Our Standards - Service, Shipping, and Security
We provide the following general numbers and specific information to help our customers understand our business practices, ethics, delivery standards and security considerations.
Topics discussed on this page:
Our Business
Clockwork Commerce, the parent company of Vietnamese Coffee Online, Trung Nguyen Online, and Highlands Coffee Online websites and mail order, is a family-owned business involved in land sales and mail order sales of imported coffee from Vietnam and other specialty items. Being family-owned and family-operated, we provide high security for our customers and their information. We also establish our own standards of customer service, which we feel are the highest possible. We process thousands of orders yearly through this website. We answer every pertinent contact form submission, and we confirm order shipment in person by email, manually. We encourage customers to call us directly if they have any questions on how to save money on shipment, quantity ordering, etc. In a world full of impersonal Internet mail order businesses, we feel our company stands out for its personal service. Our customers tell us again and again how much they appreciate doing business with real people in the old-fashioned way, just as if they had walked into a store and talked with the owner there.
In 2009 Clockwork Commerce formed a new LLC business entity to bring in new investment so that we can expand our coffee importing and services. The new LLC is Heirloom Coffee, LLC. Customer receipts from credit card payments may show either Heirloom Coffee or Clockwork Commerce as the company from which your order was purchased. Our new contact number is 781-391-2255.
Service Record for 2009
84% of all orders received were processed and delivered to the USPS or UPS Ground within 24 hours of the placement of the order by the customer (not including Saturday; also, orders placed after 2pm on Fridays are generally shipped Mondays). Of the remaining 16%, 12% were shipped within 48 hours, and the remaining percentage had a problem with addressing or backorder that required customer contact and approval before shipping. 1% of hours had a significant delay or error with processing. In 2009, all but 8 orders were received by customers. In 6 cases the packages were tracked down and found by us or by the customer. The 2 packages that could not be tracked down were reshipped at our expense.
In 12 orders, the customer mistakenly ordered items that they did not want. We resolved these issues by providing replacement items on subsequent shipments or accepting returns and shipping the items the customers had meant to order, without additional shipping charge.
100% of errors were corrected to the customer's satisfaction.
Shipping is now usually via UPS to save you money. This is so we can offer you free shipping on orders that used to be prohibitively expensive to ship. Coffee is very heavy! However, we know that many of our customers wish to use a PO box or just prefer USPS Priority, so we offer the option of purchasing an upgrade to USPS Priority for half the usual price on orders over $35. Hawaii and Alaska and island territories, unfortunately, must always use USPS Priority; completely free shipping is not available there because we cannot use UPS for those states. We appreciate your understanding. If you have special concerns about the shipping of your order, we would be happy to hear from you via email or telephone at (781) 391-2255.
In 2009, not one customer reported any manufacturing or quality defect with any coffee product they received. Two bags of coffee arrived burst due to rough handling by the Post Office, and we shipped replacements. We processed 16 refunds or replacements for accessories such as defective Phin filters or broken items that were damaged in shipping.
Our policy is 100% customer satisfaction. If there is ever a problem with your order, pick up the phone or email us and we will listen to you and solve the problem immediately.
Product quality:
Our coffee products are roasted on demand by the producer and shipped within a few days by ocean transport direct to our dock. There are no middlemen. Coffee is never stored at the manufacturer or in any brokerage house. Our speed of delivery to the customer from the time of roasting averages 50% less than store-bought specialty coffees. Also, for the majority of our coffee, the coffee is sealed in one-way vent valve bags while the coffee is still warm from roasting, sealing in the aromatics that are normally lost at that time. The coffee outgasses CO2 and expands the bags, after which handling causes the bag to reduce to normal size. This method is widely regarded as the best in the world for sealing fresh-roasted flavor into a retail package.
Vietnamese agricultural methods and processing factories are considered among the most modern and meticulous in the world. Vietnamese seafood packagers have received many accolades from such noted American companies as Legal Seafoods for their first-rate production facilities and product quality standards. Our partners' processing facilities are likewise among the most modern and well-managed in the world. Our Thai and Philippine trading partners are also exemplary in their handling of products and exporting. Packaging is of the highest standards and regular lab tests are performed to check the purity and content.
Your data security and privacy:
Clockwork Commerce has an absolute no-exceptions 100% privacy policy in regards to customer email addresses. We do not tolerate common business practices of "sharing" or selling email lists. We regard your email address as sensitive private data. We recommend that you provide us with an email address that you DO monitor, so that you can receive communications and confirmations of your order. As allowed by accepted law and practice, we do email our customers once a month with notice of special offers or new products. We use an industry-standard mailing software with appropriate and simple "unsubscribe" capabilities.
Most of our customers welcome these emails because we try to offer our preferred customers exceptional specials that are often not available to new customers visiting the website. Fewer than 1% of customers have unsubscribed from these mailings. We respect your Inbox and we will never send you lengthy or memory-intensive emails.
Our credit card processing is performed either in our own dedicated server (if you choose direct credit card payment) or through PayPal in their secure environment, if you choose PayPal as a means of payment. Currently, we process direct card payment through a Virtual Terminal operated by PayPal, which is NOT a part of PayPal itself. Customer credit card information is not stored on any server, and cannot be accessed over the Internet by any means.
Our dedicated server is hosted by Prevare LLC, an ISP that has received awards from Microsoft as one of the top high-security ISPs in the world (including Microsoft Gold-Certified). Our encrypted security environment is provided by THAWTE, an industry leader. Encryption method is PKCS #1 SHA-1 With RSA Encryption. Serial number is 77:35:4A:14:6D:A0:FA:5A:14:47:B0:21:32:1C:D5:A9, registered to Corporate Communications, parent company of DBA Clockwork Commerce. Checkout procedure is performed within our security certificate-controlled environment on the parent URL, www.clockworkcommerce.com.