Keurig’s K-Cup screw-up and how it K-pitulated Wednesday to angry consumers

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Remember this?

Keurig Requirement for 'Officially-Licensed Coffee ONLY' Defeated by Simple Hack bwahahahahaha

Keurig threw in the towel.

Keurig’s K-Cup screw-up and how it K-pitulated Wednesday to angry consumers

Morning Mix
By Fred Barbash May 7
@fbarbash

....
But in August 2014, when Keurig introduced its “2.0” line of coffeemakers, it stopped making “My K-Cup” for it and made the machine incompatible with any K-cups already in existence, as well as with any unlicensed disposable K-cups made by other companies. ... It was $50 a pound and a trail of waste — or nothing.
....

Clever competitors moved quickly to fill the void, with ways to, in effect, hack into the Keurig technology. The Rogers Family Company’s “Freedom Clip” was sold patriotically as “Our Gift To You and Everyone …. Freedom Of Choice!”
....

Worse for Keurig, as executives acknowledged Wednesday during its quarterly earnings briefing, sales of Keurig machines tanked and they began to accumulate on the shelves across the country. Sales of brewers and accessories declined by 23 percent, the company reported. Its stock price fell 10 percent in after hours trading. ... With that, Keurig’s CEO did what he had to do. He capitulated Wednesday in a call with market analysts.

“We heard loud and clear from consumers,” said Brian Kelley, “who really wanted the My K-Cup back. We want consumers to be able to bring any brand and bringing the My Cup back allows that.

[Oktober]

1. I just wonder how these conversations go at HQ...

I want to be a fly on that wall...

*bunch of suits sitting around a table with a nice power point presentation*

Anyone think that our customers will notice or care that all the coffee they have is now worthless?

Nope... Nuh uh.. Sounds good...

[WillowTree]

2. Yeah, it's kind of like the "New Coke" of coffee makers.

Making their 2.0 machines useful only with proprietary K-Cups was really dumb. I have a prior Keurig and only use the "My K-Cup" adapter with my preferred and infintely cheaper coffee. Love the convenience of the machine because I drink so little coffee and can brew only what I'm going to drink right now, which saves waste. I just didn't care for any of the samples that came with it, so why would I pay so much more for coffee that I don't like as well meanwhile filling the landfills with all those icky little plastic cups? And apparently a lot of other people felt similarly.

Wonder if they're going to be able to retrofit the 2.0 machines to be able to use adapters or if they're going to have to either go back to the original design or re-design again. One of those corporate live-and-learn things.

[sendero]

3. This is what should happen..

... to every company that tries to screw over its customers. That, plus the resignation of who ever made the idiotic decision to do so.

[mike_c]

4. I've never understood the appeal of those things....

Nothing beats freshly roasted, freshly ground coffee extracted with 200F hot water, and there's no need to generate a trail of plastic K-cup waste to brew excellent coffee. And it's not like making real coffee is hard or anything.

[gollygee]

5. I used to use a Keurig but I used a refillable cup

And I think some of the anger about Keurig's change is that you couldn't use the refillable cups anymore.

(My Keurig broke and I bought a different single-serve coffee maker instead of the Keurig 2.0 or whatever they called it. No refillable cup, no Keurig for me. Also, the one I switched to does get to 200 degree water and the Keurig water didn't get as hot.)

[hughee99]

7. When my Keurig broke about 2 years ago, I called them and they sent a newer one in a week,

no questions asked (well, I did have to mail back the little k-cup holder part, but that was it). They didn't really care how it broke and didn't even seem to be overly concerned with how old my last one was, where I bought it, or if I was trying to pull a fast one on them. They just wanted me back churning through those $4 K-cups as fast as possible.

[gollygee]

8. Oh I think I had mine for over 2 years

but I don't know if they would have sent me a newer version at that point anyway, and I would have wanted the older one. But I gave it to someone on Craigslist who said he thought he could fix it.

I have this Bunn MyCup thing now, and it's pretty awesome. Very multifunctional.

[hughee99]

9. As it was explained to me by a friend in sales familiar with the business model,

They don't make (much) money on the machine, they make money by licensing the cups which they used to have almost complete control over. Is was worth it to them to give you a free $150 machine if it meant you'd buy a few hundred licensed cups over the next year or two.

Basically, they'd like to make money on the machine if they could, but if they're at risk of losing a loyal customer, it's worth it to give away a machine.

[LynneSin]

15. I like it because I always get a perfect brewed cup of coffee each time

Those cheap coffee machines the coffee just always came out burnty and inconsistent and I always ended up wasting alot of coffee.

And with the original K-Cups you can get the 'make your own' filters. I agree - I wasn't keen on the plastic waste. Sure I have a few of the pre-made K-Cups but 90% of the time I just make my own. I think the coffee just tastes way better than the cheap Mr. Coffee machine I use to have.

[IDemo]

6. Here's my coffee maker

[Katashi_itto]

10. Here is mine.

[IDemo]

11. I found that too many quarks in the morning made me jumpy all day n/t

[Katashi_itto]

12. Yes i have that problem too.

[Madam Mossfern]

16. Mine too!

I don't need another appliance cluttering up my kitchen.
The Melitta filter works just fine for my one cup in the morning (directly into my mug) or for a pot of coffee.

[spinbaby]

17. Me, too

Makes perfect coffee and doesn't clutter up the kitchen counters. Besides, I've never had coffee I've cared for from a Keurig—it's always kind of sour and harsh, no matter what kind of coffee is in the pod.

[gvstn]

18. These were great back in the day but they did have to sit on the counter.

The mug was warmed as the coffee brewed so it stayed hot longer. Each machine only lasted a few years at a time and I was very sorry when they were discontinued and I couldn't find a replacement.

[Daemonaquila]

13. Congrats, Rogers Family Company!

The clip is beautiful. It's rare that you see one company fly another the finger so loud and proud that they're willing to actually manufacture a hack for the rest of the world to defeat a product.

[LynneSin]

14. I love the idea of the K-Cup coffee machine

Because I never waste any coffee - I make the one cup that I drink every day.

I bought a refurb Cuisinart K-Cup machine off of Groupon. That came with one 'Make Your Own' K-Cup filter which I use most of the time. At my local farmer's market they sell those pre-made K-Cups for a supercheap price which I do like to try. They have open boxes of K-Cup so I'll buy those so I can sample some fancy ones to see if I like them. But in general I'd rather just stick with the filter and make my own. In fact for $10 I bought 4 extra 'make-your-own' k-cup filters so if one is dirty I have an extra to use.