New delivery partner issues - Hive

So now it’s all over and done I thought I’d post about the issue that I had with Gousto’s new delivery partner “Hive”.

TL;DR at the bottom as it’s been rather fun to write this out after a very frustrating evening yesterday!

We’re an occasional box-ordering family rather than regulars. We’ve built up a stock of recipes over the years that we love to recreate, and we dip in and out again to add variety and get us out of meal-prepping slumps!

We had a highly anticipated Gousto box due yesterday, and at 7pm it was still sitting “at depot”. My neighbour messaged and asked if we’d had our box, as they hadn’t had theirs and it was still sitting “at depot” on the tracking. They had been on the chat and got a full refund.

I started my chat, and by the time I was connected to a customer service agent, my box had gone from “at depot” to “out for delivery”, but with no time slot. Now, despite the fact that the “guaranteed delivery time” was 7pm and it was now 7:40pm, I wasn’t getting any refunds out of Gousto; not even the guaranteed delivery fee.

While I was arguing with them, the delivery window was updated to 11:44pm–1:44am the next day. Still not getting anywhere: they don’t pay attention to delivery windows because, and I quote, “it would be ridiculous for a delivery driver to be doing deliveries at that time.”

Frustrated to the point of literally going and smelling flowers, I asked one important final question: at what time does Gousto consider my food delivery box to be unsafe to eat? The answer was 10pm.

So I stubbornly stayed up to take a photo of my empty doorstep at 10:08pm before going to bed. I also double-checked that the motion sensor for the camera was on.

I got up at 5:30am for work, checked the doorstep, and there, covered in snails, was the errant Gousto box. I chucked the information at the chatbot, who basically said, “come back when a human is here.”

After work, I attempted again. Screenshot of the video with delivery timestamps, and repeated the statement that I would only be satisfied with a full refund. Finally, I got my refund.

Sadly they have confirmed that Hive is their new delivery partner going forward for my area so we won’t be ordering anymore boxes until the teething issues have been solved or they stop using Hive. Yes I will be posting an online review of Hive.

Moral of the story: report late boxes at 7.01pm for instant refunds or don’t bother until the following day unless you want heart issues and customer service agents that won’t escalate to managers.

TL;DR: I waited for my Gousto box, which missed its delivery window and was still showing tracking issues. Gousto refused a refund at first, despite saying deliveries after 10pm are considered unsafe. The box arrived overnight, I provided video evidence, and eventually got a full refund. Moral of the story: report late boxes at 7.01pm to avoid all the hassle.