Midwest Supplies

I live about 40 miles from MWS. Glad I do, cause it's so nice having such a great company local. Not sure I'd enjoy this hobby nearly as much if they weren't near by. Also, their customer service is indeed top notch. Was just in there Sunday and the guy helping me pick out a kit wine was amazing. He's been doing it 17 years and speaks passionately about it. Unfortunately, it seems like I drop an easy $250 or more every time I'm in there, so at times I do wish they were just a little further away

The worst customer service. The worst return policy. The absolute worst on customer service.
If you are ordering on line go with northern brewer, rebel brewer, Austin home brewer. There are too many others to choose from to have to put up with bad service from Midwest brewing supplies.

I have always received great customer service and in my limited experience with returns they told me to keep the wrong item and they overnighted me the correct item. Midwest is generally really good about stuff, sorry to hear about your trouble. Bad employee maybe?

Very sorry to hear of your experience. I have never had a problem with them but I have not had to return anything either.

Another good experience with Midwest. I've never had to return anything, but once I did buy a bunch of stuff 2 days before they started a big sale. I called and they gave me the sale price.

I live in the area and the only horrible customer service I've ever had is practically everytime I go in there they mess up my grainbill or hops at the checkout counter. One time, those jerks only charged me for one pound when it should have been eleven of basemalt. Another time, it was horrible, they only charged me for two of my four ounces of hops. And then one time, a friend of mine spent so much money they gave him a free glass and a discount on his boil kettle....

Seriously though, they suck at ringing things up and I'm ok with that.

I bought my starter kit there years ago. They forgot to include a DVD that was supposed to go with it. I emailed them and they sent it out express that same day. Had a bunch of other orders there and all went off fine too.

Hmmm.... you say they suck but provide no details as to what the situation was or how they failed to make it right. I like midwest and have never had a problem with them. Even when I thought I did with my first order, the guy on the phone actually walked me through everything till I found everything. So please tell us what happened because so far, it appears most folks like em.

midwest is decent and i have ordered a few kits form them. they sell S.S. wort coolers at a better price than most vendors.....

GD51

You ask for details, then I will give them.
1. Placed a $100 order on Sunday. On Monday they had a 10% off sale. They refused to give me the discount AND they refused to cancel my order and let me re order it. That's just rude.
2. The order came it was missing an item. After 30 minutes on the phone each week, they say it was back ordered. That was 3 weeks ago. Each week I call them and they say its on the way, but it never shows up.
3. Rude customer service. This one is subjective, but guess what .... I am the customer so my subjective opinion is the only one that counts.
4. I attempted to redeem a discount coupon from a previously screwed up order and they wouldn't honor it because it was more than 6 months old.

I have nothing to gain by giving my honest opinion. They are not a good company. You can keep posting how "great" they are, but hopefully in the end some brewer will read my real opinion and go to one of the other websites and order and not make the mistake I did.

I recently ordered a partial mash kit and some other stuff, and they left out one item. They gave me the option of having the item shipped or giving me an online voucher for the cost of the item plus a little extra for the hassle. That was okay with me.

This section is for reviews of companies by those with first-hand, direct experience as customers of that company. If you disagree with a review by another customer, the best response is to write your own review. Criticizing others' reviews is unhelpful and leads to pointless arguments. Stick to your own, first-hand, direct experience with the vendor.

I ordered a bunch of stuff from them on Sunday Oct 7th and it arrived at my apartment by noon on Oct 9th. Very impressed and my experiences with customer service (usually through the online chat) have been extremely helpful/courteous.

have been ordering from MWS for years, many different items; kettle, tubing, grain sacks, hops, yeast, bits/bobs, carboys, chillers, etc.. - once received the wrong size quick disconnect, called after unpacking the box and they overnighted the right size. never had any issues with their packing jobs. prices are fair to good. website is well laid out and reliable. sometimes they don't send out an email with the fedex number or shipping status, but fedex's automated will always get one out the next day. this could be a complaint, but likely just a human error or training issue on fulfillment process. would [and have] recommend!

I just wanted to add another quick update.

