Whole Foods Market Services
reviews and complaints

Bocal Raton Whole Foods. Indifference to service, bad quality/expired foold on shelves, no response to complaints.
4/9/10 $192 total purchase to include OJ, Quiche, Chicken Salad. Chicken salad contained bits which appeared as closely cut to bone and taste was suspect. Quiche contained hard pieces of ham, taste also suspect. OJ date of expiration 4/9/10 (did not have glasses with me, would not have believed the date would be the very same date purchased). Submitted complaint via website 4/10/10, no response. Returned to store 4/16/10, asked for location of pate', shown, asked about mousse pate', told by clerk "this is the pate'" commented on his attitude and decided to request manager. "Evan" arrived after 5 mins, advised of last visit issues (OJ, Quiche etc.) his reply (after an obvious display of what was an indifferent attitude) was "I am sure it was not intentional, we make mistakes" . He then proceeded with ... "Well, what is your problem today?" at which point I advised I would again contact the home office to which he responded: "You do that" and walked away. Given Regional Manager name, called number, left message for "Juan" to return call regarding store issues, call never returned.

Whole Foods markets itself as being a healthy living, lifestyle store. I had purchased two organic basil plants in the summer, as their display of garden plants and herbs was very attractive. After I brought them home, I repotted both of them. Within two weeks, my garden was overrun with with small black, hard shelled bugs. Not only was that not horrifying, I started to notice small notches on the leaves of my other, healthy, bug-free plants. Two weeks later, one of my plants was pretty much, defoliated and a number of others were missing significant portions of their leaves.

I trapped a couple of the problem bugs and took them to my local garden store, where there were classified as "vine weevils". Whole Foods has sold me basil plants which contained vine weevil larvae in the soil.
I called up Whole Foods to speak with their plant department. I was told that I could receive a refund for my $3 plants. What Whole Foods failed to acknowledge was that their supplier was selling plants with larvae in the soil.

Thinking that the plant department would like to know about chemical-free, biological treatments with nematodes, I tried to explain to the person that they should look into this for their remaining plants. I was told that "nobody else has had this problem", and "I can offer you a refund of $3". Additionaly I was told to use "complementary" plants in my garden to get rid of the problem bugs. Unfortunately this was poor advice as (1) I had a number of plants that are not bug-friendly already in my garden and (2) once the weevils are mature there is no other way to get rid of them aside from individual capture. I have been told by a number of garden stores that nematodes are the best way to prevent a vine weevil infestation.

I am incredibly disappointed that Whole Foods (1) sold plants infested with bugs, (2) refused to acknowledge the problem, (3) refused to look into preventative measures so other people don't lose their plants to these nasty creatures, (4) the attitude that a $3 refund would be sufficient and (5) the excuse that they only use organic suppliers and that nothing could be done without the use of chemicals. To date, I have spent over $50 just to take care of this problem. I have been told that I will likely have to spend another $50 in the spring to ensure that none of the lavae live through the winter and reproduce next year.

Purchased fresh wild shrimp at the Brighton, MA location of Whole Foods/Bread and Circus. Slightly suspicious regarding freshness of 2 or 3 of the shrimp purchased. Telephoned store and spoke with manager. Potential problem immediateley explained by manager as a difference in coloring when dealing with wild shrimp versus farm raised shrimp. I have been a satisfied customer of this store for over 10 years, very few problems - until now. The shrimp in question were bad. Store manager, Donna, refused to take any action. In this instance, she dismissed a basic health issue.

In December of 2008, I had cheese samples while walking through the store. I also purchased a couple items from the store that I had for lunch. Within an hour I was sick and later in the evening I became violently ill. In the middle of the night I ended up unconscious on the bathroom floor and was taken to the emergency room in an ambulance. The emergency room doctor confirmed the timeframe for the food poisoning from the cheese. I sent my bills to the company months ago and all they do is stall but they don't pay the bills. They won't even process the claim if I don't go to the store and allow them to take a copy of my driver's license. Whole Foods has been very uncooperative and unresponsive. Apparently the company's "Core Values" do not apply across the board. There is a Better Business Bureau complaint filed and available online

We thought Whole Foods offered much better quality and choices. Well, we just bought a salad for $17 that would feed one person and stale "freshly baked bread" for $4. This is outrageous and in light of the financial crisis it is ludicrous. Terrible food for a ridiculously high price that I will likely throw away because it sucks so bad.

Whole Foods should be ashamed of themselves selling overpriced crap to people who work hard for their money and tried to feel the store out.

I think you should reimburse us the money you robbed from us.

I worked for whole foods market for many years and have charged people premium dollars for "fresh" bread that litterally sits in a warehouse "par-baked" for weeks. It is then baked and sold as freshly baked bread. There is nothing fresh about this bread, many times I have to scrape the mold off the top before I can bake it, I NEVER wear gloves when I bake this bread--Whole foods market is an illusion and it is ripping you people off--next time I will tell you about the rotten meat they sell.