I dont usually bother signing up for forums but thought I’d share my experience as that is the least I can do so others dont have to suffer like I did.
I have been a loyal customer of Huel for close to a year now, been on a monthly subscription for a while too and it has really been amazing simplifying my meals yet keeping me healthy.
In contrast, however, customer service is in the dumpsters. I have recently made two complaints to Huel:
I had cancelled my monthly subscription as I had plenty of Huel from last month’s supply still left and I am planning to move house soon so wanted to cancel and re-sub later. However, my card was charged again erroneously for the full monthly amount despite it having already been a while since cancelling. This kind of system error can of course happen on occasion, but my complaint was met with nothing but contempt. There was not even a single word of apology, and in fact the agent that replied said he had cancelled the subscription FOR ME and made it sound like I was an idiot. No sir I have cancelled it several weeks ago already yet it is YOU who charged me erroneously - the LEAST you can do is apologize for charging my card without authorisation!! I was of course given a full refund but really left a bad taste in my mouth.
My February Huel order came with one of the two pouches damaged. One pouch had a long gash down the side. Now let me just say here that I NEVER open my Huel parcels with scissors, knives or any other sharp material - I’m not stupid. I have been receiving Huel close to a year now and I always open it with care with hands and no sharp objects involved. However the replying agent (same person) said this happens very often where customers open the box tape without a care in the world and damage the pouch underneath. So my refund was refused and now I stand here with no Huel and lost money.
-I dont care about the money - its only about £22 I lost for that one pouch (the other intact pouch was refunded), which really is nothing to lose sleep about.
-Again the reply I got sounded patronizing and accusatory, similar derogatory tone from the first overcharged card complaint.
-This sort of terrible customer service is unacceptable. It really is sad to see great companies like this with an amazing idea become arrogant and full of themselves as they grow bigger. Real shame as I really enjoyed the powder. Guess its time to look elsewhere. Even Amazon has better service than this.
Haven’t dealt with customer services so I can’t comment. However your second point resonated with me. My last order, two of my Huel packets also came with a large gash and two smaller ones down the front of the packaging. I think I ordered beginning of February also. May be a problem at the warehouse or something?
I’m guessing from some of the language you’re using you’re in the US? I wonder if they have a distinct service there, as I’ve found the UK customer service pretty helpful. That said, I contacted them via the forum.
Hmm, the UK team do seem competent, friendly and go out of their way to assist; I’ve not heard many complaints about them…but I too have heard gripes about USA. I’ve never had to contact US guys though so can’t speak from experience.
Yeah maybe there was some problems in the warehouse who knows. Quality control problems do exist for any company and I dont mind if mistakes happen as they do - but flat out refusing to take any responsibility and just accusing the customer is really not right.
Actually I am based in the UK. I cant speak for the entire UK customer service team, it might be just this one specific person who decided to be an asshole. The same person dealt with both my complaints, and was horrible on both accounts.
Hi there, I’m really sorry you feel like you’ve had bad customer service from us. We pride ourselves on putting our customers first, we love our Huelers and work tirelessly to iron out problems in the order processes to make your lives easier and give you the best experience possible.
This customer service problem you have raised has a few aspects taken out of context. Your account had two separate subscriptions set up. On the 6th of February, one of these subscriptions processed and an order was fulfilled as it should have been. Once this was triggered you cancelled this subscription but, as intended, the order was still fulfilled. Your other subscription had not been cancelled but you had been ‘skipping’ the previous orders, six orders were skipped. This was set to fulfil once a month. When an order processed from this subscription on the 13th of February, you emailed us to cancel this order and we did so, cancelling and refunding the order whilst also cancelling the corresponding second subscription (which is why the customer service representative said they had done so)
All subscription orders have an email trigger 3 days before to notify you and give you time to cancel an order if needed. To confirm we cannot possibly take money from your account unless you have a subscription set up, with which you did have two.
Looking at our correspondence with you, you returned both pouches to us - one of which had a slash down it which due to the nature of the damage our CS team deemed caused by opening the pouch. We offered you either a refund on the undamaged pouch, or offered to send two new pouches to you free of charge. You then chose to opt for a refund on one pouch which we actioned then.
I’m sorry you felt our tone was accusatory, I know this particular team member well and he is anything but. I expect his intended tone was lost in translation through email which I’m certain he will work on.
