Riverford telegraph offer - word of warning

ss3n08

Just to let you guys know, I placed an order with Riverford using the telegraph offer which was a box of veg for half price. I made the one off payment thinking that I would only get the one box and I would decide wehther to join or not. Today I was sent another box and have just had to pay full price plus 16p card charge for it. When I went on to their website to cancel all orders it said the webpage no longer existed. They can be cancelled by looking to see when your next order is and at the bottom there is an option to cancel all future orders.

I realise it is probably me not reading the small print but there may be others who do not want further boxes.

HTH someone.

terra_ferma

I found the website a bit tricky too, if you click on your basket it will show all your orders.

I did cancely my new full price box, but what I found really odd is that if you put things in your basket while you look at them, a bit like amazon, they count as a confirmed order scheduled for delivery, even if you don't pay for them.
I received email to confirm every change I made.

Really love their box, so will use regularly from next week.

Hungry_horse

Hi Guys
Looks like everyone missed the small print! At the bottom of the offer page it says *Offer open to new customers placing a regular order. They want you to give it a fair trial, maybe testing several boxes to see if it works for you.
If you use the boxes to make lots of soups, casseroles and stir frys, you can eat very cheaply
I've had Riverford boxes for a few years now and wouldn't be without them so may be a bit biased but, if you are using a special offer only intended for regular orders, is it fair on the company not to at least start with a regular order and see how it goes? Apparently it's your local vegman who has to subsidise the big discount, not a big national company!

terra_ferma

I think they are a great company to buy vegs from, and will be using them, but IMO the way they do business is not very clever.
They are a bit too pushy, and it feels almost like they try to trick you into buying your box.
I buy online all the time, all sorts of stuff, and I've never come across a website where if you have an account you can't put things in the basket without creating an order.

I must say I really don't like this system of placing orders before you pay for them. And the special offer should be encouraging people to try their service, not just giving a discount to those who are already planning to become regular customers.
But I think they are probably naive, more than anything, maybe they've grown too quickly and HO have kind of lost the plot a little bit, who knows.

shopaholic2006

Thanks for the word of warning. I selected one off box and one off payment. Surely they aren't allowed to just carry on regular orders are they??
I did take the offer with the idea of possibly making it a regular thing. I have my box being delivered on Wednesday so I will log in after to see if any other deliveries are scheduled...

bornintoit

Thank you for the word of warning, I was under the impression if you made the one off payment for the one off box you would not get another order unless you requested it i.e you made another order. I have just recieved the confirmation email that my future orders have been cancelled so hopefully I wont get stung.

Hungry_horse

I agree with Terra Firma about the website, it's not that user friendly. I think the idea is the basket is your order and you need to remove stuff you don't want before final confirmation ?But that's not made clear
You don't not get an order if you don't pay for it as lots of customers like me leave a cheque out for the delivery man ,so don't think a one off payment will automatically stop deliveries...it won't! Lots of us don't like the card charge so we are given the option to pay on delivery-I thought this was a good thing, I'd be pretty cheesed off if they stopped my box because I pay on delivery!
I've just set up the special offer for my mum and, to be fair, it does automatically set up a regular order which is what the small print says and my confirmation e mail says WEEKLY, if she doesn't like her 1st box, we'll try a few of the others and if she's still not happy, we'll cancel it- there's a big Cancel all orders button on the my orders section.
She won't cancel after the discount box without giving it fair trial because we don't want to rip off our local vegman who is a small struggling local business
The offer wording is misleading though, you're probably right about HO losing the plot!

Puddleglum

We've been getting the boxes for some years now and I would just like to take this opportunity to say how good they are. We have never had a missed order and while the website can be a bit tricky, if you phone them up then any problems get dealt with straight away. Hope this ringing endorsement helps.

Charliezoo

I ordered a "one off box" and just checked my account and there's about 6 more orders scheduled for the next month and a half! I will probably order from them again but I'll do it when I want to, not when they want me to! To call it a "one off box" is very misleading and a bit naughty imo.

Thanks op, I wouln't have checked if I hadn't seen this thread.

Lip_Stick

I ordered a one off box and don't have anything scheduled for delivery in the coming weeks. :think:

It was a nice box that I wouldn't mind paying £6 for, but not a chance in hell I'd pay the full price of £13.

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

I am another happy Customer. Riverford allow you to chop and change boxes. I wouldn't get my Organics elsewhere. I would recommend anyone to go for them but raise any problems with Riverford. They have a fantastic Customer Ethos.