Chris Moseley

First the good: I've tried 5 different food prep companies now and FuelHub is one of the better ones. Most of the meals are genuinely tasty and portion size is good. Damaged package ratio is better than most too (although sadly still a problem).

It's quite easy to review the food you've had and I assume that affects auto picked items in the future. Some of the competitors make this way harder than it should be.

The not-so-good:
While the website makes out all but the shellfish should last 6-7 days you do need to check the use-by date. There have been a few times where some of the meals go off on day 3-4. First time is didn't realise one had gone past it's date until I went to eat it, I just assumed they'd all have the same date - they don't!

They use DPD, who for me were awful. Just left the pack either in the garden, usually in the sun or on the doorstep, even when I was in, they never bothered ringing the doorbell.

My last delivery had two damaged meals in it. They deal with it well and quickly, even on a Sunday but it's not ok. I don't know why any of the companies can't be better at this. I'm convinced it happens because they stack the meals on top of each other with nothing in-between. When the heavy handed DPD people chuck it around the weight of the ones on top pop the seals on the ones below. It's always the corners and always the ones at the bottom. All it would take is a sturdy bit of cardboard between the meals. To be fair, they all have this problem but I was hoping for better packaging from the premium option and FuelHub is definitely more expensive than a lot of the others. Less discounts and offers and generally more expensive dishes.

The support is ok and responsive. It's email or phone though and the AI response is modern but doesn't have much autonomy. Frive nails this with it's WhatsApp based bot and takes the lead on this.

Food: 4/5
Delivery: 2/5
Customer support: 3/5

The application process is painfully slow and badly managed. They say from the outset that they're experiencing high demand at the moment and it "may take up to 10 days" to make a decision on an application. Fine, if it really did take "up to" 10 days.

When you try and get clarity because you've basically put your business on hold waiting for a bank account you get a variation of this stock reply.

"We understand... We know it's frustrating... you're important to us... blah blah"

"We’re unfortunately not able to provide an update on the status of your application or how much longer it may take for a decision to be made, which we hope you understand is only because we must follow the same review process for all customers."

They're missing the point entirely. It's not the wait that winds customers up, it the fact that they can't provide an update. It's the fact that you don't know how long the wait will be.

Why can't they tell you if progress has been made on your application? Why can't they estimate how much longer you'll be waiting? Do they really not know or are they choosing to withhold the information for some reason for some reason? Either is bad.

I suspect they've not put that in place because it's extra admin and they think it'll slow things down more but they've mistaken the priority here completely.

Flood claim handled poorly.

Our basement was dry and problem-free for several years. After a flood in 2023, LV arranged drying and reinstatement works. Since then, the basement has developed persistent damp and mould and now requires constant dehumidification to remain usable.

LV relied on a drying certificate that contained no recorded moisture readings, and a visual-only damp report, to conclude the issue was “condensation” and not related to the claim. Despite a lengthy complaints process and escalation to the Financial Ombudsman Service, LV maintained this position.

The end result is that following an insured event, our property has not been restored to its pre-loss condition and we’ve been left to fund remediation ourselves.

Premium was competitive. Claims handling and outcome were not.

Ordered trainers as a Christmas gift. Delivered 11 December. When I tried to return them after Christmas, I was blocked by a strict 14-day returns policy that expires before Christmas - which makes it fundamentally incompatible with Christmas shopping.

To make matters worse, the website states the item cannot be returned because it is “personalised”, which is simply untrue. Customer service later confirmed the real reason was the expired return window.

Rigid policy, misleading messaging, and zero flexibility. I won’t be shopping with Ferrari again and would strongly advise others to think twice.

I moved from Frive as I'd had some damaged packages. First order arrived from PrepKitchen - whole box completely soaked, the (one) ice pack had melted and leaked over everything. One of the meals also had a gap in the seal. They added 2 free meals to the subscription but I'm not going to eat anything from the first delivery as a melted ice pack makes me wonder how warm it's been so that was £25 down the drain.

Additionally the phone version of the website is clunky. e.g, you can't see the help button as it's hidden by another overlay thing, conversations end before you've had chance to reply, order cancellation is very hidden on the phone view, had to login via desktop to find it etc.

Cancelled after the first order.

UPDATE: They reached out and dealt with this very professionally.

I've just cancelled my subscription after 6 deliveries. The meals are generally great but 3 out of 6 deliveries contained meals with damaged, unsealed packaging. To be fair, the WhatsApp customer support bot is very good and they refund with credit. That whole process is pretty efficient, but you're still left with a meal you can't (or probably shouldn't) eat, so you have so sort your own food out (I know, first world problems... but that's kind of the point in meal delivery services). The error rate also just made me a bit concerned about the quality assurance.

