TL;DR: Do NOT subscribe to MealPal.
When MealPal was introduced in Singapore majority of the CBD folks rejoiced, myself included.
(Screenshot from MealPal’s website.)
To put simply, MealPal is a subscription service where you pay a fixed amount of money for a fixed number of meals per month. You order your meal from the restaurant the day before, and simply show up to collect your food the next day when it’s time. No queue, no fuss.
The model is simple math. Taking the mid level package as a reference, you get 12 restaurant meals for $96, averaging it out to $8 per meal. Here’s a glimpse of what you can expect to eat with MealPal:
(Screenshots all taken from the respective Facebook pages or websites.)
All’s good? Not quite.
Strike one. I should have seen this as a red flag. When I was still exploring MealPal I had wanted to see the variety of restaurants as well as food options under their belt.
I couldn’t.
I was prompted to sign up for an account, including giving my credit card details and choosing my meal plan before I could view the restaurants. I was definitely not comfortable doing that. Why do I even need to sign up for an account?! It’s like having to sign up and give your credit card details before you can browse Qoo10. I got around this by browsing through my friend’s app (she was already a member).
Strike two. Restaurants offer only one option per day. If you don’t like beef soup, then restaurant A is out for the day. The whole idea is to allow the restaurants to prepare the required demand so they don’t run into issues of insufficient food. Sure, I’ll just wait until a day where restaurant A finally offers that meal I really wanted; the meal they are well known for.
Wait long long.
Most, if not all, rotate their menu between two to three options across the days. It’s always either Green Curry or Tom Yam Chicken. After a while, you can guess tomorrow’s menu, and it screams boring. Also, this means that people with preferred dietary options have a super small selection to choose from.
Strike three. Some restaurants offer very limited sets. And I mean the likes of 10 meals a day. To give you context, MealPal opens the kitchen at 5pm sharp daily. Once an item is sold out, the pin would be greyed out, like in the screenshot below:
Needless to say, the greyed out restaurants offer something really value for money. So I tried to grab a meal. I went in daily at 5pm sharp. Got my co-workers to do so as well. None of us successfully got it for as long as a week, until Lady Luck smiled at one of my co-worker. When she went to collect her meal the next day, she asked if they (the restaurant) could release more meals.
The answer is no.
MealPal had capped the number of meals they (the restaurant) offered per day. The restaurant explained a little more, and I figured that MealPal wouldn’t be able to cover the costs if more sets were released. Sure, I’m fine that it makes perfect business sense, but as a customer, being unable to get my favourite meal even though I went in at 5pm sharp daily for a week no less, is just ridiculous.
Strike four. I was primed to think that I had only 12 meals per month. If I used up all 12 meals before the billing cycle ended, I would have to wait till the next cycle before my meals would be reset. Not too bad, I can choose to have other types of food however I pleased on the other non-MealPal days.
Nope.
The moment you finish your 12th meal, MealPal will start billing you for the next 12 meals. What this means is that even if you haven’t reached the 1 month mark, you might be billed again depending on how quickly you finish your meals. Not quite the typical way of how subscription services work.
Strike five. By this time I was starting to fume. I explored the notion of cancelling my subscription, and started looking through the app for that “unsubscribe” button. Couldn’t find any, so I tried looking for the “FAQs”.
There were none.
Wtfbbq? How could it be so difficult to unsubscribe? What was MealPal trying to hide from me? Desperate, I clicked on everything, and finally, the “Tems of Use” (who reads these anyway?). Cue enlightening background music. The answers were all there, within the 946261957462 paragraphs of words.
“For a cancellation to be effective for your next Membership Cycle, it must be received at least 7 days prior to the end of your then-current Membership Cycle or before you reserve your last meal in your cycle, whichever comes first. To cancel a membership, i) email hi@mealpal.com with “Cancel Membership” in the subject line; or ii) access “My Account” from the MealPal dropdown. To cancel your membership in My Account, click “Change Plan for Next Cycle”; then “Hold or Cancel My Account”; and then “Cancel Account”. ”
“For a cancellation to be effective for your next Membership Cycle, it must be received at least 7 days prior to the end of your then-current Membership Cycle or before you reserve your last meal in your cycle, whichever comes first. To cancel a membership, i) email hi@mealpal.com with “Cancel Membership” in the subject line; or ii) access “My Account” from the MealPal dropdown. To cancel your membership in My Account, click “Change Plan for Next Cycle”; then “Hold or Cancel My Account”; and then “Cancel Account”. ”
Oh I must have missed the “My Account” button on the App. So I checked again and:
This was the last straw that broke the camel’s back for me. Come on MealPal, isn’t it obvious that everyone works on their mobile smartphones these days? Going to a desktop meant that I’ll have to make that dedicated, special trip to my study room, and that I’ll have to key in my password (which I may have forgotten by now since mobile apps are unlocked via thumbprints these days).
Bonus strike. You have to unsubscribe at least 7 days in advanced, either before the last meal or before the billing cycle ended, whichever comes first. What is this 7 days notice about? MealPal are you paying me a salary? Do you need 7 days because you need to find a replacement for me? The last I checked I am in fact paying you close to a $100 a month. And note this ridiculous condition if you decide to unsubscribe but later for some reason think that you want back in: you have to pay $19 to re-join.
Still thinking of subscribing to Mealpal? Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
To be honest, towards the end of my first month I was screaming to be released from MealPal. It was pure torture, having to settle for food that I didn’t really like (or rather, was bored of), coupled with the accumulated disgust I had for them.
