Vendor Rant

On January 30th I placed an order with a certain, large on-line home brew shop that I won't name but they say they have more beer in Concord, CA.

The order did not come, and did not come and so this morning I called. They told me they had sent me an e-mail (never received) and that the order was delayed because they did not have any white labs Cal ale yeast (their best seller). But magically, the yeast is in now and my package is supposed to go out today. Wow, isn't that a surprising coincident!

I had a similar problem last order. They did not have an item I wanted and so I told them to take it off the order and I did not want it. Just send me my stuff! So they did and a month later this package arrives and it is the stuff I told them to forget. And of course they charged my card.

If customer service is the mark of a business I think I will be shopping someplace else. The problem is they are the only source for some of the items I want.

Jerks.

I think you could prb find a similar, if not basically identical, story about any one of the major online retailers...none of em are perfect (then again, neither am I )

Sucks to have vendor issues derail brew plans.

Maybe we should mention names. Someone might know of a great company to buy from, and you could save someone else from having a similar problem with this company.

Yeah, I've heard that this particular location is a bit lax in getting their orders out in a timely fashion. Pisser, since this is the only place I've seen Pale Chocolate malt available for sale, and I really want to try some but I would much rather place the REST of my order from either.... uh, the one up in Minnesota or the one down in Texas (or one of my local guys).

If I can find a source for light chocolate malt I am there!

I also am not asking for perfection, just shoot straight.

cheezydemon said:

Maybe we should mention names. Someone might know of a great company to buy from, and you could save someone else from having a similar problem with this company.

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Re-read the first sentance.

They have a nice website though and don't they sponsor the brewing network?

http://morebeer.com/concord/

Brewpastor said:

If I can find a source for light chocolate malt I am there!

I also am not asking for perfection, just shoot straight.

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Northern Brewer has:

Fawcett Pale Chocolate Malt

Less highly-roasted than regular chocolate malt. Adds color and a mild chocolate/coffee flavor to dark milds, stouts, and porters. 180-250° L.

...course there was that 'hop substution-gate' with them recently.

orfy said:

They have a nice website though and don't they sponsor the brewing network?

http://morebeer.com/concord/

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I believe that Jon works at, uh... the Concord facility, but NB's been actually sponsoring the show for a couple months.

Good find on NB selling pale choc - that's new, I've been keeping my eyes open for that! Every order from NB has been when expected, what I expected, for the amount I expected to pay. I'm happy to keep shopping there. Given the pretty dire current circumastances of the hop supply, I'm willing to cut them a *bit* of slack with regards to that particular issue. I love the fact that when I placed an order and had to call a couple minutes later to add something, they were just about to pack it up. No waiting around three days until they get to it.

I find NB's prices to be high, but it is good to know they have pale chocolate.

orfy said:

They have a nice website though and don't they sponsor the brewing network?

http://morebeer.com/concord/

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My understanding is that NB sponsors the BN. Or at least the Jamil show.

Brewpastor said:

I find NB's prices to be high, but it is good to know they have pale chocolate.

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I haven't found them to be any higher than anyone else. AHS, I find to be expensive before shipping, pretty average after shipping. NB's got a similar flat-rate deal, too (just not on stupid-big stuff like bags of malt).

NB has a nice store and friendly staff. I can't speak about More Beer. In the end I will pay what has to be paid, but I do like to get my stuff a little quicker then 1/2 a month (by the time it arrives).

I had a similar thing happen. They ended up shipping the backordered yeast seperately though, so I am surprised they didn't do the same in your case.

I feel like they just were not aware or concerned. The order will go out when it goes out...

I do have to say that the second guy I talked to was helpful and said he would get a guy on the order ASAP. But it pissed me off when the response to my statement "This really has taken a long time" was "well, we sent you an e-mail.' Which is BS.

Like I said, I am just ranting.

It would make me nervous as a retailer knowing that my customers had such broad forums to rant about my service!

I have always had great service from Morebeer, but from what I have seen from others I must be lucky. Also their crush is amazing I got some crazy efficiency from their grain's.

Thats cool. I wonder what kind of mill they use?

i placed an order with them last week. Because they didnt have the thermowell I ordered, they said it;s their policy to hold the entire shipment until all orders can be shipped out together.

so instead of changing their website to show that the item is out of stock, or just shipping the back ordered part out at a later date, everything is delayed

If I am ordering from them again, I will call and verify everything is in stock and ready to ship. I really don't have the time to sit around and wait for items to come. I was going to brew a light ale today so I could brew a bunch of other beers Friday and next Monday. Those plans are out the window - but they sent me an email... @#*

I guess I've been lucky for the most part. I've placed dozens and dozens of orders with moreBeer. I've only had a few problems and when I've bothered to complain they have taken care of it. Case in point, I ordered some gas posts for my cornies and they send me liquid posts instead. I called and they overnighted the correct part. But I don't order from them on a regular basis anymore since I'm now on the east coast and shipping takes forever from them. All my orders ship out a day or so after I order, but seem to get stuck in IL for 3 days or so. Damn UPS.

I do think that if something is out of stock they could pick up the phone and call to let you know or better yet keep the website up to date.

I know that Great Fermentations of Indianapolis has the Pale Chocolate Malt. Their website kinda sucks but if you call them to place your order they are extreemly friendly and willing to help out anyway that they can. i have always had good service whether I was in the store or on the phone. I called one time to ask if they had a certian kind of hops and the guy working went through the cooler and told me every kind and about how much of each they had.

Sucks when the big guys are starting to give less then stellar service. guess it's time to start shopping local again.

Brewpastor said:

But it pissed me off when the response to my statement "This really has taken a long time" was "well, we sent you an e-mail.' Which is BS

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How do you brew with an email? Can it substitute as one of the late hop additions?

