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I live in the Bay Area and Blue Apron is on thin ice with us right now. Their quality control got really bad right around the time of their IPO. Now nearly ever

I live in the Bay Area and Blue Apron is on thin ice with us right now. Their quality control got really bad right around the time of their IPO. Now nearly every week we have missing ingredients and/or leaking containers. We had no problems for 2 years and now it's pretty much constant! They are always pretty responsive with a credit commensurate to what the damage to the meal is, but this is basically the worst possible time for them to be screwing up like this.

paulgb 9y ago
I've noticed the same in the NYC area: the last few weeks I've had ingredients crushed which has never happened before. They've also been spamming me with discounts to the wine club only to tell me that they can't legally deliver in NY when I tried to sign up. Don't they know where I live? I hope they can recover because I do truly like the product and I think they're the best right now (a margin better than Hello Fresh, leagues better than Plated)
- codq 9y ago
  I live in New York City, and we are entirely satisfied and impressed nightly with Sun Basket. It doesn't have nearly the reach or brand awareness as some of the bigger players, but it's everything I've ever wanted in one of these services. Worth checking out.
  - paulgb 9y ago
    Thanks, just signed up to try it out.
- nemo44x 9y ago
  They addressed this in the conference call. In essence they want to make sure that order fulfillment is staying at high enough quality levels. And they've struggled lately operationally which has caused issues with that. I'd expect they turn it around soon.
tenaciousDaniel 9y ago
I almost worked for them. Turned them down, but got far enough in the process to learn that their dev teams were mostly made up of juniors, and they were keen on bringing in more senior people to up the quality. That was about 9 months ago, my guess is that the process hasn't been going smoothly.
- dkonofalski 9y ago
  I dunno about that. In my experience, their website is actually one of the better parts of the experience. It's really easy to skip weeks, change menus, set up a recycling pickup, etc. It works on mobile too and I've never really had any issues with the tech side of it. The only issues we've ever had are with the manual and/or delivery aspects of the service. Other than that, I really like it. It's pricey, but I'd rather put the money into meals that I enjoy where I feel like I'm also learning something and eating something I "made" and Blue Apron fits that bill for me.
  - tenaciousDaniel 9y ago
    fair point
physicsyogi 9y ago
I had a positive experience with a Blue Apron, but had similar quality issue with Purple Carrot. Most of the produce would arrive in a partially rotten state and sometimes ingredients were missing or the bottle of some liquid hadn't been fully closed and leaked over everything. I switched to Sun Basket and so far, so good.
- dogruck 9y ago
  Ever been to Red Lobster? :-)
  - ad404b8a372f2b9 9y ago
    It's like they all use the same name generator for their companies that goes [Color related qualifier] [Food related noun]. Some of the rejected candidates before they settled on Blue Apron: "Orange Orange", "Sky Aubergine", "Yellow Spatula", "The-color-of-a-lawnchair-that's-been-out-in-the-rain-too-long Cucumber".
celticninja 9y ago
Or perhaps the best time, they have IPO'd, the original investors got their money back plus extra, the founders made a tidy sum and if it all falls to pieces it is the institutional investors who will take the hit. Now they are a public company they will be looking at their bottom line so the easiest/fastest way to improve that is to cut costs.
- deegles 9y ago
  The Silicon Valley Way?
  - celticninja 9y ago
    I should probably watch that show.
mikeleeorg 9y ago
Same here. Our package came 2 days late. The meat and perishables... perished. At least they gave us a voucher. But whatever they did to cut costs/speed up delivery/prepare for IPO was executed very poorly.

paulgb 9y ago

I've noticed the same in the NYC area: the last few weeks I've had ingredients crushed which has never happened before. They've also been spamming me with discounts to the wine club only to tell me that they can't legally deliver in NY when I tried to sign up. Don't they know where I live? I hope they can recover because I do truly like the product and I think they're the best right now (a margin better than Hello Fresh, leagues better than Plated)

codq 9y ago
I live in New York City, and we are entirely satisfied and impressed nightly with Sun Basket. It doesn't have nearly the reach or brand awareness as some of the bigger players, but it's everything I've ever wanted in one of these services. Worth checking out.
- paulgb 9y ago
  Thanks, just signed up to try it out.
nemo44x 9y ago
They addressed this in the conference call. In essence they want to make sure that order fulfillment is staying at high enough quality levels. And they've struggled lately operationally which has caused issues with that. I'd expect they turn it around soon.

tenaciousDaniel 9y ago

I almost worked for them. Turned them down, but got far enough in the process to learn that their dev teams were mostly made up of juniors, and they were keen on bringing in more senior people to up the quality. That was about 9 months ago, my guess is that the process hasn't been going smoothly.

dkonofalski 9y ago
I dunno about that. In my experience, their website is actually one of the better parts of the experience. It's really easy to skip weeks, change menus, set up a recycling pickup, etc. It works on mobile too and I've never really had any issues with the tech side of it. The only issues we've ever had are with the manual and/or delivery aspects of the service. Other than that, I really like it. It's pricey, but I'd rather put the money into meals that I enjoy where I feel like I'm also learning something and eating something I "made" and Blue Apron fits that bill for me.
- tenaciousDaniel 9y ago
  fair point

physicsyogi 9y ago

I had a positive experience with a Blue Apron, but had similar quality issue with Purple Carrot. Most of the produce would arrive in a partially rotten state and sometimes ingredients were missing or the bottle of some liquid hadn't been fully closed and leaked over everything. I switched to Sun Basket and so far, so good.

dogruck 9y ago
Ever been to Red Lobster? :-)
- ad404b8a372f2b9 9y ago
  It's like they all use the same name generator for their companies that goes [Color related qualifier] [Food related noun]. Some of the rejected candidates before they settled on Blue Apron: "Orange Orange", "Sky Aubergine", "Yellow Spatula", "The-color-of-a-lawnchair-that's-been-out-in-the-rain-too-long Cucumber".

celticninja 9y ago

Or perhaps the best time, they have IPO'd, the original investors got their money back plus extra, the founders made a tidy sum and if it all falls to pieces it is the institutional investors who will take the hit. Now they are a public company they will be looking at their bottom line so the easiest/fastest way to improve that is to cut costs.

deegles 9y ago
The Silicon Valley Way?
- celticninja 9y ago
  I should probably watch that show.

mikeleeorg 9y ago

Same here. Our package came 2 days late. The meat and perishables... perished. At least they gave us a voucher. But whatever they did to cut costs/speed up delivery/prepare for IPO was executed very poorly.