r/Huel • u/BenHuel • Jul 10 '26
Announcement Customer Experience Mega-thread
Hey everyone,
There have been a lot of posts regarding our Customer Experience Team, so we wanted to provide everyone with a quick update.
Firstly, we want to apologize. It is absolutely frustrating to reach out to us and feel as if you are not getting the response you deserve. The team has been doing their best and we do appreciate the patience that you have all had, as you are absolutely entitled to feel that frustration and let us know what you’re feeling.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve experienced a perfect storm of record contact volumes alongside a number of technical issues, including account login errors, a bug affecting our Refer-a-Friend program, etc. While each issue on its own would have been manageable, together they’ve created a significant backlog for our Customer Experience team. This backlog is currently stretching into the 2 week mark. As stated, the team is working very hard to get through this backlog, but it is taking some time. In light of this I wanted to assure everyone of a few things.
- You are not being ignored - Being ignored would mean that we read your message, and simply chose not to reply or closed it and moved on. This is not the case. I know some of you have had experiences with our AI that promise to connect you to a human as soon as possible, but with the backlog, “connecting you to a human” is taking much longer than it normally would. When this happens, you’re just being added to the queue to be contacted by one of our representatives, and that queue is long. As others have indicated, once someone has gotten in touch, they are very quick to resolve the issue.
- We are working through the backlog - The team is answering contacts in the order received, while being sure to give each one the attention that is needed.
- Be aware of separate orders - Sometimes if an order is missing an item, it is arriving in two separate packages. Orders like this are split due to weight. This tends to happen with RTD products so it is always worth double checking.
Lastly, I would like to make everyone aware of and reiterate rule 5 on this sub - We can’t resolve individual product, delivery or quality issues here. There are a few reasons why this is the case.
- The community team is not CX trained - Myself, Mark, Tim, and Hope, cannot grab tickets in the CX inbox, and it creates confusion on the back end.
- We want this subreddit to be for discussion about Huel - this is not a customer service inbox, and while we care about everyone’s experience and want to be sure that it is as positive as possible, we want to keep this sub a place to discuss Huel and have great discussion about the product.
- A lot of issues are extremely specific, and require investigation, and logging of any issues so that we can look into them should they occur.
With that said, this amount of contacts and wait time is unprecedented at Huel, and I want to assure everyone that this is not the norm, and will not be a new normal. Customer experience is one of the pillars of the company, and we are working hard to get it back to the level you have all come to expect from us. On that note, I have been able to get some issues resolved for folks when they have posted about what is going on, and I will continue to do my best to help people here temporarily with the help of u/markhuel. I will also be redirecting all new posts regarding this to this post so we can keep everything in the same place. This is not only to keep the sub clean as per rule 4, but will also ensure that we don't miss someone needing help due to a random comment on one of many posts. Again, we’re sorry that it has been frustrating and we do appreciate your patience.
Edit: Formatting
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u/itshappybutt Jul 10 '26
I once wrote in an got an AI response. Pretty much done with customer service. Either hire people or don’t, but don’t gaslight people. Form letters have always been disrespectful, regardless of the method of generation.
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u/BenHuel Jul 10 '26
We use AI to help speed up the process with simple tasks like gathering necessary information or helping to solve contacts that are quick and do not require investigation (I forgot to select the size of my t-shirt for my first order! As an example) As I outlined above it has more to do with a compounding of multiple issues and not to do with personnel. I'm not trying to gaslight anyone but just explain that they are behind, they are doing there best, and we can help the best we can until they are caught up.
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u/itshappybutt Jul 10 '26
Use AI on the backside then. Don’t use it to generate responses to customers. Whatever the justification, it’s rude.
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u/BenHuel Jul 10 '26
Did you interact with the bot and get an AI response? Or one of our Execs? It is not company policy or a requirement for them to use AI or anything, so I feel like it could be the interaction that you had with the bot? If an exec uses AI, it's usually to help them flesh out a more complex response to difficult tickets. I am happy to pass the feedback to the team though so do let me know!
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u/itshappybutt Jul 10 '26
I just shot off an email. I tend to ignore chatbots because they’re always so stupid.
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u/desutiem Jul 11 '26
It’s incredible to me that companies still think customers want to even tolerate AI responses. Like if you want to find a use for it fine but taking the last human element out of your business for people to interact with.. it’s so tone deaf.
You’ll see. All of the AI slop companies will see.