UPDATE: They've been very gracious with this feedback and called me to discuss. Much more than most companies would do these days. It's clear they DO care about customer satisfaction and quality. I was perhaps just unlucky with the broken packets.

Long winded application process. Outdated processes (insisting that sending codes via physical post is secure - it isn't!).
Won't let you close an account without visiting a branch, like it's the 90s.
A chat bot that was out of date 5 years ago.

Really wanted to bank with Starling for my business. App seems good but after my application they decided to go HMRC cosplayer on me, asking for proof of wealth from 8 years ago, 6 months bank statements from ALL of my accounts, just because I'd self funded for 9 months.

I just wanted an easy business account. Life is too short for all that.

I did a SIBO test, the kit arrived in good time and the instructions were clear etc. However, it's coming up to a month now and I haven't had any results back. Heathpath are relatively transparent about the times (although some adverts say 5 days), 5 working days to get to the London address, then 14 working days for it to be sent to Germany to be analysed. I just hoped that was a maximum and not the norm.

While the transparency is good, I just think that's way too long to keep people waiting in uncertainty considering the price of the test. If you're ok with the wait then it's fine but I will look for a UK based lab in the future.

Edit: Updated to 4 star as the communication was good after the review. It'd be 5 with a quicker turnaround.

I purchased some walking trousers from the website before Christmas. First time trying them on and they're super tight around the legs. Tried to return them or exchange them for a different size but I'd missed the "returns window" by 10 days so they refused to do either even though they'd never been used and still have the tags on.

Customer service team were completely inflexible and very "computer says no". It's a poor customer service strategy as I used to love the brand but now I'll avoid Berghaus completely. It would have cost them nothing to keep me, a better business would have realised that.

The order number was 633424270.
Date of order: 2024-11-25

2nd Edit: Regarding their reply below, I updated with my order number (above), they never got back to me.

Purchased some walking trousers before Christmas. First time trying them on and they're super tight around the legs. Tried to return them or exchange them for a different size but I'd missed the "returns window" by 10 days so they refused to do either even though they'd never been used and still have the tags on.

Customer service team were completely inflexible and very "computer says no". It's a poor customer service strategy as I used to love the brand but now I'll avoid Berghaus completely. It would have cost them nothing to keep me, a better business would have realised that.

Honestly the worst customer service experience out of all the companies and providers I use. I've had lots of incidents, the latest was trying to find our invoices in the portal (they don't have them in the portal for download, just printed to screen). I spent 25 minutes on LiveChat trying to prove who I was or what my account number is (literally logged in to the portal at the time) only to be told eventually to just send an email to someone else.

Conversation went like this (about 3 mins between messages):

Me: Hi, I need to find our invoices for download
Agent: Can you give me your account number?
Me: Sure, where do I find that?
Agent: It'll be on your invoice

Then eventually,

Agent: You need to email this address so you can get access to our other portal that has the invoices.

What??? Why are there two portals???

The broadband (CityFibre) is good. That's where the good ends. I just feel like their whole setup is cobbled together and badly run.

Avoid, there are better alternatives.

The articles can we well written and informative but their digital infrastructure is an absolute mess leading to a really poor customer experience. I tried the digital subscription, from the start it was confusing, I set up a direct debit but then couldn't access anything. You have to then create an account (separately), then link the subscription you previously paid for... Unnecessary complex, it should be one operation. When you do eventually get access to the articles, they're unfortunately riddled with ads (even though you've paid to access them) and they're badly implemented ads too, the kind that randomly load and move the page around so you have to scroll back to where you were reading. It's also impossible to find any info on your subscription, if you go to "manage subscription", it asks you to log in again even though you're already logged in. It's like nobody has considered or they just don't give a crap about the user experience. Which is a shame because I'd happily pay if it wasnt so infuriating. However, it is, so I'll be cancelling.

RC used to be OK but I don't know what has happened with over the last year. At this point avoid at all costs - Complex, unintuitive management UI and almost non-existent support leads to an overall awful experience. Currently trying desperately to cancel or downgrade our account - something they make next to impossible.

Used TopGrass for 10 months and saw little to no improvement in the quality of our lawn. They are very difficult to contact, efforts usually end in talking to someone who can't help so you have to wait to be contacted by someone who can. It just wasn't worth the money in the end.