Northernbrewer had to go and change their site :-/

And it's full of glitches. I just sent them an email cause I was going to order up some stuff tonight but can't be bothered now. This is part of what I sent them:

"I just had to write to let you know the new website design is a disaster. There was no need to change what worked and now I can't use the search - try it yourself... type in Carb Drops and all you'll get is a full page of beer kits with the item I am looking for all the way at the bottom. Same goes for typing in 1056 (wyeast). Not only can I not deal with the poor search results, but once I click an item to go to its page it no longer shows the price!! Add to that it now takes twice as many clicks to get to what I am looking for and it's not laid out in any convenient fashion. To find tubing I had to click Shop -> Brewing -> Equipment -> Racking Equipment -> Tubing. I was going to place an order this evening but am not going to bother, especially because I can't see the prices when I'm on the item page."

I really can't stand when a company changes their site that was working so well for no apparent logical reason whatsoever to something that just doesn't work as good. It seems almost always when a company changes stuff it's for the worst. That's one of the things I like about Google's search engine - after all this time it's still pretty much the same simple page. They did try some new things but wisely removed them when they saw the public reaction.

Anyhow, it's just a website... I'm not fuming mad about it, just annoyed.


Rev.

Nobody cares, this isn't customer service.

_

wildwest450 said:

Nobody cares, this isn't customer service.

_

Click to expand...

Thanks for speaking for everybody

??? When I type carb drops in it's the first hit. Same with 1056. Search for tubing comes up with relevant results and prices. Either they are really fast to respond to complaints or something is up on your end.

Can't log into my account to check order status, thought it was my computer.

blizzard said:

??? When I type carb drops in it's the first hit. Same with 1056. Search for tubing comes up with relevant results and prices. Either they are really fast to respond to complaints or something is up on your end.

Click to expand...

Interestingly, I get the same results as OP. carb drops and Wyeast 1056 both yield beer kits. Appears to be the same list of beer kits, in fact. At least it starts with the same beer (Lakefront Brewery IBA Pro Series All Grain Kit).

I had no problem placing my order last night. Worked like a charm for me.

blizzard said:

??? When I type carb drops in it's the first hit. Same with 1056. Search for tubing comes up with relevant results and prices. Either they are really fast to respond to complaints or something is up on your end.

Click to expand...

Not something on my end - it does it with both my PC and android phone.


Rev.

blizzard said:

??? When I type carb drops in it's the first hit. Same with 1056. Search for tubing comes up with relevant results and prices. Either they are really fast to respond to complaints or something is up on your end.

Click to expand...

I actually like the new site design - but the issue he's complaining about happens to me too. Only thing is, I think the old site did the same thing...

Burgs said:

I actually like the new site design - but the issue he's complaining about happens to me too. Only thing is, I think the old site did the same thing...

Click to expand...

The old site definitely did not. I've been using it almost a year now, it was great. I found another glitch today - the shipping estimate quote doesn't work. You put in your zipcode or state whatever and click for the quote and get nothing. Confirmed on two separate machines and I've notified them about it. This sucks for me cause I was planning on possibly doing a 2 day shipping since I'm ordering a little late in the week and need two things for brewing this weekend and it sure would help to know how much more the 2-day shipping will be.


Rev.

LOL, scratch the above. They fixed the shipping quote already. At least they are fixing the problems quickly. I emailed them a few hours ago about the shipping quote and it's fixed now. They also fixed the prices missing from the products pages this morning.

I'm glad pointing these things out has helped them get them fixed quickly. But man... I wonder if some poor chap is getting chewed out because of it. Some of these are pretty big mistakes to overlook. I'm probably not the only customer to have pointed some of these things out when trying to place an order.


Rev.

Well NB had to do something. Midwest Supplies just launched their new site last week. Can't be one upped I guess.

Ha, I just realized when I checked those searches I was still viewing the old site. New site is up today and the search returns a lot of kits.

New site worked fine for me, I placed a order earlier today no problems at all.

when i go to NB, all that shows is just a script of what is in my wishlist. But if i type in nothernbrewer.com/shop it works fine

The new site is still a pain on the phone. I always make my list on my phone before I go there. I wish they would make it phone friendly.

Yeah a lot of their links are broken in the product descriptions too. I'm sure it will all shake out though.

Airplanedoc said:

New site worked fine for me, I placed a order earlier today no problems at all.

Click to expand...

Remember, I contacted them to let them know a lot of the issues and they have been resolving them. So when you used it a number of things were fixed already. They fixed the shipping quote within 2 hours of my emailing them. So they are on it.


Rev.

I placed an order right before it crashed. I had an email in the morning stating that their site had glitched and that they had undercharged me a little bit, and because of the crash had lost my payment info. I called and gave them the payment info again and they gave me a 10% discount for the "inconvenience." Sweet! But I still prefer the old site. I think it was easier to navigate.

I agree, there are a lot of bugs to be worked. However, I like the design, particularly the index page. I was always confused on the old site why the first page made you select beer making or wine making first.

Similarly the AHB front page has that annoying "shop" button. The front page should be what you land on after you click "shop." Seems like an unnecessary step.

I have read these same complaints with other site changes. After a few days the problems get fixed and people get used to the new format. Then the post change to: I like the new format, please add this.. Wait a while and everything will be OK. I placed my order last night and had no problems. I did not use search since everything I ordered were ingredients so I used that area. It seemed to work about the same as it did before the change.

