H-E-B Grocery

The latest shrinking product I wasted money on is heb bathroom tissue. It went from 2 ply to 1 ply and is pretty much a waste of money.
I shopped at heb almost exclusively for 30+ years but now I buy very little there due to the poor quality and greed!

I buy seafood a lot but for some reason the seafood department on Pearland Pkwy refuses to keep their seafood ON ice. I have taken home bad seafood numerous times. When I ask for crabs from the freezer I was told there was no more when I later passed by the crabs were replenished. I brought this to managements attention to no avail. Needless to say I will be getting my seafood elsewhere. Other HEBs do keep their seafood on ice.

Except for one store in my region, H.E.B gets away with racist rude behavior from people of color to white people because, they are the 800lb gorilla in Texas except when it comes to Houston or Dallas where Kroger has better prices and services. You complain and nothing will get done. Hispanics have Hispanics backs and let them be racist. People are stupid to shop here because, it is a Texas Company. I am going to call out one particular store, The HEB on Waldon Rd in Corpus Christi.
The two years I have been down here in the winter, I have experienced overt racism from PEOPLE OF COLOR. The new racist attitude is these people are rude to you and get away with it because, the demographics and HEB has no competition. The G.M. Cheryl will do nothing. Be a ware of a manager name Natalie. She is an angry Hispanic puuta who will threaten you with criminal trespassing arrest because, if you treat the racist employees with rudeness like they treat you.

Don't have these issues in Houston.

I am a bit torn in leaving this review, both because HEB has its faults and because Walmart has improved in the last year. A recent issue however, makes me want to give credit to HEB where it is due.

To begin, "TL;DR" version (I can't blame you):
- Some store associates seem genuinely happy to help; others, not so much. It's a gamble as to which you will encounter.
- Store employees seem very disempowered in terms of what 'corporate' allows them to do in order to rectify simple issues on the storefront end.
- Main / Corporate / Support number operates on limited hours, and some CSRs are not helpful at all
- Company back-end coders sometimes cannot quite get digital coupons to work correctly.
- Upon release of the Weekly Advertisement Flyer, the new weekly savings/sales prices do not replicate on store servers until several hours later (sometimes until the next afternoon), meaning that prices reflected in cart are incorrect (and again, store employees are not allowed to manually correct them).
- Often, order status comes back with almost half, or MORE than half, of your order being "out of stock", but not ONLY do the items continue to be listed as 'IN STOCK' (meaning you're able to put them in your cart again), but if you cancel the entire order (because who wants to pay full delivery price, plus the driver tip, for half an order?), any one-time-use coupons are henceforth read as already used and cannot be used going forward.
- H-E-B offers NO Annual or Monthly Subscription Plan, meaning that at even their lowest delivery rate of $6.95, that's ~$170 a year (and over $300 at their $12.95 delivery window), for two orders a month - which is hardly a starting point, considering that most everyone I know orders or shops more frequently than that. Combined with products and goods being out-of-stock as often as they are (which means you would have to either travel to the store or place more orders than anticipated, this business model will eventually destroy customer loyalty as again, NO one wants to pay a delivery - AND TIP - charge, TWICE, for the delivery of the remainder of goods that STORE could not deliver the first time around
- Product selection is good, but not as good as the Wally Supercenters (of course); and, not to beat a dead point, what does selection matter if it isn't in stock?
- Overall, prices of goods are... debatable. Some are good, others just a bit higher than others, and every so often lower. Definitely, (mostly), less expensive, overall, than Randalls. More expensive than Joe Vs, Foodtown or similar. Which brings me to the final Bullet Point (although I go into more in Full Review):
- CHECK your final receipts! The math on the final receipts never seem to match either the totals when ordering or placing the orders, nor do they add up when manually adding them up. Now, I am not saying that H-E-B is being purposefully deceitful, but that they are manipulating that 'delivery or curbside prices may not be what is reflected on site or in store...' blurb (I am paraphrasing), a little too much.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

NOTE!: Long review:

To begin, not as many grocery chains that COULD be 'doing' home delivery have opted to do it, or if they have, they do not do it as well. The fact that H-E-B had those Texas-Sized melons to get in the delivery pool with Wal-Mart (insert Jaws theme), is very brave. I would say Kudos for that, but they know that DELIVERY is the FUTURE. Just as with 'smart' devices (bulbs, plugs, etc.) and knowing they will be the norm, HOME DELIVERY has long-since been set to be the biggest game in town. The ONLY reason that it has not achieved the heights and all-around encompassing acceptance and use it should already have by the general public, is precisely BECAUSE of all the issues I have listed in my bullet points. Still, that H-E-B is pushing forward is noteworthy.

