Homemade by Eden Life

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On Twitter the other day — I’ll be damned if I ever call it X 😒 — I got wind of a quick flash sale Homemade by Eden Life was having. Seemed too good to be true, but what was the harm in checking it out? For N1000, you could apparently get any meal from homemade.ouredenlife.com, so I went for it.

Here’s a rundown of the series of events that ensued:

Friday

Eden Life, a tech bro fave, finally decided to launch an on-demand food delivery service called Homemade by Eden Life, and what better way to launch it than with a mega sale? I thought it was a pretty clever way to reel people in; plus, in this economy, promos are a great way to grab people’s attention.

I’m one of those people. All I had to do was order between 2 and 3pm that day and I’d get my grub in good time — or so I thought. I legit felt like I carried gun when I was at checkout because the meal I chose would ordinarily cost at least 4k. Normally, I would have complained a bit about the 1k delivery fee, but this time, who was I? This was practically free food.

On the website, though, I found out they were no longer sending out deliveries that day, so I would have to wait till the next day. Later that night, they also shared a post explaining that their systems had crashed and a lot of the deliveries had to be rescheduled for the following day. Again, no problem. Shey this is almost free food? I could wait.

Saturday

But then the next day came and I had gotten no email or message confirming the delivery of my order by noon. I tried calling their customer service lines and all three of them were either busy, out of service or just not picking up. This went on for hours till I was finally able to get a hold of one of them in the evening.

The agent I spoke with informed me I would likely get my order before 8pm that day, since all meals had been dispatched, but that if I didn’t, I would get it on Monday since they were closed on Sunday. Believe it or not, 8pm came and went, and I still hadn’t gotten my order, so it was officially becoming a bit of a situation.

Sunday

Come Sunday, Eden Life releases a statement, explaining the reason for the delays. Apparently, they had expected only 400 orders, but ended up receiving about 2,500 orders. Unfortunately for them, the statement didn’t suffice because people were pissed, and rightfully so.

A number of customers complained that they ended up getting spoilt food really late at night — and a lot more people who criticised Eden’s decision not to put a cap on the orders from the flash sale.

Monday 

I called their customer service in the morning and was told I would likely get my delivery later on that day (that call was followed by another one in the afternoon, because still nothing). I was also having some difficulty changing my delivery address (I had changed locations since Saturday), so I needed to get that sorted.

This time, the agent gave the same recycled line about how deliveries had to be pushed due to the order volume, but this time, added that I would get an email with my delivery schedule and that I would likely get my order on Wednesday. Apparently, they were taking care of non-flash-sale orders on Tuesday — which, till now, absolutely does not add up.

That night, I got an email saying my order would get to me between noon and 4pm on Wednesday, like the agent had said. The email also said I would get a complimentary drink and voucher. At this point, the excitement about the deal was long gone and I was starting to question if this was all worth it. I even contemplated asking for a refund, but I decided I was a little in too deep. All that airtime spent challenging customer service reps had to count for something.

Wednesday (THE DAY THE FOOD FINALLY ARRIVED)

Since they had flopped so much already, I really thought Eden Life would at least try to deliver my meal early on Wednesday, but alas, even that was asking for too much. At 4pm, with no food in sight, I had to call again about my order and was promised it would get to me that day.

I finally got a call from the rider a few minutes before 5pm, having changed my delivery address for the third time. It was at 7pm, just two days shy of a week after placing my order, that I finally got my promo meal. Of course, by that time, the food was terribly cold — as if I needed something more to tick me off.

So, how was the food?

I had ordered the Homemade Platter Box which consisted of a beef slider, sweet potato fries and a side sauce, peppered beef, honey yaji turkey and puff puff. Alongside my complimentary drink (Fanta) and N500 voucher, they also added an extra pack of puff puff.

The beef slider was yummy, but could definitely have been juicier (or maybe it was when it was freshly made HOURS before). The turkey was delicious too, but I was expecting a lot more flavour since it was called Honey Yaji Turkey, after all. I could taste the Yaji, but there was not a hint of honey detected.

On the bright side, I loved the puff puff, the fries were crispy and perfect with the side sauce, and the beef was adequately spicy and tasty; plus, it struck a good balance between soft and chewy.

Disclaimer: I tried to put my grievances aside when I tried the food, but I honestly can’t say this review isn’t even slightly tainted by days of frustration — and can you truly blame me?

All things considered, I think for its actual price of about N5000, the meal was a pretty good deal and even way better for just 1k. It’s just a pity it had to come with a side of starvation.

To be fair, Homemade by Eden tried to patch things up with the complimentary stuff, and their customer service agents were really polite and even empathetic — when they did pick up my calls — but ultimately, it just wasn’t good enough. This experiment was poorly thought-out and I hope they learn their lessons and rise above this rocky start.