An Update on Nature Box Subscriptions

I wrote a review of NatureBox a while back, and got a lot of feedback from people that some of the things I disliked had changed by now.

I didn’t want a negative review to be the final word on things if their service was actually improving, so I resubscribed to see.

Here were my major negative points and how they have (or haven’t) changed:

1. I kept getting the same snacks despite requesting different ones

Last review, I got six bags of fig bars in a two month period, despite never requesting any fig bars.  They kept running out of what I wanted, and their default fill in were the fig bars.

Now NatureBox lets you set up a queue of all the items you want.  If the one you requested is temporarily out of stock, it gets held for the next month and other items on your queue get sent instead.

nature box queue

Since re-signing up, I have not gotten any orders that contained food I didn’t want.

2. The food was just okay

I’ve noticed now that most of the snacks I got in my box are no longer available on their website.  I didn’t have anything extraordinarily bad, but things were just okay.

Now I’ve had snacks that I felt were really great.

The Honey Macadamia Pretzel Pops you see in my queue were amazing.  I haven’t ever had a snack like that–it was basically pretzel balls with macadamia nuts inside with a honey flavor to it.

It had a great snack crunch and a mix of salty and sweet I love.

honeymacadamiapretzelpops-square

With the queue now, it’s easier to skip the food you think is just okay and focus on snacks you love.

3. You had to call to cancel (and it was difficult to)

This is only half true right now.

A regular month-to-month subscription can be cancelled easily online now.  (I went through the motions of cancelling but didn’t follow through since I’m a happy customer now).

Nature Box cancellation

But I heard the 3-month, 6-month, and year at a time subscriptions can only be cancelled over the phone–despite them being renewable too.

And the cancellation process seems a bit confusing too. From what someone told me, to cancel a 3-month subscription, you need to switch the subscription type to month-to-month before you can cancel.

My guess is their IT was set up to handle month-to-month and as they are trying out options, they are having to do things manually while figuring out whether or not they should continue these types of programs.

The Bottom Line

A lot of the concerns I’ve had about NatureBox have been fixed by the company.  Kudos for listening to your audience!

I’m on my fourth month of the box in my new subscription and I’m going to be continuing indefinitely.  I like the pretzel pops way too much to stop, plus I’m really enjoying the new variety.

I’d recommend sticking to the month-to-month options to reduce confusion.

You can click on this link to try a free-trial box of Nature Box.  Just remember to watch the cancellation date because I believe it auto-renews you if you don’t watch.  But I’ve been going for four months strong this time and I’m a happy customer.

 

(Note: If you click on my links, I’ll get referral credit.  As always, I appreciate the support, and feel free to use links that aren’t mine!)

About Jeanne Marie Hoffman

Former bartender, still a geek. One equal part each cookies, liberty, football, music, travel, libations. Stir vigorously. +Jeanne Marie Hoffman Jeanne on Twitter

Check Also

a group of bags of nuts and seeds

Why I Strongly Recommend Against Signing Up for NatureBox

I was excited when I heard about NatureBox.  I’ve recommended a few different ways of …

27 comments

  1. Looks like you got paid off in pretzels for the new review..
    Im not really buying it but at least your honest enough to say you get a discount from clicking the link..

    • Jeanne Marie Hoffman

      I did the new review because people kept commenting on the old one that the things I wrote about got better. They did, and I’m still subscribed to them after re-trying them out. (I had a referral code all along that I didn’t put in the old post since I wasn’t recommending them).

      • It’s okay, I would shill myself out for delicious pretzels all the same, Jeanne. No need to make excuses. Embrace.

      • Jeanne, I was going to use your link for the trial but it isn’t working (at least for me). Just a heads up.

