Beverage Factory

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
A

acslater55

Member
Joined
Feb 2, 2011
Messages
15
Reaction score
0
Location
sandwich
This isn't a rant or anything just want to share my experience so far.

Ordered a Haier kegerator from beveragefactory.com on 3/14. No problems with the delivery on 3/24. I spent an hour putting it together, plugged the unit in. I hear a hissing sound coming from the back, and immediately unplug the unit. Thining what the hell was that? Plug it backin in the same sound. Traced it to a hole in one of the welds in the compressor and the refrigerant is leaking out.

Called them the next day. What I wanted to hear was: Oh my gosh sir we are so sorry we will send out a new unit immediately and take back the defective one instead.

What I heard instead: We will contact the Haier company about what to do, then we will get back to you. I asked how long that will take, they said they didn't know a few days. It is now 6 days, from when I called still no word from them. Contacted them again, they said it takes a week to hear from Haier and then they will tell me what to do.

So its likely to be at least 2-3 weeks while this thing gets resolved. Sh*tty customer service if you ask me.

If you buy a laptop from Dell and it doesn't turn on, they don't tell you to wait while they contact Intel on what to do. They take the unit back.
 
That sucks. I had good luck with them ordering my kegerator. Remember, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. You need to start squeaking a lot more.

_
 
Not trying to be a jerk, but Dell makes the computers, Beverage Factory doesn't make the Haier Kegerator.

I still think it is ****ty customer service, they need to stand by the products they sell, they can easily send the unit back to Haier for credit ,and supply you with a new one, my guess is they don't want to have to pay shipping for you to send it to them, and then shipping to send it back to Haier, but then again, Haier should take care of the shipping from BF to them, and BF should take care of shipping from you to them.

Also something to think about, maybe BF had it drop-shipped directly from Haier, regardless they sold the item to you, so ultimately they are responsible.

Hopefully they will take care of you and you'll be singing a different tune in a week or two, otherwise, I hope you used your credit card at least you can dispute the charge if necessary.

Good Luck!:mug:
 
This is why I prefer to get things like this via Amazon... I got my current TV from them... When the first arrived, it ran for about 15 minutes, then died... Got a hold of them (entered my number in their page, they called within a couple of minutes) and they sent out a replacement right away. They also issued the pickup of the first one (same time)... The people delivering the TV brought it into my apartment and even set it up for me (they didn't the first time, so I mentioned it to the person from Amazon, they did it the second time)...

I would call back BF and start moving up the food chain... Keep going until you get someone that sends you the replacement and picks up the defective unit... OR get a full refund and have them issue a pickup of the bad one. No reason why you should have to wait WEEKS for them to tell you what they'll do to resolve the issue.
 
I had a similar experience with Beverage Factory. They are all good until you have a problem, then they fall asleep or something. I even bugged them and still very slow to get replies. I went to the manufacture (Taprite) with my problem and got instant results. Try contacting Haier directly and tell them about your problem.
 
I had something similar happen with a tower I got from them. One of the shank nuts was stripped and it was like pulling teeth to get them to stick one in an envelope and send it to me. I mean we are talking about a $.25 part at most plus USPS postage.
 
This is why it is better to buy large or expensive items from a local supplier. Anyone you can stand eye to eye with will take care of you, and you'd be all set by now. Vote with your wallet and don't give your money to companies that can ignore you. You pay a little more here and there, but you get what you pay for.
 
Brandonovich said:
This is why it is better to buy large or expensive items from a local supplier. Anyone you can stand eye to eye with will take care of you, and you'd be all set by now. Vote with your wallet and don't give your money to companies that can ignore you. You pay a little more here and there, but you get what you pay for.
Click to expand...

Third option, build it yourself, and customize it to your specifications, might not get the instant gratification, but you will have a truly awesome item in which every time you pull the tap handle and pur a pint, you can think to yourself, "I made this!"
 
