Here’s a brief update on my Hello Fresh saga.

I will completely admit that I have a tendency to go a bit off the deep end about some things.  I also admit that I kind of did go off the deep end about this Hello Fresh nonsense.  It’s partly because we’re about to move, and I had visions of the next people in this house receiving unordered food boxes while I get billed for them.  Then, because I refused to pay for the boxes, I had visions of being tracked down by hostile German collections people.  Having read up on what happens if you have a bill that goes into collections in Germany, I started getting anxious just thinking about it.  I envisioned myself cussing out old ladies in English as they insulted me in German and dragged me to court.

I can be a real stickler about certain things.  One thing I am very uptight about is paying my bills on time.  I have never missed a bill payment.  I have never had so much as a late charge, let alone had anything go to collections.  Because of that, I actually did give some thought to simply paying off Hello Fresh.  I did that the last time this happened, but it was also the event that made me decisively come to the choice to sever my dealings with Hello Fresh back in 2016.

I was really close to just paying the bill so we could move past this, but then I got fired up again.  This was truly Hello Fresh’s error.  What’s left of my pride couldn’t take wimping out and paying off the bogus 54,98 charge, even though it would have been easy to do that.  I suspect that a lot of companies count on people to pay them off so they’ll go away.  If I had done that, I would only be encouraging the practice and/or not giving them an incentive to fix their “glitches” so other people don’t get similarly inconvenienced.  So, even though simply getting an email from Hello Fresh now raises my blood pressure, I determined that I’d risk eventually being sued by Hello Fresh or a collections agency and/or insulted by “Frau Zickig”.  I refused to pay.

We waited out the weekend after I sent several irate emails and left a pissed off comment on Hello Fresh’s Facebook page, as well as a review on Trust Pilot.  Poor Bill had to listen to me repeatedly grumble about this issue, which came up at a very inopportune time.  I suppose I’m glad it happened this month instead of next month, though.  Next month, no one will be here to collect any packages and send them back to the company.

I am convinced that raising hell on social media and riling up other people is one way to get companies to listen.  Also, I am relieved to see I wasn’t the only one who had this problem.

Yesterday, I got an automated from Hello Fresh wanting to know how I liked the box they sent.  Since I sent the box back to Hello Fresh, I can’t judge how good it was.  I will admit that I sent a profane response that included the f-word.

About an hour later, I got this email from Maria, at Hello Fresh.

I sent this response…

Then I got another email from Domagoj, who noted that Maria had helped me.  And she did help me, although I notice they only canceled one charge.

I hope that by the end of today, this mess will be a memory.

Earlier this year, Germany passed a very strict data protection law that has, so far, done much more to annoy me than anything else.  But Bill noted that if Hello Fresh doesn’t delete my data, we could have a case for making things very unpleasant for them in court and sending some very expensive fines their way.  I would rather not go that route because it seems like overkill and I have a life to lead.  But since we have invested in legal insurance and haven’t yet used it, I will admit that the thought crossed my mind.  What can I say?  I don’t like being fucked with.

In the course of dealing with this mess, I also discovered Germany’s consumer protection agencies.  Before I got yesterday’s emails from Hello Fresh, I gave some thought to giving them a buzz, too.  They might have enjoyed getting into the fray.  Although I have been on the receiving end of classic German strictness and insistence, as well as the yelling and unpleasantness that can come from it, I have to admit that sometimes, strictness and intolerance for bullshit is a good thing.  In fact, I think some of it is rubbing off on me.

Anyway, hopefully my next update about this situation will be in a post that isn’t about Hello Fresh and it will be along the lines of “Ende alles, alles gut“.