Hey guys - I just now saw this thread, and I'm not sure of what to say first, or if it will help matters any. But I'll try.
to the OP - i cannot explain how sorry I am that you got the service you did over the phone. There is no excuse for that, nor is that something we are ok with as a company. Kyle is a great employee and makes some great beer. Of course that doesn't make the issue resolved.
inventory - one thing I am doing as the MoreBeer brand manager is to review the items that are on back order each day, so make sure that 1 - they are on order, and 2 - that we are indeed out of stock. Sometimes we do put things on back order online that we have stock on, and this is to prevent more orders for a product than we have in stock, which was a big issue of ours last year, and one that we have been reducing for awhile now. We would rather sit on the 5 units of whatever than oversell them and have to contact customers to tell them we are out of something that they thought was in stock. An issue that is obviously important to you guys - to me too.
As some of you have pointed out, we have been working on systems to properly handle live inventory for some time now. We have made some solid ground progress, and expect some new systems in place within the next 4-5 months. Chris has been locked in his office for the last 2 weeks writing out a plan for the back room to impliment these changes as smoothly as possible. This is not to brush away any issues or problems, but rather to just let you all know that we see these as very high priority items and ones that the owners are working on currently.
Also, we have had a few issues with our supply chains in this economy. someone mentioned hazelnut extract - perfect example! We called on this product every week, and were told "oh next week for sure". So this is the information we relay to you. When it falls short, we are upset, because not only are we pissing off our customers, but it looks like we are lying and that we could really care less. It's a dificult place to be in.
I don't want anyone to feel that we don't care about loosing customers. It's something that I worry about a lot. I know we mess up sometimes, and I know that we are out of stock on items, but both of those are steadily improving based on the data we have been monitoring over the past three years. I know it's hard to see when you are the consumer, and easy to see when you are the retailer, so I fully understand the frustration. The only thing I can say is we will get better, we have gotten better, and we will continue to get better.
If anyone here has an issue with an order or some aspect of service, please contact me directly and I will do my best to deal with the issue. Our customer service can be over-loaded this time of year, so anything I can do to help them and you out, I'll do it.