Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/01/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  When cooking a Tovala meal, it requested steam (beeping) so I added water to the oven in the middle of a cook cycle. Unfortunately after putting in water, it started to immediately spill out to the dip **** and sides of oven. The cooking stopped mid cycle and then the Tovala would not function or turn on. After attempting to debug with support, it was clear that the oven was defective. Given I'm within the return period, I'd like to return the oven and request a refund for the meals that were recently delivered and are now unable to be cooked.

  Business Response

  Date: 08/07/2023

  Hi Coin,

  Thank you for bringing your concern to your attention.  Your exchange oven has been processed and will be shipping out shortly.  A team member will be reaching out shortly with a return label for defective oven and review your account to ensure you are credited for any meals that you have been unable to enjoy due to the issue.  Our apologies that the process has not been as efficient as possible.  I will review this with my team to ensure we are doing better next time.

  
  Thank you,

  *******************

  Director of Support

  Tovala

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/07/2023

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***********************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:07/17/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I received the oven and we are not able to use it since it needs a GFI plug and I dont have one where the oven will go. **************** said they would refund the cost of food ( which we havent seen) and send me a return label in 24 hours which we havent seen anything show up and its been four (4) days. This is the worse customer service ever AND you respond to fond of the emails sent to support. This must be a scam company and I will definitely post on the site so no one else gets scammed.

  Business Response

  Date: 08/01/2023

  Hi,
  
  Thank you for reaching out to us. After further review of your account, it appears that the refund was processed on 7/19/23. You should have received your refund at this point. If for some reason you have not received the refund, please contact your banking institution directly. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused & thank you for your business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:07/13/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  On July 4th I canceled my order of one oven and meal plan with the help of customer service. The representative clearly states both the oven order and meal plan have been canceled. I also have an email of the chat transcript confirming this. But today July 13th I receive that my meal plan order is on the way and my card has been charged. So I log into my account and see the meal plan was never canceled by the representative and I canceled it myself. As of this writing I have not been able to get into touch with anyone from customer service. Here is the pertinent parts of the July 4th chat. (11:17:00?AM) *********: I'm sorry to hear that you wish to cancel. I have canceled your oven order and meal plan. Please allow 3-5 business days for this refund to reflect, depending on your bank.(11:17:13?AM) *********: Is there anything else I can assist you with?(11:17:45?AM) ***********************: Oh no that's it thank you so to confirm I will not be charged for the oven or meal plan (11:18:14?AM) *********: No you will not be charged, only you that you are refunded.(11:18:50?AM) ***********************: Yes I havent been charged (11:19:02?AM) *********: That's correct.

  Business Response

  Date: 08/01/2023

  Hi,

  We appreciate you reaching out to us regarding your inquiry on 7/4/23. After further review of your account, it appears that the agent did give incorrect information on the cancellation of your order. I do see that you reached back out to us on 7/13/23 & got proper confirmation from another agent that your account was cancelled. We have taken the necessary steps to address the agent your spoke with originally to coach & correct the matter, so this does not happen moving forward. We appreciate your business & look forward to serving you in the future.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:06/12/2023

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I keep getting charged by Maestro foods every week even if I skip a week. I reached out to customer care twice and they both escalated it but the company is dragging their feet on this. Every week I keep getting charged and they do not even stop it. I have sent them all screenshots and my card details too. support+********

  Business Response

  Date: 06/12/2023

  I spoke with customers and refunded him for the unknown charges.   It was challenging to locate the charges so it took a little while to take care of it.  All unauthorized charges have been refunded.

