Convenience: Fee vs Free

My daughter's school bill was due. Ordinarily, my wife would drive over to campus and drop a check off at the business office. "Can't we pay it online?" she asked. "Don't see a reason why not," I said. So I went to the college website and followed the steps for paying a bill online. Right up to the point when they said they were going to charge me $15.00 as a "convenience fee." That's not very convenient.

What a stupid idea: "convenience fee."

Digressing for a moment, it reminds me of the time I was replacing something in my wife's car, which was supposed to be located in what the manufacturer termed the "convenience center." I envisioned a nice friendly little compartment, easily accessible, where I would be able to locate and replace the gadget in question. I turned out to be buried deep in the dashboard, behind various wires, levers, and other junk, and I about dislocated my arms trying to reach around everything to get to it. "Convenience Center." Hardy-har. Good one. I bet the engineers had a great laugh coming up with that name.

Anyway, not long after this (the convenience fee episode) I saw an example of real convenience, for free. I had a handful of Starbucks giftcards of varying amounts, most of which I had received as gifts from the recent holidays. I don't go to Starbucks all that often, so cards can wind up riding around in my wallet for months at a time. However, I do ordinarily go and register the cards at their website. Recently I noticed the website allows you to transfer balances from one card to another, so you can "roll" all your cards into one. "That's convenient, I wonder how much they charge you?" the cynic in me thought. Turns out, it's free. No charge. Glad we could help.

What a great idea: Convenience. For Free.

Enjoying a Starbucks Via

I really enjoy coffee. I don't however consider myself a coffee snob: I'm not one who'll say "oh, I never drink so-and-so, it's total garbage." But times have to be pretty tough for me to opt for the instant coffee. I'll take one of those "coffee single" dunk-the-bag-in-boiling-water contraptions if I'm going to be without easy access to my favorite caffeinated beverage: camping, company travel, the end of the world, etc. But powdered instant coffee? Blech. Only if I'm really desperate.

A few weeks ago Starbucks introduced their Via instant coffee. They said I would not be able to tell the difference. Yeah sure, I thought, and at a buck a cup, I'm not going to bother to find out.

I found myself at my neighborhood Starbucks, and was buying a drink on a gift card someone had given me, and because I had some room left over on the card, I decided to buy the three-pack.

At the house, I decided to give it a try. I dumped the packet out into my mug, and the first two things I noted were that it is ground almost as fine as flour, and that it smelled really good. I then heated up some water and poured it in, and gave it a good stir. I tasted it, and really was surprised at how good it is, and that I really would not have guessed it was instant. So, if you like Starbucks coffee in general, you're probably going to like Via.

I still have a touch of sticker shock, though. At a dollar a cup, it's wildly more expensive than most any kind of homebrew, let alone powdered instant. You get to make the cost/benefit decision. For me, I envision myself with a couple of packs the next time I go camping, or perhaps find myself going somewhere where good coffee isn't nearby.