Harry & David

H&D has always been a great product. I am so disappointed that over the last several orders the quality of fruit has declined significantly. What I was paying a premium for was not better than what I can get in the local grocery store. I expect better for the MY hard earned money. I’ve unsubscribed from the list and won’t be using them for my corporate holiday gifts again.

I absolutely love Harry and David. Never had a problem with their fruits when they were being shipped. I have been going to this particular location since I was a child, and the third generation to shop here. Even though they are slowly phasing out things like the decorative plates and things similar I still love going. Yes, most of the products are on the pricy side, that is normal with inflation and having a specialty kind of store.

Overpriced, inferior products and delivery. Customer service is useless. Don’t know how they stay in business. Go elsewhere.

I had to tell my mother that she cannot trust Harry and David anymore to send quality fruit. In fact it would be embarrassing to be the sender of the fruit that I received. Inedible pears, rotten oranges and rotten honeybells. The replacement honeybells were tiny and all fruit was much poorer than expected and lower quality than the grocerty store. HARRY AND DAVID IS NOT harry & david anymore. The quality is a bad joke and a pain in the bottom to have customer service make right. I wish I had kept the pictures I took of the bad fruit, but others here have pictures.

I ordered two charcuterie and cheese gift boxes that were priced at about $ 100 each as Christmas gifts. I paid for overnight shipping and even paid an additional premium charge for guaranteed delivery by Christmas Eve. I placed the order at noon on Sunday, December 21.
They did not ship the item until 4:30 PM on ¹²⁄₂₃. They shipped it via FedEx two day service, even though I had paid for overnight FedEx AND for them to expedite getting it out the door.
Also, they shipped entirely different products than what I ordered. There was no meat or cheese at all. Instead, it was an assortment of condiments and crackers with a bottle of wine. It was actually a more expensive item – $ 200 per box. It’s hard to know if that was an intentional bonus in exchange for them shipping it late or running out of the item I had already paid for, since they did not even bother to contact me to let me know there was an issue. It’s like they just thought that the recipient would not know the difference and I would not find out.
I’m lucky that it is not legal to ship wine to Indiana, so that was not included in the shipment. It would have been a very awkward conversation to have with my teetotaler born again Christian grandmother if she had received a bottle of wine from me as a Christmas gift. Come on Grandma, loosen up with a bottle of Harry and David’s!
My family enjoyed the gifts they received. But, I cannot possibly imagine doing business with them again considering this experience – particularly given the prices.

Honestly I should have checked Unilocal before placing my order. When I ran into so many roadblocks placing my order, I should have stopped. Customer service is a joke! They could not find the items I asked for on their end, even though it showed up on their website as in stock and ready to ship. That should have been a red flag there. Even giving them the item # they said they couldn’t find it, and when they did, said it was out of stock. I still decided to move forward with the order because my boss really liked the way the baskets looked and had already said to order those. Fine.
Went through the steps to order the basket. It says they have the option to customize the ribbon on the basket. No option for that online. Called customer service again. Another 10 minutes before they could find said item. Then told me it takes 6 – 8 weeks to have a customized ribbon. What? Why is this not stated on the website? Very misleading. I hung up and continued my order without the customized ribbon. Another roadblock. You can’t add multiple of the same item and still have multiple cards added. You have to add each basket and card individually. Getting more frustrated, another call to customer service to figure this out. All my baskets are going to the same place. I just need multiple cards. No can do. Can I get a discounted shipping, or ship them all together? NOPE. Customer service said unless I order enough for it to be sent on a pallet, or order fruit, I cannot have multiple baskets shipped in one box. At this point I just wanted to be done with it since I was on a deadline. Finished my order and requested it to be delivered on ²⁄₂₀.
On ²⁄₁₉ 4 out of 8 were delivered. 1 was transferred to the post office and as I am writing this still has not been delivered. It’s sitting in the post office for a day now. And the other 3, labels were made on ²⁄₁₉ and never shipped. I called on ²⁄₁₉ to see what was going on with the 3 baskets being shipped so close to deadline. Person I spoke to could not tell me why they were delayed, nor could they verify that they would be delivered on 2/​20, my requested date. All I got was «we can help you once the date has passed.» Umm what? So the last and final call to customer service went out today ²⁄₂₁ as there were no movements made on the shipments. I was refunded 20% for the basket being delivered late (if the freaking post office ever decides to deliver!!) They also were so kind to reship for express delivery on Tues the 24^th as they said Monday delivery was impossible.
Bottom line — DO NOT ORDER FROM HERE! Save your money and go somewhere else. Thankfully I gave myself some room for f*ck ups. But had I not, I would have been screwed.