Secondly (and this from someone who normally HATES store-brands), while H-E-B carries all the big brand names we're all familiar with, its own H-E-B "branded" items such as Heritage Farms, Mi Tienda, H-E-B, & a couple of others I may be forgetting, are actually pretty great-tasting MOST* of the time! In fact, MANY of their store-branded products, not just food items, are even BETTER than name-brand counterparts. Both their cold and hot deli choices, and their bakery goods are generally DELICIOUS; bread crumbs, tortillas, seasonings, trash bags, storage bags, ice cream, certain cereals, OTC meds, even frozen foods - if you normally buy it, chances are that H-E-B has its own version - and chances are that it is really good if you're willing to try them. *(Oh, just not their Pound Cake - stay away from their H‑E‑B Original Pound Cake; it's crusty, funny tasting and awful). With prices being what they are, I am sure that such quality (again, xney on the pound cake), store-brand selections would appeal to many.

The downside to the self-branded choices, is that there are several ways in which you can see that H-E-B is JUST a company like any other and it REALLY looks at its bottom dollar. For example, to save money (or at least I think so), they completely ruined a couple of excellent soup choices almost a year ago by completely changing their recipe and making them unbuyable and obsolete. The other thing, and perhaps this is just me, but I feel as if they are PURPOSEFULLY "TRICKY" with the wording on their LABELS! "BPA not intentionally added" of course does NOT mean that it is BPA-"free". "95% Chicken *excluding water*", of course, means it is NOT 95% chicken. Their "Ingredient Disclaimer" which reads: "Actual product packaging and materials may contain more or different information than that shown on our website. You should not rely solely on the information presented here...", leaves just a hint of WHAT the HECK? :) Still, as long as you are a smart consumer and read through the ad-speak, you can find good deals on their brands which are generally somewhat (sadly, not overly so) less expensive than most brand-name items.

Lastly, one of the BIGGEST reasons why H-E-B DELIVERY is SO MUCH BETTER than Wal-Mart, is because H-E-B does NOT use AWFUL Doordash to deliver! (SEE MY NEW CAVEAT AT THE VERY END OF PAGE)! They use "Favor"; and yes, it's kind of weird that there should be SUCH a HUMONGOUS difference in the actual act of delivery, seeing as drivers are probably picked from the same local pool of drivers, but FAVOR (another heb company) is a MILLION times better*! *AGAIN: (SEE MY NEW CAVEAT AT THE VERY END OF PAGE)!

Now, for the not-so-great. H-E-B offers digital coupons. I would shop them a lot less if not for these coupons. BUT, they seem to raise the price of the item for which the coupon is set (just by a bit) before releasing the coupon. You also cannot normally use them the morning when they change out the weekly specials, and the employees cannot simply incorporate the deduction into your order if they fail to automatically digitally apply. Worse, sometimes, the math just isn't right even after applying them. In fact, the math on the entire order sometimes feels 'off' on the final receipt. (See Images). In terms of these coupons, if you use a "Limit 1 per Customer" kind, versus an "Unlimited Use" one, and you happen to cancel the order, you cannot use that coupon again (even though you canceled the order and did NOT use it), because the system sees it as already-used.

This leads us to a recent personal experience. A store associate who I will call "K", and I, have spoken on many occasions beginning when I started ordering from them and was still learning the "H-E-B ordering ropes" (such as the coupon issues; the no weekly sales items until several hours later; the not-yet-mentioned way to best request substitutions instead of choosing "do not substitute"; the few times when items have been missing; my frustration when HALF my order has been out of stock, only to still see the items still listed as "in-stock"; etc., etc., etc.). Well, the day before last something I ordered from Amazon was to take four days, so - LIGHTBULB! - I checked H-E-B and they had it, so I cancelled the Amazon order. I also purchased a few other items including $36.00 or so (I almost made it $45.00) worth of cut fruit for which there was a "SAVE $3.00 off every $15.00 you spend on cut fruit" coupon, giving me $6.00 off my order. In total, it was an $85 order to be delivered that evening between 7:00-8:00 p.m. At around 7:00, I received a text that nearly EVERY cut fruit item was out of stock and had to be removed. Apparently, the store was out of all watermelon, all strawberries, all cantaloupe...? But I did not question it. As this had happened before (half my order being out of stock), however, I DID phone the store, and reached "K". I asked that she cancel my order. All of it.

The next day, I tried calling the store SIMPLY to see if they had gotten pre-cut fruit in. I kid you NOT when I tell you that I spent almost forty minutes JUST trying to reach someone! NO one in Produce picked up, I was transferred around three times by the poor operator, and on what was to be my last call, I got lucky and an "R" answered. He was courteous and said he'd go check, after which he said they had plenty of cut fruit. He EVEN went as far as to say he'd work with the Curbside / Delivery Desk if I was going to place the order again. I said I would. I told him I would pick up the canceled order from the evening previous and just hit 'select all' and reorder. UNFORTUNATELY, upon doing so, the coupons were not working – and they should have, as they were Unlimited Use coupons, not the Limited 1 Per Customer ones. I then phoned the Digital Coupon Help Desk, but they took a while to answer the line DURING WHICH TIME I received a call from a frustrated "K". She said: "R says you were about to place an order and I haven't seen anything come in." I explained that indeed, I was attempting to, but that I was having an issue with the coupons I had used the night before. She says: "There were no coupons on your order last night." I insisted there were. She insisted there weren't. LOL! Finally, I said, "Look, I assure you that not only did I spend almost an hour last night getting the sizes and cost of the fruit bowls JUST RIGHT so that the coupons deducted $6.00, I ALSO played with getting it up to $9.00 off – before deciding NOT to spend $45 on fruit which might go bad." I continued … "NOT ONLY THAT, but I can PULL UP the canceled order and can still SEE the $6.00 deduction." I THINK where I really lost her though, was when I added that "In any logical mind, HOWEVER, it is CLEAR that even if this were NOT the case that it did not, and does not have any bearing on the order I was placing at this time and trying to apply the coupons to." I then, for good measure, sent her a copy of the canceled order that clearly had the deducted coupons she insisted were not on there. Not the greatest of experiences.