Brewpastor said:

If I can find a source for light chocolate malt I am there!

I also am not asking for perfection, just shoot straight.

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My LHBS sells pale chocolate malt, they do mail orders and they're awesome folks.

http://www.americanbrewmaster.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=4_29&products_id=2128

I think email is what adds that pissy flavor to BMC

I have to say that northern brewer has some of the best customer service ever, they have made some mistakes on my orders, but always fix them very quickly. I ordered quite a bit of grain from them and requested it be crushed. They accidentally sent me whole grain. I called them up and they immediately sent out a new shipment with crushed grain at no charge, I asked them if they wanted me to sip their grain back and they said no, so now I am thinking that at some point over the next 6 months I might just need to buy a barley crusher....

Chimone said:

i placed an order with them last week. Because they didnt have the thermowell I ordered, they said it;s their policy to hold the entire shipment until all orders can be shipped out together.

so instead of changing their website to show that the item is out of stock, or just shipping the back ordered part out at a later date, everything is delayed

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I've had that happen with MB before, but they always shipped out everything they had and then sent what was on backorder later.

I've used More Beer many times, but stopped after they screwed up five orders in a row. Something was always missing, broken, or wrong item. I do have to say, the customer service was always very apologetic and immediately mailed out a replacement each time. Their prices are some of the lowest I can find, but it just wasn't worth the trouble anymore.

I gave morebeer two different times be be "good" and both times they screwed up the order. I've had places screw up, but not twice in a row and they usually go out of their way to prove they're sorry.

Subj: MoreFlavor! Shipping Delay Notification

Text: Thank you for shopping with us. This email is in regards to order XXXXXXX. We are very sorry that the following item(s) are currently unavailable and are preventing your order from shipping:

Hcas4w Hop (Whole) - Cascade (4 oz) Out of stock as of 2/11/08. ETA is currently unknown from supplier. Estimated arrival is 2/22/08.

Our policy is to hold the entire order until everything is available to ship.

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Got that today, called 'em and canceled that part of the order, in theory the rest will now ship. And, in case you don't know, MoreFlavor is morebeer (morewine, morecoffee, etc.)

I've had good luck in the past with morebeer.com, though only one recent order. This is the first delay I've hit but I'll call next time to make sure all is in stock.

FWIW, also ordered from AHS same day (Saturday, both online orders); called Austin this AM to add something and caught them while it was being packaged. They added it and it went out today.

Rick

The one time I placed an order with MB that was under $60 it came with no problems and was shipped the day after I made the order.

The other times I got free (over $60) shipping and it took at least a week to even fill the order. One time I had to cancel because I wanted to brew and I could get everything at the LHBS.

Our policy is to hold the entire order until everything is available to ship.

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I've run into this before with More Beer. The website is never up to date with all of the backordered items, so it will let you place an order for something that is not in stock. Then, they don't bother notifying you that they are withholding shipment.

Also, I've had more than one order with missing items. When I called to fix the issues, the customer service reps were less than polite.

The great prices attracted me, but the poor support has forced me to look elsewhere. I now avoid them at all cost.

Never had a problem with any of the big 3, including B3 (MoreBeer).

the_bird said:

Every order from NB has been when expected, what I expected, for the amount I expected to pay. I'm happy to keep shopping there. Given the pretty dire current circumastances of the hop supply, I'm willing to cut them a *bit* of slack with regards to that particular issue.

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I'm cutting them slack too. That's why I questioned them on it, and let it drop at that. I'll brew what they sent (mostly) and I will order from them again. I'll just call ahead to see what they're going to send first.

I too have experienced the mindlessness of this company. An order included several swivel nuts for my kegorator setup. The site listed the product as the nut AND barb. The order cam and all I got were sevreral barbs.

8, count em, 8 times I called Customer Service and each time all I got were the barbs. I eventually had to buy the nuts elsewhere. Geesh.

GilaMinumBeer said:

I too have experienced the mindlessness of this company. An order included several swivel nuts for my kegorator setup. The site listed the product as the nut AND barb. The order cam and all I got were sevreral barbs.

8, count em, 8 times I called Customer Service and each time all I got were the barbs. I eventually had to buy the nuts elsewhere. Geesh.

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Sorry, I'm druck. Who are you talking about, NB or MB?

Has any one sent MB a link to this thread?

Just at Listermann's today and they carry pale chocolate as well. Prices are average, but free shipping east of Mississippi on orders over $35

Sheesh!

You guys that expect to get what you ordered in a reasonable amount of time is what caused St. Pats to get out the HBS biz.

Seriously, it seems customer service is going obsolete or rather, 'extinct' .

I guess we've depleted the reserve.

Complaints about how things work will basically just get you 'bitcher' status nowadays-not any actual attention to the issue.

Jesse17 said:

Sorry, I'm druck. Who are you talking about, NB or MB?

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MB (B3)

I once saw a "demotivational" poster that read;

"We're not satisfied until you're dissatisfied" maybe B3 needs one of those.

In all honesty, I have ordered from them multiple times. There free shipping program (<$50) is pretty appealing. And except for the one instance, my orders have come to me in reasonable time and complete. However, I have yet to order any ingredients from them.

I'm pretty picky when it comes to online orders. If that happened to me, even once, I would never order from them again. If your website is wrong you should "pay". I'm often willing to pay a premium to buy all of my stuff from one place rather than buy each thing from the "cheapest" place because I'm into immediate gratification. When I pay more AND have a delay because you are too lazy to update your site (or too cheap to get one that manages inventory for you) I get pissed. The only thing that can redeem you is a polite phone call saying "This is out of stock, we've charged your card already. Do you want two shipments, a single delayed one (perhaps will a comparable item) or a refund?".

Luckily, I've never had problems with the Homebrew guys down in Austin. :rockin: