Freshly Inc.

In this case, in light of the customer's continued unhappiness and the confusion regarding the subscription service - as well as the small difference between our offer to the customer and what the customer is actually requesting - we will happily process a $refund for the customerThis is in acknowledgement of the specific meals she didn't enjoy and as a courtesy gesture for the additional order that was generated because the customer didn't other pause or cancel her subscription prior to her second chargeThe customer should be able to confirm that this refund has been processed

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved
Sincerely,
*** ***

Revdex.com:I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. I will consider the matter resolved upon the issuance of refund in the amount of $and, accordingly, upon receipt of the refund I have instructed *** *** (card issuer) to rescind my initial credit dispute
However my counter and continuing narrative to their reply is attached
Sincerely, *** ***

About Freshly:Freshly is a subscription service that ships ready-made, healthy meals to customers - all-natural, hormone-free, gluten-free, peanut-free, and free of artificial sweeteners. We bill people weekly and send them 6, 9, 12, or 21 meals per week based upon the meal plan selected by the...

customer. This customer in particular ordered our 6-meal/week plan. The customer is upset because she wanted to cancel her second delivery and was unsure about the timeframe in which to do so.  Cancellation Policy:We have a no-cancellation policy for orders once those orders are processed in our system, unless the customer doesn't receive our meals or doesn't like our meals, in which we case we offer some compensation. We advertise our cancellation policy in our Support Center and advertise our status as a subscription service with renewable deliveries in multiple prominent locations during the checkout process. The customer also has to agree to our “Terms” during checkout (see: https://www.freshly.com/terms), which includes the following under the “Freshly Billing” heading: “When purchasing a Freshly Plan you are billed for the first week only at the time of purchase. All Freshly Plans are subscription plans and you will be billed weekly for each delivery. If you wish to pause, cancel or modify your plan you can do so at any time; however, pauses or cancellations won’t impact any order for which you have already been charged.” The reason for this cancellation standard is because we are a company that specializes in perishable meals for customers. Customers order meal plans through us (weekly deliveries) and select menu items. We cook the meals ourselves and ship them (overnight or 2-day) to customers. As a result, to ensure the freshness of our meals and the safety of our customers, timeliness is a huge factor in our business - i.e.: we need to have enough ducks in a row to cook meals one day and then ship them out immediately thereafter. In order to enable that level of efficiency across 40,000+ meals per week, delivering from California to Virginia, we need to begin the preparation process for meals some 5-6 days in advance of the delivery itself. Each customer has a deadline for stopping this process ahead of time, if they don't want meals in a certain week.   Concerning the Claim:The customer ordered a subscription through us on June 9 with a substantial discount - 6 meals for $10. The customer received her first delivery on Friday, June 17. (By initially choosing to receive her first delivery on Friday, June 17, our system would, by default, send the customer subsequent 6-meal orders every Friday.) Because the customer’s subscription was never cancelled or paused, the customer was charged again on Saturday, June 18 at 5pm PST for a delivery due the following Friday - Friday, June 24. The customer contacted us the day after her charge (Sunday, June 19) to say she didn’t want the meals, but, at that time, the order had already been processed in our system.The customer makes reference to the fact that we give customers an additional day to change the meals associated with a given delivery – which is true. We can allow this courtesy to some customers because we have very few customers who take advantage of the offer. Most customers plan their meals a week or two weeks in advance. For some, however, they forget, and, once they are charged for an order, they remember that there are certain meals they want to change in their menu. We therefore give those customers a little extra time to change their meals after the order is programmed in our system. This customer mistook this leeway for the actual time when she could prevent an order from generating.We advertise the customer’s deadline for skipping an order entirely in multiple locations:First, in our Support Center, we let people know, in many articles, that, once an order is charged, it cannot be cancelled and that the deadline for skipping an order is 5-6 days before the delivery occurs, based on the customer's zip code.Second, we send customers an email a day before their deadline to inform them of our new menu item for the week and remind them about the date and time when their next order will be charged and processed. We can confirm this email was sent to the customer concerned - although, if she does not recall receiving it, it may have gone to her spam folder.Third, when the customer received her initial delivery, she would have received some welcome cards in her box, one of which referenced weekly deliveries and explained the timeframe for skipping an upcoming order. These welcome cards are included in all first-time deliveries to ensure we provide as much information to customers as possible.Please note, too, that we give customers the ability to cancel or pause their subscription at anytime, which takes effect for any order for which the customer had not already been charged. If the customer wanted to try our meals first before committing to a second week, for instance, she could have skipped her second week of delivery from the get-go, to avoid another, more immediate charge after her first delivery, or paused the subscription indefinitely right after she placed her initial order. We allow customers this high level of flexibility to try and provide as positive an experience as possible for customers.In this case, we’re certainly very sorry that the situation was confusing for the customer and hope she understands that, due to the enormity of our operations, when an order is charged, it cannot simply be retracted, since we cook meals for customers en masse, not entrée-by-entrée or breakfast-by-breakfast, as would occur in a small-scale kitchen.   Proposed Resolution:In light of the confusion about the deadline, we would be happy to offer the customer a 50% refund of the order she didn’t want ($34.50), since we still produced and shipped the meals and were unable to retract her order. This would, in total, mean the customer received 12 meals from us for a total of $44.5 – a per-meal value of $3.71 – which, especially for gluten-free, all-natural, hormone-free meals, is an offer she would be unable to receive anywhere else and would ensure the customer received excellent value from our service.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. I still think that it is pompous to say "[redacted]... to a new customer who signed up for a free trial of 6 meals. I went back and found the email that they referenced. You know where they put the notice to cancel?? It's in a picture. There's pictures with new meals, but embedded in one picture there's a notice to cancel... in a size 8 font. But also: it's not in the email. There's another big green button that says "[redacted]" and a link that says "[redacted] here." And another big green button that says "[redacted]"It's pretty easy to miss and disregard that as an "[redacted]" email. And that's probably the point. That response was hogwash... in template form.That being said, I'll accept the compromise. 
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

