Hello Fresh

[SpiderinaWingMirror]

Albu to think that Hello Fresh need to spend less effort on advertising and more time actually putting the right ingredients in the chuffing box?
Had a 2 week trial. 6 meals in. Missing ingredients in 3 of them, 2 recipe cards missing, poor quality veg and substituted products in one.
Needless to say that I have pushed the cancel button.

I just cancelled Hello Fresh after a short trial. Not happy with the cost or missing ingredients - a measly £1 credit when an entire element of a dish was missing is not impressive customer service. Our final order was so badly packed with ripped packages, burst bags and the recipe cards literally stuffed in. The carrots had wrinkled beyond edible state in two days. A nice concept to try to expand our family meal repertoire but they need to sort their quality out.

@Fidodidit I think the scratch kits are much better. Sadly with ocado no longer doing waitrose, not possible for us to get them, the nearest waitrose is 45 mins away! Not seen anything similar in the Mark's offering

@BarbaraWoodlouse we had exactly the same. When I cancelled after meal 6, I had a mystery £2.34 credit. I don't know if that is because of the missing ingredients I reported, I was certainly not told that when I reported. I didn't bother carrying on reporting as frankly I didn't see the point.

During lockdown, Morrisons did their own version which was very good value! They stopped doing them though, which is a shame.

Slightly going at a tangent but I can’t see how this is necessary? We get “prepared” meals from M&S eg noodles, prawns, bag of stir fry veg and a sauce. 2 large portions, 5 minutes prep to table and only about 6 quid. Maybe I’m missing something but are people really to busy to do that?

I thought M&S would do similar to Scratch, thought it would be right up their street but couldn’t see anything similar when I looked - think they are missing a trick there. The Scratch meals are lovely - and I once got one for 25p just before closing so that was a bargain…

*too busy

I use simply cook, absolutely love it. You buy your own meat and veg but are sent the spices, sauces ect, brilliant website and you can cancel anytime. Use this code for a free trial.
simplycook.com/invite/XW81CT?via=app

I tried Hello Fresh twice. What really put me off was the huge cardboard box everything arrived in and all the insulation inside it. I understand some of the ingredients are chilled but I would rather it arrived in paper bags and if necessary leave out an insulated bag or be home to receive it. It was too OTT for me.

Ive never had a issue with HF with missing ingredients, and only ever one veg substitution. They quality has always been good but I agree it’s very same-y after a couple of weeks. I tend to use them whenever they send me a discount code to entice me back then cancel again after a couple of weeks. I feel the same about Gousto too.

I cancelled, didnt understand the point of it really, you still have to cook, there's is a ton of packaging. I also use Simply Cook now but once a month.

If you are a totally incompetent cook, I can kind of understand it.

@Mybestyear I think they are targeting people who don't often cook from scratch. I thought I would give it a bit of a try having been bombarded with offers. However, I can certainly cook better and as others have pointed out, there are many ways of finding time saving solutions in supermarkets!

I didn't mind the ingredients but the consistent lack of recipe cards tipped the balance for me to cancel. As Op says - they need to get the basics right or else the whole thing is pointless.

We can (and do!) cook from scratch, but do like to use Hello Fresh every other week or so, mainly because we both work full time, and once we have got home and picked the kids up, the thought of having to think about what to make for dinner is just too much! Having the step by step cards works for my tired, addled brain.

I am always impressed with the quality of Hello Fresh - especially their meat. We've never had any real problems (except when they accidentally sent us a double order - only charged for one, and said we could keep the additional box. Sweet.), but I agree that the recipes are a bit samey. If they had a better selection, I would probably use them every week, as I think they are good quality and good value.

I took out a subscription two months Ago. In 40 different recipies, there has only been a missing ingredient once, which was chutney, which luckily I had in the house anyway.

As somone who's hardly ever cooked during his adult life, I'm aiming to go 90 days without eating the same meal twice. I reckon I will make it, and I do value that.

I refrigerate everything the menus say should be refigerated. So I don't just put the cold bag items in the fridge, I go through the individual bags and transfer vegetables (other than potatos) to the fridge. Loose vegetables in the drawer, packaged greens on the shelf above. I have had no issues with vegetable quality. (I have had small spring onions, but had no expectation about what size they should be. I don't think it makes much difference to the quality of meal.)

I won't use them as they use cold calling door to door selling methods.

Twice they've disturbed me despite my extensive and very clear notice on the door as it apparently doesn't apply to them!

@RonObvious good to hear that you have had a good experience, that was kind of what I was hoping for!

I’m glad I’ve read this thread. I was planning on ordering but will research other options now.

I imagine M&S food is good, but you are talking about meals that cost 50% more. Is there enough variety that you could you go three month without having the same meal twice? (Although maybe that's a silly ambition, nothing wrong with eating things you like. It's just that my previous experience of ready meals is that I was choosing between maybe six different things, so I couldn't go two weeks without eating the same thing twice.)

Not had a problem with missing ingredients or anything using HF. I just found it really expensive, even at the trial prices. I'm a veggie, so paying out around £10 x 2 meals for a bit of cous cous and some veg not really very economical and the options a bit samey.

Yes, it's definitely not a good choice for vegetarians! In fact, one of the things that I don't like about it, is that I feel it encourages me to eat more meat, as otherwise the meals are not good value at all. They should have a different pricing for vegetarians, in my opinion.

I haven't had any problems in 5 years.

I've done gousto for roughly 2 years, started off weekly then fortnightly then whenever I could be bothered to look, got a bit samey. I've now tried HF and found it to be really nice, I only do it once a month though. I will probably go alternate Gousto and HF when my trial period is up.

Oh this happened to me a few years ago. I had paused, forgotten to keep pausing, no notification sent, came home to a box of food that I hated (kidney beans!) sat on my doorstep. When I phoned to complain, they made excuses : subscription service blah blah. I kept complaining and got my money back. Obviously cancelled too.

Gousto are better, more flexible and more choice. But trying to reduce my plastic waste, and I LOVE Simply Cook. I like the flexibility of the recipes, that I can make them veggie or chicken instead of beef, that the mixes last ages, the choice is great...

I had a box given to me ordered by someone else, and I was surprised to find that there were two meals in it. I always thought that the minimum you had to order was 3. (Both meals were for two people). I don't know if the person who ordered it actually ordered three meals and was short-changed, or if there is a way to only order two. Obviously I don't want to ask/complain, but I was surprised! I'd be more likely to do it if there were options for just 2 meals a week or a fortnight, just as an occasional treat.

For someone living alone, it seemed useful, as you could get small quantities of things. one of the meals was the ubiquitous sounding wedges with chili on. Normally I wouldn't bother buying sour cream for a meal, as I'd have a whole tub to use up and very few occasions to use it, but it's really nice with that sort of meal. So with their little sachet of it, I could have it.

I did worry a bit about the amount of packaging. Most of it was recyclable, apart from small sachets, and I would have that from the ready meals or prepared veg that I'd be getting anyway. But the ice packs were thick plastic and couldn't be recycled, plus even all the big boxes and stuff meant that I had to do something with them as they're too big to just store easily in the recycling bag.

I think I might want to try one of the others. Mindful chef has great reviews and I like the look of them, but they are so expensive once the trials are over.

Also most of the companies say you can't have things like a code needed to get in, and if I live in a block of flats on a busy street, if they are just going to leave it at the main door on the street, it could get stolen very easily. I know others in the building seem to find a way to get them to deliver inside, so I'm not sure whether they just say 'no codes' in their terms and conditions, but in reality they do ring buzzers or use codes at least to get into the foyer.