As I have said before... OUR WALLETS are much too powerful to share with those companies that spend millions on advertisements to lure you in, but do little to keep you. In other words, don't support a company which doesn't support you.

*FINALLY, the reason why I 'upped' my score, added a 'caveat' about Favor, and why the "K" issue is about erased, is this: Our house, including plumbing and electrical, is being renovated. We're staying at a hotel until work is completed. The other night we ordered $133.00 in groceries, and our Favor driver RAN OFF with them. YUP, just stole them! Being pretty spent from a new property purchase, movers, storage and hotel costs, I was SO upset that this happened. I immediately called HEB and reached "Paige". I'm pretty certain she contacted Favor and they were unable to reach the driver. Well, instead of tying up my funds, she RE-SHOPPED the order (less things which were by then out-of-stock) and had it redelivered. THAT TAKES EMPOWERMENT, decisiveness, managerial critical thinking, and lastly, humanity.

My doctor called in a prescription to be filled. HEBPharmacy said that my insurance would not pay unless it was 30 days between refills. Insurance said not so. HEB now says it's store policy, so they decide what groceries they sell and now when you get your medication. Finding a real Pharmacy.

Terrible Quality Control
TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE
Home Delivery is AWFUL
Placed an order for home delivery, when the order arrived it was not my order. Nothing, completely wrong. I contacted customer service and they rescheduled. Second attempt, delivered to the wrong house, fortunately the neighbor was home and directed delivery to my house. Delivery handed me the bags and left. When I unpacked a number of items were missing. I contacted customer service. They said they would contact the driver and see if they had my missing items. If not the store would schedule a delivery of the missing items. Said they would call and let me know when the items would be delivered. After three hours and no call, I called customer service. I was placed on hold for 45 minutes. I was then told "the delivery driver said everything was delivered" there's nothing we can do. I this point I got angry because in addition to everything else, I'm being called a liar. After asking numerous times whom I needed to contact next, manager, supervisor, etc. being placed on hold again, they agreed to refund the money for the missing items.
HEB should invest some of the money they dump into TV commercials that say customer service is a priority and use it to train their employees to do their jobs.
When you call customer service the wait time is 25-30 minutes. If they have this many people trying to reach customer service, that's an indication your customer service sucks.

Supports LGBTQ products that are produced
Or manufactured by satanic worshipers!
H-E-B can join target stores in the down fall of the satanic devils!

This year's Heb brown box sweet potato pies is horrible. Absolutely sh!t! Buy from a local soul food restaurant.

I recently started to compare grocery prices with Walmart and Heb and found that Hebs prices are far above that of Walmart on everything i compared. Not by a few cents either. Hebs prices are exorbanent! I will not shop there again as they are ridiculously over priced.

If I could give it 0 stars I would. The curbside here is the worst of all H‑E‑B locations I have used.

I opted for delivery at 9.99 to be delivered between 730-830pm

At 930 I drove up to store since ap still said picking my order almost 2hrs after deliver schedule.

They obviously do not know how to manage orders and overbook. The hours of operation for store said til 11pm but when I started calling store at 8pm no one answers.

I'll file complaint with H‑E‑B corporate just because this is one of the worst customer experiences I have had.

I had to get a supervisor to cancel my order because the curbside manager L-a was too busy to talk to me.

Would not recommend this location at all- they obviously do not know what communication, customer experience, and not overbooking orders means if they can't handle orders conformed through H‑E‑B app.

Horrible horrible customer service.

They send you emails>supposedly offering discount coupons, but after you go to all the time & trouble selecting the ones you want, THEY won't load. Then when you email them about that issue-They don't even bother to respond! BUT, THEY do have time to send you MORE emails, yet AGAIN offering more coupons! DON'T BOTHER!

These stores are always cost effective, have the products that I need the majority of the time, and the customer service is almost always great. I have shopped here for years at several different locations. I have seen an error/issue or two, but their response to correct is always appropriate. The employees seem happy and seem to enjoy their jobs which helps them be more helpful to the customers.

Bought a brisket & limit of 2 Ribs on last Sat at HEB on West Davis in Conroe. Asked if I could come back in & make the same purchase again. Was told no but I could go to another HEB & make the same purchase. Asked how he would know if I had not been honest enough to ask. Answer was a shoulder hunch. So I just went to Wal-Mart. Why can't we just get things on sale without limits, gimmicks, or apps? The company is getting our manner either way.