[Your Answer Here]
They only offered a small compensation of about $20 from over $90 they charged, which majority were inedible.  The customer service manager, Toby, also refused the compensation unless I was willing to accept the small compensation as a complete resolution.
 
 
 
In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

About Freshly: Freshly is a subscription service that ships ready-made, healthy meals to customers - all-natural, hormone-free, gluten-free, peanut-free, and free of artificial sweeteners. We bill people weekly and send them 6, 9, 12, or 21 meals per week based upon the meal plan selected by the...

customer. This customer in particular ordered our 6-meal/week plan at a trial price of $30 for the first delivery (50% off – average price of $5 per meal). The subscription would have regularly renewed after the first delivery, per the norm.     Cancellation Policy: We have a no-cancellation policy for orders once those orders are processed in our system. The reason for this cancellation standard is because we are a company that specializes in perishable meals for customers. Customers order meal plans through us (weekly deliveries) and select menu items. We cook the meals ourselves and ship them (overnight or 2-day) to customers. As a result, to ensure the freshness of our meals and the safety of our customers, timeliness is a huge factor in our operations - i.e.: we need to have enough ducks in a row to cook meals one day and then ship them out immediately thereafter. In order to enable that level of efficiency across 70,000+ meals per week, delivering from California to Virginia, we need to begin the preparation process for meals some 5-6 days in advance of the delivery itself. Each customer has a deadline for stopping this process ahead of time, if they don't want meals in a certain week.     Concerning the Claim: This particular customer contacted us to cancel her order after her second order had been charged and therefore after we were able to stop the second order from generating. Unfortunately, by the time the customer contacted us, we had begun the preparation process for her meals. Because we do cook 70,000+ meals a week, our meals are not prepared individually, as they would be in a restaurant, customer by customer, but rather in larger batches, all-together, once we know the number of entrees we have to cook in a certain category. This means, after an order is charged and meals have begun the preparation process, we are unable to extract those meals from the process itself and cancel the order. This is not our attempt to be difficult, but a natural necessity for any company dealing in perishable gourmet meals. We work actively to give customers the maximum flexibility possible when it comes to managing their subscription. For this reason, we do not put restrictions on when customers can cancel their subscription. Customers are not grandfathered or forced into receiving a certain number of orders through us. A customer could sign up with us and pause or cancel their subscription immediately thereafter to ensure it does not renew, which is what this customer would have wanted to do to avoid a second order being charged. We also provide customers with numerous tools for managing their subscription that enable them to stop receiving meals or temporarily pause their subscription: First, customers can "skip a week" - meaning they can choose not to receive meals for a certain week - by simply clicking a button in their subscription. Second, customers can indefinitely pause their subscription so that they are not charged for another order and can easily unpause the subscription whenever they so choose. Third, customers can cancel their subscription whenever they want and ensure no additional orders are generated and processed.     Ultimate Resolution: In light of the confusion and the trouble, as a courtesy gesture and at cost to us, we ultimately ended up refunding this customer within 12 hours of her initial complaint. Because we couldn’t stop her meals from shipping, she received the meals anyway (*for free*).