      • I have been a customer for @8yrs. In the beginning when they were a small company, the snacks, etc were great. As the company has grown, things have gotten worse. For almost two yrs now, it’s always “we were out of the snacks that you ordered, so we replaced it with another from your choices”. The problem is, since they are bigger, they are ALWAYS out of my choices, so what I have had to put as my likes, are not truly what I wanted, just second choice. That means I’m getting sometimes a third choice snack, our rather one I would never had chosen. The “based on your likes”, and “let us suppose you” are just as bad. They have not figured out a way to keep their supply as great as their demand, which should have been something that they anticipated when they began to sell at target. (Who btw, does have a couple of my faves, always in stock, just a little more expensive). Two other things that bothers me, is they sometimes well have availability of a certain snack in the “for sale” section, but I can’t put it in my “cupboard”, and the “we will replace any snack that you do not like”. I have had the five choice all of this time, which means I get 5 choices of snacks that they send two each of. If I don’t like something, they don’t send u both bags, just one bag, to replace it. This means I pay for two snacks, but only get one if I.don’t like it, meaning they still come out on top. I also don’t like that they now offer what I consider some of their best choices, ONLY for purchase and not membership. So I have to forgo my membership, then still turn around and buy more, to get those choices, when all of my likes, are sold out!
        I have been trying to cancel for last few months, but something always happens, can’t get site to work, or chat suddenly goes out, emails not answered.
        I recommend if you want to try.This snack, go to Target, and get a bag or two. But.be.aware that those choices Monday be hard to get your hands on if you start ordering fRom company. They have lost a loyal customer, and will lose many more I am sure.

        • Ir doesn’t look like our comments got alot response, but I still feel obligated to write this. Shortly after writing the above comment, I became bedridden, having to use a wheelchair. I couldn’t afford any longer to wait on their response to my emails so i called, telling them the above. So, I then get an email saying that I couldn’t cancel, but they would postpone for 6months. I said that I would no longer be getting their product.I received one more box.Since I also had sight oroplems, I informed them that I needed a phone call,instead of emails btw,so I was lucky to find that last one. Thats important because I didnt check emails from then on.Fast forwrd to 2020, getting assistance to catch up on mail, found bank statement,checked and found a charge from NATUREBOX.Icalled bank to find they had NEVER stopped charging me! We went to emails and they found about twelve emails; some of them dupicates,at firstof cancelation then about one a year.They were informing me that I had a credit! A credit of whatever amount they had charged up to point of email, which were $59,$150 at first, then $229, then couple for$329,etc.THEY ALL HAD EXPIRATION DATES.which means they were trying to refund money they werent supposed to be charging in first place, telling me I ahd to use ot to buy their product,that expired and I lost if I didn’t use by xx! I clearly cocontacted them via phone AND email,clearly told them I needed phone contact several times before cancelling, even that I woulldnt be reading emails.
          When I contacted them,saying all of this and sending copied emails, they responded. They said sorry you’re unhappy, heres your $329 credit, about to expire,so hurry essentially.They charged me over $700! You may think I should’ve found it before, but my health situation didn’t allow for it. Also, I did what they required to cancel and were told no, although theres no contract,it was cancel anytime.
          Please change your support of this company. It is a sneaky,u derhanded way of cheating people.I found many comments on BBB sites, stating the same problems. You should be writing about that.

    • I have had a horrible experience with Naturebox. I ordered $150 in snacks on January 18 and did not receive them until February 7. However, half of what I ordered was replaced with another snack. I’ve been given nothing but excuse after excuse and have racked up $20 in credits, $5 at a time, as a good-will offer. Due to the late arrival, I had to go to the store and purchase another $150 in snacks because my Naturebox was almost two weeks late. Naturebox claims they CAN’T refund my money.

  2. I have been subscribed to Nature Box for a couple months but recently cancelled because I found a long black hair in one of my snacks. I am about 5 days away from my next shipment so I informed them of the issue and asked if that box too could be cancelled. Instead, they just offered me more snacks. Thumbs down.

  3. Was looking into signing up today, and was having trouble getting any real information from the site other than I absolutely had to try the free trial. Well OK, I’ll pay the two dollar shipping charge. Except after I put in all my info, they wanted me to verify the 4.95 shipping charge. Which is not outrageous, but on principle! What else are they going to try and sneak by me? That was dishonest enough to stop me in my tracks and close the window. I sent them an email, but now after reading some reviews I’m a little concerned they are going to charge me anyway.

    • To be safe, I used a old prepaid visa debit card with only 1 dollar left in it for the free trial to see if it would charge me or not. I’m gonna change payment info after first one if they don’t do any secret charges

  4. Beware!!! I signed up for the free trial two weeks ago. My account reflected two orders when I only submitted one. They charged my card twice, at $1 each. The day after I ordered the trial box, there were attempted charges on that credit card at locations in California. I live in another state and was not in California at the time. I hardly use that card either, so it was very suspicious. Thankfully, the credit card company caught the charges and immediately notified me. I promptly canceled the card. I contacted NatureBox and they gave a lame reason for the double order and charges then assured me that my information was safe with them. I told them that I canceled my card and will not continue to order from them. They have been sending me daily emails to try to win me back. It’s not going to happen.

