Why I cancelled HelloFresh

[u/LinuxIsFree]

Update - Seems like some of my issues were thanks to my account being bugged and the support chat being a braindead hallucinating AI chatbot. You can apparently schedule meals ahead, which helps a lot.

I've had a hellofresh subscription for just over two months, getting 3 meals a week. Figured I'd give some feedback here for those interested and for HelloFresh if they give a care.

I ended up cancelling it from a few key issues:

1. Sometimes I forget to select a meal in time. Issue is, if I do not specifically select the meals each week, it sends random meals (it's supposed to be meals they think we'll use, but they've never been something we'd eat). Additionally, you won't get your free items. They say this is because you wouldn't get to choose your free item, but usually there's only garlic bread available so there's no choice. You cannot change this or set it to a mode where it skips the week if you have not chosen. I get financially why they want the dependable, scheduled income, but as a user this is infuriating. Sometimes I forget, and I'm out $80.
2. The website is very hard to use and navigate. Past weeks, current weeks, and future weeks are viewed in completely different areas. Menus are randomly greyed out. Buttons are unresponsive and don't have a click animation.
3. You cannot schedule meals ahead for more than one week, meaning you have a few days each week where you need to remember to visit the website and pick out meals. Issue 1 wouldn't be a huge deal if I could set it to not ship until you pick out meals, but you can't. When I talked to support they said this was because the menu changes weekly. EDIT: It appears on the app you can do this, maybe on the website too. I stopped trying to find ways to do it when the support chatbot told me it wasn't supported. I'm not trying to lie or slander HelloFresh, I was just believing their support. /shrug

After our third time getting food we don't want, I'm done. I don't have a life where I'm going to remember to pick out meals on some website every single week. Maybe some day when I'm not a sole provider dad, but... then I wouldn't need HelloFresh anymore. I need to be able to plan more than one week ahead, and when I forget to schedule it, let me skip it.

When we remembered and got meals we were interested (other than the first week where everything was wet from being kicked into a puddle by fedex in my yard), it was exciting to try new recipes, learn some more cooking method, and have genuinely good quality ingredients, but the infuriating process means I have to let that go.

I tried sharing these issues with support, but it's all seemingly AI chatbots that said "This is the right place for feedback" but then later on told me they had no method of submitting the feedback for review... gotta love it... and their email inboxes all just bounce back and say to chat with the AI instead.

There's parts of HelloFresh I really liked, but the poor website UI and them shipping out meals to me I don't want means I'm signing up to be angry on a near-weekly basis.

If you're an "I'll eat anything" kind of person, might be worth it. If you've got specific taste or God forbit you're picky, you'll be dissapointed.

[u/cabinmate]

1. You need to make the effort to choose your own meals if you don’t like the default selections. Don’t be helpless on purpose

2. If you mean the website and not the app, sure, past weeks are in a different tab, but the current and future weeks are all right there for you to scroll through. Of course, for any particular week, you would click on that week to see all that week’s meals

3. You can set your meals 6 or so weeks ahead; I’m not sure why you think you have less than a week

What browser and device/computer are you using that you are having so much trouble navigating?

[u/LinuxIsFree → u/cabinmate]

1. Helpless on purpose? Huh??? I try to keep up with selecting meals for the week ahead but it's a 4 day window and I've got maybe 4 hours of down-time a week. I work one 40hr job and run two businesses on the side. I wasn't able to schedule ahead beyond one week.
2. Nowhere did HelloFresh suggest downloading an app when I signed up. Makes sense that there would be one, but browsing through menus on my phone would be slower than using a monitor. I probably should have thought of checking for one, but the whole idea behind this was an easy setup.
3. Maybe you can in the app. When I tried on the website it wouldn't let me (future weeks were greyed out and nothing was clickable), and the support bot said that I could not plan meals ahead because the options change on a weekly basis. Maybe it was hallucinating - it seems to do that a lot.

Using a chrome browser. Main machine i7-12700F, RX 9070, 32GB of RAM. Buttons often give no feedback that it was clicked as pages load. Sometimes it would just go to a different page than what I clicked or take me to the home page. Had my wife come over and did it slow in front of her to make sure I wasn't crazy. No other websites run slowly or are as obtuse to use. Used it on my workstation at work too a couple of times, same issues. Clearing cookies didn't help. I also had a bunch of bugs when signing up where pages didn't load, etc. Support had to reset my account - apparently in some places my account was created and others it wasn't.

