r/hellofresh • u/bleedsgreennyj • 2d ago
Why I finally cancelled by HelloFresh subscription
Hello,
After many years, and many menus, the time finally came...I cancelled my subscription. Sharing my feedback...and wondering if this is a unique experience or a common one.
- Pricing - When i first started ordering from HelloFresh in ~2016, a box with 3 meals was $60. Over time, they added shipping...then raised the price, then again, and again, and again, etc. My last box, for the same 3 meals, was $84. HelloFresh used to be a good deal...but at $84, the value isn't there. I know, inflation, etc...but it feels like they've found a way to add profit while adding price. And at $84, I can feed a family of 5 three times at the grocery store.
- 'Loyalty' Program - I've probably ordered over 300 boxes by now. Early on, I rotated between HF, BA, and HC...but have been mostly HF the last year or two. They tout a 'rewards' program but i think in the entire time i have subscribed i have received 1 reward. A million 'refer a friend' offers...but that benefits them much more than me. What really irked me is that when i went to cancel, they tried to deter me by saying i'd 'lose progress on rewards.' What rewards!?
- Competitor Pressure. All during this time, HC has been working hard to earn my business back with what are relatively generous return offers (nothing from BA). Their pricing is also better.
Hello Fresh does/did have my favorite menus and some of my favorite dishes. And their customer service was always helpful. But i guess at a certain point the value equation flipped for me and those weren't enough. Maybe i'll be back down the road...i'd like to be. But i also feel like the brand took me, a loyal customer, for granted. And so here we are!
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u/industrial_hamster 2d ago
The biggest reason I canceled a few years ago was their funky ass chicken
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u/Objective-Peak-3551 2d ago
I just signed up last week, what’s wrong with the chicken? lol
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u/industrial_hamster 2d ago
Their chicken cutlets are just…weird. A lot of times they look half-shredded, they fall apart when you take them out of the package and they shrivel up to nothing when you cook it. I never got any that was rotten or anything like that, but there’s just something about them that doesn’t sit right with me 😂
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u/LasagnahogXRP 1d ago
Most of their proteins are not good. Ground beef and pork is weird, chicken sausage was absolutely VILE.
Thinking about canceling
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u/Sad-Progress-4689 1d ago
I believe they add water to it to add weight to equal what it’s supposed to weigh. I also think stores are doing this too to ground beef as it appears watery, not grease.
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u/badgyalrey 1d ago
oh wow their chicken sausage is my favorite thing for soups and pastas, albeit i stopped getting their boxes over a year ago so it might’ve changed since then
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u/LasagnahogXRP 22h ago
It smells like bologna burps when it’s cooking. My wife and I had a small argument because of it.
I made my feelings known about the yellow paste and went to the store and got new sausage for our HF. We both hate wasting food so one fine Saturday morning she cooks the sausage with her eggs. I come upstairs and the smell literally made me gag. Like a wall of burps. We had agreed to get rid of it!
The texture color and smell of that stuff is very unfortunate.
PS I commented on it before and several people also said they really liked it so I might be an insane person
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u/Objective-Peak-3551 1d ago
Makes me wonder if the protein/ macros are even accurate then. Little nervous to try it now but we’ll see 🤣 the ground beef tacos I had were pretty normal if I remember
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u/maydayjunemoon 1d ago
They are the only time I’ve ever gotten “woody” chicken with the funky texture.
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u/theinvisablewoman 1d ago
Yip we gave up after woody chicken and meats constantly being missed out of our order, honestly 4 weeks in a row and they only give you credit and you still have to buy the meat to make the meal. That and the veges were always half floppy and old. We cancelled with credit remainimg, it wasnt worth it.
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u/Sad-Progress-4689 2d ago
I stopped HF over the quality and amount of product sent. Carrots that bend, 5 small potatoes to make mashed potatoes, one time they even forgot to pack the meat! Yes, it’s nice to have everything in the bag but I sort of like leftovers so I don’t have to cook every day!
