Over a year ago, I wrote about my desire to have a decent coffee machine. I finally got one for my birthday this year (that was back in August) and it broke down recently. I was pretty peeved about it, since the Nespresso system I have is really easy to use. You just put a capsule in the top, press a button, and a close-to-perfect coffee is served at the right dosage automatically.
I rang the site that I got the machine from, and they explained that I’d have to take the machine myself to an authorised repair centre a few miles away. While procrastinating about that, I decided to try the “Nespresso club” that I had joined to mail order new capsules of coffee. They immediately arranged for a courier to pick up my broken machine, supply a replacement for the interim, and then bring back my machine. All at no cost to me, being a Nespresso club member.
Now, detractors may indeed ask why I should spend so much on a coffee machine that effectively locks me to a single coffee supplier. If you’re a bit of a coffee perfectionist I’d like to know if you have viable alternatives that do not require keeping coffee in perfect condition, grinding when needed, and don’t get grains all over work surfaces when you prepare your coffee. Oh, and get excellent after-sales service that don’t even leave you a day without coffee (if of course you don’t procrastinate like I did and just call them as soon as your machine stops functioning).
After-sales service is the key to successful business strategy, and a lot of e-commerce sites could learn from these more traditional mail order clubs. I’m happy with the quality of my Nespresso coffee, and very happy to have my machine back. The icing on the cake was an automatically extended guarantee because it required fixing in the first six months after purchase.
20/11/2006 at 7:49 pm
Sounds pretty fancy. I’m not a coffee drinker myself, but my husband is very particular. He needs choices (already ground, whole bean, organic, not organic, etc)…all in a medium french roast (no flavors). And yes, we often have grounds all over the counter when he’s done! I don’t get it….but I have enough quirks of my own. 🙂
20/11/2006 at 7:50 pm
Nice service, too. Sometimes it pays to “be in the club.” 🙂 🙂
21/11/2006 at 10:39 am
Hi Carrster,
It’s a little bit fancy, bit it makes morning coffee so much easier. A lot of people who want ground coffee want all these flavours and stuff which to me is just not right. I don’t go for flavoured coffee or tea, I want pure beans or pure leaves. I don’t have an issue with sticking to one type of coffee – I’ve found the one I like and eliminated the grounds everywhere problem :-).
-Fruey
22/11/2006 at 8:14 pm
As long as you’re quite happy with the quality of the coffee, who cares about detractors? There are coffee clubs here, too, with no minimum purchase. They give you the coffee maker for free, with no obligation to buy again. I think they stand by their product and trust that customers will continue to buy.
6/12/2006 at 10:26 am
Hi Dave,
Sorry to have taken so long to respond. Always nice to see you here!
I like the idea of coffee clubs, I don’t expect they’d ever go so far as giving free machines away here though, because the machine is part of your whole “kitchen identity” and it needs to be a real espresso machine, not a filter coffee maker.
-Fruey