Butcher Box Update

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.

My most recent shipment
This is not an anomaly. They have all been arriving like this.
Can you see how wet the box is? It wasn’t raining.
Blood – just what you want to see when you open a box of “frozen” meat

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.

4 comments

  1. Ruth Haney says:

    I am so glad you posted your experience with Butcher Box. I ordered last February with a really nice incentive to receive steak knives. My shipment was beautiful. It was delivered to our AZ address in a nice insulated bag. Everything was perfect. However I suspended my membership for a while. After watching your YouTube on BB I renewed my membership and had my next shipment sent to our address in Chicago. That was Sept 1. Shipment arrived partially thawed. The weather here was extremely HIOT. I immediately tried to use all the meat that was thawed and partially thawed. That was not my plan to cook so much at one time. There are only two of us. I called BB immediately and received full refund. The huge box had been on a hot FedEx truck for hours. And like yours packed loosely with no insulated bag. There were no labels or markings indicating Frozen Perishable Food. I’m set up for 60 days custom box. I received 2 emails this week advising me that chuck and bone in pork chops will not be available. Also in my last order I received a pork tenderloin when I actually ordered pork loin. So it’s time for us to use one of our local CSA farmers. Too bad Butcherbox. Thank you Elizabeth for sharing.

    • Elizabeth says:

      I’m sorry you had a similar experience, but at least they refunded your money that one time. It’s a shame really because they had a promising start!

  2. Carol Hall says:

    I have stopped also because of bloody meat ( not sealed when it thawed).. The fed x people even re wrapped one of my last boxes. Why if we were not going to get the meat in a insulated bag did they not add my dry ice I did not find out the answer. I also ask them to pack the next box with extra ice. I loved my first box back last year but ugh this summer was to much for me . Sorry you had the same problem but at least this way we know it was not just us.

    • Elizabeth says:

      I hate to hear you had a similar experience. I feel badly that I recommended them, but I had such a great experience at the beginning!

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