  ****

• Initial Complaint

  Date:05/24/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I enjoyed the ease of use tovala provided. I mostly enjoyed the quality and taste of the meals as well. On the food, my only complaint was their excessive use of mayonnaise in the meals but I recognize this is just a personal preference. I am deeply trouble by the delivery issues tovala has. At first, tovala had me on their default carrier, which was ontrac. This carrier would frequently deliver meals late, like to the point all the food was rotting. I would get just a box of smelly putrid food. I complained vigorously and tovala switched to using *** for my deliveries. This improved delivery reliability in that the meals would arrive on the day tovala said they would , however there are still other issues. First of all, the *** deliveries are on Wednesdays while the ontrac deliveries were on Monday. This is relevant because the tovala meals have a limited expiration date, that's one of the selling points of the service, you get fresh food. However, when they switched to Wednesday deliverys, the expiration dates on the food remained the same as the Monday deliveries. I assume it was the same meals as we're shipped out Mondays and that means I effectively had three less days to finish my weekly meals. Problem number 2 with the Wednesday/*** deliveries was while they arrived promptly on time, I think the meals were in transit longer and on multiple occasions, the ice packs in the package arrived completely melted, which is an issue because tovala has repeatedly told me they cannot guarantee the foods safety at that point. I'm therefore deeply troubled by the utter unreliability of the food deliveries.

  Business Response

  Date: 05/30/2023

  Hi ****,
  We are sorry that your deliveries have not met your expectations.  We partner with 3rd party carriers to deliver the meals and we regret that they sometimes do not fully meet our expectations.  We take your feedback seriously and hold our carriers accountable in any way we can for poor service.  We would be happy to work with you to provide the proper feedback and see if we can get improvement to your experience.  Please let us know if you would be open to discussing the matter further.

  Thank you,

  ****

  Tovala

• Initial Complaint

  Date:05/16/2023

  Type:Delivery Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I have ordered a Tovala Oven on Apr 30 but the package has not arrived yet. The package got lost ****** Tracking: ************). I have checked both my home address and the ************ point, The parcel is not there. I have contacted Tovala MANY TIMEs for a replacement order, ticket IDs ****** and ******, via Email, website submission and phone call. However, there were no response from them.

  Business Response

  Date: 05/27/2023

  We have resolved this complain through our normal support process.  The customer received their new oven on 5/23 per tracking at *****************************************************************************************************;

  Thank you,

  *******************
  Director of Support

• Initial Complaint

  Date:04/23/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  We are current Tovala customers and enjoy the ease and convenience of the program. We received and began using our oven in May 2022. In early March 2023, the oven began silently shutting itself off during cooking cycles. We would have no idea how much time was remaining until the food was done; we would wait (sometimes five to ten minutes) until the oven reset itself, restart the cooling cycle, guesstimate the time needed to be done, and set a timer on our microwave so we could take the food out when (we hoped) it was done cooking. This problem has continued and is still happening. I contacted Tovala customer service three times (March 24 ticket #******, April 20 ticket #******, April 21 ticket #******) to ask if there was a warranty on the oven, what their advice would be on next steps, etc. and have received no response from any of my outreaches. Their auto-bounceback email states they reply within ***** hours. As I stated, we enjoy the Tovala program and do not wish to cancel our weekly deliveries- but we also do not wish to have to stare at the oven throughout the cooking cycle so we know how much cook time is remaining when it shuts off, so we can restart the cycle (sometimes up to four times in a single 20-minute cook time).

  Business Response

  Date: 04/27/2023

  Hi,

  Thank you so much for reaching out. We appreciate you raising this concern & bringing it to our attention. After reviewing your complaint & the ticket/interaction information you have shared with us, we have looked into your account & completed an oven exchange for you. Our response time has been longer than normal & we apologize for the inconvenience this has caused. You should be receiving your new oven within the next few days. Should you have any additional questions or concerns on your account, do not hesitate to email us at **********************************. 

• Initial Complaint

  Date:02/22/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I have ordered several of the meal plans from Tovala but today I was appalled at what was delivered. When I opened the boxes everything inside was crushed but the worst part was the meats were all open as if someone had slit each meal pack prior to laying them inside the boxes. After searching their website and the internet I finally came upon a customer service phone number for them but unfortunately nobody seems to work that line. All that happens is you get to listen to a horrible sound track that after 10 minutes on hold disconnects. I tried repeatedly to call back, finally leaving my call back number and did get one call back but as soon as I said hello they hung up! ??Maybe they will think this is okay but I cannot imagine anyone would be willing to pay for meals to be delivered that look like a mad person packed. Furthermore who in their right mind would trust cooking and eating these meats after they have traveled with the blood leaching out into each other.