Thanks for the replies. I just wanted to share my experience and give back a little since this forum has been so good to me. I can definitely say that I will never ever ever buy from them again, and I likely would have if this had not happened. I typically buy from local stores, but the price on this thing was too good to ignore and I thought I would roll the dice. I just encourage anyone else who is considering buying from beveragefactory.com to think twice.

If anyone who works at Beverage Factory reads this thread you better tighten it up.
 
U need to just tell them u are going to return it. That is the one statement that gets company's moving. They all like u to deal with the manufacture. I tell them i bought the item from u....and if u dont correct this problem fast....I will be returning it to u.
 
I work near them so it's convenient to stop by and pick up stuff instead of having to pay for shipping, but I agree their cust service seems to be lacking.

I ordered some kegging stuff from them a few weeks back to pick up, and was called to be told that the ball lock QDs i ordered were backordered, and it would be 2 weeks before they came in. A few days later I went and picked up the rest, and they told me it would be 1 week before the QD came in. Better news then the first time. I got busy and let the two weeks go by, until I called yesterday. They said it would be another week before they come in. wth? If I knew it was going to be 3 weeks to begin with I would've just payed shipping from some other place (particularly since I ordered some other stuff from AHBS that will be arriving early next week).
 
Call your CC and see if you can get a local HVAC guy come out and have that bill deducted from what BF gets. Or just put a stop on the payment and see how fast it gets resolved. explain to the CC about the shipping costs.
 
Ok so now its now April 4 and I have finally heard back from BF after 8 days. They are having Haier come to pick up the defective unit. But, they aren't bringing me a new one that day. Then I have to call BF to give them the tracking number then they will send me another unit.

So to get this resolved so far I will have to take 3 days off from work. And wait who knows how long. Here is the summary of the transaction.

3/10 - kegerator ordered
3/16 - kegerator ships after they have to wait 5 days for parts to arrive
3/24 - kegerator arrives
3/25 - call BF to tell them its broken
4/4 -finally get a response about what to do
4/7 - Haier comes to pick up kegerator
4/? - BF will send me a new one,

Likely 4 weeks from when it arrived will I actually have something that works. They aren't worse the hassle, don't deal with them. Just my advice. They are also useless on the phone. I had to ask specifically if I needed to strip the parts off the kegerator and re-pack it. The answer was yes, but they were going to hang up without even mentioning it. They are a PIA!!!!!!!!!!
 
acslater55 said:
Ok so now its now April 4 and I have finally heard back from BF after 8 days. They are having Haier come to pick up the defective unit. But, they aren't bringing me a new one that day. Then I have to call BF to give them the tracking number then they will send me another unit.

So to get this resolved so far I will have to take 3 days off from work. And wait who knows how long. Here is the summary of the transaction.

3/10 - kegerator ordered
3/16 - kegerator ships after they have to wait 5 days for parts to arrive
3/24 - kegerator arrives
3/25 - call BF to tell them its broken
4/4 -finally get a response about what to do
4/7 - Haier comes to pick up kegerator
4/? - BF will send me a new one,

Likely 4 weeks from when it arrived will I actually have something that works. They aren't worse the hassle, don't deal with them. Just my advice. They are also useless on the phone. I had to ask specifically if I needed to strip the parts off the kegerator and re-pack it. The answer was yes, but they were going to hang up without even mentioning it. They are a PIA!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

ask for a discount if they are unwilling to provide one, just take your money back, and pay a few dollars more for the unit elsewhere.
 
i work for a retailer who deals in haier products...from experience i know i can contact them any business day during 'office' hours, and i can get results almost immediately...that's poor service/effort on BF's part if they cant get in contact for a week or more...hope it works out for you, but i'd strike them from my list of places to purchase in the future.

my $0.02

keeblerelf
 
Yeah, I'd call and ask what they can do for you. If nothing, return it (check store policy first). If it doesn't work out of the box I'm sure your CC company would back you.
 
Crap service sucks. When I ran my own business we jumped for our customers, just about what ever they needed they got.

Thanks for the heads up on another crap vendor. I'd for sure call, email & write to the CC company asking them to investigate the transaction.
 
