I haven’t written a review about customer service for any other online retailer I’ve used before. However, I am so angry about my experience with Huel I felt I had to.
Keeping it brief, I placed an order a couple of weeks ago for a starter pack (two pouches, a shaker, t-shirt, flavour packs) and it turned up with a split pouch as shown in the picture, which had leaked powder over everything in the order:
These things can happen so I thought no problem, I’ll return that, get a refund and maybe place another order. Having followed the instructions on the Huel website for returns I got a prompt refund… but only for the split pouch because that was all that was deemed faulty. I was told they weren’t expecting the rest of the order so wouldn’t refund it!!!
Now I was without any of my order and out of pocket for most of it plus return postage costs. I made my point that the rest of the order was faulty really because it was covered in powder I shouldn’t have to waste my time cleaning so could they at least refund the rest or send a new order. No reply two days later then I got a customer service feedback email which really wound me up because they were asking how they did having ignored my email.
2/3 emails later I finally got the rest of the order refunded but customer service are stubbornly refusing to refund my postage because it’s against their policy. Policy or not, this is abysmal service. I had a faulty order from Wiggle once and they said don’t bother returning it, we’ve sent you a refund, all sorted - great!
I never even got to try the product so can’t comment on that but based on this experience I won’t be ordering again. Well done Huel.
Hello,
I’m close to you for what happened but I assure you that Huel’s customer service is fantastic. At least to me personally, I have always been treated very well.
Try to put yourself in their shoes because if something goes against their politics, there must be a reason.
Regardless of how good the product is, I invite you to give us another chance because the people who work there are really interested in the happiness of our customers. A similar situation happened to me with the flavour boost, but it worked out perfectly.
Perhaps they need to make stronger pouches or look at how they package it for postage. Did you try to get them replaced and if so how did you find their service?
Thank you for your reply, I have to say that was not my experience so I’m very reluctant to try it again.
I just don’t understand why they were so stubborn about first refunding the order, then refunding my postage. If it’s their policies as you say then they need to look at them because it will cost them customers. It would be nothing to them to refund me my costs then maybe I’d be happy with the service, continue to use it and recommend it to others. As it is they’ve lost a potential customer.
I had an issue with delivery as well which there in the process of investigating, I know it will be sorted out satisfactory. I love Huel and will be carrying on with it, in fact I put a new order in last night. I don’t think split bags happen a lot as there would be loads of threads about it here. If you had emailed them first with the photos they would of probably offered you a refund or send you a replacement bag of Huel.If they send out a replacement bag they would probably say to keep the ripped one which is still ok to use, so you could actually be better off if there is a load of powder still in the bag. Huel is great why not give it another go mate, shit happens sometimes sadly but I am sure it will be ok next time for you.
In my case it came like that, it was the bottom bag in the box, the 2nd picture. Not much powder was lost out of that bag as the top bag was on top of it. I just transferred both the powders in both bags into the 2 bags I was just finishing. I have a vanilla bag and a mint choc bag on the go at the same time.
I understand your frustration, it’s not cool to receive a damaged pouch, I totally get that. The message above however isn’t entirely accurate.
Your dropped us an email reporting the split pouch and we replied offering you a refund or replacement (we did not ask you to return the damaged pouch). You replied to to us saying you had already returned this and we issued a refund for the full order right away.
We also offered to resend your entire order, free of charge for you. You didn’t want to go ahead with this - absolutely fine - but we had already issued you a refund in full for the order.
If a product that you receive is damaged, we never ask you to return this to us. We may ask for a photo but we will always offer a refund or replacement.
Your dropped us an email reporting the split pouch and we replied offering you a refund or replacement (we did not ask you to return the damaged pouch). You replied to to us saying you had already returned this and we issued a refund for the full order right away.
(…)
If a product that you receive is damaged, we never ask you to return this to us. We may ask for a photo but we will always offer a refund or replacement.
I would kindly recommend you to update your returns page. It only talks about returning the items, and it fails to mention that the possibility of refunds/exchanges can happen without a return, so I can understand why someone might get confused about it.
Thank you for your reply Olivia but the ripped pouch was the least of my frustrations because I am reasonable and understand that could happen.
What I’ve said is not inaccurate from my point of view. It seems we are just seeing this differently - in my mind the whole order was faulty because it was covered in powder and it would have been a very messy job to clean it up.
I appreciate you did offer to send the order out free of charge after several emails back and forth but even this would have left me out of pocket for the postage I spent returning the faulty package and I don’t see why through no fault of my own I should be out of pocket at all.
My biggest frustration is that it has taken 4/5 emails and 3 forum posts to get to this point and I still don’t have my return postage fee back - not good service on my opinion.
I don’t see why you wouldn’t just refund the postage for the sake of keeping a customer happy? Surely it’s costing your company more money in your time replying to my messages than it would have done to refund my postage by now? It’s nothing to you to refund a few quid which could keep a customer happy who could then tell friends/colleagues what a great product Huel is and how good their service is.
My starter pack arrived in a thin cardboard box. Both of the scoops were broken. I did contact Huel via email and social media regarding this and providing a photo, but never got a response. I then ordered some scoops from a Huel competitor that I’ve used for protein powder in the past and received the scoops yesterday, packaged to the point that I could sit on the box and they wouldn’t have got damaged. Each scoop was in its own plastic bag and the inside of the box was lined with that huge bubble-wrap you see protecting fragile goods. The box itself was made of thicker and stronger cardboard.
So, I think that if the pouches were packaged better, there may be fewer issues. Also, responding to a customer’s poor first-time experience may help with customer satisfaction.
Yeah that’s exactly my point - it seems from the forums I’m not alone in finding customer service slow with poor results which is a shame. Nothing against the staff I’ve personally dealt with but perhaps there aren’t enough of them and their policies such as the stubborn refusal to refund a few quid for postage seem strange to me.