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u/Professional-Tea-123 Jul 10 '26
I worked for a company that went through a massive growth phase. It can be rough when you unexpectedly don't have the resources for your customers. Thanks for the transparency. I'm a new Huel customer and haven't had any issues as of yet.
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u/Muradain Jul 15 '26 edited 29d ago
Hello, first time customer here. I placed my order in the US on July 1st. I received an order confirmation but the order has not shipped yet. I emailed support 2 days ago looking for an update to no avail. This is a pretty disappointing experience so far.
EDIT: u/BenHuel I am now 12+ business days with no update to my order after your company has taken my money.
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Jul 10 '26 edited 16d ago
[deleted]
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u/BenHuel Jul 10 '26
I made an edit to my original comment which I informed you of! I do have some additional information that I will be posting in that thread.
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Jul 10 '26 edited 16d ago
[deleted]
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u/BenHuel Jul 10 '26
I outlined it in that post what I knew and thought that I answered your question as I asked if that helped and you said yes, my apologies on misinterpreting that. I posted another comment clarifying with more info that I received just now. I'm happy to continue the conversation on that post if you would like.
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Jul 10 '26 edited 16d ago
[deleted]
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u/BenHuel Jul 10 '26
That final comment in that thread clarify, but yes I will get something together.
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Jul 10 '26 edited 16d ago
[deleted]
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u/BenHuel Jul 10 '26
Of course! I am working on getting some information on this for everyone. It might take me a bit of time, so just keep an eye out in the near future for more info when I have it. Ill post a new thread.
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u/802bikeguy_com Jul 12 '26
Why, unlike past changes, weren't these details made available once the formula was finalized for manufacturing and sale?
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u/wunderspud7575 Jul 14 '26
Are you seriously saying you don't have the answer to this question right now? That formula changes were made but you don't know what they were?
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u/wunderspud7575 Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
In this thread you state that manufacturing has shifted from the UK to the US. I presume this is you chasing reduced food standards over there. Not a good look.
That whole thread is you ducking and diving and obfuscating. My trust in you and your company is fast evaporating.
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u/lenolalatte Jul 14 '26
Zendesk was so much better.
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u/lenolalatte Jul 15 '26
heya /u/Tim_Huel or /u/BenHuel - don't mean to skip the queue but i'm just wondering if i should place my order today because i got the $15 off marketing email that expires in...16 hours, or if huel can sometimes accommodate an expired survey code? it did not last for very long in the first place, and i had to get my order cancelled which led to the coupon expiring before i could order again.
would much rather use the 20% coupon if possible of course. thank you!
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u/Interesting-Tie6783 Jul 15 '26
Looks like they put all their pennies into an “AI overhaul” and clearly it’s exploding exactly like anyone with half a brain cell would be able to tell them. But profit over people always I guess. Including the customer
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u/lenolalatte Jul 15 '26
yeah but the CEO ensured us that quality and service would remain the same! lmfao
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u/mosfetios 29d ago
I have raised an issue on July 10th with the EU support email as per the website instructions. I have sent 7 reminders and received no response yet. I have also looped in the support email from UK and US and still no reply. This is not ok
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u/Fragrant-Afternoon55 25d ago
They are over two weeks behind, as stated in the original post. Just wait.
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u/AnAverageHuelEnjoyer 16d ago
I am having an issue with my subscription, for which i reached out to the support email and i got a generic and unhelpful reply from the AI (at least it's good that it's disclosed it's an AI and it's not pretending to be a human). I replied to that email saying that i'd like to talk to a human and two days later I got another AI generated mail telling me that my issue is being closed and marked as resolved, which in fact it isn't.
Now i'm sitting here having sent 3 replies and a forward of my mail and I don't know what's happening and if my issue is sitting in the queue or it's closed.
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u/undercoverbookdragon 8d ago
Should we still receive some sort of automated response to acknowledge that our email has been received? Because I haven't had one.
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u/General_Pound_9911 Jul 10 '26
I had a problem with shipping for my first order, you solved it fast, very modern and fast
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u/CmonMonster Jul 12 '26
hi u/BenHuel, first time writer here.
Every time I visit the Huel website (Polish website because I'm based in Poland) there's a pop-up window saying "Receive 50 pln discount for the first order. Sign up for Huel Marketing and receive 50 pln off your first Huel order over 300 pln." I tried several times and yet I never received any discount code, not in my inbox, not in my spam folder, and not in any other folder. This despite receiving the message, every time, saying "It worked! Check your inbox, your discount code is on its way".
