Slow shipments and total lack of customer service

I realize these are trying times and no one could have ever prepared for this situation. With that said when times are good and everyone is going on their merry way, customer service is easy. Trying times shows everyone who has their customer’s best interest at heart. I think Huel is a great product and until now customer service was wonderful. However, until now nothing really tested that. Here is my experience on my last order (Order ID: #730052). I placed this order March 21st, on March 23rd my bank account was charged for the order. Then I get word, “your order will be delayed by 7 to 10 days.” I’m thinking ok that is understandable with everything going on. As of today April 7th (15 days after my payment and 17 days after my order) still the only word from Huel is, “your order will be delayed by 7 to 10 days.” So, I decided to do a little looking and guess what I find Huel on Amazon (way overpriced) but as this point, I’m willing to pay the price and give myself time to find another product. So, I order 4 bags from Amazon schedule to arrive on Sunday April 12.

I have two questions:

  1. Someone just tell me when my order that I already paid for will be shipped?
  2. How can a distribution network outside of Huel ship your product faster than you can?

Just own your truth. If the answer is we have no idea when our product will ship. Then that’s ok, there are alternative. But, please be honest and give me the option to decided if I want a refund of the product I never received.

Hi @clarkmcclendon! Thanks for touching base here. I would ever so slightly disagree that nothing has tested our customer service in the past, but I completely empathize where you’re coming from here. So allow me to jump straight to the point and get resolutions to your questions!

  1. Your order has shipped and is on the way! Scheduled to arrive within the next couple days here. I’ll be sure to get more information, including your FedEx tracking number, sent over via email right after I post this response.
  2. I’m not sure exactly which distribution network you’re referring to here so my apologies, but send me over your feedback to that email I’m sending your way!

Again, I truly apologize for the delay with your order here. As you know there has been a few issues unforeseen to us in the past due to Covid-19 that we have had to work through but you’re right, increased and improved communication would improve those issues on all ends!

I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day :sunny: Keep an eye out for my email coming over now

Just also placed an order on amazon arriving April 12th… my order was placed March 23 and still
Hasn’t shipped so in the same boat as you… thanks for the heads up on amazon having it, I never thought to check there

I agree that these are unusual times.

But I disagree that no one could ever be prepared for a shipping delay. I’m prepared.

Perhaps relying on just in time delivery a bit too much?

I never mentioned “prepared for a shipping delay” in my original comment. I was referring to “preparing” for a global pandemic, of which I wouldn’t expect any company to be prepared for. The entire purpose of my post was to emphasize the fact that Huel should do a better job of communicating with their customers. Just knowing wherein the process our orders are would go a long way to eliminating all comments about product delays and not receiving orders.

Huel has everything they need to make this communication possible, their website, this blog, customer emails. Just a simple email once a week or an update on the order history page saying, “Hey, we haven’t forgotten about your order. We are working hard to fill every order as quickly as possible. Your expected ETA for this order will be dd/mm/yyyy.”

Saying that there’s a total lack of service is very harsh.

How many Meal Replacement companies (or any company for that matter) do you know that are this attentive to their customer base? The Huel staff basically lives in the forums, in addition to running a company.

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@DM87 Yes, I agree. I equated a total lack of communication with a lack of customer service, in which customer communication is only a part of customer service. So, I stand corrected my topic should be amended to read:

“Slow shipments and total lack of communication”
or
“Slow shipments and lack of customer service”

I never tried calling huel, but i can say they got forum support under lockdown. i remember seeing dan on the soylent reddit page answering huel questions. For some reason their reddit became a home for anything meal replacement related… every company.

I do think huel account homepage could be improved to include order history tho… or i just can’t seem to find it. Anyways if you gave them the correct email during the order, they will supply you with a tracking number by default.
I had an issue similar to this happen from Microsoft where my repaired xbox was literally lost in their warehouse for 5-ish days until i called them and they magically found it. Yeah it sucks, humans can cause accidents, but i wouldnt say huel/Microsoft have bad support. As for the severity of 17 days … bruh you couldve made this post a little sooner.

Heres an email from my past orders showing where the tracking label should be.
Screenshot_20200414-005526_Gmail|243x500