Advice Needed – French Click Order with Spoiled Perishables & Damaged Delivery

MyRealNameToo

Grumpy_chap said:
If I was ordering fresh food online and I knew it would be delivered using a standard courier, I would not place the order.

Certainly the big boys like DHL have a cold chain delivery option but given its price you'd need to be sending high value packages to make it worth while. 

On a standard 24 hour delivery service it can be perfectly safe to send perishable foodstuffs but it is about packaging. Boxes can be insulated, gel packs last longer than ice blocks, some use dry ice but that adds some extra complexities. 

Wife's insulin is delivered using normal courier service, normally collected at around 6pm and delivered on a before 1pm service. Insulated box, lots of frozen gel, as long as we are in its normally around 5c if its delivered at the end of the window in summer. Our problem was at our last address where parcels were delivered to the buildings doorman and despite the "must be refrigerated" stickers they'd just put it on the shelf so if we didnt spot it'd been delivered it could be notably warmer by the time we collect. 

A chap I know makes hotsauces, which are great, but also sells cooked meat in the sauce (which I'm not a fan of). He sends it frozen with gels etc and most are happy with it when it arrives, even as far a field as Texas, with people saying it arrives defrosted but still cold enough that they are happy with it. Again the courier tends to do their pickups near the end of the day

FonsoBoy123

HelloFresh and Gousto might use their own vans in major cities, but I’m not entirely sure. Personally, I’ve never seen a branded van from either company, and definitely not a refrigerated one.

For most of the UK, though, both HelloFresh and Gousto deliver via standard couriers—usually DPD or Yodel. As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve never had any issues with the deliveries. They use proper packaging with insulation and plenty of ice packs, which keeps everything fresh.

The same goes for online butchers. I’ve ordered many times, and again, no problems at all apart from one time which was not there fault delivery got delayed and had to be replaced due to a bad storm.

It really comes down to using the right packaging, Insulation and ice packs to maintain temperature during transit.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

HelloFresh use Yodel round here (I'm not in a city). 

sheramber

When I got raw dog food delivered the retailer stopped sending out deliveries for several days , when we had the  hot summer a few years ago.

they used insulated boxes and ice blocks but
 not refrigerated delivery. 

These were adequate in the normal British temperatures.  

Skiddaw1

I sometimes order from the Sausage Company. They use one of the standard delivery firms and I've never had a problem with items arriving unfrozen. The sausages are always packed with ice packs in refrigerated boxes. I've also had various 'gourmet dinner at home' deliveries via standard delivery firms from restaurants (Simon Rogan to name but one- we used them quite a lot during the Covid years) and again, never had a problem. I think the fault must lie with the company's packing procedures.  

Alderbank

Are these products packed in France and sent via Dover?

Do they get stuck in any of these terrible post-Brexit lorry queues? I know these have caused problems for UK companies exporting fresh food items in the other direction.

born_again

Skiddaw1 said:

I sometimes order from the Sausage Company. They use one of the standard delivery firms and I've never had a problem with items arriving unfrozen. The sausages are always packed with ice packs in refrigerated boxes. I've also had various 'gourmet dinner at home' deliveries via standard delivery firms from restaurants (Simon Rogan to name but one- we used them quite a lot during the Covid years) and again, never had a problem. I think the fault must lie with the company's packing procedures.  

Or the courier handling processes.