They should actually increase the "small fee" option to be about 30% higher than the recommended minimum fee, to prevent instances like this. I once bought some jewelry from someone and the tx
took 2 hours to confirm with the minimum recommended fee, since then I pay higher than the recommended minimum and all my tx's goes through without a problem. The problem is, if everyone
starts to increase the minimum, then we will get stuck with the same problem.
{ I once bypassed this problem, by asking the receiver to open a Xapo account and he did... I then send him a
off-chain transfer and he got near instant payment, but this is just a temporary solution }