NB- Credit where credit is due

I recently purchased an order from Northern Brewer of around 80 dollars. When I received Wyeast pack i realized it was manufactured in early June. This left me a viability of 50%. I sent an email regarding my frustration- no time for a multistep starter, I'm making a lager.

They sent an email back, very fast with options of either refunding the yeast pack or sending me a new pack via overnight. They also tacked on a $30 gift card. I asked for the overnight option and if i could tack on a small items (1lb flaked corn, 1lb grain, 1oz hops) they added that to shipment free of cost.

I'm really impressed with the customer service provided by NB. Maybe they see how much money Ive spent there with my year of homebrewing- probably close to 1000 dollars. I'm so used to customer service being **** these days!

Any similar experiences with NB or other retailers?

Retailers who don't see the value of this kind of customer service are doomed to dingy corners of off-the-beaten-path strip malls. Good for you and NB.

Nice! +1

Pilgarlic said:

Retailers who don't see the value of this kind of customer service are doomed to dingy corners of off-the-beaten-path strip malls. Good for you and NB.

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Some still don't give a flying F, especially these big companies that are already established. I see what your saying tho.

I had a similar experience with NB - they are local to me (90 mins). I ordered 20 ft of siphon tubing and got 10. I emailed them, got a near immediate reply and the extra tubing shipped out that night, got it the next day. They threw in a pint glass as well. Love them and am loyal to them

I've email a question about a kit on a Sunday. And got a response that day. Didn't expect that at all.

They sent the wrong grains with one kit that I did a while back (everything else was correct). I sent them an email and boom, they sent me a complete new kit, even offered a $10 coupon on top of that which I declined as being a bit too much. Very good customer service. Everything else I've ordered has been correct and well done.

It costs them something to do this, but it is good business for them down the road. Not too many companies do this anymore - nowadays the bean counters would look at this and only see a cut in the quarterly profits and would scream that they should just stiff the customer. Yeah, technically that's the "right" way to keep costs down, but very time you do that it is another nail in the coffin of your long term business. Boosts the numbers for the quarter but sinks the entire company in a few years.

Northern Brewer has steep shipping costs and somewhat slow shipping, but they do have awesome customer service.

Cool story bro: the day after I submitted an order with them, they sent out an e-mail with a special offer of cheap flat-rate shipping on orders over a certain amount (which my order would have qualified for). I sent them an e-mail saying I was bummed, not really expecting anything to come of it; just wanted to vent. Well they went ahead and applied the offer to my order retroactively. Stand-up guys (and gals, presumably).

I also love their wide variety of LME; I just wish they had cheaper shipping so I wouldn't have to plan several batches in advance. If NB had a program like Amazon Prime - pay an annual fee and everything is free shipping - I would sign up in a heartbeat.

Not necessarily a Northern Brewer experience, but still along the same lines:

When I buy online, I usually try to alternate between Northern Brewer and Midwest Supplies. My last purchase was from Midwest, and since it was mid summer with fall on the way, I ordered a sack of pilsner malt. I asked to have it crushed since I haven't sprung for a grain mill yet. When I got the sack, it was still whole kernels. I called them up right away to see about getting the couple bucks they charge for milling refunded. Instead they sent a new sack of malt, milled, free of charge - including free shipping which is not trivial for a sack of grain!

Now I need to figure out what to do with 100 lbs of pilsner malt

chocotaco said:

Northern Brewer has steep shipping costs and somewhat slow shipping, but they do have awesome customer service.

Cool story bro: the day after I submitted an order with them, they sent out an e-mail with a special offer of cheap flat-rate shipping on orders over a certain amount (which my order would have qualified for). I sent them an e-mail saying I was bummed, not really expecting anything to come of it; just wanted to vent. Well they went ahead and applied the offer to my order retroactively. Stand-up guys (and gals, presumably).

I also love their wide variety of LME; I just wish they had cheaper shipping so I wouldn't have to plan several batches in advance. If NB had a program like Amazon Prime - pay an annual fee and everything is free shipping - I would sign up in a heartbeat.

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Thats a good idea. Pitch it to em.

Flatspin said:

Now I need to figure out what to do with 100 lbs of pilsner malt

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100 LB of pilsner malt is dangerous, it might attract moths or something. You should send at least all of that to me before something bad happens.

Regarding the Prime-style arrangement: the trouble with that is that it doesn't make money. Amazon has broken even (or posted extremely modest profits) for a decade, and its business model is only functional because it has financial backers who are OK with not making money right now. It's anyone's guess where this is headed - a lot of folks think they're going to kill the competition and then jack the prices up - but what is certain is that Amazon tactics just don't fly for anyone smaller than Amazon, which is everyone.

I'm fortunate enough to live next to an amazing LHBS (the Vermont Homebrew Supply in Winooski) so I don't spend a lot of time ordering online, but between Northern Brewer and Midwest, NB is the one with the shopping cart that doesn't have a seizure and drop my products if I walk away for an hour because I wanted to check if I needed airlocks before I hit the checkout and I got distracted drinking beer and cleaning a carboy I should have cleaned a week ago.

I recently ordered an all-grain kit and they left out the Citra dry hops. I called them as soon as I discovered it and they shipped them out right away, no questions asked. Took 4 or 5 days to get to me but they're for dry-hopping so no big deal.

My only concern is they ship all the grains in one big bag, so I'll just have to trust that the company that couldn't get a simple hops bill right did indeed get the grain bill right.

chocotaco said:

If NB had a program like Amazon Prime - pay an annual fee and everything is free shipping - I would sign up in a heartbeat.

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I actually just suggested this idea to them in a c/s survey about 2 weeks ago. If I could get expedited free shipping and special offer every month I'd throw down $100/year for a membership and I'd likely spend more money than would have otherwise.

Milan37 said:

I'll just have to trust that the company that couldn't get a simple hops bill right did indeed get the grain bill right.

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Weigh it. That'll only tell you when they omit, not switch... but it's nonetheless helpful.

Flatspin said:

Not necessarily a Northern Brewer experience, but still along the same lines:

When I buy online, I usually try to alternate between Northern Brewer and Midwest Supplies. My last purchase was from Midwest, and since it was mid summer with fall on the way, I ordered a sack of pilsner malt. I asked to have it crushed since I haven't sprung for a grain mill yet. When I got the sack, it was still whole kernels. I called them up right away to see about getting the couple bucks they charge for milling refunded. Instead they sent a new sack of malt, milled, free of charge - including free shipping which is not trivial for a sack of grain!

Now I need to figure out what to do with 100 lbs of pilsner malt

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You ordered 100lbs of grain online?

He ordered 50, crushed, got 50, uncrushed, NB sent him another 50, crushed.

aeviaanah said:

You ordered 100lbs of grain online?

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No, I ordered a sack of grain (50 lbs) and they sent another 50 lbs free of charge.

Not that I have anything against ordering 100 lbs of grain, except shipping would be a killer!

:EDIT: You beat me to it!

Pilgarlic said:

He ordered 50, crushed, got 50, uncrushed, NB sent him another 50, crushed.

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Thanks! lol:rockin:

i like reading things like this.
90% of my personal experience with customer service is negative these days.
i was ranting to my brother about lowes the other day only to catch myself saying, "i guess if i were an hourly makin $beans at a huge corporate chain i wouldn't give a hoot either" i answreed my own question and depressed myself at the same time. I'm 32 now and as i age i continue to get more and more careful with who i give my business to. this story about NB means more to me than all the ads for all hombrew sites combined.
glad to hear they took care of you and i thank you for posting about it.