FreshDirect: Grocery Delivery Reviews

by Peeheehee

My order has been delayed twice and that’s totally ok in light of the current circumstances, but give people a head’s up please. Both times they were delayed, it was very late and last minute. Now, I’m trying to determine whether or not to wait for my order (which could get here very late and it’s already almost 10pm) or reschedule or cancel, but since I can’t talk to a customer rep, I used the automated customer service option. It asks for my order number. I retrieve it via FreshDirect , and when I get back to the automated customer service line, I find that it’s hung up on me. I try to cancel via SMS; it gave me no confirmation so I’m not sure whether it’s coming or not. I call the service line again, type in the order number, but it won’t accept it. It just tells me over and over again to type it in, even though I already have - multiple times. Also, product availability is inaccurate. If I select a product, add it to cart, and pay for it, I expect to get it. If I’m in a grocery store, put something in my cart and get in line at the cashier, I wouldn’t expect one of the grocery store employees to take an item out of my cart and give it to another customer. Really frustrating CX overall.

by BB822

Their promos are so specific and never for existing customers. I remember a time when Fresh Direct would randomly send free cookies or a percentage off next delivery. No more.
They are focused on getting new customers only, then do nothing to keep those customers happy.
These days I’m lucky if I can get FreshDirect to work. Just tried - can’t search for anything and nothing else is loading. No categories, no past orders, nothing.
Maybe it’s better off since they’re so expensive but at this point Fresh Direct is great for once in a while treat, when it works. Cannot rely on it for a consistent shopping experience.

by Kayla8171829391729

After getting numerous flyers in the mail with coupons, I decided to try out FreshDirect. The earliest delivery was 5 days from my order date- which is fine considering Covid and the weather. But when my delivery arrived 5 days later, half of the order was missing. I reached out to customer service and they notified me that the second bag was lost and that I couldn’t get the rest of mt groceries delivered without paying an additional delivery fee. Then I was only offered credit for my missing items, even though I will clearly not be using FreshDirect again. Now I am waiting to see if I can be refunded, but seems like there are no promises. There are other better grocery delivery apps out there- don’t waste your time or money on this one.

by KevkUES

It’s hard to believe that an e-commerce site would launch an app that is as awful as this new version. When I try to select an item to put in my basket, FreshDirect tells me I’m not connected to the internet (I am). The pictures of the products won’t load, or, if they do, they are not consistent with the product description. Most importantly, there is no way in FreshDirect to search my entire order history, which is the primary way that I shop. I have been a consumer of this app for almost 20 years and do 99% of my grocery shopping here. I still think the product breadth and quality is great, but the new app has me seriously considering a change to another service.

by Srinivasang87

Barely functional because it couldn’t do one of the basic tasks of a shopping app - checkout.

This was my first time using FreshDirect . I spent a lot of time picking items I want and adding them to cart.

After adding items to cart, it kept giving the message. “Whoops. Sorry we’re experiencing technical difficulties. Please try again later.”

This also happened when I tried to add an address.

Weirdly, after this happened, the items in my cart started appearing twice.

I also tried their website and it was horribly broken - just no styling and mangled words and logo.

I reached out to their Twitter handle and they were pretty prompt in replying. They said the website should work now, which I didn’t try.

When I tried FreshDirect , I had to remove all the duplicate items in the cart and then the same problem still persisted. When I reached out, they replied stating I have to delete and reinstall FreshDirect . After I did this and did the whole dance again, the error STILL persisted.

At which point I started writing this review.

by Hygdstbihfbbhfcbjdzvbuknv

First of all an app this long lived should not have ANY bugs. Yet it constantly forgets the address and refuses to enter items because it says it needs the address first. Both of which are critical and separate issues.

Usurious delivery policy to get people to sign up for recurring charges is not necessary. “Life: Subscribe now to keep living!” Same day delivery is absolutely out of the question because of this.

Does not allow zooming from all screens.

The food choices seem designed - even in NYC where almost no one has refrigerator space or large families - for a midwestern family of 6 with a chest freezer and an entire house to store things in. It needs more customization to types of items and more specific search targeting as well as the ability to exclude items or classes of items from search results once performed.

Needs a shelves view. Grocery shelves are a better browsing experience because you can see thousands of items at once. In contrast, here you can see maybe 5 lines of text at once. Not a great substitute.