Today I was getting everything ready to make my pumpkin beer this weekend, but forgot to print of Midwest's pumpkin beer guide before they took it down. I did the live chat and John was able to track the information down and sent it to me via email. Nothing but good things to the CS at Midwest.

They continue to wow me. I ordered another 4 beers worth of grain + mash tun at 11AM on a Friday. It shipped out the same day and that's after asking them to crush grains for me.

There was a time when it took me 2 weeks to get packages from them do to grain crushing pipeline delays. This was shipped out within 4 hours. VERY fast. These guys rock.

Wow. I usually place orders on Sunday or Monday, and they usually don't ship until Tuesday. That's fine with me, except when I want to start a starter on Thursday..... But they've been absolutely consistent with this timing.

They're pretty much the only company I buy from these days for general brewing stuff. I like Farmhouse for hops and the occasional 10lbs of base malts though. MW has phenomenal customer service and pretty good deals, so it's a no-brainer. Since I live in the South, it still takes considerably longer to get my stuff than most, but I know that going into my purchase. I agree on the kudos.

Whattawort said:

They're pretty much the only company I buy from these days for general brewing stuff. I like Farmhouse for hops and the occasional 10lbs of base malts though. MW has phenomenal customer service and pretty good deals, so it's a no-brainer. Since I live in the South, it still takes considerably longer to get my stuff than most, but I know that going into my purchase. I agree on the kudos.

Click to expand...

Their Twitter account is fast, online chat is responsive and I've never been asked to call them back. Anytime I reach out, they have an answer for me within minutes.

I spent an hour on chat with them last week and they walk me through everything I needed even on an order that was under $100. Pretty awesome.

Definitely awesome customer service. Received someone else's order one time. Called them up, they overnighted the guy's order to him and let me keep the order. The lady chuckled when I said I would ship it back saying it would cost more to do that than letting ne keep it. Wound up making a bomb saison.

I love Midwest Supplies, thankfully I live 10 min from them. I find myself visiting the store on a weekly basis, all the staff rocks there/super friendly.

a_hard said:

Definitely awesome customer service. Received someone else's order one time. Called them up, they overnighted the guy's order to him and let me keep the order. The lady chuckled when I said I would ship it back saying it would cost more to do that than letting ne keep it. Wound up making a bomb saison.

Click to expand...

Whoa. Awesome story.

Midwest is an amazing store. Their grain room and access to mills is great, even their staff treats my kids with respect and excitement when I shop there with them. Won't shop anywhere else.

adamjackson said:

Whoa. Awesome story.

Click to expand...

BTW,anyone here from Ohio that was expecting saison ingredients I want to say thank you. Its now my house beer.

After getting a second primary fermenter with lid and using it only once and having it split upon removing the lid for the first time, I had an online chat with Midwest and received a replacement lid in 3 days.
They were very nice and the replacement even had a nice, handwritten apology note with it.
That's class to me. I buy from them regularly but I can't say I spend alot of money.

I ordered Centennial pellets from Midwest last week, they sent Centennial type. The site did not mention potential substitutions or the word "Type"

In a shining example of today's customer service they have opted to not respond to my inquiries on the matter and in a rock solid user driven rating system they decided to censor me and not approve my 3 star review that simply noted the hops were centennial type not centennial.

F those guys - Midwest will never see another dime from me

jb1677 said:

I ordered Centennial pellets from Midwest last week, they sent Centennial type. The site did not mention potential substitutions or the word "Type"

In a shining example of today's customer service they have opted to not respond to my inquiries on the matter and in a rock solid user driven rating system they decided to censor me and not approve my 3 star review that simply noted the hops were centennial type not centennial.

F those guys - Midwest will never see another dime from me

Click to expand...

It looks like a 3 star review, by a "jason", pointing out this exact issue, is posted with a date of 11/16. Your review by any chance?

raouliii said:

It looks like a 3 star review, by a "jason", pointing out this exact issue, is posted with a date of 11/16. Your review by any chance?

Click to expand...

It is, I guess they finally approved it - for that I will give them credit.

midwest usually takes a couple days to get your reviews posted. I have never known them to not post bad reviews and 3 stars is not the worst they have put up there. I've found some 1 stars before. I tend to read as many reviews as possible before I purchase a kit.

