Hello Fresh are absolute robbing bastards

I'm loving this thread as everytime it pops up I remember to place a Gousto order - thanks all!

You can also pick your meals for weeks ahead, my meals are all picked till 8th November. That means you don't need to remember to pick your meals every week, just remember every so often and pick them for all the available weeks.

Never seen the point of it because you still have to do the prep and cooking, and I actually enjoy food shopping, plus I’d rather choose my own perishable items. It made me laugh yesterday when they were handing out leaflets outside Sainsbury’s since I thought their demographic was people who don’t have time to go the supermarket!

This.

It's not exactly hard to remember when the cut off is. Set a reminder on you phone if you find it difficult to remember.

If i can convert anyone to simply cook , I would love to share referral code

thanks to this thread i have managed to restart my simply cook

I don't think you should be worried from the OP. HF rules are quite clear imo. You have a delivery day set for each week. You then have a day 5 days prior by which you have to select your meals. HF automatically give you three options each week, but it's very easy to change the meals (we're also on the vegetarian plan and just choose the Veggie tab).

HF helped my late teen son learn how to cook, as all ingredients and portions are provided. He can now replicate the recipes he likes from general grocery shopping, so we may be stopping again for awhile.

I think their system is quite clear and efficient. They have a useful system for requesting refunds for any missing or damaged items. The only time I received a box I didn't want was when I forgot to check out by midnight of my day. That was on me, not HF.

No difficult to set an alarm on your phone you can’t blame them for you being incompetent.

We use it regularly and never managed to forget to pick our meals, never needed a reminder. Maybe you should set up a weekly reminder for yourself if you keep forgetting it? It's obviously not their fault, YABVU.

I get that it’s annoying that you forgot.
But that was ‘you’ not them.
Why are people so quick to try and publicly slate companies for their own errors?

If money is so tight why are you ordering Hello Fresh at all?
Surely it’s a luxury.

They're an awful company. They kept charging me wrong every single week, I had to start keeping screen shots of how much it said the box would be (when ordering) versus what they charged me. A few times before I started screen shotting they refused to return the money but put it on my account as credit. Credit that I could never use. Would never use them ever ever again and warn everybody else too

I've used them for about a year and had very few issues. They choose a box for us and we have until end of Monday each week to either choose another or skip that week entirely. It seems to work fine. I don't get reminder emails but you can always put a reminder alarm on your phone.

I've had the occasional ripped packet or mouldy bit of veg but not a lot. Portion sizes are ok, we would prob eat more pasta or rice but that is prob what we're supposed to be eating and we've lost sight of that.

What I will say though is their website has changed a bit .... the 'extra' meals at the top of their choices are more expensive now and there seem to be more of them (£4+ per portion), and if you change the delivery date or time they automatically move it to a paid option ... you have to go into the drop down box to change it to free, which is very cheeky IMO, very easy to miss.

Did the same to me. Constant advertising too.

I now used simply cook. It seems like a strange concept but im 100% converted.

You're frustrated I get it - but they're not as bad as some subscription services that simply won't let you cancel (or V broadband - absolute nightmare)

You must acknowledge that at least part of this is down to your lack of organisation in cancelling at the right time/choosing boxes - it's not in their interests to make this easy for you. You have to do it yourself.

I found gousto much better. I found the shelf life on the hello fresh really short. Id order a few meals for the week, but have to use them within three or four days because the stuff arrived already on the turn (it must have been leaving the warehouse already in a sorry state). There was no thinking of which dish I'd prefer each night- I had to use it in order of expiry- and god forbid I made short notice plans to go out- that was then a meal having to be binned.

My food waste went up not down.

I agree it doesn’t make sense not to refund. But those sort of companies tend to have quite draconian rules, presumably to maximise profit over customer service.

I’ve never seen the appeal TBF.

I’ve no idea how much they charge per week, so maybe they’re better value than having veg in the freezer (so you only use what you need) and batch cooking/freezing.

The older I get, realise how lucky I am (took it for granted when younger) to come from a long line of working class folk who grew their own fruit/veg and relished what was in season: “Ooh, look at those peaches, they’re at a good price. I must have some of those”. And then building a meal around it. Guess it’s cos they lived through rationing. You look in the larder/fridge, see what needs using up and make a meal of it, use leftovers etc.

Deciding what to cook is so much easier now recipes are online, rather than rooting through a cook book.

This happened to me, but in my case DS was admitted to hospital so I tried to cancel and when they refused tried to redirect it to literally any address or bin it. But no, they insisted in leaving the box on the street where foxes ripped it open and made a huge disgusting mess. They are a subscription company, not a quality food delivery with good service. I am with Gousto now if we have had a problem the staff have been fantastic.

I tried them for a bit, but they didn't do single portions for singletons like me, so I ended up wasting some bits, and having to eat the same thing next day for lunch etc, which is fine once in a while, but not every day.

I thought Hello Fresh were ok to begin with. We got some moudly pak choi once which they addressed (cant remember how but we were happy enough) but then they started missing ingrediabts out. We ordered something like eggs and avocado on toast once and they put a note in saying they didn't have any avocados but you could still do the dish without it (no credit or alternative given) but they didnt put the egg in either. When we contacyed them they said all they could do was put an extra egg in the next box. Not particularly helpful.

I do like Guosto though. If we could afford it, I'd do that regularly. As a veggie, the recipes can be a bit samey but they are within my taste range so I dont mind.

Presumably you have a phone. It’s not difficult to set up a reminder to do things like this.

Any company that doesn't refund for out of date meat, I wouldn't touch with a barge pole. Total lack of integrity.

I get why you are angry OP but they have to have a cut off date. That will be based on their own deadlines so won't be movable.

You have 3 choices,

1. Is the most sensible. Order your last delivery for next week and cancel immediately after that. I appreciate you dont want to eat their food again but frankly you've already given them money for it so why waste £50?
2. Have the meals delivered to family /friend if you really cant bring yourself to eat it. A bit dramatic, more hassle for you and Hello Fresh won't care/notice.
3. Write off the £50 which seems a bit cut your nose off to me.

I'm not sure subscription services are for you but I can recommend Guosto if you want a different meal service.

One of the guys who founded Hello Fresh went to my school in Germany and was in my best friend's class 😃

I thought the portion sizes were on the large size. I did like the variety but the instructions were a bit fussy (perhaps designed for people who don't cook much) and getting a rotten ingredient out me off. I couldn't rely on them. Plus it was expensive!