This week we charged your cards for the July vegetables. A few reminders:
- § Please note that there were five Monday deliveries in July
- § The billing is in three parts: one for vegetables, fruits and dates (the invoice details all three. Of course, you will only be charged for what you purchased.) The second is for delivery (price includes VAT), and the third for extra products from our associates.
- § Soon you will receive a monthly bill detailing your orders by date. If you don’t receive it in your email box, please let us know.
Please make sure the bill is correct and let us know if changes must be made. At the bottom of the bill should be the words: סה”כ לתשלום. If this is not the case, we must not have been able to charge your cards and we would appreciate your contacting us. Thanks! ______________________________
Going Digital
After a six-month process of gradually breaking in our new computerized order system, we now invite you to begin using the system from this week on.
In the beginning, I managed our client accounts on simple Excel charts. Over time, various improvements were added to these documents, thanks to expert friends. Still, working on separate Excel documents demanded too many hours of sitting in front of the computer, manually copying and pasting one document to another.
Over the past two years, Chubeza has greatly expanded, and I began to find myself spending more time in the office than the field. Yet despite all the time I spent in front of the computer screen, day and night, I still couldn’t catch up with all the work. At the end of last year, I realized it was high time for a serious change.
Of all the possibilities we examined, we decided to go with a system built by Amir, a young and capable programmer. It is tailor-made for our exact type of orders, with a grasp of the way things work in our farm where there are fixed orders and few updates. There were some specific adaptations required, of course, but after a few months of deliberation and work, we implemented the system this March.
My deep-seated mistrust of computerized entities prevented me from trusting the system fully or totally giving up my manual, very slow order update system. It was important for me to know who’s going away on vacation this week, who ordered what, who requested changes in their boxes… I feared that if all these events take place behind the scenes without going through us, the result will be a flurry of misunderstandings and mishaps . But slowly, month after month, encouraged by Amir and the gradual awareness that I need to let go, I am hereby handing over the throne… to you! And to the cyber-automated world.
My friends who held my hand over the period of deliberations and apprehension, joked that the system should have an add-on, where just before a client uses the system to report his/her upcoming vacation, a window will pop up saying: Are you sure you want to automatically update the system? Wouldn’t you prefer emailing Bat Ami? Perhaps you would like to call her?”
Sounds silly, but oh-so-true. I began contemplating the meaning of this change, where the clients and I will no longer have direct contact, even e-contact. You update the system, we retrieve the info. No actual communication points. But I also realized that retrieving info from emails and voice mail does not really contribute to the quality of work, but rather clogs up our day with bureaucratic work. I am letting go.
Therefore (Fanfare): Beginning this week, you can enter our computerized order system to order additional products, update your orders every week or only when needed.
This is how it works:
- The link to the Chubeza order system is: http://chubeza.easyfarm.co.il/ Add it to your favorites so you can easily find it every week.
- Go to: “כניסה למנויים”
- Insert your email address and click on “שכחתי סיסמא”. The system will email you a new password which you can now use to enter the system.
- If you do not have any changes to make, you need not enter the system at all. Your fixed order will go out as always.
- At any given time, you can edit your fixed order on the הזמנה קבועה tab, where you can change the frequency of your boxes (every week/every other week), the size of your boxes, add products, suspend the box for a few weeks, etc.)
- As for specific orders: you can go to the מצב הזמנה tab and change the nearest order from Thursday afternoon (of the week before) till the afternoon before your delivery day. You can add products, change size, cancel, etc.
- Very important: if you receive your box every other week, and you cancel your order for this week, the system will automatically transfer your box to next week. If you only want your box two weeks later, suspend your order for two weeks on הזמנה קבועה.
- The system will confirm your updated order after the changes have been made and will display the updated order. Please peruse it well before bidding farewell, making sure things are just the way you want.
One last important detail: the system closes down at 12:00 noon the day before your order (be it Sunday or Tuesday, in accordance with your delivery day). Please update the system prior to that deadline, or otherwise this will not be doable. Please do not delay or miss this deadline. Please do not send us late requests for changes. Thank you very much.
And although we are making way for automation, we always want to hear from you directly (email is best) in these cases: if you change your delivery address (in order for us to confirm delivery days, which are divided into areas), email addresses (so we can update them in the invoice system) and, of course, if you’re leaving us (so we can say goodbye and make sure we stop charging your cards…)
Of course, we’re still here (though we hope “here” is more in the field from now on) to explain and assist you in becoming acquainted with the system. Hoping it will be simple and efficient for all of us.
And now, a word to you, our English-speaking members: Unfortunately the system is not 100% English-enabled, although a great deal of the site is dual-language. Please be brave (as all Chubeza members are indeed) and try to use the system. If you do run into hurdles, however, then you can certainly email me, as always. My thanks!
So… let’s begin now!
This is a good time to acknowledge and thank Yehoshua and Dror, who recently joined the staff to share the burden of office work– and remind me how nice it is to work peacefully and breathe easily. Thank you both very much!
May we have a great week, of leaving the times of Bein HaMetzarim, of refreshing and regenerating summer vacations and new beginnings. Good luck to us all!
Alon, Bat Ami and the Chubeza team
IMPORTANT NOTE FROM THE TRANSLATORS: On behalf of all of us, we wish Bat-Ami a wonderful birthday (which was on Tisha B’Av…..), and 120 joyous years of continuing to make this earth a more beautiful place!
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WHAT’S IN THIS WEEK’S BOXES?
Monday: parsley, lettuce, our very own onions ( picked this week!), eggplant or zucchini, long Thai lubia (cowpeas) or green soybeans (edamame), tomatoes, cucumbers, a slice of Provence pumpkin, cherry/grape tomatoes, potatoes, acorn squash
In the large box, in addition: corn, verbena (“Louisa”), okra
Wednesday: carrots (from another farm), lettuce, Provence pumpkin, tomatoes, our very own onions ( picked this week!), Kabocha or acorn squash, cucumbers, potatoes, parsley, cherry tomatoes, green soybeans (edamame) or okra.
In the large box, in addition: yard long Thai beans, eggplants, zucchini
And there’s more! You can add to your basket a wide, delectable range of additional products from fine small producers: granola and cookies, flour, sprouts, goat dairies, fruits, honey, crackers, probiotic foods, dried fruits and leathers and organic olive oil too! You can learn more about each producer on the Chubeza website. On our order system there’s a detailed listing of the products and their cost, you can make an order online now!