I don't know if the wording that upset you would do the same for me as cenntenial isn't a rare hop and do you know if they packaged it or did it come from a manufacturer that way?

I was there today and they were stocked with centennial. They were out this Fall and only had centennial type (blend) in place in the same bin. There is probably still a mix of hops in that bin.

lgilmore said:

midwest usually takes a couple days to get your reviews posted. I have never known them to not post bad reviews and 3 stars is not the worst they have put up there. I've found some 1 stars before. I tend to read as many reviews as possible before I purchase a kit.

I don't know if the wording that upset you would do the same for me as cenntenial isn't a rare hop and do you know if they packaged it or did it come from a manufacturer that way?

Click to expand...

Actually this past year centennial was a quite rare hop. The new harvest is in so it's not so rare just now... but that's why most places were selling 'centennial type' hops in the first place. I wouldn't have been happy if the website didn't state it was a substitution.

mors said:

Actually this past year centennial was a quite rare hop. The new harvest is in so it's not so rare just now... but that's why most places were selling 'centennial type' hops in the first place. I wouldn't have been happy if the website didn't state it was a substitution.

Click to expand...

Midwest does not call out that Centennial might be substituted with Centennial Type at all - it simply says Centennial. Other sellers list both Centennial and Centennial Type as separate items to avoid confusion.

Add to that not responding to inquiries about the order = no more orders from jb1677!

Well I've been so excited to receive a huge haul of equipment I ordered from MW that I've literally been having troubles sleeping lol... I've ordered from MidWest a lot and when I visited the store the staff was awesome... anyway, my latest order just became a huge fail... Ordered a 20G BoilerMaker and received a 10G BoilerMaker... UGH! Now the invoice correctly states 20G so I'm betting the mix-up was on Blichmann's end since it was drop shipped through them directly. I'm hopeful both will step up and resolve this in a very timely manner... have been planning a big brew session with the new setup for this upcoming 3-day weekend for a long time now!

/sigh


Update: Midwest called Blichmann and should have my new kettle to me BEFORE the weekend! Along with a prepaid mailing label to send the 10G one back

andrhamm-
I am sorry for the trouble. In our defense, the order was placed correctly. It looks like Brad S. worked it out though, he will be emailing you a tracking number. I hope it all works out and you get some nice beers brewed this weekend.
Cheers, Todd J

midwestsupplies said:

andrhamm-
I am sorry for the trouble. In our defense, the order was placed correctly. It looks like Brad S. worked it out though, he will be emailing you a tracking number. I hope it all works out and you get some nice beers brewed this weekend.
Cheers, Todd J

Click to expand...

Thanks Todd, Brad was super friendly and helpful in getting this resolved. Don't worry, still a Midwest Supplies fan

I've ordered 2 kits from them so far, the Autumn Amber Ale that came with my equipment kit and then the Cologne Kolsch. I was disappointed with the grain crush on the Kolsch. I spent about 15 minutes re-crushing it with a rolling pin before steeping. Not a huge deal but I'd expect them to know better.

I've ordered from them three or four times and have always had great service. I received one damaged product and e-mailed them. The problem was corrected immediately and courteously. My only gripe would be the shipping charges (it seems like it's always $11.00). I still order from them from time to time. It's a great place to deal with.

Jeffinn said:

My only gripe would be the shipping charges (it seems like it's always $11.00). I still order from them from time to time. It's a great place to deal with.

Click to expand...

The shipping does seem to start at around $11.

I've run identical purchases through various major online stores a few times, and despite the relatively higher shipping charges, the total order price has always been within a couple dollars of the others (for ~$75 orders). It's sometimes a bit lower, sometimes a bit higher, but it seems that the pricing has been adjusted to compensate for the different shipping price policies.

I recently purchased two kits and some miscellaneous supplies from Midwest brewing. When the products arrived one of the DME was torn open and all over the place. Swmbo called them the next day and without any question they agreed to ship out a replacement at no charge. I will defiantly be using them again to purchase kits and other supplies.

My bad... Midwest supply.