Igourmet was sold recently and it’s obviously NOT the same company.
As a foodie, and someone who likes to entertain sometimes, I was delighted when I discovered this company years ago. I could get cheeses I literally could not get anywhere else even from DiBruno Brothers.
For years until today, I had used them happily, without incident.
But apparently they were sold at some point this year and it’s a hot mess.
Spencer Chesman, the founder and CEO of igourmet, became the president of Innovative Gourmet, a subsidiary of IVFH (Innovative Food Holdings) around 2018 when IVFH acquired iGourmet. Spencer’s mother, Marsha, founded International Gourmet in the 1960s as a catalog-based retailer of imported cheeses. Spencer launched igourmet.com in 1997, and his sister Tracy Chesman joined him in the business. However who knows how long the actual Chesman family lasted after their 2018 acquisition, right? If you pay attention to businesses , you know how these deals go – usually the company selling out to another company will keep some key employees in place for about a year and then once they think there is a transition that’s complete the company that acquired the original company will often just axe people.
Innovative Food Holdings (IVFH) sold the igourmet.com business this year. Apparently the deal closed around September 2, just my luck. It was purchased by an undisclosed buyer who should continue to hide my current experience was so bad. I doubt I am the only one.
Sampford Advisors acted as financial advisor for Innovative Food Holdings, Inc. Erben M&A Advisors acted as financial advisor for Innovative Food Holdings, Inc. Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP acted as legal advisor to Innovative Food Holdings, Inc. and Weiss Serota Helfman Pastoriza Cole & Boniske, P.A. acted as legal adviosr to iGourmet LLC. I hope they all enjoy the fees they earned because they just put this company in the toilet.
I’m seriously so angry I could scream. I want to know why I spent all that time on the phone with a customer service representative, who assured me that my order would be shipped on the CORRECT date because your new updated website has many bugs in it that I am receiving half of my order today weeks ahead of time?
The backstory is I had been forced to call customer service and not just place my order because their website has so many screw ups. You couldn’t see descriptions of cheeses on the website yet if you put the name of the cheese into Google their description on the website showed up. Also you have the option of delivering immediately or buying now and delivering at a future date within a few weeks. Only when I chose my date in October, it processed as immediately. So I had to call. Oh yes they told me, it was corrected and will be fine.
Fine my arse.
They can’t guarantee that the items I received this morning are going to be fresh by the time October 8th rolls around and the other thing is they didn’t even keep items cold reaching me. Everything was VERY warm including what were supposed to be ice packs.
Does today, September 22, LOOK like October 7th ship for October 8th delivery date?
They owe me replacements on the correct shipping date. And immediate refunds if items are out of stock. They charge a fortune now for shipping and they can’t even get things here cold or even chill to the touch.
Seriously they DID NOT even get things here OVERNIGHT or the cold packs would still have some substance to them and actually be cold or chilly. Extreme perishables arrived WARM. That skeeves me out.
What a mess. And the joke Is on me for spending money with the company. It’s not the same company obviously.
Until now, I had been a happy customer for years. I referred them to countless people.
Caveat emptor and if anyone knows exactly purchased iGourmet, I am all ears. This was a $300+ order and it’s a FAIL.
