Coffee Delivery

Coffee delivery is a marvelous idea. (I have yet, however, to persuade anyone from any of the local coffee houses to appear at my door at 5:45 in the morning with a large, steaming cappuccino with two shots of vanilla. I don't understand. I've offered bribes and everything, but nothing doing.) Bags of coffee, whether whole bean or ground to specification, fortunately are not a problem. Gourmet and specialty coffee vendors who've made the move to the e-commerce are especially amenable to, even focused on, home delivery.

Coffee Delivery: Indulgence or Deserved?

What could be more convenient than fresh coffee shipped straight to your door once every couple of weeks or month? Whether you make an arrangement with a shop on your own or join a coffee club, you can lay aside one headache. It's happened to every coffee lover. Suddenly it's 11 p.m. or 5 a.m., probably pouring down rain or snow. You haven't enough coffee for the morning brew. Worse still, you have the coffee but have run out of filters and the emergency paper towels.

Without starting a vendor comparison chart or series of vendor reviews--both of which are well beyond the scope here--the basics of what to look for in customer service and guarantees with online specialty coffee retailers are the same no matter what company or club you settle on. The key words are service and guarantee. The key numbers are not competitive pricing, but instead a telephone number. This might sound obvious, but is easy enough to forget about until it's "too late."

If you've ever tried to deal with customer service without a telephone number, you know how critical it is to be able to reach a person at the other end of your order. (Let's set aside the frustration we all know and don't love about automated telephone answering systems.) After being able to contact customer service at the very least during business hours, the first priority is being able to cancel an agreement for regular deliveries at any time.