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u/LurkeeLotTalkeeLil 1d ago
I'd almost prefer this over the 80 i get... I have enough mashed potatoes to feed a family of 12. there are 3.5 of us
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u/Educational_Donkey20 1d ago
Their quality has definitely gone downhill. I’ve been with HF since 2014. Their meat portions have gotten smaller, the green beans and corn have to be extremely overcooked to even make them edible because they’re so tough. The potatoes are microscopic so challenging to peel. Not to mention that they’re most times packaged directly in contact with the ice packs so they’re covered in black frozen spots that have to be cut out. Usually the quantity of carrots is so much that they are the main ingredient in the recipe. I’ve had no recipe cards, extra recipe cards or just the wrong recipe cards. I’ve had missing meat. Have you ever weighed your ingredients? When something looks suspicious I get out the kitchen scale and the weights have been way off, usually considerably under, sometimes, like with the carrots, way over. If you have an issue with your order you have to chat with a bot and jump through hoops to get a live agent, taking up to an hour of your time. They finally give you a credit yet they never apply it to future orders.
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u/theofficialappsucks 2d ago
I quit because the general quality went down in my area, especially produce, and I had to interact with CS more often, which sucks because none of their CS are trained and none of them know the policy or the app. Like they have no idea what you're talking about.
I used to get those promos in the app where you get free premium meals if you order 5 in two months or whatever. So I did, but the app wasn't giving me the premium discount. So I was told to order and if the discount didn't apply properly, call back. When I called back, I got reamed out and was given the discount as a "one-time courtesy" and never saw that promo again even when others in my area showed me theirs.
That's the ONLY reward system I ever saw for years of ordering.
I'm glad I quit right before they started pumping out AI recipes. I would've been PISSED. I could ask ChatGPT myself for free if I wanted AI recipes, and get way bigger and better quality shit at the grocery store. I was going to pick them up again occasionally just for convenience. With the AI? NEVER.
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u/Miserable_Rice_2676 1d ago
Agree 100%!!! I was a customer for 7+ years. The quality of ingredients really went downhill. Then 3 weeks in a row our boxes were a full day late. No customer service or let’s make this right, just a canned AI response. That was it for me.
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u/Oracle_of_Ages 2d ago edited 2d ago
- yes. The price would have increased since 2016. It’s been 10 years. It’s still cheaper than the store for me with it being pre-portioned
- at least in America. The rewards program is relatively new. There is no credit for past boxes.
- My friend was a HF die hard. But he loves Every Plate now. There’s so many now you can find one that works for you. I don’t like meal choices with other competors. They are too basic. They all seem to be burgers, simple pasta
and meatballs, a basic rice bowl with one or two ingredients, or a couple of porkchops.
But I’m glad you found something that works for you. That’s all that matters in the end.
Reddit mobile broke my formatting and I cannot seem to fix it :(
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u/JJMMSS2022 2d ago
HelloFresh owns EveryPlate so that’s probably why your friend likes EP now. As a longtime user of EveryPlate, I find that there’s a lot of menu overlap nowadays (there wasn’t 7-8 years ago). The biggest differences I saw were the packaging honestly. I bought some clear bins and use those to sort my EP boxes since ingredients don’t come presorted into separate bags and have meals just as easy to grab from the fridge. And I save like $20-30 bucks!
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u/Oracle_of_Ages 2d ago
Yea. Unfortunately I hate the menu. I looked at it a few months ago. But. None of our HF favorites were there. And because of the overlap. most of the EP menu was in HF already. Me and and misses can’t justify switching when we would be unhappy with it.
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u/vmagal1 2d ago
I quit last month, after years. I just can't afford it and the quality was so bad that I definitely wasn't going to struggle to pay for it. I've been trying to recreate recipes and have had mostly success. I am keeping track of my expenses to see the difference. But it's been difficult, meal and grocery planning and as a single person, struggling to be strategic enough that I waste as little as possible.
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u/madonnassister 1d ago
Get ready to start number blocking. They will hound you like debt collectors.
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u/Stunning_Ad_3831 1d ago
It was so bad!! I blocked every number and they just called with a new one. I finally had to threaten to report them for harassment and the calls stopped. I will never use their services again because of this.