So it’s goodbye MealPal, you won’t be missed.
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I liked to add. I signed up Mealpal based on a flyer that promised a $50 Lazada Voucher upon sign up. When I emailed them as to when the voucher is coming. They reply to say its in the small print where I have to complete one month of the meals. Which I did. And big NOPE! Not seen a sight of that voucher nor did the Email Helpline dare to answer my subsequent email after they insisted that its garanteed and On the way.
oh man! I totally feel you. my colleagues who are still on MealPal are also sharing their horror stories (one of them had her plan refreshed early, thereby losing her meals) and I’m so glad I’m out of it. I’ve this strong sense that they don’t really care about their customers at all. hope your issue gets resolved soon!
Agree with all above points. Also think MealPal is fraudulent. They auto-reset my account on 31 Dec 2018, when my plan had 6 meals left to last until 10 Jan 2019. I had followed instructions to cancel earlier before end of last cycle. Customer service help was rubbish. They basically don’t care about customer service once a user decides to terminate subscription. I am glad I ended it.
Oh no! That’s quite terrible. Hope your issue gets resolved soon and you get back what’s yours. I can imagine the whole thing is so frustrating!
I can share more.
I choose to hold for a while after I finished this 12 meals, and MealPal stopped me while there are still two left. when I try to cancel it, I found that I can’t cancel the account during the hold period. When I reactivate and want to cancel — it charged me another month.
Ah! Have you tried emailing them to rectify the issue? Hope you get your money back!
I think you should check out Coffee Break app then. Its essentially only for coffee and other drinks but it makes more sense. It does not have the same strikes u mentioned
opps. missed out the link if anyone wants to check it out. I wont provide my referral code cause dont want any misunderstanding. just sharing. http://www.hellocoffeebreak.com/
oooo will definitely check it out! thanks!
I feel the same way as you. The worst was I didn’t check earlier where were the areas offered, and since there wasn’t an option where the meals were offered unless we signed up, I picked a plan, paid, and was slammed with the facts that the areas were totally out of my way. Ok fine, it was my fault I didn’t do my homework, and guess what? I had to take Grab to get my dinner all those days. I paid 128$ + additional Grab fees. Should have smell something fishy that I cannot look at what was offered unless I sign up. Simply ridiculous. I was one of those who signed up the first day when they launched. So much for wanting to embrace such new ideas, sighs.
thanks for sharing! glad we are all out of the MealPal nightmare zone.
well same complaint with classpass! I cant remember my password and cancellation is only via chat.. wtf
I’ve heard bad stuff about classpass too!! like some of my friends couldn’t book their favourite activities as easily as they would have liked it to be.
thanks for sharing – i was about to subscribe 5 minutes ago before i decided to read some reviews of mealpal.
and from the testimonies of those who have commented on this post this far, I’d say you’ve made a good choice.
Thanks for sharing – i was just about to subscribe to mealpal until i decided at the last moment to read some reviews.
Hi, I am someone who has just subscribed to mealpal or a month and IT WAS TERRIBLE. I haven’t finished my mealds and I wasn’t informed before that that meals expire AFTER your billing cycle, even though I paid the full amount?!
same person alove, sorry just to add, you HAVE to finish ALL meals befoire your next billing cycle, else your meals will be CONFISCATED, ridiculous I must say.
ya! ridiculous right! and if you finished your meals early your next billing starts immediately. somehow it works differently as your situation, which goes to reinforce how terrible MealPal is.
My colleague and I embarked on the mealpal journey and its terrible for us too. We were stuck with only 5-7 meh choices around Orchard and it seems like Mealpal was going to charge us another cycle once we completed our 12th meal.
Its not worth it!
I’ve been on Mealpal for about 3 months now and I am bored too! I tried to find the button to hold the account and it was nowhere to be found. Now I’ve decided to just cancel. Seems like a big scam if they don’t allow people to just pause on the app (amongst other things other people here mentioned)….
Hahaha at this point I’m surprised MealPal hasn’t improved their services. I think you can pause using a desktop rather than on your smartphone.
Agreed with your experience. i unsubscribed within 3 days. It annoys me that some outlets listed are honestly not near and they don’t show distance from your search location, then when i realise it, its too late and the cancel count towards my meal allowance. When i unsubscribed, i wrote a reason but i still get auto emails asking me to re-consider as if its a naive personal email not understanding the reason typed at all. Then lastly came the daily emails with cash baits enticing people to refer friends to sign up. I do have principle not to refer my friends to such hooligans for money.
This company is quite clearly a dishonest one. Their app provides no option to cancel subscription or remove your credit card details, so I wrote in and got written confirmation that my plan would not be renewed. Despite this, my subscription was auto renewed anyway after all credits were used! I had to then write in AGAIN to get the plan confirmed, and their response was that my credit card would only be refunded after a lengthy delay.
Their website is also deliberately set up so that there is no confirmation page – if you are an existing customer, your credit card is charged immediately on a page that doesn’t tell you the final total that is being charged (it looks like you will be led to a final confirmation screen but your card is instead charged immediately – and remember, you can’t remove your credit card details from their system).
All these shady practices reek of a company that is desperately trying to scam money out of unsuspecting consumers. I would avoid, if I were you.
would you know which authority in S’pore regulates such companies /apps? My daughter was not able to cancel and was charged for almost a year!
hi there! i reckon you can try writing in to CASE (Consumer Association of Singapore) and see what they say. all the best!