    • I got my first box free and then have paid 19.95 for the last two boxes. That is so weird. I am sorry that happened to you . I will definitely keep an eye open. I have had nothing but good experiences so far. *fingers crossed* for the future.

  5. I don’t like pretzels, or popcorn, or nom noms. I also don’t like nuts, raisins, peanut butter, or “crisps”. So nature box looks like crap to me. I also am highly offended that they call my snacks ” greasy and disgusting. ” I really dislike when anyone comments about my food which is very important to me. I will never try nature box which looks like glorified trail mix.

    • “I really dislike when anyone comments about my food…” vs. “I will never try nature box which looks like glorified trail mix”

      Pretzels, popcorn, nom noms, nuts, raisins, peanutbutter or crisps. Really?? What’s wrong with you.
      Go eat a greasy and disgusting corn dog, ya wanka

  6. There’s a new service called nutfull.com, I like their snacks and idea better.

  7. Be aware that if you want to cancel you’ll have to actually call and talk with someone or spend 20 minutes on a chat line where they will “tell you about all your options” for postponing shipments, etc. There is no way to cancel online.

    • This is true, and very disapointing. Not only can I not cancel online, I can’t remove my credit card information! At present I’ve “paused” my membership, but i guess I’m going to have to do that for the rest of my life.

  8. I just cancelled with them and they kept wanting to just suspend my membership. I mean how many times do I say cancel before they get it? I have not been happy for a number of months now with their snacks. They don’t offer much in the salty/savory category unless you’re into nuts and seeds. And too much siracha. so this last time that I was supposed to get salty chick peas and they replaced it with dried pineapple – not a good substitution for someone not overly fond of sweets. Then I had ordered roasted corn, but they had a honey coating on them – again with the sweets!!! Too much annoyance – they had to go.

    • Jeanne Marie Hoffman

      I agree with you on the sweets! There used to be a lot more salty snacks, and those slowly fell away.

    • Totally agree on the absurd difficulty in unsubscribing… I wrote about this in the past. It shouldn’t take a phone call… should be as easy as checking/unchecking a box on their website. They claim they make you call so that they can “explain options.” Well, I’m pretty good at reading… I can read all about the options online, and decide. It’s just a way of making a nuisance out of unsubscribing. Bad business!

  9. I think they just shrunk the packages… Im not totally sure but I think the ounces of my regular snacks just went down.
    I hate when a company shrinks their product and they cost is the same!
    I really love the snacks i regularly get…and i get the same ones every month!

    If you forget to go in and fix your order.. You might end up with 5 of the same items! A month or so back i got a bunch of fruit peels because i forot to go in and fix the order. So…if you go in and items to your pantry they end up as your order. They are not your pantry to choose from.
    I really dont like that you can dislike or like products…

    Some of them are pretty gross tasting…but if you feedback them thst you didnt like thrm, they will send you replacements for free…so thats nice.
    Nom-noms they were awful! Nom_nom is supposed to be like so good your all NOMNOMNOMNOM! Nope!

    Anyway…The subscription takes work…if you dont fill your basket, you get yuk.

    I love Graze..their setup. But, the snacks are to small for the price. My children can eat it in 1 sitting and its not a sharing serving…its a handful serving

  10. I never signed up for a subscription to Naturebox, but apparently getting any sort of discount on my order (there was a coupon code) subscribes me for $5 worth of store credit each month. The only way to have known this would be to read an unrelated page elsewhere on the website, so I didn’t find out until I was charged five dollars a month later.

    I’m not looking forward to getting this fixed.

  11. We just canceled after subscribing happily for 2 years because they’ve now decided to shift away from the subscription model to a “club” model where you pay 20 bucks a month to get “discounts” on their frankly overpriced (albeit delicious) snacks. This was poorly explained in an email claiming my account was being “upgraded” with little detail about what that actually meant. It took chatting with one of their staff online to figure out the details, and it was going to cost us way more for the same snacks, so I cancelled right then and there. They tried to talk me out of it, but in the end cancelled our membership without too much fuss. I don’t know why they decided to go this route, I’m really disappointed since I still love (most) of their snacks and I’ll really miss my monthly box. Agree with you though on the random snack substitutions when they’re “out of stock” on something you chose, and you don’t find that out until your box actually arrives. Very annoying.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.