WORST Home Brew Store experience ever!

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gonzoflick

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 29, 2006
Messages
466
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Location
Orlando, FL
I've just returned home from the worst LHBS experience of my life. I am so upset I had to calm myself down for 10 minutes before writing this. NEVER in my life have I been treated so callously by any store owner. I will give a brief description now of what happened.

I live in Orlando and Heartshomebrew.com (my LHBS) is the only LHBS one I know of around here. I've been in there about 10 times and the man knows my face I'm sure of it. Today I walked into the store and here went my conversation with the owner.

Me: "Hey buddy I'd like to talk to you about your Brown Ale recipe"

Owner: "OK"

Me: "I wanted to kick it up a notch and add a pound of honey. What do you
think?"

Owner: "I think it will be too sweet"

Me: "Yea I thought I would add some more hops to balance this out. Do you think that would work?"

Owner: "You have to look that kind of stuff up on your own. We dont give recipe advice here."

---------------------------BREAK-----------------------------------

This was their own recipe BTW and on the wall they have nothing but awards, ribbons, and trophies for their brews. The guy knows how to give recipe advice.

--------------------------BACK TO CONVERSATION--------------

Me: "Isn't that what these stores are supposed to be all about, helping your customers brew beer?"

Owner: "We are mostly mail order so we don't care about local business."

Me: "Are you saying you dont care about making your customers happy and helping them out"

Owner: "Our local ones, nope. Thats not the kind of business we're in."

Me: "Well buddy you just lost a local one."

Owner: "Ok see ya"

I will stop here because anyone reading this should at this point be as flabbergasted as I am. I've never once in my LIFE heard a store owner say he didnt care about his local customers. This place is set up for retail for sure. Its not like I was walking into a garage were he just ships his supplies out from.

To speak to someone like that, especially someone who you know is a beginner in the awesome hobby of homebrewing, is just downright evil and cruel. If it was might first time in there I would probably be pretty heart broken and not even try to make beer. As it is now I know I can order supplies from online stores and continue my hobby.

This is a vent post but also one to get you'alls thoughts.


Has anyone had experiences like this at their LHBS?

Thoughts please, to make me feel better and not go hurt somebody...
 
What an *******. What a ****ing *******.

Honestly, I don't really feel like discouraging you from hurting someone (as long as it's him).
 
Wow, that is a bad one. I know you probably don't want to hear this, but everyone has bad days. You may want to give him one more shot. Its likely that he was in a bad place and vented, I'd bet he regretted it immediately.
 
By posting his website on a brew forum, you just INCREASED his pagerank. You should remove them, all you're doing it promoting him by posting it.

If you really want to get back, look for sponsored search results and click on them. He pays per click (if he pays at all).

Better yet, Google Bomb him in this way:

NAMBLA

That points to his site, not NAMBLAs, but it will place him on the list of search results when someone queries NAMBLA.
 
In the 10 times Ive been in this store they have been nothing short of rude. I have given them plenty (way more than I should have) of chances to make this right. They continue to act this way. BTW both owners act the same.
 
That is just awful. What a prick!

I disagree with Cheesefood, I think you should keep it on here just because it's bad publicity for him. Your complaints will influence other homebrewers in your area who read that review and maybe they will also choose to boycott. Actually, if I were you, I would post that on as many homebrew forums as you can find. Hurt his local business AND his online business. He'll care when he starts losing more and more customers.
 
Im posting this on brewboard.com as well as writing to my local BBB. Also going to be sending emails to the officers of our local HB clubs.
 
You're right in that the greatest tragedy is for newcomers to the hobby accidentally getting stomped on by this guy. It could easily put someone right out of ever doing anything remotely connected to homebrewing again, and that would be absolutely criminal!