I’m sure everyone works hard but I need a “usual tip” guide. Especially bc of the service fee.

by Ignatius_J_Reilly

You might think that, this being the year 2019, your cart will stay in sync between FreshDirect and the website. You would be quite wrong.

So, let’s say you and your wife both log into the same account and add things to the cart, one on a desktop computer and one on FreshDirect . You’re going to be in for a nasty surprise when you realize that the carts are different — even though you are both logged into the same account — and you now have to reconcile this manually.

It’s a pretty glaring omission at this point to not sync the contents of one’s cart between two platforms. But as others have said, this is an adequate app but not a good one.

by Di_p8

FreshDirect has been broken for last fee days now. I have the latest ios and latest app. I search anything it asks me to enter address even when logged in and when I regularly get delivery on same address. Then when entering the address it keeps searching with loading green gear circle and does nothing. If you manage to make it work and try searching for anything within the alp its the same green gear loading circle and you cant add anything to the cart. You are loosing my money cause I cant place any orders because of your broken app from last few days. Please fix it asap!

by Saltskin

This mediocre star rating is for FreshDirect , NOT this app itself. It could be so much better than it is. When it’s not crashing, freezing, or dragging, FreshDirect can easily be used for routine shopping and placing orders. I use it for that purpose at least once or twice a week. Unfortunately, there’s little else you can do with it besides shop. There’s no way to create lists, or to post or read item reviews (you can only see the star rating within FreshDirect , and few items have them). There’s also no way to request items that are not currently available. All of those seem like pretty basic features. this app has such a well earned reputation for its high quality products (many of which are locally sourced) and stellar customer service, and overall, I’m a very happy customer. It’s just too bad FreshDirect comes up short.

by Miaaaaaa333

I love the look and feel of FreshDirect , and the ability to grocery shop on your phone. But I do have a few friendly suggestions for improvement: ability to...create shopping lists, post reviews on items, request to restock an item, and leave a tip post-delivery on FreshDirect . I’ve left tips pre-delivery on FreshDirect , and noticed my deliveries would be late or they would leave it outside my door. If I could leave post-delivery tips on FreshDirect , i wouldn’t have to carry around cash and ensure I could reward more to great delivery drivers.

by Nyc-rider

The prepared meals are AMAZING. Ordering is easy and nice to have next day or sometimes same day. But they could improve it a lot. What I don’t like... I wish I could put a thumbs down on something I have ordered but didn’t like, so I know not to order it again. Selection is narrow. And wish the fruit was more consistent. Sometimes some fruit they send has to be thrown out - not sure why there is not quality control on fruit. The star rating isn’t a solution. Nothing should be sold that is half rotten. Disappointment ratio is way too high when it comes to fruit.

by !!landyree!!

I have been using fresh direct since 2016 and during the pandemic, I was finally able to secure a weekly delivery. I am very grateful for the excellent quality of food delivered to my doorstep in a timely manner once a week. On the rare occasion I have received dented bruised or spoiled produce, Fresh Direct has always taking care of me -if I let them now. I am very happy that the service has been available. Thank you, Fresh Direct!

by HopefulinPA

I love everything about the Fresh Direct app except for one problem with the cart. When I am ready to finish creating my order, there are times when an item is grayed out because it has become unavailable. Often that item will become available and will appear in my order when it arrives. Here is my problem: sometimes I will order something else when an item is grayed out. I am unable to delete the grayed-out item, however, so often I will receive both items because the grayed-out item had become available at the last minute. Would it be possible to allow a grayed-out item to be deleted from the cart? Thanks so much.

by Tildie_8

Ever since COVID going to the grocery store has been something I have tried to avoid, and as someone who is very picky about produce I was hesitant to try FD. I have been so pleasantly surprised. Their meats and their vegetables are usually incredibly fresh and now I don’t have to walk 10 blocks with a ton of groceries! The best part is you can always update your cart and instantly receive emails about changes which makes life so seamless.

by Barbj1914

I have been using fresh direct for many years. Since the pandemic, they have done a wonderful job of delivering fresh food as ordered. . I’m a senior citizen with disabilities , so was fearful of going outside. Also concerned about delivery service( would workers be properly attired for pandemic).
I have had no problems in that area. Workers were properly masked( as opposed to some neighbors who had a mask dangling off chin) delivery in time.
Thank you!

