn't seem too bad on a PC, if you have access to one. I appreciate that it's probably much different on a phone, though!

You can cancel up to the Wednesday before dispatch, at 7pm, so I'd be emailing to make sure that they got your cancellation yesterday as you got no confirmation email, if you can't get on a PC. Do PayPal first, though.

[barstewards]

I didn't get any confirmation email yesterday - the first i knew was at lunchtime today when I got a Paypal email saying I'd paid And by then it was too late to cancel.

Are you meant to get a confirmation email then? Their reply to me asking to cancel said they were sorry for the lack of communication, but I don't know if that is a generic 'sorry but tough shit' or means that there was meant to be an email that I didn't get for some reason.

[MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig]

If they've admitted to a lack of communication then you've got them. Cancel the PayPal transaction, cancel the delivery and when they complain quote their email back at them that there's been a lack of communication on their part and they never got back to your original cancellation. Tough shit on them.

[QuintessentiallyQS]

It was really easy to cancel. You need to sign up on their web interface though. Not sure about the box you have just paid for and how they did not send you a "welcome" email with information.

[NecklessMumster]

I had one of these vouchers in my beauty box and was tempted but I was worried that it would be hard to cancel so you have confirmed my concerns.

[barstewards]

Thats the thing though I never did cancel because it was so bloody hard to do from my mobile (the cancellation process takes you through about 6 screens each with tiny tick boxes asking you why are are cancelling and if you'd rather have less frequent deliveries etc etc), I meant to get onto a real computer to do it but then totally forgot. I just paused deliveries for as long as possible in the end to give me time to sort it out.

But if I'd had any kind of email warning that the deliveries were due to restart I'd have remembered and cancelled immediately as we've now got a working computer (which we didn't have in July when I signed up). So fucked off!

[barstewards]

Okay, going in with Paypal now - do I want to report it as unauthorised? I think yes, because I didn't authorise them to charge me for or send out this box. I paused the weekly deliveries for as far ahead as it would let me which was 2 months. There were no deliveries at all scheduled for my account when I'd finished pausing them. So there was no box sceduled for this week at the time, and I've never been asked if I want one for this week. So as far as I can work out, the charge was not authorised by me?

[InfinitySeven]

Yes, unauthorised is fine.

You'll probably get an email that they are investigating, and then your refund.

I deal with PayPal a lot, give me a shout if you run into any difficulties.

[MiscellaneousAssortment]

Hello fresh had a major fuck up this week so you probably got caught up in the chaos. They didn't deliver ANY boxes to my area (err, central London!), with no warning and no email response. Was Rubbish. New delivery company apparently. So I and presumably alot of other people got nothing this week at all. money refunded but still...

Their customer service is spotty. They did some kind of idiotic mail merge a few weeks ago which left me with no deliveries for two weeks as they merged my old address and my new one - after having moved months & months ago. So I had missing boxes and little interest off hello fresh. Nada, no humanity at all.

In effect I paid them money for the privaledge of paying for my own courier one week, and being injured the next week. Oh and being able to throw away ruined food both weeks and not having any dinners (as cant get to supermarket to do own shopping or pay twice for weekly food shop).

Any recommendations for similiar but better services greatly appreciated!!! These guys have had my money / custom for over a year and still can't get it right or care enough to resolve issues they cause.

It makes me furious as they make no attempt to correct their mistakes - leaving me to go get the stinking gone off food box from an irate prison who now lives at my old house. They didn't even bother to reply to my complaint that I'm disabled so it's physically impossible for me to go retrieve their box and carry it up steps and across London.

[HaroldLloyd]

Riverford have started doing recepie boxes.

I've never used them though.

[barstewards]

And to add insult to injury, after I sent them an email explaining that I had no idea the boxes were due to start again and wasn't in a financial position to spend that much money on 3 meals for 2 people at the moment - their email to me ended with a cheerful "Happy Cooking!"

[QuintessentiallyQS]

They are full of stock phrases.

When I complained that the fish was off, and the mince missing and therefore 2 out of 4 meals were "cookable", they still ended their emails with "happy cooking" Grrr.

I had literally paid for a lot of veg and various ingredients and would have to go and buy more to make the meals, or resign myself to having paid £63 for two dinners and a lot of veg and trial sized pots of random, like peanut butter, mustard, ketchup, etc.

This is one company to avoid!

I do agree with eating all the parts of the meat and not wasting food, but when you get 300g of chicken cubes, consisting mainly of skin, fat, and tendons, it goes without saying that you cant feed a family of 4 once you have cut away the inedible bits.

I think their business strategy is to make profit by supplying low end meat/fish that nobody else would buy, with recipes and ingredients, dressed up as organic food from independent butchers. I reckon they make agreements with butchers to select cuts of meat that customers would not otherwise buy, so they get a really good knock down price. That is, judging by the quality of meat they supplied before I cancelled.

I would trust a company like Riverford or Abel & Cole much more. They have a reputation for delivering good quality organic veg. They have a trusted chain of suppliers, and are known for quality. When they diversify into also providing recipes and measured ingredients, they are just adding another dimension to what they are already doing. They are not starting from scratch, and they have a reputation to protect. I think I know what I will try next.

[Birra]

Ok, I've only had 2 boxes from hello fresh, but I've been impressed.
Recipes work, and good quality produce, decent use by dates, nothing missing etc.
Obviously the admin side isn't that strong.
I hope they get this feedback because I think it's a good idea

[QuintessentiallyQS]

Birra, I reckon you must be in a different area than mine.

From last week, The mince for the burgers were missing. The pork for the hoi sin dish smelt sour and were already watering thick yellow goo, the fish for the salmon fishcakes were badly selected smoked off cuts, with lots of bone, also out of date. I paid a lot of money for that, and had planned my other grocery shopping around getting my dinners from Hello Fresh. I had a kitchen disaster with thrown food and having to find something else to cook last moment, or ordering take away.

Difficult, to make up meals when you have most ingredients earmarked for next days dinner (that you dont know is out of the question until you start cooking it), and little else in the cupboards/freezer. It really added to my stress. "Happy Cooking" my arse.

[Uptheairymountain]

I bought the veggie meal box once: it was mainly okay but the ginger and mushrooms went off within a day. I had the same problem - I couldn't cancel via their website, so I cancelled my paypal subscription, which was much easier.

[MidniteScribbler]

What a strange idea. What's wrong with just looking up some recipes and doing online shopping? What if you don't like some of the ingredients in the recipes they send?

[dancingwithmyselfandthecat]

Not had a problem with them. When the courier messed up by dropping the box off two days early (when DH and I were out of the country), I complained and got the meal for free.

Agree that cancelling wouldn't be easy to do by mobile, but you could have always called to do it...

[Boysclothes]

Same here.... Cancelled a box but got an email saying it was turning up. Six days before it was due to turn up. Called them and was told tough shit, although I did get the rest of the subscription cancelled. Box turned up, I refused delivery. The next day I got home and it was sitting in my porch. One memorable phrase from them was "we are only all company, we can't afford to take losses". Fuxache.

Anyway, would never use them again now although I liked the meals. They aren't trustworthy.

[barstewards]

Yes I could have called them.

But I paused every single scheduled delivery, until there were no more to.pause!

There were no deliveries scheduled for my account after that. So it wasn't clear that they were going to wait 3 months then schedule a new delivery and charge me for it without so much as a do you want to restart deliveries! !