If this is a wonderful diet program, why all the complaints about Nutrisystem?
Horrible taste, horrible smell, food costs, and poor customer service are concerns that seem to come up over and over again.
“This looks and smells like vomit,” writes a nurse on the consumer affairs website. I’m sure most of us don’t think of diet foods as the best looking or tasting foods on the planet, and we may even reference cardboard when explaining taste, but throw up? Well, she’s not alone in her evaluation of the foods Nutrisystem offers. Many letters were posted on the consumer affairs website regarding the food, many of which labeled it inedible. However, there were some letters saying that the food was “not too bad” and “what do you expect, it’s ‘diet food'”. There were also some letters about the successes people had had with the diet.
Cost was another concern that was brought up several times. On average, you can expect to pay between $270 and $380 for a month’s order. On the surface, that doesn’t sound too bad considering that a lunch at the local fast food restaurant will set you back $5-$7 anyway. But what wasn’t shared is that the meals you buy on Nutrisystem must also be supplemented with salads and vegetables, which we all know aren’t the cheapest staples right now, so your total cost goes up. But maybe you can justify the extra cost of food by the fact that you’re actually losing weight, which isn’t the easiest thing to do in the first place.
The most disturbing complaints about Nutrisystem, to me, are the customer service. There is simply no excuse for poor customer service in my opinion. When you run a large company where people count and pay for your service, by providing poor customer service to them, you put your entire company at risk. I have worked in customer service for over 12 years and strive to provide each customer with the best possible service. That’s not to say I made everyone happy, but I tried. Many of the letters I read were horror stories about how cancellations were difficult, refunds were so slow, and the person on the other end of the phone just didn’t care.
There is no doubt that the Nutrisystem works; in fact, thousands of people have had great success with this program. As long as you understand that Nutrisystem is not Dairy Queen, then you can probably get over the food not being the best. If you understand that yes, you are paying a company to help you lose weight, and customer service is not a higher priority than actual weight loss, Nutrisystem may work for you too.