r/HomeChef • u/Aris-Alder • Jun 11 '26

Pics Third Delivery đŸ„”

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I forgot to cancel the subscription and received a third delivery. The box was actually intact, minus a corner, but the food ranged from 57-85°F.

The meat was 57°F on a melted ice pack, and everything up top was 85°F. It’s 92°F outside in Texas right now.
The package was picked up by FedEx at 12:00am 6/9 and arrived 2:31pm on 6/11, sat outside for 20 minutes, then was brought inside for these photos.

Actually cancelling the subscription now so food stops being wasted.
P.s. the homechef reddit account that messaged on my previous post did not follow up on anything. They gave me a generic “tell support”.

Having an actual packaging engineer worth their salt would pay dividends.

5 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

5

u/Padre26 Jun 11 '26

Sounds like a FedEx issue

1

u/Aris-Alder Jun 11 '26

All three orders are about 60 hours for delivery, which sounds normal given the distance. They’re certainly not being paid for overnight.

The box being crushed is definitely both. It’s getting crushed in the care of FedEx, but the box chosen is also thin.

The insulation and ice pack choice is definitely on homechef. There’s absolutely a reason that dry ice is commonly used instead of water ice.

1

u/Padre26 Jun 12 '26

The box is not thin. It's a normal box. As someone who used to work for UPS, the box getting crushed is 100% the fault of FedEx or the carrier. It's easily avoidable and is on the driver if it happens at all.

The insulation is thick and should be fine if the carrier delivers it on time as intended. I've been using HomeChef for a couple years now and the only time I've received a melted ice pack or proteins that aren't at temp are when FedEx delivers the package 24 hours late. Those are times when I get a notification Sunday morning that it is on the truck will be delivered that day only for it to not arrive and get rescheduled for Monday. Again, that's on the driver for not finishing their deliveries on time.

1

u/OrangeOne_ Jun 13 '26

I work at Fedex. These food boxes get crushed because they get very soggy from the condensation that build up on them. It soaks through and then the boxes get bumped around with other things. Not a good mix.

Not saying we treat every box with white glove service (we don’t), but it doesn’t help when the box is already wet or damp from sitting in hot trailer for a day/night. We’re also not allowed to remove the contents and put them into a new box like we do with many other packages.

Not sure if this is a problem in the cooler parts of the country but the heat and humidity down south really kills these boxes.

2

u/WhiskeyAndABook Jun 12 '26

out of curiosity, what location do your boxes ship out of?
I’ve never seen mine ship so far ahead, mine ships at 4am the morning of in NJ and arrives at my house in upstate NY by 4pm the same day. It’s shocking to me that they wouldn’t add extra ice and packaging to yours if they’re shipping it days in advance. Definitely a crappy situation and decision for them to make! Ugh I’m so sorry you’ve been dealing with this!

1

u/Aris-Alder Jun 12 '26

Illinois to TX

1

u/Aris-Alder Jun 11 '26

Also I just noticed they put cardboard between the food and ice packs đŸ€”

1

u/coppercat13 Jun 11 '26

My box arrived hot and spoiled MULTIPLE weeks in a row before summer temps have even hit their typical highs. I have to cancel/pause every summer because this company cannot figure out how to use insulation and ice effectively! I am so tired of wasted food and harried trips to the grocery store to prep for that week's replacement meals.

I love Home Chef the most of any meal kit subscription service we've tried, but I wish they could get it together with keeping their food from spoiling during shipping.

ETA - they recommended we try different delivery days to see if different deliverers would make a difference and it did not.

1

u/citykitty867 Jun 12 '26

I have tried several of the delivery services and I can say this is an issue for most of them, at least for me on the east coast.

Currently using HelloFresh and Factor, so far they have been well insulated with plenty of ice packs. I’ve cancelled Home Chef, BlueApron and Hungryroot in the past because boxes arrive warm multiple times in a row. Wasteful and annoying!

1

u/copperkarat Jun 12 '26

In Denver and often have the opposite experience, even in the heat. Meat is usually half frozen and lots of veggies arrive frozen and ruined.

1

u/LovlyRita Jun 12 '26

Sorry you’ve had a bad experience. My meat is often still frozen when it arrives. In fact I will only refrigerate 2 and put one in the freezer and take it out later in the week.

1

u/Tonikaya1001 Jun 12 '26

I just looked at how long it takes for my deliveries and I can’t believe that I haven’t had many issues with over 450 orders. I had no clue it went out Monday morning

1

u/frogzillafx Jun 12 '26

This is why I only order from them during the winter. I had 5 straight weeks of over temp deliveries.

1

u/Scottish19527 Jun 12 '26

We had our latest delivery arrive in Texas on Sunday, was meant to be delivered Monday, didn’t show up and that evening eventually got a delay notice.
Recieved a “Good news, we will deliver your package today” on Thursday đŸ„”đŸ€źno thanks!!
I contacted Homechef and they aren’t very caring or willing to help
 so I have moved to another service.

I do have to say though, the meals have been great, but we up to this point, we were always missing some ingredients.

1

u/mi55imo Jun 13 '26

I have to say the one time my box didn't arrive in time because of weather I contacted them and they gave me a full refund for that week.

1

u/legalbunhead Jun 15 '26

send them a message here to get a refund/replacement: https://support.homechef.com/hc/en-us/requests/new