I’ve been trying to approach this post since I re-revamped the Tea of the Month Club.
It was sparked, in part, by the things I discovered about domestic shipping costs and weight sets – a term I am coining because I am not sure what else to call it.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized there were a couple of things I should probably speak to, which helped to mitigate the feeling of “but that would just be a paragraph – is that really worth writing up?” that had been blocking the entire concept.
To start, within the United States there is not a hugely noticeable difference between shipping 1 oz and shipping 4. I’ve been very frustrated with this as attached to the single teabag option of the Tea of the Month Club. Just doesn’t feel like there is enough differential in the price between it and the 5 serving samples, given that the shipping cost is basically the same.
It also seemed like it might be useful information for the process of ordering tea.
Moving on from that, I wanted to talk about order fulfillment and timeframes for a minute. I am still in the process of figuring out the best ways to approach all the steps in getting an order from digital existence on my end to physical reality on yours.
The new space is a different space, and that kind of transition always takes reworking. I am still trying to figure out how much set and scheduled tea-making-time I need, as well as deciding where and when to deal with the not-tea elements as they have to happen separately.
Right now, that means time to fulfillment might be as swift as a week, or as long as 6-7.
Over time, I hope to narrow that window a bit. In the interim I hope that you will be patient as I sort things out.
Lastly, at least for this iteration of shipping and packaging and fulfillment grumbling – my default is to send a reusable cloth teabag with any order involving loose tea. If this is not a thing that you want, or you have a pile and are tired of receiving them, let me know when you next order. I am working on a system to track this, and while I cannot promise to get it right every time, I will try.
Hope your Monday isn’t a terrible version of Monday, and that we all make it through okay.
