Back in late winter, I tried Butcher Box for the first time and was thrilled. (You can find all the details in this post.) My family was loving the meat and I was loving the ease of having it sent to my door for no more money than what I was paying at Whole Foods.
Then the warm months arrived and things started to get a little tricky. Some of my meat was arriving partially thawed. After many attempts, I finally received a response from customer service assuring me the meat was safe to eat. I have always heard that you should not thaw meat and refreeze, which is what I was doing with this meat. I just made sure to cook everything thoroughly, which is not ideal for steaks and pork tenderloins, but it’s what I felt I had to do to be safe.
I received a couple comments on my YouTube unboxing video about people having a similar experience. I contacted customer service again – or should I say, tried to contact customer service. I called many times and NEVER got anyone to answer the phone or call me back. I would always receive an email that was entirely automated, or so it seemed to me. There was nothing in these emails that seemed personal to the messages I had left for them.
Many people watched that YouTube unboxing or read my post here and used my referral link to order their own shipment. That gave me credits to use and I really, really appreciated it! Because I had those credits to use, I felt compelled to keep giving Butcher Box another chance to get it right.
After receiving a third shipment where the meat was thawed – each one had more and more meat that was (in my opinion) not safe to eat, I decided it was time to call it quits with Butcher Box. I gave them lots of chances. Not only did they not respond appropriately, or respond at all, to my concerns, they didn’t fix the problems. They actually got worse.
At first, all shipments came in a large box with the meat in a reusable “insulated” bag. The last two shipments did not include the bag. If you put frozen chunks of meat with dry ice, making them super cold, in a really big box with nothing to keep them from flying around in there during shipment, those chunks of frozen meat are going to bang against each other. The result: the plastic packaging cracks. In my second to last shipment, every single package was damaged to the point that I had to repackage everything for the freezer and be extra careful when I thawed the meat for cooking so I didn’t end up with meat juice all over my fridge.
I assumed this shipment was a fluke and someone new just packed my box and forgot the bag. But then my last shipment came the exact same way. That was the last straw. There is always a comment card in the box with instructions on how to leave them feedback. I immediately went online and filled out the form expressing my displeasure with their shipping methods. NO response. None. A company that doesn’t care about customer service is not a company that I want to represent or one to whom I want to give my money.
I’ve been receiving shipments from Thrive Market for years and they have shipping down pat. They are champs at this. Butcher Box needs to take some lessons from Thrive. I have actually never seen such amazing shipping and packaging materials as Thrive uses – and they are sending only non-perishable items. Butcher Box is cutting corners and it is unacceptable.
So I’m sorry if you have purchased a Butcher Box on my recommendation. I certainly hope you have not had as bad of an experience as I have. I can no longer recommend Butcher Box and I will no longer order from them myself. I have purchased from US Wellness Meats in the past and had good success, so I will be trying them again. I’ll let you know how it goes.