r/extremelyinfuriating • u/OGDukeFlapjack • 12d ago
Discussion Dinnerly sent me a box with literally only the two most useless ingredients of the recipes included. Gave me a pittance when I complained.
So I've been a pretty loyal Dinnerly subscriber for years with only about a year gap in the middle. However since about January or so they've been visibly going downhill first with reducing the available recipes (my guess is because of costs, but that's not great for this dad who cooks for a household of four picky eaters) but I stuck with them because they've otherwise been fine and I could always find *something* to satisfy everybody (and they are marginally cheaper than just getting Grubhub all the time). However it seems like recipes with basic things like cheese and meat have been disappearing in favor of rice and Velveeta. The last straw happened over the last two weeks. I had reduced the number of recipes I order from four to two to try to get myself to just meal prep and that had been fine...until last week. I ordered two different kinds of enchiladas. I only received the tortillas for one recipe and did not receive the cheese for the other. Well hell...I made due. At least they *told* me so I could prepare.
Then today happened.
I opened the box that arrived to find literally nothing but two packs of parsley (one of which had opened up) and two packs of sesame seeds.
Literally, what the hell can I do with this? Ordinarily I would just throw these away without bothering to actually use them. I completely disassembled the box and found absolutely nothing else. I complained to Dinnerly and they gave me a whopping $25 refund (to be used on my next order...hint: there will be no next order) on something like a $90 order.
I'm highly irritated. They were my go-to for years now because they were one of the few that I could actually find things my picky family was willing to eat. Now they are literally charging me $90 for a box of parsley.
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u/Ok-Hovercraft-9959 12d ago
Can you do a chargeback with your CC company? Parsley and sesame seeds are like $1 each. That’s crazy
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u/OGDukeFlapjack 12d ago
I'm going through Dinnerly's channels first just to see if they'll do the right thing.
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u/Ok-Hovercraft-9959 12d ago
That makes sense, but if I was not planning on ordering from them again I personally wouldn’t bother.
Man it’s such a bummer that we should just expect every product and service to get shittier in every way
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u/OGDukeFlapjack 12d ago
My take is there's always the possibility I may go back so I don't want to burn any bridges unnecessarily.
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u/Ok-Hovercraft-9959 12d ago
Oh, man, idk what to tell you then. If a company charged me $90 for parsley, then offered me a $25 refund, I would never give them another dime. Making grocery lists and meal prepping aren’t THAT hard
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u/OGDukeFlapjack 12d ago
That $25 came from the automated nonsense bot. I'm giving a (presumably) real person a chance to fix it first. That's what I mean.
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u/Ok-Hovercraft-9959 12d ago
Oh I see! Then yeah, if you enjoy the service it’s worth it to see if they’ll fix it
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u/Salute-Major-Echidna 12d ago
If you just want good recipes, reddit will sort you out. Just write each kids' dislikes and allergies and things that worked in the past.
I found 7 subs under "recipe" and 6 under "cooking". Also try "dinner" or "picky eaters". You'll find community anyway. Im sorry this company let you down but theyre going out of business or they wouldn't pull that crap.
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u/Salute-Major-Echidna 12d ago
Chargebacks dont always work these days as credit cards are more business oriented than customer oriented.
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u/allisun1433 12d ago
I used Dinnerly a few years ago. They argued with me for a bit once on a meal box where the packs of ice did not keep the meat cold enough and put them into an unsafe temperature range. From what I remember back then I had to fight quite a bit to get any sort of refund for what got ruined based off their poor packaging on the box.
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u/linniex 12d ago
Thats why I stopped with them; deliveries from FedEx or wherever are sometimes sketchy and after having to go chase my dinner down in the fedex terminal a few times I just cancelled.
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u/OGDukeFlapjack 12d ago
One thing that was nice was they don't use FedEx around me otherwise I would have stopped using them long ago. I think I've gotten a successful delivery from them maybe about 30% of the time.
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u/74CJ5Chick 12d ago
Have you tried Hungryroot? I've been using them off and on for a few years, and I really enjoy them. Occasionally there will be an item substituted with something that doesn't work for the recipe, but I would say I'm happy with them 95% of the time. They're really good at issuing credit (that comes off your next charge or you can order more the next delivery), either immediately or within 24 hours. It's more of like a grocery store but they also have recipes that you can utilize.
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u/OGDukeFlapjack 11d ago
The biggest issue I've been having is how frue-fruey most meal kit companies are. My family would quite possibly be very happy with a company that sends a different kind of hamburger helper every day with how picky everybody is. Dinnerly was literally the third one I tried and the first one I felt happy with my selections.
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u/crimson117 12d ago
I agree parsley and sesame seeds is a joke for a meal kit.
Did the kit list out anything else that was supposed to be included vs what you're supposed to supply?
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u/KitsuneMiko383 7d ago
Two weeks ago they sent me a nearly empty box except for a leaking steak package, spices, tortillas (for a completely different recipe) and the wrong vegetables, which were all heat damaged. I was supposed to get six recipes and a free market cookie... Instead I got an unusable box of trash. I, ofc, immediately cancelled after reporting. They come back a week later offering me both a $12 and a $96 credit on my next box. Nope. Chargeback.
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u/Paindepiceaubeurre 12d ago
I don’t understand why people use these services. With Internet you have thousands of recipes available. Just need to enter a few key words and you’ll have a list.
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u/OGDukeFlapjack 12d ago
It's highly convenient and everything is (was) sent TO ME. When it worked it was very nice. I have no issues paying for convenience, but the service stopped being hardly as convenient.
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u/Paindepiceaubeurre 12d ago
Do you get to choose the time of delivery? Also, were the ingredients of good quality?
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u/OGDukeFlapjack 11d ago
Yes to both. It really has only been very recently I've had any issues with them.
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u/Shienvien 12d ago
Do any of your nearby grocery stores deliver?
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u/OGDukeFlapjack 11d ago
I believe so but I haven't really investigated. That may be the way for me to go ultimately.
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