  Business Response

  Date: 02/27/2023

  Hi ******,
  
  Thank you for reaching out to us & sharing your experience. This lackluster service is unacceptable & we want to make sure that your less than stellar experience is addressed. It looks like you reached out to our customer support team on 2/22/2023 regarding issues with the delivery & packaging of your meals, specifically the proteins. After further review, it does appear that you were given Tovala cash for the entire order that would go towards your next meals. Additionally, it looks like you had issues connecting with our customer support team by phone. We will make sure to have a supervisor reach out to you so you can discuss your feedback with us. We take this matter seriously & want to make sure we can advocate & provide feedback internally where needed to make sure this issue does not happen again. Thank you for taking to time to bring this to our attention & we look forward to continuing to serve you as a loyal customer.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/22/2022

  Type:Delivery Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I ordered the oven and started receiving my meals that I ordered. The deliveries have been late every week I filed a complaint with each one and next day received another box of food not what I ordered but similar in fashion I thought it was to make up for the late deliveries. Each week this happened until I skipped a week and a box came. I texted with support that I received a a box in error. I was told that I have 2 accounts one with a wrong email so I had no communication with that account. They have been shipping food each week and charging me for both accounts. I didnt set up 2 accounts and only ordered from the one I did set up. They are refusing to refund the shipments I didnt order that I thought were replacement for the late delivery. So now Im being charged for their system error and for the ones that were late on top of that. Which means they ignored my complaints of the late deliveries and 1 was so late it was unusable. It saddens me because I really do like the meals and oven I have no complaints with the product itself. But the system error, billing and customer service not handling the issue in the beginning has cost me hundreds of dollars. Is this a scam altogether to double bill and order then refuse to refund?

  Business Response

  Date: 12/28/2022

  Hi ****,
  
  Thank you so much for reaching out regarding your issue. After reviewing your account, we did see that there was another duplicate account on file. What we have done to resolve this matter is deactivated the account ending with ".co" & moving forward all business related to your account will be with the primary account you have been communicating with us from through chat. We have also refunded you for the orders made on the incorrect account. Your commitment plan as well has been completed. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us at ********************************** should you have any questions or concerns. We appreciate your time & thank you for being a customer.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 12/29/2022

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *************************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/26/2022

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I contacted tovola 3 days after I was supposed to get my oven. They claimed to have sent it out and sent me a tracking number. I had contacted the carrier two days after it didn't arrive and they told me I would receive it the next day between 9-1. I did not receive it. The carrier told me it would be another 4 days until they could even contact me to tell me what was going on, but swear they didn't lose the package (even though I was sent to a trace team and my tracking information suddenly changed to "No delivery date" 4 days after supposedly being on the truck. I explained this all to tovola customer service and provided screenshots. She told me she would have to follow up with the carrier and did not get back to me within a reasonable time or provide any expected resolution. I am very disappointed. I paid extra for shipping and missed out on other black Friday deals to give this product a chance, and at this point feel it was a waste of money to a company that doesn't care.

  Business Response

  Date: 11/29/2022

  Hi *****,
  
  We appreciate your feedback & thank you for sharing your experience with Tovala. After further research into your inquiry with us on 11/26/2022, it appears that there were some issues with receiving your Tovala oven via ****** We do apologize for any inconvenience this caused. We do our very best to ensure your items are delivered in a timely manner with no major impact. Sometimes this is out of control due to delivery constraints, weather, emergency conditions, etc. We are working to see what has happened with your order & will expedite a new oven should we find we are unable to locate the original oven ordered. Again, we apologize & will continue to work to get this resolved. We appreciate your patience with this matter.