MrLittlePants and I have been saving money with FreshDirect for years. Their prices aren’t bargain basement, but compared to the crappy quality and penthouse prices of New York grocery stores, F.D. looked pretty good.

Lately, though, very careful shopping at Whole Foods (if only they had a “reasonably priced” aisle to save us time!) has been a good supplement to our every 10^th day F.D. order.

Then last week we noticed this bullshit “fuel surcharge” FreshDirect has been imposing. Are we even saving money at this point? Without further ado, here’s our complaint letter:

Dear FreshDirect,

My family recently noticed the fuel surcharge that you’ve been adding to our orders. I’ve read your rationale for this charge, but I have to ask, why not just raise your prices to compensate? That is what every grocery store, or business of any kind, does when their costs increase.

I understand that fuel prices are high, that they affect your cost of doing business, and that they change. But the same is true of electricity, or parking tickets on delivery trucks. Is a “parking surcharge” the next bright idea to come from your fee think-tank? Personally, I don’t care to find out.

My parter and I have talked it over and decided that the $5 delivery charge, $1 fuel surcharge, and “optional” $2 delivery tip just aren’t adding up to a bargain anymore. Worse, they’re part of the questionable business practice of hiding costs until the customer is too far along with an order to care. Well, we do care, and until the surprise surcharges decrease we’ll be ordering much less frequently than in the past.

Your once-satisfied customers,

MrLittlePants and Doctor Barnett