Today, I received my third box of fruit from Harry and David in the past week. Today’s shipment contained replacements for Friday’s rotten honeybells. These honeybells were sent yesterday from Vero Beach, FL by Federal Express.
I thought for sure at this point the company would send some high quality fruit but as you can see the replacements are not any better and I’d say are actually in worse shape overall than Friday’s shipment. The box is dry and clean inside and the booklet didn’t get dirty this time.
These have not rotted open yet but they are on their way. Some have discolored tops due to that process starting, some are soft and mushy and others have holes in the rinds.
Harry and David told me the pears that arrived on the 13^th were bad due to them shipping the fruit partially through the post office. If there is an issue with the postal service then they need to stop that method of delivery.
I do not believe that the postal service’s delivery had anything to do with the condition of the pears as Friday’s delivery of the first box of honeybell’s that arrived on the 16^th were also in rotted condition and the tracking shows they were sent Fed Ex all the way. Even though Harry and David’s excuse was the postal service again.
The problem is who they have packaging the boxes and allowing the bad fruit to be sent to customers. Fresh fruit in good condition does not go bad overnight. Maybe it is a bad crop this year.
I did try one of the honeybells that had not started to rot yet. I wasn’t expecting all those seeds as I thought they were seedless. They were juicy but not really sweet. Most of them are lacking the bell top as well but the packaging says that is because of cross pollination.
I am 0 for 3 this week with the Harry and David fruit. I’d already decided after the pear incident that this was no longer the company it once was and that it was time to move on to another company.
It is way too much trouble to have to keep contacting this company on social media. Then the responses seem more generic than actually addressing the individual situation. I’d suggest that they stop with the excuses and figure out what is causing the problems. But for me it is easier to order from a company that doesn’t make excuses but delivers quality products.

Well, I think this probably serves me right for not looking at Unilocal reviews before buying. We decided to send some fruit baskets to some work friends/​colleagues. I’d always heard such good things, I didn’t think to check Unilocal.Mistake #1 (mine)
Mistake #2 (mine) When I went to order, everything I looked at wouldn’t ship for several weeks. Since I wanted a New Years’ gift and not a Valentine’s day gift, I decided to call, which I never do, since telephone conversations are the worst. About three minutes in, I should have just cancelled the whole thing. It’s a long story that I don’t care to relive, but it took forever and the woman was audibly annoyed with me, even though she was the annoying one who wasn’t too good at her job.
(Also, they charge for everything. Shipping. Expedited shipping. Any card with a message longer than, «To so-​and-​so, From so-​and-​so». $ 160 worth of baskets ends up being $ 240).
Mistake #3 (theirs). I ordered two baskets. One got delivered, they cancelled the other one. Okay? I get a call the day the basket was to be delivered, instead telling me it was cancelled and did I want to reorder. Um yes, I do. This lady was helpful, and they took off a few charges and said they were upgrading the basket.
Mistake #4 (theirs). The baskets arrive. The cards do not. So my $ 3.95 each cards with my personal messages, were not attached to the baskets. They shipped at different times due to the accidental cancellation, but they were both shipped without a card. Neither recipient had any idea who the baskets came from. Cue awkward conversations where I have to inquire if anything came. I also got the impression the baskets were underwhelming.
So when you’re sending as a gift, you may never really honestly know if this is worth ordering again, so you have to go with the experience. I’ll do something else next time.

What a disappointment Harry and David’s pears have become! After more than two decades of relishing boxes of HD pear gifts every Xmas from different family members, the last few years quality has declined. Then this year Harry and David hit rock bottom with two boxes of small mealy pears (different gifts from different siblings arriving about five days apart – so not same batch). After careful patient ripening in the boxes, I have only tried four – two from each separate shipment. The best of the pears were below quality I get from my local Publix, the worst were just mealy and tasteless! Gone were the days and memories of when I had to hold a napkin under my chin to catch the juices from the luscious Oregon masterpieces!
I was so disappointed I reluctantly decided to call HD cuss services, but checked Unilocal first to see if others had similar problems with this year’s crop. The Unilocal reviews highlighted that HD was sold to new, non-​family investor management in recent years and many other reviewers identified the drop and bottoming out of quality in recent years.
When I reached HD by phone today, their rep was routinely courteous when I asked her if there had been a problem with the crop this year. But she said everything was «great» and gave what seemed a formulaic defense of sometimes a bad pear gets into a shipment – but she gave me no hope that an exact replacement box of my existing «Royal Riviera Pears» [tm] would be different from the junk I had in my hands. When I pressed for a refunds to be sent to my gifters, the HD rep said the senders would have to ask for their refund, I could only request a replacement, but she then offered to send a box of their better pears, «The Cream of the Crop Royal Rivera Pears.»
I thought HD only made grades of pears based on appearance perfection and visible blemishes, because even the lowest priced «Maverick» pears (which HD apparently did not sell/​promote this year) always tasted terrific, just were smaller and less pretty.
So I will now be waiting two weeks for one replacement box of a smaller number of «Cream of Crop» pears and will update this report with hope that HD still is able to grow and ship good pears.
Regardless of my hope for the replacement, my faith in the Harry and David company is gone and I have learned a sad lesson in how quickly bad management can destroy decades of trust and customer building. My thank you notes to my brother and sister for their gifts will be more about past pleasures and a Harry and David that may no longer exist and is now replaced by a shadow company that will have to depend on the kindness of strangers.

