FreshDirect: Grocery Delivery

Once again these developers have released an update without doing any accessibility testing with V oiceOver. You can't complete an order because after selecting "choose a timeslot" the "delivery options" button cannot be activated, and you cannot check out without choosing a timeslot. So I also found that the chat feature isn't accessible because I can't find where to enter text, and that the email feature was useless because it was limited to 250 characters. Clearly that's not enough space to tell them all about the inaccessibility of the app. Displays of products, like new items or the "reorder" screen, don't scroll properly and if you go from page element to page element you'll fall out of the list and have to find your place again. ALso, each item requires about 8 swipes before you can hear what the next item is, because they don't use headings or anything (look up "semantic HTML"). THere should be a way to navigate to a new item without having to hear the item name about three times and every other bit of information for every item on the page. Pay accessibility consultants for their expertise and work, and stop wasting your customers' time.

I have done groceries with FreshDirect for over a year now, but something has changed with them lately. Drivers have been messing up with delivery’s, skipping my delivery entirely and getting someone else way later on that day to deliver my groceries all warm and dry with the meat smelling rotten, and produce that’s supposed to be frozen is all wet and soggy and hot like its been in the microwave. Calling their customers service they say that they would refund me and send me a new order in exchange, however, and thats a big HOWEVER, they not only didnt give me a refund (even tho they told me they were aware that they messed up with my order), they created another order and charged me twice! And the “exchange“ delivery was on the same amount that was initially charged, with a reduction of produce from what I initially ordered!! They told me after that they would give me a store credit when i contacted their customer service (to be clear their customer service isnt what it used to be a couple of months ago, its terrible now). Fast forward a week later i took advantage of that store credit only to realize that they dont have half my order in stock so the entire store credit has run out while i get half of what i ordered! For the time being, i WILL NOT be buying from FreshDirect anytime soon till they change to what they were! They have awesome produce at fair prices with most drivers actually being super nice and delivering my food exactly how i want it to. But the past two and a half weeks has been nothing but a headache.

Years ago in Manhattan, some young people dressed in "Fresh Direct" aprons stopped me on the street to take a poll and asked if I would ever order groceries online to be delivered. I said to them , "I don't think I would ever need to do that!" Fast forward years down the line. I have been using Fresh Direct for a while whenever I'm too busy to shop in person and especially during Covid. I recently had an injury which has kept me homebound. Fresh Direct is the only way to go. It is the only online shopping I use and I know there are a lot of them out there. It's easy to navigate and you can get a delivery within 24 hours of ordering sometimes even sooner than that. I highly recommend !