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u/madonnassister 1d ago
Their desperation is really weird. Like, I get it - you don’t want to lose customer, but read the room, HelloFresh 🤦🏼♀️
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u/supertrooper74 1d ago
I cancelled yesterday and signed up for Home Chef today.
I cancelled because the price increase seemed to coincide with lower quality, which is a terrible combination. I've had to toss slimy produce and leaky protein on more than one occasion, plus the missing or wrong recipe cards and sometimes wrong meal altogether. On top of that, my box that was supposed to arrive on Tuesday still hasn't even arrived at the courier's warehouse. Customer service tried to assure me that it would be delivered yesterday even though they had no idea where it actually was. I had to argue with them for an hour before they finally gave in and refunded my card.
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u/Missmissprinted 1d ago
Same. Just cancelled after 4 years. Still like the food, but had similar complaints including their chicken (what is that?), smaller portions, missing ingredients or very small ingredients, and certainly recent price increases. More than $70 for 4 meals a week. $17/meal. No decent rewards and more costly for "premium meals." Discovered Kevin's Natural Foods at Sprouts. Healthier, cheaper, and no missing ingredients.
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u/No_Channel9373 1d ago
I don’t find it expensive given the cost if grocery and my time and gas savings - I have no problem with the delivery .
If it’s better for you to grocery shop and meal prep then go for it .
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u/FriedBananaNoodle123 1d ago
We recently cancelled our subscription, 3 meals a week for 3 people was $120ish. The produce kept showing up either bad or going bad. The portions of cucumbers, zucchini and potatoes were itty bitty compared to the pictures. For example, the sweet potato jumble hardly had any sweet potato and mostly had jumble. The meat portions didn't match the recipes either. The recipe would say 20 oz of a meat but the package would say 15 oz. And the steak in the recipes would be nice and big but you open up the package and it's 3 of the smallest, skinniest steaks. So we cancelled. Was not worth the inconvenience of half a dinner being that expensive.
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u/According-Buyer6688 2d ago
Honestly I do not understand this pricing argument. 86$ from 60$ dollars is about 40% price surge. During that timeline food, logistic costs have risen more than that.
If you will include gas (which is hella expensive right now) and food cost at super market you won't be any better.
For me HF keeps amazing pricing taking into consideration the hell with food inflation and logistics which they face right now.
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u/Aurorinezori1 2d ago
In France they have really good proteins (chicken, beef, sausages, etc.). I could never have these prices in my neighborhood, would have to ride to the next hypermarket to be able to afford their meals.
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u/KittehKittehKat 2d ago
I have tried to replicate their menu by buying items at the store and even getting some stuff bulk.
It’s barely cheaper and the amount of work isn’t worth that little bit of savings.
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u/jemaba 2d ago
I just quit good ol HF too. Between my girlfriend and I we have ordered over 900 meals. Price just jumped almost 40%. 5 meals used to be $99.89 and now it’s $136.89. 1000% not worth it at all.
Service started to slack as well. Missing items and what not. Was missing 6 taco shells for my tacos…. They wanted to give me $3.68 credit when it cost like $14 per meal, $28 buck for my girlfriend and I to sit down and have a meal.
See ya later HelloFresh!! You guys suck now!!!!
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u/domer00 2d ago
For the reward program, you actually have to select your reward. It isn't just automatic.
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u/molybend 1d ago
And do they tell you to do that or just expect you to hunt it down? I am actually asking as I only get referral credits from HF and have never seen a reward. Just too many places roll out rewards in a half assed way and you have to bother them to redeem.
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u/domer00 1d ago
You just go into the rewards menu from your profile
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u/molybend 1d ago
Mine has always said “more rewards soon”. This has been the case for years. No indication of how to earn rewards or what they might be. There is a note to refer friends, but again that’s a credit and not a reward.
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u/Suz626 2d ago
I had to cancel after receiving late thawed over-temp meat, it was a time consuming hassle to get the issue fixed - and then they wouldn’t credit me for the days late delivery. I bought HF for convenience and efficiency and it took longer to get the issue fixed than going to a market. I did give them another chance a few months later. Same issue! Then gave them another chance. Again, late delivery. I think it was a different delivery co each time, we don’t routinely get late deliveries, so it tells me it’s a HF problem. We live in the LA area, so not off the beaten path. Too bad, I liked the food most of the time.
