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Comment by nthj | Hacker News Reader

Hey, newish customer here. I’m in the 10%—my bag is somewhere halfway across the country, and USPS hasn’t posted an update in a week now. I’ll need to supplement with Instacart, which kinda breaks the abstraction.

I totally appreciate that USPS isn’t in your control.

Cost isn’t really a constraint for me, but running out of coffee is. I just checked and I don’t see a way to switch to FedEx or UPS for an additional charge. Is that something your team is exploring?

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Sorry for the delays. We can't control it, but we still are responsible for your overall experience.

Generally we monitor this and send replacements if coffees get stuck. We will probably do this automatically soon. I understand this still isn't ideal.

We definitely are looking into allowing a FedEx option. We have a pretty complicated product, so it is nice to use a single shipper for now, though.

One thing that could help is picking coffee directly from a roaster that is close to you. If you tell me where you live, I can send you the best roasters for a consistent experience.

Thank you, that makes perfect sense. I hadn't considered optimizing for location. I just saw in the settings where I can choose a roaster, so I reduced the selection to those much nearer my location. And I did indeed receive an email about a replacement—very slick and very appreciated.

Thanks!

I don't want you to be without coffee either, but can't help but wonder if switching to UPS is exactly what Louis DeJoy wants you to do?

Point taken. I have been buffering supplies since February, and anywhere else I can support shipping delays with a bit of additional planning, but coffee and eggs are I think the two places in my lifestyle still coupled to just-in-time delivery. I have caffeine supplements stocked as a backup, but that misses out on the ritual.

It’s been an interesting year, kind of like playing Factorio but in real life.

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