The only thing I miss so far is the rating stars. I used them for comparison between similar items. Then I would read some reviews to see what problems have been found with an item and decide for myself.

maxam said:

Similarly the AHB front page has that annoying "shop" button. The front page should be what you land on after you click "shop." Seems like an unnecessary step.

Click to expand...

Exactly! I think the new Northern site looks like the old Midwest site, which is bizarre because Midwests site looked ancient and they changed it recently. I think the last Northern site looked way classier. But yeah, the shop button is rather redundant.


Rev.

Rev2010 said:

Not something on my end - it does it with both my PC and android phone.


Rev.

Click to expand...

Get a Mac and an iPhone.

KFH said:

Get a Mac and an iPhone.

Click to expand...

Zing!

Sent from my iPhone

KFH said:

Get a Mac and an iPhone.

Click to expand...

Same thing I thought, your computer and phone suck ... Looks great on an iPad

KFH said:

Get a Mac and an iPhone.

Click to expand...

Then also buy a pink polo (be sure to pop the collar), only buy Starbucks coffee, drop the brewing in exchange for wine (Reds only of course), and whatever you do, you must move into a loft in your closest downtown area, you must!

DannPM said:

Then also buy a pink polo (be sure to pop the collar), only buy Starbucks coffee, drop the brewing in exchange for wine (Reds only of course), and whatever you do, you must move into a loft in your closest downtown area, you must!

Click to expand...

I like downtown lofts, red wine, and Starbucks coffee. What are we talking about?

joeybeer said:

Same thing I thought, your computer and phone suck ... Looks great on an iPad

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Not quite. I use Ubuntu Linux for my general internet machine, Windows 7 on my audio DAW, and at work Windows 7 and the site had the same look and problems across all platforms. You Apple fan boys really... just really.

I had an iPhone 3G for 2 years and it was a decent device, but I got sick of it, typing on it, and the limitations. Couldn't be happier now and can do way more than any iDrone device. But you guys have fun with your toys and severely over priced PC's


Rev.

Tried to place an order tonight and was unable to put anything into my "cart". I can't stand the new site. I was forced to order elsewhere. They need to tell that web designer to quit drinking so much homebrew and fix this damn thing!

breez7 said:

Tried to place an order tonight and was unable to put anything into my "cart". I can't stand the new site. I was forced to order elsewhere. They need to tell that web designer to quit drinking so much homebrew and fix this damn thing!

Click to expand...

Tell me about it. I actually loved the original site, I thought it was very clean and classy looking and completely functional. It really boggles my mind when they change it all up and it's almost always for the worst.

Midwest's site sure was outdated looking. It did look like a site from the mid-90's but it was still functional. So it was purely a visual aesthetic but I can see why they revamped it. Northern however had no reason to as far as I can see. In this thread alone they lost two orders because of the problems, yours and mine. I can only imagine how many other customers went elsewhere when encountering these issues.


Rev.

breez7 said:

Tried to place an order tonight and was unable to put anything into my "cart". I can't stand the new site. I was forced to order elsewhere. They need to tell that web designer to quit drinking so much homebrew and fix this damn thing!

Click to expand...

Anyone else feel like they are browsing a generic template with add your words/picture here boxes now? I liked their old site too. I might order from them often but I go to them 2nd if I can't find something.

I just placed an order with no trouble. The return of the rating stars would be nice but it isn't a deal breaker.

The new site sucks. Windows and windows of menus makes absolutely no sense. I'm with the OP on this one -- bad, unnecessary redesign.

I think the new site is great, for me it seem like mostly different in looks. The old site was format was good, the new one is also good. JUST DIFFERENT. I have had no problems whatsoever. I placed an order 2 days ago. NO PROBLEM. The windows and menus don't seem to me to be significantly different from before the change. I can't figure out what all the whining is about!!!!!

kh54s10 said:

I think the new site is great, for me it seem like mostly different in looks. The old site was format was good, the new one is also good. JUST DIFFERENT. I have had no problems whatsoever. I placed an order 2 days ago. NO PROBLEM. The windows and menus don't seem to me to be significantly different from before the change. I can't figure out what all the whining is about!!!!!

Click to expand...

Problem you agree with? Legitimate complaint.
Problem you disagree with? Whining.

I love how any time someone posts about an issue with anything in the world some *****enozzle has to come along and say everyone is "whining" about it. It's like we must all be happy complacent morons that should accept everything. The funny thing is I can see in some small way how that might apply to instances where one is getting something completely free. However, if I'm spending money shopping on a site I think I have a right to point out the issues and even moreso that the company would want to know them.


Rev.

Rev2010 said:

I love how any time someone posts about an issue with anything in the world some *****enozzle has to come along and say everyone is "whining" about it. It's like we must all be happy complacent morons that should accept everything. The funny thing is I can see in some small way how that might apply to instances where one is getting something completely free. However, if I'm spending money shopping on a site I think I have a right to point out the issues and even moreso that the company would want to know them.


Rev.

Click to expand...

Stop whining. The search function pulling up every kit instead of wyeast1056 isn't a flaw, it's a feature.

At first glance it seems like a downgrade to me

Rev2010 said:

... However, if I'm spending money shopping on a site ...


Rev.

Click to expand...

So don't. Problem solved.

I still like all the changes. And have no problems whatsoever finding what I am looking for. And I have checked it every day since the change.

And the rating stars are back!