I just visited my LHBS last Friday. It was nerve-wracking for me, as I was alone, and in a town I had never been in before. Thankfully the staff there was so incredibly accommodating and friendly that I was three times as excited to get my batch going on the drive home! It's just that easy to make someone feel really good about brewing.
 
i agree what an *******. he deserves to lose any business for treating local customers that way. and did he get bad reviews from the other link you posted.

here is a link for stores in america hope it helps. also honey is 100% fermentable and leaves no residual sweetness unless of course you make a beer so strong that the yeast poops out before fermenting all the malt then it would sweet. post the recipe for review people on here are always willing to critique unlike that *******.
 
Wow, i now feel real lucky to have the guy I have here in town.

I think sometimes my LHBS owner likes to do things the easy way ie. why would you infusion mash when you can just do a single temp mash- that frustrates me some but he is always willing to help and offer advice if you ask.

To bad Kirks home brew here in lincoln is not a mail order or i would tell you contact him. I bet he would ship though, and his prices are the same as any of the others i have seen on the net.

No i am not kirk...lol, just a loyal customer who he treats fairly.

Reverend
 
Reading that makes me grateful that I have two very helpful LHBS's that I frequent, although one is a bit of a roadtrip...........
 
damn what a funny coincidence me and my microbiology teacher were talking today and he was telling me about this same guy but we live in miami so he mail orders and he was telling me how much of a prick he is but he has great prices and fresh stuff... look up opinions about his store and u will find that everyone hates this guy but they keep going back because of a great products and good prices
 
Simply amazed at that story. My LHBS is TOO helpful! Sometimes I just want to browse, but they're always interested in helping me. I tend not to go there because of their limited selection and poor grain storage methods, but I can't knock their enthusiasm!

Your story reminds me of the FBO at the local airport. The owner of the place won't even give you the time of day (literally!) if you aren't paying for gas. He'll even swipe one of the lounge area magazines right out of your hand if you haven't paid him for anything. If you are unfortunate enough to need fuel, he charges $5.00 a gallon (about $2.00 more than any other airport around) for AvGas. Everyone I know avoids him like the plague, and they'll actually fly over an hour out of their way just to buy their fuel somewhere else.

Some people...
 
Wow!! This is bull****. The entire point of having a LHBS is to help people with their brews and achieve their desired tastes. The entire home brew community is supposed to be a friendly group of individuals willing to help. Screw hearts! Anyone else know of another LHBS in the Orlando area?
 
Wow, horrible and rude service like that is unacceptable to me. I would simply never go back, even if it was the only HBS for miles around.
 
Any of you remember an episode of Seinfeld with the Soup-Nazi?

He's the Homebrew Nazi.

"No Hops for you!!! .... Go to the end of the line.... What did you say? Get Out!!!!"

Everybody goes there because he has the best soup in NYC.

Somebody should email him the link with all of the complaints from his customers. Nobody in their right mind would want to piss customers off unless they are wealthy and get their jollies pissing people off. Maybe the only way to get respect from this is to be just as rude back to stupid a$$.
 
Schlenkerla said:
Somebody should email him the link with all of the complaints from his customers. Nobody in their right mind would want to piss customers off unless they are wealthy and get their jollies pissing people off.

Assuming, of course, that this gentleman is in his right mind...
 
Home Brew Beer Supply
See Our Great Prices
Award Winnning Home Brewers Are Available For Help
- When you need assistance, you want someone who knows the products and techniques that will help you brew beer you´ll love. We´re brewers ourselves. We´ve done our homework and we will steer you in the right direction. Our help line number is (407) 298-4103. The best times to call are before noon and after 4 pm. We want to help you brew better beer. If you don´t see what you want on this on-line-catalog, ASK FOR IT! We´ll get it for you at a terrific price. We hope to hear from you soon, and as always, we appreciate your business! Happy Brewing!



