12d ago
I've been a customer of Vite Ramen since the very beginning (as in, I supported their kickstarter campaign, and received some of the first ever soups after they launched.) I have, since that time, steadily bought their product, specifically the White Miso ramen. I'm not going to lie, I enjoy the ramen, and enjoy that it's a healthy, filling alternative for this comfort food, which is why I've come back to buy it consistently over the last 8 years. The reason I'm giving one star: over the last eight years they have changed their business model so many times, and somehow landed on a version of production that is unreliable, slow, and vapid. The owner clearly cares only about having a playground to come up with weird flavors, and do collaborations with people he finds exciting. With their new "Batch System." You place your order, and are charged right away for your order. This wouldn't be so bad, except: there is absolutely NO GUARANTEE of when you will receive your order. It hasn't even been made yet. It likely isn't even close to starting production. This model is backwards. Nowhere else in the world am I charged up front for a product that is not made yet, and with zero guarantee to be made by any date. The White Miso flavor was one of the original flavors, and I ordered it over 4 months ago. According to the "Updates" page on their website, the Batch my order falls into has an ETA of this month. But it said that last month, and the month before, and the month before. In fact, the only times I saw updates posted on the website about the status of my batch, was after I sent emails asking for an update, usually within an hour of me getting a response via email to refer to the website. (Really can't find this to be a coincidence.) Meanwhile, I've received 40 promotional emails (So 10 per month) , which average a thousand words each (no I'm not kidding, so I don't feel bad about the length of this review). They've posted 10 times on the blog, launched at least 4 new flavors, held a bracket-style voting campaign for even MORE new flavors. While customers wait and wait for ANY information or attention to their orders from months ago. On top of this, the customer service is abysmal. Time and again I get copy and pasted responses. I've stuck with this company through price increases and reformulations, but I can't abide what they're putting me through now. Sure, the ramen is good, if you don't mind being charged up front for an order you probably won't see for six months, if not longer, with no update, or even a considerate response to your concerns. This is the end of Vite Ramen and me. Wish I could think they cared, but it seems the owner of this company cares only about the next new shiny thing, and couldn't give a damn about consistency or the principle concept of making healthy, enjoyable food convenient and available to a lot of people.