HelloFresh

Not a large enough variety of vegetables, always sending tomatoes, arugula, potatoes, and zucchini. Way too much pasta. Zero nutritional value in pasta. No way to let HelloFresh know what items you don’t want to receive. No option for allergies or dietary restrictions.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

HelloFresh is using the ruse of a free week's worth of meals with free delivery to cheat customers out of $60.00 each. You receive an email, follow the prompts in the email, create an account, and get told your account has been credited the cost of one week's meals, but you are charged for the meals anyway. This was my experience with HelloFresh.

A colleague had forwarded this offer to me via her HelloFresh mobile app. I checked my bank account immediately after placing the order to make sure I wasn’t charged, but I was. I called the company but was answered by an exacerbated woman. She instructed me to forward her the email (she didn’t believe there was no coupon code provided) and she would issue a refund, which I would get in 3-5 business days. I called the next day to verify the refund was processed and was told it was. Nothing else was offered. No additional discount for future orders was offered for the trouble I had encountered. It’s like they didn’t care if I continued to order or not.

If I hadn’t immediately checked my account for the charge, it may have gone unnoticed because it is an auto-renewal delivery. By the time I would have balanced my checkbook, I would have thought the charge was for the next week's order. I don’t know if the email was intentionally misleading or if it was an error in coding, but either way, it was not handled well by customer service.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I'm sad to write this because I used to really like the convenience of HelloFresh, but I had preselected meatless meals after going vegan and realized the day before shipping that the system had totally reset my choices. It had done that before but I caught it sooner. I wrote to the company to try to get it fixed or block shipment and they told me there was nothing they could do and it was too late - this, before shipment.

PayPal reversed the charge, then I got a collections notice from HelloFresh. They deny any wrongdoing and tell me that I must pay the balance and then they'll give me a $15 credit, to my canceled account. So basically I must agree to buy another box to even use this credit. That's such a scam, and very sad.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I usually get my boxes on Thursdays. I was showing someone what I had coming. One meal wasn’t what I ordered. I checked my account, and I was charged twice.

I called their customer service. I got someone I couldn’t understand. She told me I had set up two accounts and had my box I ordered coming on Thursday and another box coming on Friday! I said why would I set up two accounts and order the same thing to come on Thursday and then the same box coming on Friday? She said people do it all the time! She said she couldn’t give me my money back but would give me one free meal ($17.95). After she charged me $56 twice. No way!

The customer service was in no way helpful partly due to the language barrier! I ordered from Blue Apron and had a problem, but they were really helpful and accommodating. Customer service is everything to a business!

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I recently joined HelloFresh and had a terrible experience! I had tried other home prep food delivery services and thought I'd try HelloFresh. My first red flag was that they didn't provide all of the ingredients for my meal like other services such as Blue Apron do. Sure it was just small things like garlic, butter, and oil, but sometimes it can make or break a meal if you don't have it at home. My second my delivery date somehow got changed without me knowing until it was being shipped, and was too late to change.

The customer service I received was horrible. Sure they responded quickly, but it was like "we're sorry(not sorry) that this happened. Oh well! They did absolutely nothing to help me and seemed to be responding with autogenerated messages. They never explained how it happened or expressed regret or tried to make it better. It was just "sorry you just wasted $60, and there is nothing we can do! Do yourself a favor and order from Blue Apron or Purple Carrot instead!

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

Rotten food, rotten customer service. We've parted ways now; I realize that this is a new segment. If a food delivery company can't deliver its food in one piece, not left out in the rain and with all the ingredients ok, then they should close up shop. Last straw for me was when the meat was not refrigerated properly and stank with two days to go. Here's a 20% discount. What for, no meals? No thanks.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I signed in through Facebook to see the recipes. They made me enter card information, but I did because I was curious about meal plans. I didn't see anything I liked, so I exited the page. Then they charged me $10 and shipped out random meals. I only knew this because I got an email from UPS. THEN I asked for the subscription to be cancelled because I never signed up for a subscription. They said they would cancel, and didn't.

Long story short, I've been scammed out of $60 for food I don't want. The selection is garbage and the random meals they sent were things I had no interest in. If I had the time and money I'd sue just to be petty.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I finally decided to try HelloFresh after seeing a Groupon. The food arrived well-packaged but portions were super small, even for me and my husband, and we are fit/average size 45-ish adults. The printed instructions were well done (good marketing) and attractive. The chicken smelled funky, so I used my own one recipe. Plus it was one breast split in half, so not enough anyway.

My biggest "beef" is discovering that the fine print somewhere must have committed me to a weekly delivery when I placed my first order. I had no idea until an email tells me my box will be here Monday. The worst part is the meals they sent, we cannot eat. Gluten in every single one. Sooo, that's going to waste.

I canceled online once I knew I needed to.

So for these two reasons, I will not be using this meal delivery service again.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

My family and I decided to give them a try. The first week, they sent the wrong recipe card. We understood and got the right one. The second week, we received the right meats but the wrong ingredients for the dish. I was given a $23.00 refund for that meal for the following week.

Next week, I DID NOT receive a box! I called and was told to give it 24 hours. 48 hours later I called and asked for my refund, which I received no problem. The problem was when I asked for a cash refund for the $23.00 because I was canceling the program and since I never received the meal or the "free meal." I was told they can't refund that, it's against their policy, that I could only receive it as a credit. This was after I told them I was canceling and it's not right because I never received that meal in the first place. So that's now three meals I never received. I was told there was nothing they could do.

The first woman I talked to was fantastic and told me if the supervisor did not provide me with my refund to call corporate that they could assist me. This supervisor told me that they were the highest and that there was no one else I could speak to. When I was first on this program in June, they credited me a whole meal price because I told them one of the limes for the recipe was rotted. Obviously, they have been getting many complaints now because they are holding onto money and no longer the great customer service.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I received a coupon and was going to give HelloFresh a try. Once they had my credit card number, it was all over. Screens started flashing before my eyes, racking up charge after charge after charge. Before I could pick up the phone to tell my credit card company that fraud was occurring, the siphoning of funds had already begun. Needless to say, since I wasn't even afforded a chance to pick any food, they were stealing my money.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I received a gift card for Christmas and was excited to try HelloFresh as I had heard good things. The first negative for me was that you can’t redeem a gift card without giving payment information. Red flag! You got your money, why do you need additional payment information? I reluctantly provided my information deciding I could just cancel per their policy. Well, I received my meals today, one of which was honey glazed pork tenderloin. The tenderloin was missing! The main ingredient was missing!

I contacted customer service via chat, and the agent apologized and offered to credit the account for approximately $36 (the cost of the tenderloin). Well, my account had already been deactivated because I wasn’t sure if I would use it again. So the credit wouldn’t really help me. I just wanted what was paid for, however, the agent said they don’t ship specific ingredients. I explained again that the credit wasn’t useful because I wasn’t planning to order anything else. I asked if there was any other resolution they could offer. Again I was told that was all they could do.

If I was on the fence about continuing with the service, there is no doubt now. I will not use them again and will never recommend them to anyone. And based on other reviews, I am now concerned that they have my credit card information.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend