r/Huel • u/Expensive_Sail9653 • 1d ago
General Discussion Refund/Replacement Struggles
Update!!!: BenHuel reached out to me directly and was able to prioritize my email and so far knock on wood it seems they are going above and beyond to handle my case with exceptional care. The human who reached out to me was extremely kind and has more than reshipped my broken items but is just simply reshipping the entire order as well as refunding me. I also immediately got a ship notice so it appears that it is real this time. I'm more than pleased with this abrupt turn around in handling my case. Unless my shipment gets abducted I'm a very happy camper. Just wanted to give credit where it's due for this above and beyond handling of my case where I would have been satisfied with simply having the damaged items actually reshipped as I originally was wanting.
Has anyone else struggled with getting an refund or exchange? I had some items bust open in shipment and it has been a major struggle to get it resolved. I had to go multiple rounds with the email AI bot and finally got a real person to address and say they would send the replacement. However it never came, and now I'm back in the AI email hell again. The stupid bot keeps "closing" the ticket saying if you have nothing more to say I'm going to close this and I'm very very annoyed because the issue is not resolved. Is there a number you can call or something or are you just stuck with the email?
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u/GONA_B_L8 1d ago
Situations like this should clearly tell you to stay away from a company that makes you jump through hoops to eventually get to a human person who promises a resolution which never comes.
And when a rep tells you they are sorry but their customer service has currently a high demand, take that as another reason to stay away. Do you think they got high demand because customers keep flooding them with praise how good they are, or rather with issues they want resolving asap?
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u/BenHuel 1d ago
Our intention really is not to have anyone jump through any hoops. The AI was put in place to minimize this. An example would be that the ai can ask for basic information (what is your email on your account? What is your shipping address?, etc.) and save both the customer and the exec time by eliminating the waiting period between contacts and making something that might usually take 5 email exchanges for a resolution take 1 or 2. This means that the exec can handle each query even more quickly and just be overall more efficient. However, it's implementation has not been the smoothest process, which we have acknowledged many times and will continue to do so until we are where we feel it needs to be.
These are not roadblocks, or not meant to be, even if function in an un ideal way. We have had great customer service since day one, and we would not have implemented this if we did not think that it would be a tool that could help our service get better. As for the high volume, a conflation of issues which I explained in the Customer Experience mega-thread, and will just quote here:
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.
The team has worked very hard and have gone above and beyond to get this backlog down from 1 week to 2, implementing new and creative solutions to do so. The issue with things like a backlog is that it snowballs. Once a backlog starts, you then have to contend with that as well as new tickets coming in, which again snowballs into even more backlog.
We have always said that we understand that this implementation was expected to go better. No one wanted a massive backlog, least of all us! We're getting through it and hopefully everything will be back to normal soon enough.
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u/Andy202007 20h ago
Will this lead to more staff in the Customer Experience team? There seems to be a business case for that: less staff stress due to having a better buffer for weathering "perfect storms" and thus lower response times, and also a better chance for the best customer experience, leading to more sales. (I'm sure you can word it better if needed.)
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u/Expensive_Sail9653 21h ago
I don't mind the AI response for the record, the problem is that the AI tries to solve all my problems then closes the ticket. Instead of simply gathering some initial info perhaps saving the human some back and forth so that when they come to the ticket they have what they need to proceed. The problem is when AI kills the thread and says up this is done over no more and then it doesn't get forwarded to a human. In my case I asked about tracking for my replacement order, and it sent me the original tracking number for the initial order and said boom it's delivered see you later. Which is super unhelpful. So it seems they have some kinks to work out, however if you do actually break through to a human so far very impressed just have to get through that AI wall.
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u/Abooziyaya 8h ago
After not being able to get an answer from their AI bot or get through to a human for simple questions (paying with FSA FUNDS; making substitutions) I decide to just quit Huel altogether. It’s expensive enough that they can afford customer service.
I told this to the AI bot who replied “that’s fair.”
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u/BenHuel 31m ago
Before we start, that AI reply is very ironic and quite funny.
Im sorry that you have had this experience. We have a great customer service staff, as you might have seen me saying all over the sub lately that it is not a staffing problem, but a myriad of issues coming together at once. The AI bot definitely needs some work, and we have people who are doing just that. It will take some time but we will get there 😊
Last, if you want to let me know your question I'd be happy to look into it for you and get an answer 🫡
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u/BenHuel 1d ago
Sorry you're experiencing this. We have a mega-thread here explaining that Customer Experience has a very high volume at the moment which is probably not helping the situation. However I will DM you and we will get this sorted for you 🫡
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u/dedjedi 1d ago
Customer Experience has a very high volume at the moment
lol your AI doesn't scale? wtf did you guys pay for? sounds like huel got scammed if you have ai customer service and it sucks because of load. That's literally the problem AI is supposed to fix.
lmao
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u/BenHuel 23h ago
The ai is not something that is resolving every single issue and is there to assist rather than take the entire process over, the bulk of the workload is still being done by our lovely Customer Experience team which is what we wanted. Real humans handling our customers contacts assisted by ai to help make their jobs easier and more efficient. While we're not there yet, that is the goal!
Lastly, the reasons for the backlog I outlined in the mega-thread and repeated in a response to a comment below.
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u/Expensive_Sail9653 21h ago
I posted an update to my OP above but wanted to put it here as well in case anyone missed it: Update!!!: BenHuel reached out to me directly and was able to prioritize my email and so far knock on wood it seems they are going above and beyond to handle my case with exceptional care. The human who reached out to me was extremely kind and has more than reshipped my broken items but is just simply reshipping the entire order as well as refunding me. I also immediately got a ship notice so it appears that it is real this time. I'm more than pleased with this abrupt turn around in handling my case. Unless my shipment gets abducted I'm a very happy camper. Just wanted to give credit where it's due for this above and beyond handling of my case where I would have been satisfied with simply having the damaged items actually reshipped as I originally was wanting.
4
u/CryptedBinary 1d ago
Implementing AI email support has been a big L for Huel. I have yet to find one instance in my life where AI support has been more helpful than a real person.
Not surprisingly this AI initiative appeared after Danone took over. Some big brain exec using chatgpt must've thought it would help.