The above came from his site! F***ing losers...damn false advertisment.
 
funny you mention this. I was there last weekend visiting family as I don't live in Orlando. My brother-in-law told me about his experiences there and I thought what someone did earlier in this post..."must have been a bad day." When I saw the customer service first hand I almost had to laugh. One word responses to simple questions...oh well. We picked up a fax in order form for any future purchases! maybe that's what they want...too bad.
 
Are you sure this guy was the owner and not just a manager or employee? If he is the owner, he'll probably run his business into the ground soon anyway. If he is just a manager or clerk, I'd talk to the real owner. If I had a business and someone talked like that to a customer, I'd fire them right on the spot.
 
New brewer here too, same experience at Heart's. He even said to me that he is not inerested in "local walk in business". I did find that on their site that there is a "call in order" or emailin order. Just fill it out and pick up order nest day, pay at the counter..... So long Dave!!!!!!!

O2phly
 
Dave is the gentleman's name and yes he is the Owner, unfortunatly for me because there is no one higher in the food chain there to tell about the horrible service.
 
:rockin: Hmmm nasty emails...that will make his day! HAHAHA...people get what they deserve. Treat others the way you would want to be treated, well clearly he wants to be treated like $hit. Sorry, I just cant stand people like that. I was so mad when I first read about this. Rock on Homebrewers!:rockin:
 
That's just awful. We have a local homebrew shop (www.perfectbrewing.com) that *is* just basically a garage where they warehouse their supplies and ship them off to internet customers. It's located in a fenced off area inside an electronics warehouse. The owner *there* is always happy to see us and practically talks our ears off about homebrew, mead, hot sauce, gumbo, and tells corny jokes. It's great. And his primary employee has shared some of his homebrew with us (we owe him a couple next time we go back.) I'm pretty sure that they appreciate the local business because it saves them on shipping. Plus, since he's by far the most convenient place for us to go, he knows we'll be back, spending something like $100+ every two weeks.

If your guy "doesn't care about local business", he should close up the storefront and ship out of his house. It'd be a lot cheaper on rent.
 
WAGNER BREWING said:
Home Brew Beer Supply
See Our Great Prices
Award Winnning Home Brewers Are Available For Help
- When you need assistance, you want someone who knows the products and techniques that will help you brew beer you´ll love. We´re brewers ourselves. We´ve done our homework and we will steer you in the right direction. Our help line number is (407) 298-4103. The best times to call are before noon and after 4 pm. We want to help you brew better beer. If you don´t see what you want on this on-line-catalog, ASK FOR IT! We´ll get it for you at a terrific price. We hope to hear from you soon, and as always, we appreciate your business! Happy Brewing!



The above came from his site! F***ing losers...damn false advertisment.
I read that too...:mad:

Let's all email him and say we heard his service sucks....:D
 
Maybe someone should just email him a link to this thread...maybe he'll get a clue!

Unfortunately, this shop sounds an awful lot like my local homebrew supply shop.
 
Incidentally, one of the owners (not the clerk in question here, I don't believe) did respond over on the greenboard. Basically acknowledged/took responsibility for the problem and pledged to try and correct it.
 
I'm glad for that update. I hope its not just piss in the wind.

But, ****, if that is the owner's attitiude, why have a store front if you don't care about selling to locals? Get a warehouse in the middle of nowhere and save some bucks.

Idiots.
 
Just read this...I live in kissimmee and that's where i do my shopping.. I had to go through the same ****.. 2 guys run the place and they were both ********. I went once with my girlfriend when i was first starting to brew and she couldn't believe how rude they were. I think they might have read this because they are cool now.Or maybe it's because i know what I'm doing now and don't ask them questions.Everytime i go in there now i bull**** for 15-20 minutes..
 
Wow, that is a bad one. I know you probably don't want to hear this, but everyone has bad days. You may want to give him one more shot. Its likely that he was in a bad place and vented, I'd bet he regretted it immediately.

As an owner of a business for 16 years, the one luxury you don't have as an owner is bad days in customers presence. There is no excuse possible for this type of attitude and behavior.
 
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