by Vpnnovice

Although I can not pick out the produce myself, I must commend those who select produce for me. They usually gives 99% good quality items. The downside is that sometimes you are unable to determine beforehand that a vendor provides products that are old or stored in a way that reduces the quality of the food. Despite this problem, I still recommend you to anyone who is looking for quality fresh produce and meat.

by Shivkleshack

This is the best thing on the planet. I first started using this service when I had a long house confinement for medical reasons. When the confinement was over, I continued to use the service. In more than five years I have had only a couple of problems that were quickly handled by customer service. this app has the best quality, widest inventory and best prices; outstripping and conventional grocery store. Now do you understand why I heard the angels sing.

by SpecialKayNYC

I love the FD app, it’s easy to use & the inventory is available 99.5% of the time (over 7 years history). The veggies are hands down better than any store & they support a lot of local farms. The prepared foods are great too (salads, meals, etc), the salmon with asparagus & fingerling potatoes is almost a weekly staple! I can add items to my cart whenever I think about it & then place my order when ready. I have a weekly reservation, the prices are fair, and the service is impeccable.

by Hooked On FreshFirect

Fresh Direct offers a wide variety of products in every food category that beats any supermarket and specialty grocers including Stew Leonard’s, Trader Joe’s, and others. And they offer single units and bulk in many of their products.
Their prepared meals are delicious, easy to just heat and serve, and are competitively priced.
The quality of their butcher shop meats and seafoods is truly excellent.
Any questions, Requests for items, substitutions, etc., can be addressed with their very friendly Customer Service staff.
It’s a pleasure to shop this app.

by CMA10k

I am a generally satisfied fresh direct user for 10+ years. The latest app update now presents your most commonly purchased items in alphabetical order rather than in the order that you most commonly use them. Call me inflexible, but it’s such a disruptive update, I haven’t been able to look at it and place an order all week. What used to take me minutes to accomplish now feels like it will take at least half an hour. It probably makes no logistical sense, but I might venture out to the grocery store instead. That’s how much it bothers me.

by Koresun

I’m a longtime FD customer. Today would have been my first time using the mobile app. Sigh...

I tried, really being patient the first 3 times the screen froze. It’s not like the company is unaware that this has been happening. Nearly every review complains about it.

Well when deleting and reinstalling wiped out my shopping cart, I gave up. Back to Fresh Direct on my computer. What a shame. My computer is old. One day I will be doing everything on my iPhone and then there will be no more access to Fresh Direct.

by Just Hanging___

I’ve been happy with the iPhone version of FreshDirect and decided to give the iPad a try. On just the second use, I get the following bugs, rendering FreshDirect unusable:
I switched from the “Me” tab to the “Shop” tab and it cleared out my cart (Luckily my items were still there when I checked the website)
My reserved delivery time didn’t show up when I clicked on the “Delivery Times”, instead I got a null pointer exception. I did have my delivery reserved properly when I checked on the website and iPhone app.
Can’t change quantities of items in cart, but I can delete an item.
Also, a gripe I have with both of the iOS apps is that the Chef’s Table Exclusive Deals don’t show up anywhere so I have to use the website to check them out.

I’ll be going back to ordering online and on the IPhone, and checking out a future update of this.

by Cbcdiane

I have used Fresh Direct for over 10 years. In the last year and maybe two, they have been terrible with service. They are always out of items and don’t tell you till the day they are coming, my order is consistently missing items that were supposed to be there, and they are basically very inconsistent. I am afraid to order from them if I am having a special dinner, as I can never count on my order being complete.

Their delivery people are mostly wonderful and their delivery times are mostly adhered to. They are always very nice in the phone and offer credits for missing food as well as for aggravation, however I don’t want the credits. I want my food order delivered IN FULL.

I hate to say it but my patience has worn thin and I think my relationship with Fresh Direct is about to end.

I encourage anyone looking for a reliable food delivery service to look elsewhere or be prepared to feel as frustrated as I do

by Shakelfgxuanrba

Delivery window of 8 am - 10 am.

8:14 am - 2 of my 8 items were delivered. They were supposed to be frozen and they were melting. Was told the rest would be delivered later.