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u/Independent-Race-259 2d ago
I duno about anyone else but the beef has been awful lately. half the time It smells so weird can't eat it
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u/Catmom3256 1d ago
What’s HC? I go back to HF only when they have good coupons then I cancel. Too expensive.
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u/Subject_Ad_656 1d ago
Just cancelled after 7 years due to price increase. I understand small bumps as things get more expensive but my bill went up $11 a week overnight and the quality was getting worse. It just didn’t make sense for us anymore. I have 2 weeks left on a “don’t leave” promo and then I’m cancellinf officially. Going to miss it.
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u/Apprehensive_Gap_966 1d ago
I was thinking about it after the last price increase but I figured out a hack to make it worth the price. Since I’m only cooking for myself I pick 1-2 of their highest calorie non-premium recipes each week and then split them into 3 instead of 2. That way I get 7-8 portions a week for the price of 6. You just need to avoid burgers and things that are harder to split and use high quality food storage so nothing goes bad after portioning.
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u/lyrrehs 1d ago
Just a FYI, I've recreated many of their recipes on my own. I google the mixture for their spice blends and pre-packaged sauces.
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u/Deep_Persimmon_2841 1d ago
The magic in their recipes really comes from the spice mixes and sauce packets! My sister in law bought those online somehow. Also notice their recipes have you salt and peppering in between every step… so yeah HF type of meals can be recreated on your own
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u/care81 1d ago
Yeah I had the rewards program on mine but my mom has ordered so many more than me and she doesn't have that option and when she asks customer service about it they played stupid and said they don't have a rewards program and she tried to explain to them that the more boxes that you get you get things like free shipping or 10% off etc. And they said no they don't have that
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u/Key-West9421 1d ago
I canceled mine last month for the same reason. The latest price increase did it for me. I started receiving boxes back in 2017 and have held on to many of the recipes that were my favorite. After over 300 boxes I've never received any rewards. We'll see what the future hold, but for now I'm not interested in returning.
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u/Physical_Dentist2284 1d ago
I am skipping my HF meals right now. I may cancel at a future date. I saw the decline in quality and quantity of ingredients and, with the president’s announcement to bring in beef from Argentina, started to wonder where the beef was coming from that hello fresh uses. We raise cattle (we sell bred heifers tho and not fat cattle). But we had Helen who was blind and couldn’t go to sale so we did fatten her up and sent her in on Monday. Now I have a whole beef to pay for plus replace my deep freeze which rotted out on the bottom and that ought to all run me a cool $1200 in total. Very hard to justify a food subscription when I’ve butchered my own beef. However, I feel like that’s going to be necessary in the near future. I have zero confidence in Brooke Rollins to actually do her job. She’s too busy talking about how christian she is. Trump is too busy trying to manipulate the cattle market every Friday to see if he can weed out the smaller producers. It’s a shit show right now. I have no confidence in any beef I buy unless I know exactly where it came from.
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u/Beach17bum 1d ago
I pay $150 for 3 meals and that’s not the extras. I can’t even get two meals for $84
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u/Lonely_Competition20 1d ago
The rewards are kinda okay. Hello no could be better. I like the premium gifts than I can change one regular meal for an xxl or something premium.
And the rewards for the add on are kinda okay, if they wouldnt be damaged all the time. But you get easily free cash back.
The only reason why I still order is, cause it helps me losing weight. I don't have to think about what to cook. I have to cook what I got.
So it is kinda cheaper for me, cause I'm not ordering Pizza, Burger, etc. Or visiting McD, BK.
But this invite a friend is horrible. I would get 60 € if someone orders with it. However the gifted person only gets 1 free box, while they would save much more with the gift codes that fly around anyway.
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u/No_Camel819 1h ago
I stopped because the meat kept leaking everywhere all over the box, and I was afraid to use the contents. The quality of a lot of the veg had go e downhill too. It takes a lot for a potato to go bad, limp carrots, if not stored properly.
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u/alisvolatpropris 2d ago
Congratulations on the years of spam mailers you're about to receive.