I’ve gotten this as a gift a couple times and I really wish my dad wouldn’t waste the money. I can get pears at the grocery store and all the included treats in the gift tower are low end junk that they charge 10x more for than you’d pay at walmart. The one I just got showed up 4 days later than it was supposed to. The pears are all squishy, covered in spots and rust, and just look bad. I realize they are going bad from arriving late but I can’t imagine they looked all that great when packaged. I’m afraid to even check the website to see what my dad spent on this. I’m sure it was well over $ 50… Ok I looked it up. It was $ 80.00 plus $ 15 shipping. I feel awful.
UPDATE: I was sent a second pack of pears which arrived on time. These ones were in worse shape than the first bunch. Dried out, lots of brown discoloration, shriveled black spots, and the box smelled fermented since they were all rotting. Now they’re sending me a $ 25 gift card instead, as if I would want any of their garbage at this point. Thanks for charging my dad $ 95 for trash.
UPDATE 2: No gift card 5 days after the day they said it would arrive. This is by far the worst company I’ve ever done business with. They have their money and they don’t care if I get anything or not.

Oh how the mighty have fallen! Harry and David products have always been overpriced, but when the company was family owned you could count on their products being of unsurpassed quality, packed with pride, and ideal for a special gift. For over a decade I’ve received a box of Harry and David Royal Riviera pears at Christmas from an LLC I’m an investor in. Since the company was purchased by a New York investment firm about 5 years ago the quality has slipped a bit every year. This year it took a plunge. The foil wrappers on the fruit were wadded on, in some cases even puncturing the pears. More than half of the fruit was bruised from mishandling — something I’ve never seen from them before. Also a first: the fruit was mealy and of far lower quality than in previous years. It’s abundantly clear that the workers here know the place is going bankrupt, and just don’t give a shit about their jobs any more. I suspect some have a healthy dose of bitterness and resentment about people who can afford to send absurdly overpriced Harry and David fruit at a time when they are about to lose their jobs. Very sad.
BE SURE TO READ THE HIDDEN REVIEWS. It’s clear that many people have strong enough passions about this subject that they sign up for Unilocal just to write a review of Harry and David.
1÷15÷15 — My heart goes out to «Michael R of Harry and David»! Poor guy has got the rottenest job on the planet! (pun intended)

I received a nice basket from my family today … meaning the basket itself is nice. All but one of the pears are covered in black spots and cosmetic dings, the cheese was room temperature (I’ll throw that out, along with the pears) and there’s a jar of some strange dip with an ingredient I’m allergic to. The little box of stale crackers will be appreciated by the birds, and I’m sure the squirrels might be impressed with an airline-​sized bag of mixed nuts. Bottom line? Two polished apples and a basket.
I would also like to tell the company that they should know their shipping routes. They sent the basket via FedEx, which turned it over to the local post office for delivery. The problem is that here on Pikes Peak our carriers are not allowed to deliver packages. I found a notice that a package was being held for me (stamped «perishable») late in the afternoon. It was snowing hard, the light was failing, and my basket spent the night with USPS. In the future, please use UPS in the Rocky Mountains.
The one star is for the basket.

HOW UNPROFESSIONAL AND EMBARRASSING HARRY AND DAVID!
I too have had two awful experiences shipping gifts with Harry and David. The first time, they arbitrarily picked an order date a month out, with no clear notification of this on the order form, and at this very moment, I am waiting for an order I placed on the 9^th of December to ship so as to arrive … tomorrow? The absolute last day of their shipping window? After paying a hefty premium for shipping?
Their customer service is worthless, almost to the point where I believe they WANT me to cancel these orders. The first time I called the woman sat there and said she didn’t know anyway she could change the order date. And she certainly wasn’t going to get up and find out. It took an email and I can’t remember how many calls to straighten that out, and never did they offer to ship it out priority or anything. I contacted them about the current order and got a form email back.
Now, I’m still waiting for my parent’s birthday/​anniversary gift to ship. Which it seems it may never. I already sent them an email from the H+D site when I ordered saying, oh you have a gift … 10 days ago … Thanks, guys …

I received a box of apples and pears and cheese. The pears were completely brown and the half the apples were bad too. The date on top of box said ¹²⁄₁ and it arrived on ¹²⁄₁₄. I am not sure if it was in transit by USPS for 2 weeks or what??? I called in and Debbie in customer service is sending new box now. This is second time this happened this month. Another friend sent a box and the cheese said keep refrigerated. The cheese arrived thawed out and melted. I called about that and they said cheese is good if left unrefrigerated so they wouldn’t do anything. The rep put me on hold and her manager said cheese is made to sit out and doesn’t need refrigeration. I threw it out anyway so no one would get food poisoning.
If you are going to buy Harry David — go to a store where you can see if the fruit is good. I won’t be ordering from catalog anymore based on my experiences recently. Also, shipping from catalog ordering is very expensive.