I have to agree with all of this- I placed two orders with them, and one of them ended up on indefinite back order. The other was incomplete, and I had to wait another week and a half to get everything. Don't order from them!
 
acslater55 said:
Ok so now its now April 4 and I have finally heard back from BF after 8 days. They are having Haier come to pick up the defective unit. But, they aren't bringing me a new one that day. Then I have to call BF to give them the tracking number then they will send me another unit.

So to get this resolved so far I will have to take 3 days off from work. And wait who knows how long. Here is the summary of the transaction.

3/10 - kegerator ordered
3/16 - kegerator ships after they have to wait 5 days for parts to arrive
3/24 - kegerator arrives
3/25 - call BF to tell them its broken
4/4 -finally get a response about what to do
4/7 - Haier comes to pick up kegerator
4/? - BF will send me a new one,

Likely 4 weeks from when it arrived will I actually have something that works. They aren't worse the hassle, don't deal with them. Just my advice. They are also useless on the phone. I had to ask specifically if I needed to strip the parts off the kegerator and re-pack it. The answer was yes, but they were going to hang up without even mentioning it. They are a PIA!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

OK make that 4/11 and they picked up the kegerator. Ironically exactly a month after I ordered a kegerator I am right back where I started with nothing. Great thanks!
 
I've ordered a lot of keggerator parts to build mine from BF. Great quick service. No issues at all. Sucks you had bad luck with them.
 
note to self... not ordering from beverage factory.
im cool with things being broken sometimes... but if it is the company better fix it with no hassle and not cause me more problems.
 
I recently purchased a Rancilio Silvia V3 home espresso machine from them. The unit looks used. With the obvious are the dents and scratches on the front and tray. I contacted them, and they wanted photos. I sent them photos. They said they will contact the manufacturer. I called Rancilio who confirmed that this type of issues are handled by the retailer, not them. So obviously they are lying to me. This might very well be a used machine. What should I do? If I returned it, I already trashed all the packages. They will charge me 15% "restocking fee". If I keep it, it's used with the best bet of having the scratched pieces replaced. Any wise advise out there?
 
If you paid by credit card, dispute the charges, save all correspondence and supply it to credit card company. Call Rancillo back and ask them to email or write you what they said.

I wouldn't let them get away with that kind of crap.
 
samc: I would like to. It's going to be a tough battle. I have to prove that the machine is used. So far I can only show them the scrapes/scratches. What's under the hood is hard to tell. :mad:
 
The customer rep wrote back saying that she would contact the manufacturer again and see what "they" say.
 
I ordered a bunch of parts from BF for my kegerator build. It included 2 tap towers, with additional perlick faucets. BF sent me the correct material, but didn't send out the chrome faucets that were supposed to come with the tap towers. When I called, they eventually fixed it, but it seemed like they were trying to keep the extra material because I wouldn't need it...I dunno, I'm probably overthinking this one, but it happened twice. I can't say I was real pleased.
 
I purchased a kegging kit from them about 2 months ago, and wow what a great company! I did have to warranty out a regulator and one of the kegs which was a bit of downside on the product side, but when I called them they paid for shipping, warrantied it out with no problem, shipped everything faster than expected, and were great to talk to on the phone! The product was all packaged extremely well and was very cosmetically appealing! Not only that, but I spent well over 5 hours of research of the cheapest place to buy a setup and they were, by far, the best priced online. I would highly recommend Beveragefactory.com to anyone! Well done guys! :mug:
 
I ordered from them and they were by far the lowest price. The only problem I had was they didn't have the regulator in stock that came with the kit. They didn't have that posted on their site and didn't notify me until I called after I received my package and it was missing. They offered to replace it with a lesser model for the same price. I thought they would have offered a free upgrade or given me the lesser one for less than the one I paid for since it was a step down. It took about a month to get it but considering it was a good price I guess I would look to order from them again.
 
BWN, I had a similar experience. Ordered a full 2 tap tower setup from them and got notice 6 days later that the chrome tower for my tower/faucet combo was on back order. So my order didn't ship until 19 days after my initial order date.