10:05 am - still no delivery

10:07 am - called customer service to check ETA and no available rep

10:21 am - received a call back saying my order was delivered. ME: "No, 2 items were delivered. I am waiting on the rest." Customer Service: "Oh, so you're waiting on *says items that I am missing*" (... :| Yes, so you could see in the first place that all of my items were not delivered...) CS: "Oh, I see. It seems they lost your items, but they have found it. They usually deliver those around 3 p.m." :| So, no one was going to tell me that it was lost, that they weren't coming during the initial delivery time, nor that the delivery was rescheduled for 3 p.m. Let's let alone the fact that I would not have been able to make it back home to pick it up.

I'll take my refund and my business. Bye.

by Volyblade

We received several mailers over the past few months so decided to give it a shot. After getting my cart just right (took about 30 minutes to get $200 in groceries), I got a “we’re experiencing technical difficulties try later” message. So I logged out and back in to try again. My cart items doubled, so had to delete the extras before trying again...same message. I tried several times throughout the day doubling my cart each time. I sent customer service a message, it’s been two weeks, no response, same issue today. Back to Prime for us.

by Fhbcujnvnjj

Horrible, absolutely horrible service!!! I’m a new customer who tried to place an order and was supposed to get $50 off well their customer service (Jessica) said I’ve been a customer since 2012 (meanwhile I wasn’t even in the states that year) then she said, okay I activated your eligibility for the coupon and after I placed my order and money was taken out of my account, THEY DEACTIVATED MY ACCOUNT COMPLETELY WITHOUT ANY EMAIL OR CORRESPONDENCE ABOUT MY ORDER THEN I CALL THEM SEVERAL TIMES TO WHICH THEH LIED AND SAID I NEED TO CONTACT MY BANK MEANWHILE MY MONEY WAS TAKEN OUT AND I TOOK A DAY OFF WAITING FOR MY ORDER!!!!! Buyers, please stay away from this scam of a business!!!!!! Horrible. Horrible. Horrible. I don’t even know where my money is now!!!!

by Murse-inator

First off FreshDirect ...
is terrible. Terrible search function. Search for “peanut free” or “nut allergy” and you get a page of peanut butters.

No ability to correct data, delivery drivers been calling a number I had 10 years ago and apparently it can’t be changed.

The food... remember when they were committed to fresh and healthy natural foods...
Polysorbate 80, artificial flavors, bht, part hydro oils... the current ingredient lists read like a science fair project.

The best part of FreshDirect is delivery. They have been consistent really and now offer same day. Still destroy delicate packages like soups.

Unfortunately I order a lot less now because most local stores deliver and Fresh Direct is just not what it used to be value and ingredient wise. They just don’t listen to consumers or I guess don’t care.

by Naoatjcckaplen

FreshDirect is just enough ok. It needs to incorporate some useful features like:
-Promos avail on website (like the free items i get on email that i cant buy)
- avail of items before i try to order (is very annoying to add something to a cart who is not avail until a later day)
- better way for recurring ordering. I order the same stuff every week but because of availability of produce and delivery i hav to reorder item by item every week. Thers got to be a better way. This makes me miss ordering sometimes.
- delivery timeslot reservation .. somehow it has been instances where it doest keep my reservation..even if im within good window time to order... not sure why

I love this app but sometimes i miss ordering by own distraction. I need help and u can use the biz!

by Scrabble Lover....

I actually like FreshDirect and find it really easy and efficient to use. The one feature I’d love to see added is the ability to put a red X across items I hope I never order again! Being prompted to choose from previously ordered items is a timesaver but these items might include the most disgusting organic chicken I’ve ever encountered and I don’t remember until “My Fave” lands in my refrigerator!

by Undeuxtroix

I don’t know why all the complaint reviews are posted here. FreshDirect works great for me and I use it frequently - at least every few days for at least 2 years. Never had a problem with it. I rarely use the website version and prefer FreshDirect . Easy, fast, convenient and intuitive.

by NYC GMA

FD is one of the best things about living in NYC. I rarely go into a grocery store or market. Before FD, picking fruits & vegetables was based on my sense of touch &/or smell. I guess mine weren’t that good bc vegetables/fruits would turn into a watery mess too soon in my fridge. No longer!!!! If you follow their instructions, their prepared meals are easy & tasty. FD is a MUST TRY!!!!