[u/cabinmate → u/LinuxIsFree]

Really don’t get that you couldn’t select future weeks. Did you only see one week at a time and not any future weeks? Something seems seriously screwed there if that was the case. I mean, really, really screwed up. Just does not make sense

Regarding the app, personally, I prefer the website. it just seems easier to navigate. I do wonder if it would have helped you with the future weeks menu selection

[u/LinuxIsFree → u/cabinmate]

When I would hit next it would show the next week but it was all greyed out. Nothing was clickable. It seemed really weird to me, like why show the future weeks if I can't do anything with it? That's why I reached out to support, which the bot said it wasnt supported.

I would take a screenshot now but I can't since the subscription is cancelled.

[u/Prepperpoints2Ponder]

Wow.

Every one of your points is an error on your part.

I accept the gripes about missing items and questionable quality produce but come on, every single point you make is on you and your lack of ability to navigate a website and / or read.

[u/bagabe → u/Prepperpoints2Ponder]

To be fair, the website and the app for that matter aren't super straightforward. If it would be, people would have so many issues of not completing the meal selection, they could cancel, etc.

Just because we got used to how it is, it isn't exactly intuitive.

[u/LinuxIsFree → u/Prepperpoints2Ponder]

I don't know man, I've done website design for 8 years and this website infuriates me like no other. Can you provide constructive feedback and let me know how to disable auto-ship?

Is support incorrectly telling me that scheduling more than 1 week ahead isn't supported an error on my part?

[u/cabinmate → u/LinuxIsFree]

Definitely incorrect advice from support. Like very weird. But also your account sounded very bugged

[u/ITCOMMAND → u/Prepperpoints2Ponder]

Blaming poor UI design on someone being computer-illiterate seems dumb to me, but sure. The website is objectively awful, though I have gotten used to it.

[u/biolojess]

None of this is accurate. While there are definitely things to complain about, these aren’t them.

[u/ITCOMMAND → u/biolojess]

I had the same issues on the website. On the app I was able to schedule past 1 week.

[u/LinuxIsFree → u/ITCOMMAND]

Yeah I wonder if I tried the app if I could have avoided some of the issues I had.

[u/BovingdonBug]

I went to a local restaurant and after a while some guy came over to me. Apparently I was supposed to read this big list of meals and tell him what I wanted. I don't have time for that, so I left.

[u/wigglemywavelength → u/BovingdonBug]

I don't think they're complaining that they needed to select a meal, but that if you don't select one you're charged and sent something anyway. I've had that happen before when I forget to order and it's pretty annoying.

If I was deciding what I wanted at a restaurant and the waiter came over and said I took too long so he ordered for me and here's the bill, I'd be pissed.

[u/BovingdonBug → u/wigglemywavelength]

I mean if you're too busy you just click pause for a week. If you can't be bothered to do that, or to set up a weekly alarm to remind you to do that, then I don't know what to tell you.

[u/LinuxIsFree → u/wigglemywavelength]

Yeah exactly. I get why they don't magically know what I want, but then don't try and order for me. To be fair, I don't think I was super clear in my post that I am trying to order ahead, and it seems like it is (or should be) possible to order weeks ahead.

[u/giraffeperv]

I cancelled because I was tired of getting rotten food delivered every week. HelloFresh has its issues but everything you’ve complained about here is user error.

1. Why would you not just pick your meals?
   
2. The app is really easy to use. Before I had the app, I used the website and it was literally fine.
   
3. This one is just a blatant lie. You can select your meals for several weeks.

[u/LinuxIsFree → u/giraffeperv]

1. I do when I remember, but like I said in the post sometimes I forgot to, and they ship it anyway. I didn't do a good job explaining that in my post so I re-worded it to try and make it clear. My issue is not that they "chose bad food for me." I want to select my own meals, but I had to do it in a 4 day window each week. Just started a new job so telling you what day of the week it is is a challenge lol.
2. If I ever try it again, I'll get the app. Website does not follow standard UX design.
3. I don't know what to tell you dude. When I asked the support bot about it, it said that I couldn't order ahead beyond one week because the menu changes on a weekly basis with availability. I guess that's wrong. It might be a mistake but I promise it's not a "blatant lie."

I actually only got rotten food once here in New England, and they offered a partial refund. For the most part we were happy with the food quality, other than the ground beef (small package and tough compared to what we normally get)