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What do wish your favorite tea retailers would do that they aren't doing today?

50 Replies
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Madeline Alyce said 2013-01-21 14:40:31 -0500

Another item: A tea company needs great customer service!

I will take this opportunity to also let you know I think there is a glitch in your shopping cart! I added some $2.95 sample packs, but they are all coming up as around $6 instead of $3!

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teajoteas said 2013-01-21 14:42:26 -0500

Yikes! Can you tell me which ones are doing that?

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Sil said 2013-01-21 14:48:14 -0500

Madeline – too funny :) But yes, I echo that! Customer service is critical. There’s at least one company I will no longer order for since they basically told me it was my problem to deal with when something went wrong.

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Madeline Alyce said 2013-01-21 14:49:10 -0500

Since I posted before, one of then changed from the $6 price down to $2.95, but my cart looks like this:

Dark Chocolate Mint- Pack size sample (10 cups) $6.45
Silky Earl Grey – Pack size sample (10 cups) $6.25
Vanilla Spice- Pack size sample (10 cups) $6.45
Classic Chai- Pack size sample (10 cups) $2.95
Raspberry Chocolate Bark – Pack size sample (10 cups) $6.45
Sub-Total: $28.55

Edit: Now the mint is down to $2.95, too!

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teajoteas said 2013-01-21 14:50:03 -0500

Ok, I’m fixing them all now and shouldn’t be too long. No idea what happened since they were working fine not too long ago. My apologies and thanks for alerting me!

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Madeline Alyce said 2013-01-21 14:50:56 -0500

Sil Yikes!

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Madeline Alyce said 2013-01-21 14:52:00 -0500

Thank YOU! I will check back in a bit to order :)

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teajoteas said 2013-01-21 14:59:05 -0500

Ok, good news is that all is fixed. Bad news is we are out of Silky Earl Grey samples…sorry :) We just sold out the samples and have only 3 of the 2 oz. size left. Ordering more this week.

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Madeline Alyce said 2013-01-21 15:53:50 -0500

Will you get more samples in then, too?

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teajoteas said 2013-01-21 15:59:43 -0500

We actually order the tea in bulk and package everything by hand in the different quantities, so yes, we will be packing more samples. It may be a week or two before we have the Earl Grey samples available.

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darky said 2013-01-21 15:22:19 -0500

teajo, i’m wondering if u ship to belgium to, and if so what are the shipping costs?

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teajoteas said 2013-01-21 15:39:00 -0500

outside the U.S., we’ve only shipped to Canada so far. I’ve sent samples to wholesale buyers in Japan and South America but nothing retail yet. Not sure on the shipping costs but I could research. If you wanted to order, I would probably just have you send your order to me via email and then paypal for processing.

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darky said 2013-01-21 16:09:25 -0500

i was just wondering because i’m exploring about more tea company’s but i’m not using paypal :)

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Novi said 2013-01-21 17:37:35 -0500

My absolute least favorite is a site that I just can’t navigate at all. I loathe having to go through multiple menus to actually find the tea (as opposed to “teaware” “pantry essentials” and other things I have no use for). I hate when menus have a crazy number of choices… The base color/style of tea should be enough, and maybe an organic section, but some menus have groupings like “wellness tea”, “mood tea” and things like that, which clutters up the menu and makes it difficult to find anything. If I can’t easily use the site, I just give up.

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Sil said 2013-01-21 17:44:00 -0500

ooh there’s a good one. Useability!

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Vanilla Beans said 2013-01-21 19:28:46 -0500

Things I wish tea companies did more was make their payment options visible on their websites from the start. A small image at the bottom showing paypal is all I need to know! I very much dislike going through the site only to find out at the checkout that it is credit cards only!

Lots of images help as well. Most websites with simple layouts and images of their products will get me more interested than one that just lists the tea.

And, this is just me, but if you have beautiful designs or tins for your tea, I will honestly buy them regardless.

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Sil said 2013-01-21 19:59:37 -0500

along those same lines…
-don’t make me create a shopping cart to try and figure out your shipping charges
-don’t force me to create an account to purchase something – if i want to, i will

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Mark B said 2013-01-22 04:05:57 -0500

Clearer brewing instructions, specific to the tea. Verdant does a good job of this on their site, but not so much on their actual tea packaging. Often there’s nothing, or very general temps and steeping times are applied for all greens, oolongs, blacks, etc. And as we know, teas even of the same type (oolong, black, green) can have vastly different brewing needs. Part of the fun is exploring this, but when dealing with small samples, or expensive teas, I’d like some guidance so I have a better shot of really appreciating the tea as it’s intended to taste.

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Sil said 2013-01-22 06:26:55 -0500

I second this! I hate generic instructions on packages ESP since the instructions specific to the tea are often different

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Veronica said 2013-01-22 08:19:09 -0500

Hibiscus free herbal teas. I don’t like the taste of it, but it is in sooooo many herbals. I would even be willing to pay a bit more to have great herbal blends that did not contain the dreaded hibiscus.

I should probably add that rooibos is very hit or miss with me, so I’m always on the lookout for tisanes where rooibos is not the main ingredient and there’s no hibiscus.

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Kasumi no Chajin said 2013-01-22 13:19:40 -0500

On the Hibiscus note, personally, I would like to see simple Hibiscus and/or Rosehip blends. Many blends are too complicated for me.(also would be willing to pay more for a good rosehip + Hibiscus blend)
I would like to see more chicory free blends too.

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