Outstanding quality products — some free samples but watch out for the «old people» who may knock you down as they fill their purse or pockets with samples :)
Prices not for faint of heart but matches the quality — fruits, candies and more

I ordered the Bear Creek gift box for my Dad for Father’s Day on their website. I placed my order June 2^nd and selected shipping that would guarantee delivery before Father’s Day. The estimated delivery said to be June 10 – 14 which was perfect. They were going to charge me upwards of $ 30 to pick a specific day to ship it, yeah right!
The day after I ordered it, they shipped it. I thought this was very weird. It was only June 3^rd and this was suppose to get to my Dad near Father’s Day. He received the package the 6^th! I’m glad it got to him before Father’s Day, but 9 days early?! Not much of a Father’s Day gift anymore. On Father’s Day he didn’t have anything to open. Disappointed that it was shipped so early, especially when the estimated time said June 10 – 14.
The actual gift box was okay. The famous pears came wrapped in UGLY green tissue paper, and not the fancy gold foil you see in the pictures. I really wanted the pears to be wrapped in the fancy gold foil. False advertising! My Dad said they were good and didn’t comment on if they were bruised.
The quantities were too small though. The caramel corn that comes with it is barely a handful, the sausage was tiny and so was the cheese. I feel really embarrassed that I spent $ 60 on this. I calculated that everything in the box shouldn’t have cost more than $ 30, and that’s being generous!
All in all I would not purchase from this company again, it costs too much for what it is. Very small quantities. False advertising and weird shipping times.

I count on Harry and David when I want to send a nice gift basket or gift tower to someone I care about. They are always great. This one time my mom had received her gift basket while she was out and it happened to be an extremely hot day in So-​Cal, well some of her chocolate was melted. She called me and told me thank you but did mention this. I wrote Harry and David and being the good company they are sent her out a new basket within days. Thank you for your great customer service H& D !
Mary P.

I was watching the Food Channel with my Father-​in-​Law and a segment on Harry & David came up. I mentioned that the pears looked gorgeous, and my father in law graciously gifted me and my husband a box for Christmas.
One of the pears arrived with a black ding. I emailed customer service to ask for a replacement pear. They couldn’t send just one pear, so they offered $ 5 off my next order or a jar of preserves. I was meh about their selection of preserves, so I opted for the $ 5 off (even though that meant I had to actually spend more money to buy more pears). I gave them my mailing address, they replied and said no order was placed from that location. I emailed back again, restating that I received the pears as a Christmas gift. A couple more emails later, I’m informed that they found the order that was placed by my Father-​in-​Law from his address, and they could mail him a 20% off coupon or ask him how he would like to proceed.
I was really disappointed by the whole exchange. The Harry & David website touted their great customer service, but it made no sense that it would take me 6 emails to end up with them offering to send a 20% off coupon to my FiL for a future purchase, when I was the one who was unsatisfied with the pears.

Don’t order the pears until they fix their quality control. I just received a box of pears & they were terrible. One or two good ones in the box, but the rest were brown & soft inside, so they went into the mulch pile. I have had their pears in past years & they were excellent, so this is very disappointing. From reading a few other reviews it seems this is not an isolated problem with the pears this year.
The logic behind my one star review is pretty simple… they’re in the business of delivering fresh & delicious produce. What I received was inedible. I’m not talking about a couple brown spots here, these pears looked great on the outside yet were almost completely brown inside. And except for a few they could not be eaten. If I could figure out how to post a photo I would because then you would see that I’m not exaggerating. Hopefully they will figure out what the problem is.

No Harry and David aren’t the two grumpy old men down the street. Or cast members of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Or Santa’s elves. No, despite the fusty name these guys know their way around kitchen, baskets, produce, candy, tisket and taskets!
It’s all about the fruit!!! Sure the milk chocolate candy cherries and moose munch is good but candy and fancy popcorn is in abundance in the Chicagoland area. But sweet navel oranges, crisp apples, and the Royal Riviera Pears can’t be found so easily. And those pears!!! Juicy juice and big. Pears are my favorite fruit so I hoard these possessively like George does his treats. I don’t like bury them but hide them rhinos stuff in the crisper. It’s awesome possum how Harry and David find such succulent fruit and sent it all over the world in pretty boxes and baskets! Magic, maybe they are on Santa’s team.