MealPal Reviews 3,318

Honestly, I would give them a zero star rating if I could. MealPal is extremely shady in that cancelling their "subscription" (at this point I'd consider it more like a scam-scription) is not publicly advertised anywhere. You have to dig through their site for their cancellation policy to find out how to cancel. Which at that point entails emailing a customer support rep, who if you're lucky will grant you your wish of cancelling your account. (However if you're one of the unlucky ones, you'll think you'll have cancelled only to find your card charged again since there was no confirmation of a cancellation and MealPal will refuse a refund because technically it's not part of their terms to honor it, even though it's completely their fault for ghosting you. That's how they get you.) 
A rep replied that my account was cancelled and that I would be receiving a refund in 3-5 business days, but I waited 12 business days and heard nothing. I reached out again, to which they denied my refund (mind you, they already confirmed I would be receiving one) and they backtracked by claiming I was ineligible to receive it, even though I met the conditions for a refund. 
I emailed back and forth with the rep and tweeted at them hoping for a different rep, who coldly responded that I could not get a refund because I used “most” of my credits. This is doubtful as I started the account end of feb and used it for a week before the pandemic hit and restaurants shut down. But even if so, it looks bad that not only did they go back on their words, but they can’t issue a refund because “most” is too much for a refund. In what logic does that make sense? If I have any unused credits they should be refunded as I am eligible for one according to their refund clauses.
Soon afterwards I heard nothing, the issue was not resolved, I have filed a dispute through my credit card company, who was more than happy to look into it and block all future charges. 
Mealpal ended up ghosting my emails and (this is the funniest part) blocking me on twitter, as I had posted screenshots of the conversations between the reps and I. 
This is the kind of business they run, if there’s an issue, they’d rather ignore their customers and block off any complaints. 
Clearly a poor choice for a business model, and I can’t see Mealpal lasting any longer than maybe at most another year with their services.
Best of luck Mary Biggins in your next “business” endeavors, hopefully it won’t be as p**s poorly managed as this one!

I had around $50-$80 sitting in my account, which due to COVID I hadn't used. I went to try and get the money refunded and they informed me my account had expired and the only way I can access the money if I reactivate the account and start spending it on meals again. Given I have lost my job and no longer working in the city to use MealPal. I find this a rather disgusting way to treat customers.

Charged me £80 a month even after I emailed to cancel (only way to cancel).

I used mealpal for one year, and it was nice. But since the quarantine, my account was on hold.
Today I was surprised when I got a notification that Mealpal charged me £79.84 for one plan that was ON HOLD!

I'm trying to cancel my account, but they don't allow you to cancel while your account is on hold.
Another point is, they don't allow you to put your account on hold/cancel on the app. This feature is only available on the website in a hidden place.

I used to like the service, but now it feels like they are SCAMMING their customers!

STOP CHARGING ME FOR ONE SERVICE THAT I'M NOT USING AND GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!

Customer Support: Negligible to Hostile. You can't call them. There would be forth and forth of emails and eventually, you would give up. This company changed my perception of women entrepreneurs being more customer-focused.

Auto-renewal: Doesn't let you cancel easily for the reason above. You can skip for 3 months through the app and then boom - it auto-renews without you knowing. If you cancel after it accidentally renewed, you would still pay for it.

Fake Review: Don't go by their 4.1-star rating. Those are all fake reviews. A company this hostile to its customers can not have 4.1-star rating.

I'd stopped using MealPal since June 2019 – imagine how outraged I was when they charged me THREE times recently, nearly a year later, for a total of ~$300 long after I cancelled my account!

I wouldn't recommend anyone to sign with a company that has shady business practices like these (especially after seeing similar complaints from other people)!

I asked to cancel my account and I got charged again. This is unacceptable - i have already spent $200!!!! on mealPal which I haven't used at all because of Covid. Do NOT use this service - when you try to cancel they will ask you to put your account on hold but keep charging you.

Don't use meal pal. I have more than 16 rollover meals and I hold my account starting from March due to Covid19. Now, I can't see these meals when I try to re-activate my account.

