Harryscountrykitchen
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Tasty food, but hopeless internal systems and lack of coordination
First the good news: the staff (on the phone and the Harrys drivers) are friendly; the pasta meals and the Indian meals are tasty and reasonably priced. [Useful Tip: their rice needs microwaving for the same length of time as the Indian meal itself, not what it says on the rice packet (or it will be cold).] However, most other aspects of HarrysCountryKitchen in my experience are poor. I have ordered meals several times over the past 9 months. Only on the first and last occasions were the delivery items correct. Every other time, either a ‘Free Gift’ was missing or it was substituted; or paid-for items were missing but charged for; or the delivery billing amount did not match the email receipt; or I was promised that missing items would come free with my next order but they never did; and then there was today’s fiasco... Unlike previously, for which helpful Harrys drivers were always employed, now they sometimes use DPD-Local. I was sent a notification from Harrys today of a DPD tracking number for today’s delivery. DPD has no record of that tracking number. I ring Harrys to query this. They have no means of tracking the delivery! What?! I ring DPD: they say it hasn’t even been shipped, yet according to Harrys it should arrive by 13.15 today (a Friday). If it hasn’t been shipped, how can it arrive? DPD says that if not yet shipped, it would be collected later today but won’t be delivered until Monday. [By that time, it would have all melted...] DPD says I should get notification from them when the item has shipped. I wait for a further email update. Nothing appears. So, guess what happened? It was actually delivered Friday lunchtime by a Harrys driver! So, what was that DPD-Local tracking number notification from Harrys about? And why did Harrys systems not know that they were themselves in fact due to deliver it!? Why can they not track delivery of their own orders? Trying to get order issues resolved can involve an inordinate amount of time. There seems to be no connection or coordination whatsoever between telephone ordering and dispatch, nor between online ordering and delivery notification, nor between telephone queries and delivery progress. Their ‘notification’ email address for queries also does not work, despite its saying ‘reply to this email’… Their website says on one page that there is “Free deliver [sic] on orders over £20”, but on the order webpage it has doubled to £40 minimum – a 100% increase. This is too much bulk for a small freezer. Previously, it was possible to buy other groceries to bulk up an order total; now, groceries are no longer supplied by Harrys, so you have to have a deal of freezer space available for receipt of a ‘free delivery’ order, or pay an extra £6.95. I am disappointed and rather frustrated with HarrysCountryKitchen. It’s a good idea, and some of their meals are tasty, but its internal systems are truly awful and its recent changes in ordering/delivery practice are off-putting.