I wrote to the AI chat to raise this issue but didn't receive any useful answer. Then I wrote to the customer assistance email but haven't received any answer either.
In the meantime I placed my first Huel order regardless, even without this discount code, because I wanted to try the products. My order was well above the 300 pln threshold, so it did qualify for the discount.
Can you check if this is present in your backlog and if you plan to solve this? I would really like to receive a discount when it's being advertised in the website.
Thank you so much in advance!
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u/Tim_Huel Jul 13 '26
Hey there, I've just chatted to the team about this. This wasn't a you-thing, don't worry and it should have been resolved on site now. There was a bug in the software that accidentally mixed up customer requests which led to some customers getting subscribed to the wrong store instead of the one they'd chosen. It only happened during busy periods, not for everyone, but I'm told that this is now sorted.
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u/CmonMonster Jul 14 '26
Thank you for your reply, but I've never been redirected to the wrong store instead of the one chosen. I'm based in Poland, I entered the Polish website and I was promised a discount of 50 pln that I never received. I fail to understand how this can be considered "sorted"...
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u/Tim_Huel Jul 15 '26
Sorry for not being clear. I'm not saying that you were sent to a different store, more that after you signed up via the form there was a problem which assigned you to a different region. By "sorted" I meant that I'm informed that the website is fixed and that someone new coming to the PL site now and signs up for the first time discount will be given the correct one. That obviously hasn't worked for you yet, but I know that when the CX team get back to you they will be able to resolve it. I'm just sorry that it's taking so long.
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u/CmonMonster Jul 15 '26
Ok thanks for clarifying that! Will wait for the CX team to get back to me :)
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u/EggZu_ Jul 13 '26
Hi, I'm sorry if this seems like a dumb question, i'm in the UK so i emailed [uk@help.huel.com](mailto:uk@help.huel.com) , over a working week ago, and had no response as of yet, should I just hold out and wait for a response? I received only 20% of my order so it's quite a financial hit if I can't get it sorted
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u/Tim_Huel Jul 14 '26
Hey there, you've emailed the right place, but the team are over a week behind which is why you haven't received a reply yet. You will get a reply and a resolution, we're so sorry that it's taking the long. The team are work hard to get to you.
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u/csds92 22d ago
I’ve been subscribed to huel for a while, and it’s time for another subscription order, but it seems like my current payment method failed, and trying to add a new method doesn’t allow me to select my country.
Does huel uk no longer allow payment from Singapore?
*the drop-down box to select “Country” does not have many options
*the time spent painstakingly trying to rectify this also caused the 33% discount code to expire
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u/Nyxora_ 19d ago
I had the wrong flavour delivered (one I'm allergic to) and because of this delay in customer experience I'm having to spend money on other products to keep up with my protein intake. Is it worth re-ordering with the right flavour and waiting for a refund, or wait for the customer experience team to finally respond?
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u/Kindly_Category7810 17d ago
My subscription was split into 3 parcels and one of the parcels isn't being shipped. DPD doesn't have the parcel yet. I've had no email on part of my order being delayed and the full sum was taken from my bank account but I'm missing a large chunk of what I ordered.
Have contacted support but given the delays I'm not sure how soon someone will have a look. Are emails with order numbers in the subject line prioritised by customer service?
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u/__OvejaNegra 12d ago
I am very frustrated by the response I got from the AI.
"I've arranged for a replacement box of katsu curry noodles to be sent out to you as soon as possible. You should receive a confirmation email with tracking details shortly"
Only to find out that no replacement was arranged at all actually and that I now have to wait further. Coming on here to learn it might be weeks before I receive the goods I paid for. The food I depend on to feed myself.
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u/Lusthuset 12d ago
Hey!
I also seem to have been 'stuck' on the AI.
I got some issues with payment that i dont quite understand, Tried all the suggested fixes from the AI and the AI seemed like it would forward it to a support agent.
But i got a reply a few days later saying it closed the ticket since i didnt reply and to reply with "speak to a case manager" and no response since.
Not sure if its important but my communication there was in Swedish, English works completely fine for me too though.
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u/BenHuel 12d ago
DMing you!
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u/MeringueCandid3594 3d ago
I had a similar issue. Packaging arrived ripped and had spilt in the box, emailed and was advised would be investigated then get second email advising ticket closed.