I paused my account due to the global pandemic and have eventually had to cancel because I am no longer able to work in the centre of London.

The suppliers do not reach where I live so I asked for a refund which to my surprise was declined as I haven’t ‘relocated’ nor am I ‘disabled or dead’.

Not being physically able to work in London you would think is a legitimate reason to honour the refund in my view.

Other companies have been accommodating of the situation and it says a lot about the response of MealPal.

I also know of a supplier that refused to continue to work with them because MealPal wouldn’t settle their bills.

MealPal is deficiently a SCAM! I've stopped using them since last year with 1 meal left (because it was a pain of ass to close or cancel the plan, so I just left 1 meal left). But a couple days ago, they charged me $91 for no reason without any notification!

Please Beware!! Mealpal is quick and deceitful when it comes to charging your credit card. They will charge twice on purpose and pretend to be stupid. Their business practice is one of the worst. Please read all the comments below. Meal Pal is really a SCAM.

I might have given it 3 stars if the cancellation was easy. They made it so hard to cancel the subscription. You have go to multiple steps to find out that you need to send an email to cancel account. Such Crap!

Also my account was on hold and i didn't get reactivation email as a reminder. Money is deducted and i have no need to order meals as my work is impacted by Covid-19.

As with previous reviews, I advise anyone to avoid this service.

I signed up for an introductory offer in May 2019. Kept it for a month and then cancelled it.
I used the service on a few other occasions on a one-off basis (paying each meal on its own, no subscription) up until October 2019, after which I never used the service again.
Today (July 2020), I noticed a charge on my credit card statement by MEALPAL.CO.UK EXETER for £4.99, I investigated further and I realised that I have been billed every end of the month for this amount since the 26th of October 2019.

I never received an email to confirm a subscription which I did not activate, and I did not receive a notification for any single payment that was taken from my card. This is a completely unacceptable behaviour and a proper scam.

To add insult to injury, the only point of contact for customers who want to dispute charges or cancel their membership is an email address. This is simply unacceptable.

I have contacted my credit card company and I will dispute both the old and any new charges. I have also requested they send me a copy of all my data as per GDPR law, which they have to comply within 30 days or incur in fines.

I encourage anyone who has used this service in the past to check that they have not been scammed like I have, and I STRONGLY advise against signing up for the service for anyone who might be considering it.

absolutely trash!!!! asked for cancellation and they said ok and continued my subscription. going to dispute this with my credit card company... must avoid this company

They've continued to confuse with multiple unclear messages and no transparency during covid19. Culminating in a surprise account debit. Hoping I hear back about a refund soon, but a nasty tactic to attempt to keep a subscription going when it's clearly not appropriate

Product works as intended and is a good value prop (inexpensive lunches in New York City).

Edit: Changed rating due to them solving my issue when I thought I wouldn't hear back. There are some kinks but they do give you lunch in new york city for a low price.

I agree with all comments below. Do not use this company. I prepaid my account following an advertised offer and since then they have been automatically renewing this 'membership' which I haven't authorised. I already called previously to get this cancelled and now they are auto debiting £5 p/m again. Company is either incompetent or fraudulent.

We have no issue to order meal by using Mealpal app, until it is unauthorized to debit from my AMEX monthly, even we sent email to ask them end our membership. But we never get reply from Mealpal,then debit is continuing every month. Unless they will doing right thing, before I report to fair trading and ACCC.

They take random chunks of £50 from you to "top up" so that you can never use up your balance and leave. You would lose your money if you wanted to cancel. Meanwhile they charge you £5 membership fee every month. The whole business model is designed to trap you for ever. I wrote to them and they offered to "freeze" my account while I'm not using it. Guess what? They are still charging me every month!

If only they were honest. Great concept, but to get unauthorised charges reversed I had to go through my credit card company.

They knowingly applied these charges with no communication whatsoever and made no decent attempt to resolve it.

I could draw some comparisons to various fraud schemes, but instead maybe just avoid them.