But darn their prices are good, sooo I ordered from them again. My second order from them went off without a hitch :)
 
With the Beverage Factory.com. It was time for an upgrade to the 'ole kegerator....so I ordered the triple tap tower with 100% stainless contact. The item arrived quickly but I was dismayed about the quality of the standard stainless faucets that came with it:(. I called to complain and spoke with a lovely young lady by the name of Katie. She asked that I send a picture of the faucets, which I did. She called me right back and offered to send three brand new Perlick 525ss faucets:ban:...to replace the old ones, gratis. She even told me I could keep the originals. They definately took a bad situation and turned it into a positive one for this customer. It's also nice to see customer service is not yet dead in this country:)
 
I have had positive experiences in the past with BeverageFactory, but I felt the need to share the story I am currently experiencing. This is verbatim the e-mail I just sent to their support team.

I am extremely frustrated with BeverageFactory at this point.

I shipped back two Perlick 525ss stainless faucet/shank combo kits on February 21st.

It was delivered on Monday February 24th, approximately 11AM.

I received no communication about the receipt of that item for two days. On February 26th, I inquired as to the status of the return. I was then informed that returns are only processed on Fridays (this information is not listed anywhere on the site).

On Sunday, March 2nd (6-7 days after the return arrived in your warehouse), I received a refund for 56.95, the price of one of the two Perlick combos I shipped back.

Monday, March 3rd, I contacted support, upset that one of the two items I returned (with the proper forms filled out) were not credit back to my account. I was told that they would check with the warehouse and be back with more information shortly. Several hours later, near the end of EOB for the day, I called again, having not heard anything. I was told the warehouse manager hadn't gotten back to the support team yet.

Tuesday, March 4th, at 3:07 pm, I received a voicemail indicating that they had located the second perlick combo that I had shipped back, and the funds would be back in my account within 24-48 hours.

It is now Sunday, March 9th. 13 days since the combos arrived at your return center, and I have still yet to be fully refunded.

This is extremely frustrating, and is starting to turn me off to your company as a whole. I understand an oversight can happen, but there seem to be multiple failures on this particular order. I have shared this e-mail on the Homebrewtalk forums, and am hoping I can update with a positive result, but I'm seriously beginning to wonder if I'm ever going to receive the second $56.95 I'm owed.

The order number was #######. I hope this can be resolved, because I'd love to continue ordering in the future, my previous experiences have been great, but this is putting a seriously sour taste in my mouth.
Click to expand...
 
I bought a kegerator from Beverage Factory a couple years ago with no hiccups. I recently moved to a new place and somewhere in the transition the foot to the kegerator went MIA.

I called Beverage Factory with the intent on purchasing a replacement foot. I did my homework to find the part number since the left and right foot are different (annoying). I gave the nice lady on the phone full disclosure - I lost the foot during a move and would like to buy a new one. She asked my name and number to pull up the order and put me on a brief hold. She came back to tell me they will go ahead and ship out a new foot for me at no charge, not even shipping.

The foot showed up yesterday via UPS after less than a week since the phone call. Color me happy and impressed with their customer service.
 
ive generally had a pretty good experience with them in building my kegerator kit...i purchased it thru ebay and checked the "local pickup" option since im in San Diego. very easy and great pricing! the kit has been going strong for a couple years now with no hiccups! (knock on wood)
 

Similar threads

N
My Experience with SS Brewtech
2
Replies
41
Views
2K
ninkwood
N
T
Shout out to Morebeer
Replies
17
Views
990
Slim M
S
Z
Cure #1 & Cure #2 Deeper understanding
Replies
0
Views
373
Z-Menace
Z
N
Insignia Kegerator Thermostat Issue - Freezing Kegs
Replies
3
Views
1K
Clint Yeastwood
Clint Yeastwood
B
240v : Scary start of brew
Replies
9
Views
698
passedpawn
passedpawn
Williams Brewing 300

Latest posts

Back
Top