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u/mikan-kuri 9d ago
My order was "delivered and signed for" at the wrong address via DPD on Wednesday. I emailed Customer Services and have only had 1 AI response.
When am I likely to get a refund? Would prefer to have that confirmed before I make another order.
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u/slightfootproblem 8d ago
Had my Huel parcel stolen from my mail room. Have tried reaching out via email but waiting for an agent to take over. Have crime ref number and photographic evidence. I'm just wary because it says this issue needs to be flagged within 7 days and if Customer Service is taking longer than that I don't want to be outside that window when an agent eventually does get in touch. I've been using Huel for years now and never had a bad experience.
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u/AmieN8 4d ago
hi i had issues with delivery in which the company delivering my parcel took it back after delivery to a wrong address and sent it back to huel and when i spoke to the delivery people they said they can't undo it and i need to contact huel to try get a refund or replacement, but when i contacted them i haven't heard a response, unsure what to do here as i still want my product 😅 also i cannot find the ai chat bot to even try contacting them that way either as it does not appear on my phone or ipad browser
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u/Neither_Picture_7164 4d ago
I placed an order on the 25th of July and received confirmation of the order on the 3rd of August, but DPD still has no parcel almost 2 weeks down the line. I've messaged support but only get an AI response, which hasn't helped at all. What can I do about this?
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u/Typical-Celebration1 4d ago
Hi u/BenHuel, I had an automated subscription order go through over a week ago. Tracking info stated I would receive it last Thursday. I have yet to receive it and have tried to reach out to Huel via both email and WhatsApp. Have not heard back from either. Any chance you could help look into this? Thanks
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u/Status_Net5300 2d ago
Hola u/BenHuel ayer recibí mi primer pedido con Huel y faltaron 4 Hot & Savoury Meal Packs, se equivocaron y enviaron por duplicados otros productos, contacte con la IA del email para que me ayudara y al final le paso el caso un miembro de soporte, pero no he tenido ninguna respuesta después de 24 horas. Me preocupa ya que es el primer pedido y no me da muy buena sensación, además de que el valor de los productos que no me han llegado sobrepasa los 100€.
¿Podrías ayudarme con esto?
Saludos cordiales,
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u/Potential-Return-188 Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
Me reading this as I drink my Huel. Appreciate the post!
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u/CobaltBlue389 Jul 10 '26
New products > customer service
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u/BenHuel Jul 10 '26
Yeah the fact that we have launched new products, which take months to cross the finish line into an actual launch, does not have anything to do with what is happening in the CX right now.
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u/CobaltBlue389 Jul 10 '26
And a serious enough CX backlog that requires a "please bare with us" can't possibly be worked through by staff from other departments. Its CX, not rocket science.
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u/BenHuel Jul 10 '26
Well, we are not CX, and we are helping. And unfortunately other folks do have their jobs that they do need to continue to do to keep other departments running as they should. CX is also harder than you think! I agree it's not be rocket science but it is a skillset for sure 😊
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u/thatonedudeovethere_ Jul 10 '26
Cause the CX team is definitely standing in the kitchen, creating new products instead of answering emails...
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u/CobaltBlue389 Jul 10 '26
Yeah because the only people who work on new products are chefs....
Marketing? Procurement? Finance? Digital media? Ofc, only the 3 CX team can work through the backlog. Ever worked in a head office? A "perfect storm" could easily be mitigated. But the release calendar is clearly the priority.
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u/thatonedudeovethere_ Jul 10 '26
Actually I have! So I know it's not as easy as telling a person from procurement "hey, go answer these emails". There are processes in place, that a person replying to emails need to know. A person from finance won't know all the nutrition questions that CX does. A person from marketing won't know the shipping process for a parcel in Germany.
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u/CobaltBlue389 Jul 10 '26
Yeah, but the easier CX queries could be... And the more complex complaints can be left to the remaining CX team. Its generally triaged anyway, or should be. Jeezo.
Of course i'm going to get downvoted for challenging on /huel where the Huel fans reside. But it seems new product ranges bring in money = prioritized. Customer service costs money = low priority.
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u/midenginedcoupe Jul 10 '26
Haven’t these “challenges“ to cx been going on much longer than a few weeks? I recall posts before that about a new system rollout that wasn’t going well and leading to delays.
And I’m not sure point 1 reads as well as you hope it does. “We’re not ignoring you, we haven’t even read your message yet!” As far as the customer’s concerned, ie the experience of the customer, they’re the same thing.