HelloFresh To End Street Team Program Following Complaints From Greenpoint Residents
UPDATE 8/15/2017 8:43 A.M.
HelloFresh said it will end its street team program following complaints from residents in Brooklyn.
In a statement to CBS2, the company said, "We have recently been made aware of this unfortunate situation and have made the decision to shut down our street team program in the New York metro area. We are committed to delivering a positive experience around home cooking to more people in a way that accurately reflects the HelloFresh brand, and anything else will not be tolerated. The program will officially end by Friday, August 18."
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Some Brooklyn residents said they feel threatened by salespeople following them down the street, and in some cases to their homes.
As CBS2's Ali Bauman reported, residents are complaining that street salesmen for the food delivery website HelloFresh are taking it too far.
"They'll physically block people even when people are trying to walk away," Chris Cobbs said. "I told them face to face I felt it was threatening what they were doing, and they kinda surrounded me and said, 'what's your problem, maybe it's your problem."
On Twitter some have gone as far as to call the solicitors 'psychotically aggressive,' they've been given the nickname 'HelloFresh Zombies' and some have asked, "HelloFresh, please advise on how to get your street salespeople to stop harassing me every single day."
"They keep pursuing me, and I literally have to just keep walking basically," Rebecca Roarabaugh said.
While residents agree street solicitors can be pushy in any part of the city; Greenpoint residents said in their neighborhood they haven't stuck to the street.
"They'll ride with you on the bus, ride with you on the train, they'll walk with you where you're going," Jaime Mathis said.
"They came ringing the bell, they ring my moms bell, she's elderly, she can't walk the stairs, and later on they're ringing the bell again and it's very annoying," Lisa Haley said.
HelloFresh responded to most of the complaints on Twitter with answers along the lines of, "We'll pass this along to our sales team manager so they can help."
HelloFresh later responded to CBS2's request for comment and called the situation "unfortunate" -- prompting its decision to end the program.