About Freshly: Freshly is a subscription service that ships ready-made, healthy meals to customers - all-natural, hormone-free, gluten-free, peanut-free, and free of artificial sweeteners. We bill people weekly and send them 6, 9, 12, or 21 meals per week based upon the meal plan selected by the...

customer. This customer in particular ordered our 6-meal/week plan.   Concerning the Claim: The customer did indeed contact us early in June asking to have her subscription cancelled soon after ordering it. We cancelled her order and refunded her the amount she paid. There was some subsequent confusion, however, and the subscription itself wasn’t canceled. The customer informed us on June ** that she was charged again as part of the normal renewal process. Upon receipt of this claim, we investigated and processed an immediate refund for the customer, as well as ensured her subscription had indeed been cancelled. We also offered the customer 6 free meals in the future should she ever have need of it due to the trouble she encountered. The customer should be able to confirm the issue she mentioned has since been resolved.

About Freshly: Freshly is a subscription service that ships ready-made, healthy meals to customers - all-natural, hormone-free, gluten-free, peanut-free, and free of artificial sweeteners. We bill people weekly and send them 6, 9, 12, or 21 meals per week based upon the meal plan selected by the...

customer. This customer in particular ordered our 9-meal/week plan. (See the attached presentation, which shows how and where we inform customers about our status as a subscription service during the checkout experience and thereafter.) Cancellation Policy: We have a no-cancellation policy for orders once those orders are processed in our system. The reason for this cancellation standard is because we are a company that specializes in perishable meals for customers. Customers order meal plans through us (weekly deliveries) and select menu items. We cook the meals ourselves and ship them (overnight or 2-day) to customers. As a result, to ensure the freshness of our meals and the safety of our customers, timeliness is a huge factor in our operations - i.e.: we need to have enough ducks in a row to cook meals one day and then ship them out immediately thereafter. In order to enable that level of efficiency across 70,000+ meals per week, delivering from California to Virginia, we need to begin the preparation process for meals some 5-6 days in advance of the delivery itself. Each customer has a deadline for stopping this process ahead of time, if they don't want meals in a certain week. Concerning the Claim: This particular customer contacted us to cancel her subscription after her second order had been charged and therefore after we were able to stop the second order from generating. We’re very sorry for the confusion in this regard and would certainly have accommodated the customer further if we were able. Unfortunately, by the time the customer contacted us, we had begun the preparation process for her meals. Because we do cook 70,000+ meals a week, our meals are not prepared individually, as they would be in a restaurant, customer by customer, but rather in larger batches, all-together, once we know the number of entrees we have to cook in a certain category. This means, after an order is charged and meals have begun the preparation process, we are unable to extract those meals from the process itself and cancel the order. This is not our attempt to be difficult, but a natural necessity for any company dealing in perishable gourmet meals. We work actively to give customers the maximum flexibility possible when it comes to managing their subscription. For this reason, we do not put restrictions on when customers can cancel their subscription. Customers are not grandfathered or forced into receiving a certain number of orders through us. A customer could sign up with us and pause or cancel their subscription immediately thereafter to ensure it does not renew, which is what this customer would have wanted to do to avoid a second order being charged. We also provide customers with numerous tools for managing their subscription that enable them to stop receiving meals or temporarily pause their subscription: First, customers can "skip a week" - meaning they can choose not to receive meals for a certain week - by simply clicking a button in their subscription. Second, customers can indefinitely pause their subscription so that they are not charged for another order and can easily unpause the subscription whenever they so choose. Third, customers can cancel their subscription whenever they want and ensure no additional orders are generated and processed. Additionally, we don’t inherently ship different meals to customers every week, but rather leave it up to the customer to pick his or her menu. This is because we would never want to presume a customer wants certain meals in case there were allergy or dietary restrictions of which we were not aware. Customers would receive the same meals weekly – based on the initial menu they chose when they ordered their subscription – unless they otherwise change their menu, which they can easily do in their subscription, as long as there is time to do this and the meals have not already entered the production process. This unfortunately was the case for this customer. Ultimate Resolution: In light of the confusion and the trouble, we ultimately ended up refunding this customer as a courtesy gesture, prior to seeing and responding to this complaint.