I’d like you to know that the offer we presented to you still stands and if you would like for us to send out the two free pouches of Huel to you then we of course will.
Thanks for your kind response. I’d like to clarify a few things you raise in the message:
Actually no, there was no second subscription. I just double checked my account with you, and only ever had one subscription, which I cancelled after the last order on the 6th of Feb had been confirmed for delivery. I then received an email out of the blue about another delivery that is suddenly on its way on the 13th - which is when I reached out to customer service to have it cancelled before delivery and card refunded. There was no “warning email” 3 days prior. I can provide you with a screenshot of my account subscriptions page if you like - I only have one previous subscription (which currently shows cancelled). However I’m not too fussed about this - reading your FAQ sometimes system mistakes happen and I understand that.
I had already explained several times why this was not caused by me opening the pouch - I’m not going to repeat the explanation again. Another member above seems to have had similar issues, so perhaps it would be useful for you to check on your own quality control procedures.
I wanted a refund for both but as you’re adamant that I caused it the only option left for me was to just refund the one pouch and lose out on the other. I’m not very keen to get a replacement for both after this - as should a similar issue happen again and one or both pouches arrive damaged, I will be held automatically responsibly yet again.
Thanks for taking the time to respond however. Appreciate that at least. The customer service rep did not even bother responding to my last email.
If you don’t want us to replace the two pouches then I’m not sure what else I can do other than apologise profusely and assure you that at no point did we intend to be patronising, accusatory or derogatory. We’ll be sure to do better in the future.
Accept that one (or possibly more as per the other customer above) slipped by your quality control and refund the damaged pouch you accuse me of having damaged myself opening the package. I dont want both pouches to be replaced after this. Never mind, the £20 isnt worth my time anymore.
I hope the team at Huel didn’t take this badly. The customer here is clearly at fault and is taking it out on the wrong people!
I don’t think I’ve received such a high level of customer service from any other company and I’m certain the other people here will agree with me regarding this. Huel are and have always been simply superb.
Tim keep doing what your doing because you’re doing it right!
Item arrived damaged --> complaint issued to company. Who else am I supposed to talk to then?
Customer is automatically at fault when an item arrives damaged, whether during transit or before during packaging. So if you receive an item you ordered and paid for damaged, you would just stay silent then? How this logic makes sense is beyond me.
Perhaps i should video the whole arrival and opening process next time - although I doubt there will be.
You were offered a refund or a replacement. I don’t understand what else you expected to receive but that’s all you get. You then openly complain on the forum about the process, failing to disclose the fact they offered you everything they could, in what I can only imagine is an attempt to defame the brand name.
You’re victimising yourself in an effort to get special treatment.
Huel is not at fault and have done everything they can to help you. Bottom line.
A few weeks ago I had a bag arrived with a cut in it. Customer services were exceptional, and responded very quickly and were absolutely lovely. I’ve never had a problem with them, they’ve always been brilliant!
Sometimes identifiably different people get different treatment. I’m not saying that’s the case here, only that that sometimes explains such an apparent difference in experience.
I feel sorry for the original poster. If I had a bag arrived damaged and was sure that I hadn’t caused the damage myself then I too would be really upset at the assumption someone would cause damage to one pouch. Why not just refund the customer and let them send the bags back? It doesn’t make sense to me to lose a customer who had a subscription over one bag of Huel. I seriously doubt that people go around slashing their own bags of Huel for the sake of it and the fact that more than a few customers have also received bags with a slash in them makes me think the poster is probably telling the truth. I haven’t had cause to use customer service yet but when I do I sincerely hope that I am treated a bit better than this person was. I would have thought it was obvious that all they wanted was an apology. Having been trained in customer service myself this is actually almost always what the customer wants. To be heard and to be validated. In this case they’re werent. Such a shame.
@LouLou you might have missed something in this thread. The customer here was offered to have both bags replaced but opted for a refund on one pouch and to send them both back to us.
And your missing he wanted a refund on both .I’ve no idea why Huel wouldn’t do it .
Even when wrong the customer is always right .
On account of a £20 bag I know what I would have done .
To me it looks like he was refunded for the whole bag and still being blamed for the slashed bag .
After being treated that way I wouldn’t want the product anymore either ,to top off his experience CS are now saying he had 2 subs