Keurig’s K-Cup screw-up and how it capitulated

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/05/07/keurigs-k-cup-screw-up-and-how-it-k-pitulated-wednesday-to-angry-consumers/

by nikomen • 11 years ago

22 14 11 years ago

washingtonpost.com

viewer52• 11 years ago

Glad to hear it. I'll buy a Keurig 3.0 when it comes out, with a smile in my face and a song in my heart, once they strip out the DRM nonsense. I'm happy to pay a company that can say "well that was dumb" and fix what was wrong.

Kinda hope they up the price, too, so their business can actually afford to keep humming along rather than doing the "razor-blade pricing" like this article says, since it sounds like sales of their own actual K-Cups isn't able to prop up their business as much as they need. They made a cool machine, and I'd hate to see them go out of business.

Owner of a little red plastic refillable k-cup, here, that I picked up at Target for like $5.

tracker1• 11 years ago

Considering my last brewer (gen 1) completely died after 7 months of use, and that was only using bottled water... I don't know if it was more expensive I'd consider buying another. I didn't buy a gen 2 because of the DRM.

viewer52• 11 years ago

The gen 1 we've had at work has lasted a year on tap water and half our floor using it, so far.

meesterdude• 11 years ago

I'll admit I laughed:

“My K-Cup was a terrific addition for the consumer. It wasn’t used a lot, but for the consumer it was a nice element to have if they were given coffee as a gift. . . . We took it away because My K-Cup” wasn’t going to work with our new system."

that, is someone that is either trying for PR move of the year, or really has no idea why people have a problem with the move, or how they view their product.

But no, you didn't add DRM just for kicks, or "for me". you did it for you. duh. there's no other reason you would do it. you don't want people using anything but your coffee, you got called out on it, and now you're trying to save face about it because people are rightfully pissed at the move.

if anything, this shows they should up the price on their units, and/or lower the price of their coffee.

geoelectric• 11 years ago

So the DRM is still there, but I can pack my own coffee with their accessory only?

I was actually in the market, since my previous Bunn K-Cup-compatible machine was out of commission. Wasteful as K-Cups are, they were convenient. The DRM kept me from buying--on principle, as much as anything. I still won't buy until it's removed.

When I actually want to grind coffee, I'm fine using either a regular basket or my Aeropress, so the My K-Cup isn't going to cut it. This is just a baby step.

cmurf2• 11 years ago

Bunch of lazy button pushing people who don't really like coffee but need it to wake their ass up in the morning. I don't really understand the perception of burden that is boiling water in an electric kettle and using a press pot or aeropress. Holy fuck, everyone at work makes their own individual coffee of whatever brand and price point they want. Coffee hating caffeine addicts, and coffee loving snobs can in fact be on the same page and not contribute metric shit tons of selfish puerile waste at the same time.

kiddico• 11 years ago

you need to calm down man.

mikestew2• 11 years ago

You might want to consider, I dunno, maybe cutting back on the coffee?

cmurf2• 11 years ago

Unlikely, I only had 2 7oz cups today and that was ~10 hours before I wrote the above.

This is a case of the emperor has no clothes, and by pointing that out I'm obviously just being ill tempered and annoyed when people complain about their self-induced problems. I hear "OMFG you assholes force me to buy your shitty coffee when I want someone else's shitty coffee because no matter what it's made incorrectly! Change your behavior!" And it's like, I'm not required to be sympathetic to the customer who gets themselves into this situation in the first place.

serve_yay• 11 years ago

If you were to point out, shortly after this thing was released, the problems with it that this article mentions, you were a coffee snob, obnoxious hipster, etc. Now all of a sudden I guess all its fans realized how bad it sucks to pay $50 a pound for coffee. Even the coffee-snob coffee is only $25 a pound or so.

slowmovintarget2• 11 years ago

Real coffee snobs would use the Aeropress anyway. $30 a pop, use any coffee you want, and reuse a single filter for a week.

http://aerobie.com/products/aeropress.htm http://priceonomics.com/the-invention-of-the-aeropress/

mikestew2• 11 years ago

Keurig didn't "capitulate" anything. They're just reissuing the "My K-Cup", which is now DRM-compatible. They made no mention of being able to use cartridges from other brands, which means it's safe to assume that it's business as usual except for the new "My K-Cup".

pkaye• 11 years ago

Someone should ask them how they will solve the "safety" concerns: “because the brewer has no way of determining what beverage is being used or how much coffee is being added, and therefore cannot adjust to factors such as brew strength and amount of water, which could represent a safety concern…”

Keurig’s K-Cup screw-up and how it capitulated

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