Dear August customers,
We’d like to take a moment to apologize for the delays in shipping your tea and explain why we are experiencing such long delays. Many of you have written to express your frustration and confusion. We're sorry.
We care deeply about your experience and we value your business. Rest assured, our team is working hard to get your orders shipped as quickly as possible.
What happened? Why is shipping taking so long?
In March, when lockdown began, our business was running as expected. In April, we saw a surge in orders like we’ve never seen before.
Many folks would say that too many orders is a good problem to have, but as a result, we are now dealing with several challenges:
- Stock is low, and many of our suppliers need 30-60 days to replenish our inventory
- Our team has gotten smaller so we have reduced capacity. Hiring during a pandemic also has particular challenges, so our team has been growing at a slower pace than usual.
- All shipping carriers are also overwhelmed, so even after we ship, delivery takes longer than usual.
- And most importantly, it’s taking us too long to ship orders and we are letting you down.
This is not how we have done business in the past and it is not what we consider good service. We want you to know that we have several initiatives in progress right now that we believe will improve our performance and get us back to our pre-Covid, high-quality service.
Here’s how we’re fixing this problem:
- We’re hiring more team members so we can handle our current level of demand
- We placed large orders with our suppliers weeks ago and new stock is arriving this week
- We’re advertising less to ensure we can serve our existing customers first
- We’re changing our packing and shipping processes to make our warehouse more efficient
We know that you can buy tea almost anywhere and we are so grateful that you chose August.
Since we founded August in 2014, we have striven to provide excellent tea and reliable, prompt, caring customer service. We ask for your patience while we overcome the challenges we have been facing during the COVID-19 situation.
We remain committed to excellent customer service and are working tirelessly to improve your experience. We will send you another update when the situation improves.
Thank you for your patience and your business.
— Aaron and Gina
August founders