About Freshly: Freshly is a subscription service that ships ready-made, healthy meals to customers - all-natural, hormone-free, gluten-free, peanut-free, and free of artificial sweeteners. We bill people weekly and send them 4, 6, 9, or 12 meals per week based upon the meal plan selected by the...

customer. This customer in particular ordered our 4-meal/week plan. We advertise our status as a subscription service in many places throughout the checkout process and beyond, including a welcome packet in every first delivery and a reminder email before every charge. Cancellation Policy: We have a no-cancellation policy for orders once those orders are processed in our system. The reason for this cancellation standard is because we are a company that specializes in perishable meals for customers. Customers order meal plans through us (weekly deliveries) and select menu items. We cook the meals ourselves and ship them (overnight or 2-day) to customers. As a result, to ensure the freshness of our meals and the safety of our customers, timeliness is a huge factor in our operations - i.e.: we need to have enough ducks in a row to cook meals one day and then ship them out immediately thereafter. In order to enable that level of efficiency across 70,000+ meals per week, delivering from California to Virginia, we need to begin the preparation process for meals some 5-6 days in advance of the delivery itself. Each customer has a deadline for stopping this process ahead of time, if they don't want meals in a certain week. Concerning the Claim: This particular customer contacted us to cancel his subscription after his second order had been charged and therefore after we were able to stop the second order from being fulfilled. We’re certainly very sorry for the confusion in this regard. We are inherently a subscription service, which, as mentioned above, is advertised throughout our site and communicated consistently to customers. The deadline the customer references in his complaint is referencing the date and time of his next weekly charge, by which time the customer would have to communicate to us that he or she does not want further meals. There are various other ways this piece of communication is sent to customers, as well. On the checkout page, for instance, when customers are ordering their subscription, they see a breakdown between what they will be charged upon ordering and also what they would normally be charged every week thereafter. Prior to an order being charged for each weekly order, we provide customers with numerous tools for managing their subscription that enable them to stop receiving meals or temporarily pause their subscription: First, customers can "skip a week" - meaning they can choose not to receive meals for a certain week - by simply clicking a button in their subscription. Second, customers can indefinitely pause their subscription so that they are not charged for another order and can easily unpause the subscription whenever they so choose. Third, customers can cancel their subscription whenever they want and ensure no additional orders are generated and processed. All these options were available to the customer the moment after he signed up with us and we’re sorry there was confusion about using them. In Conclusion: In this particular case, we are sorry again for the confusion and had already acted to accommodate the customer by offering a 50% refund of the customer's order. The customer agreed to this resolution (see attachment) and the refund was duly processed. Thank you!

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved.
Sincerely,
[redacted]