Coffee machines, hire and rent – important considerations.
Be careful folks, coffee-partnering arrangements between the big coffee producers and service establishments have become as complex as mobile phone contracts!
A free coffee machine
This is the most obvious trap! As most of us know, nothing is really for free. You will be paying for this somehow…you just haven’t seen where yet. This will most probably in the price of your coffee which you will be obliged to buy from this supplier. If not immediately expensive, certainly once a few price increases have kicked in.
At EL Coffee
What you see is what you get. You hire the machine for the price quoted in the contract and then you buy the coffee. Our coffee prices are already competitive and are contractually linked to that of a ‘popular brand’ at your nearest Spar. We undertake to maintain a fair price linked to a third party base price.
The machine is cheaper than others
OK so you bought the machine and are NOT obliged to buy their coffee? That sounds fine, provided that this is not a pod or puck machine which is designed to prick-a-pod and guess what? The machine only fits their pod!
At EL Coffee
Good quality coffee machines are all expensive. If someone offers you a machine that is substantially cheaper then there is probably a catch. What is it? At EL Coffee (i) we only sell/hire/stock good quality equipment. Customers do NOT want to get caught with frequent breakdowns (ii) once we are appointed as your coffee-partner, we commit to supplying you with a stand-by machine in the event of breakdowns.
Pod or capsule machines are cheaper
They are indeed, you’re right. But now multiply the pod or capsule cost (say R10) x 365 days and compare it to the cost of real coffee at around R1.50 per cup. Once again you end up paying a lot more at the end of the day.
At EL Coffee
In addition to saving you money, we would rather like you to enjoy fresh roasted coffee. Our coffee is locally roasted, it hasn’t been sitting in a container while being shipped around the world. Beans all come from the same places, why roast in Europe and ship back here, it makes little sense.
Coffee with a romantic name
So it sounds better doesn’t it? La Whatever or San Gimjunko. What beans are in the bag though? As with most things in life, your get good, bad and ugly. Look out for those very black or dark roasted blends, they are probably camouflaging a poor quality bean.
At EL Coffee
The proof of the pudding they say…is in the eating. We invite all our potential commercial customers to a blind tasting of our products. We are very proud to say that so far, our products have come out in the first two against any six other commercial coffee beans on the market! We are a small, speciality roaster and our superior beans are hand selected by our roaster.
Complicated contracts
You’re desperate to solve a coffee problem and enter into a long-term contract with a ‘big-name’ supplier. How do you get out of it? Is there an cancellation option or are you stuck with a long term onerous obligation that you would like to cancel?
At EL Coffee
Our contracts may be cancelled, without penalty, by you giving seven days notice. It is that simple – if you feel that you’re getting a raw deal or you want to cancel for any reason whatsoever, that’s fine by us. We are confident about our products and service and are confident that you will feel the same.