Austin Homebrew...Yeah buddy...

I'm sure it's been said before...BIG ups to the folks at Austin Homebrew! Fast shipping and some of the best packaging I've received. Every item that had the potential to leak was vacuumed sealed and the yeast smack-packs were sealed tight with ice packs and in great shape.

The box had to weigh in at 30lbs and only cost me $7.99 to ship to the NW coast.

Looking forward to doing business again,

dave

Agreed. They're in my top 3 favs.

double check the order, they have a habit of forgetting to pack items.

alpha_acid - how many times??? I have only once had something forgotten in perhaps 50 shipments and when I called it was shipped the next day.

Now if you have had 10% of your orders messed up I can see a complaint somehow I can not believe that.

I agree about their packaging - it's first rate. Very satisfied.

Good to hear the positives - today is my states 10% off day and I haven't ordered from them before.

Oh, what to buy, what to buy...

Grinder12000 said:

alpha_acid - how many times??? I have only once had something forgotten in perhaps 50 shipments and when I called it was shipped the next day.

Now if you have had 10% of your orders messed up I can see a complaint somehow I can not believe that.

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They have left something out of my orders about 30% of the time, maybe more.

pdbreen said:

Oh, what to buy, what to buy...

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What you need is a great big mug for your beer.

masonsjax said:

What you need is a great big mug for your beer.

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Good call - but already have a set of 4! Got them as soon as I got back last year. Made it much easier to "describe" what drinking beer by the liter is like to those that haven't been - and demonstrate how strong the servers are as they're often carrying 3 or 4 of these things in each hand (truly amazing once you try).

I've been using Austin homebrew consistently since Katrina and have been impressed with their packing and customer service. There have been a few times where a vial of yeast has gotten to me unreviveable (if that's a word) and they've either sent me out a new vial or credited my account promptly.

And yes at this point I'm having them use 3-4 ice packs, lol, and it's still a crap shoot. But their service and ingredients are first class.

~r~

LOL - they have messed up on 30% of your orders? Somehow I find that hard to believe.

Perhaps Forrest can chime in here since he owns the place.

30% means they would have had to mess up 15 of my 50 orders! I think I would have stopped ordering from them by #10.

Grinder12000 said:

30% means they would have had to mess up 15 of my 50 orders! I think I would have stopped ordering from them by #10.

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Or forgotten something in 3 of 10 orders.

There are way to many AHS fan boys in this forum that are quick to jump on people that have bad experiences with AHS...

And there are a few stinkers who like to crash any praises a good business gets on occasion on a forum like this. The internet has always been full of haters...

to the guy who claims they keep forgetting things - did you ever contact them with your problem? I'm sure they're willing to fix any issues.

lamarguy said:

Or forgotten something in 3 of 10 orders.

There are way to many AHS fan boys in this forum that are quick to jump on people that have bad experiences with AHS...

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That is correct, they have shorted me at least one item in 3-4 of my total 10-12 orders. I have been going back and forth on dropping them. My last two order however have been 100%.

sonetlumiere85 said:

And there are a few stinkers who like to crash any praises a good business gets on occasion on a forum like this. The internet has always been full of haters...

to the guy who claims they keep forgetting things - did you ever contact them with your problem? I'm sure they're willing to fix any issues.

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Should I not share my experience?
And yes I contacted them about all the shortages, some they took care of. Once they shorted me an oz of hops and they wanted me to scan the recipe to prove is should have been included. Never bothered.

again I still order from them, not sure why lumie here is a hater.

Also just checked my e-mail and indeed there was three mistakes out of ten orders. Now I have a total of 12 orders so I guess their average has gone up.
I would still recommend that EVERYONE make sure all the ingredients are included.

Hey - I really went after AHS for a recipe error once and it was MORE then corrected.

I have to think that 100% of the time people check their orders and I do not believe it is a "habit" as you say. It is an anomaly.

And I have to make a correction. Less orders then I thought. They have a 2% error rate for me. I do see I have spent $1,400 though OUCH!!!

BTW - I've never had then use ice packs for yeast and it takes a week to get to me! 22 for 22!

I have now put in place procedures to virtually eliminate mistakes. Mistakes are unintentional. I have fired a couple people this year as part of this new set of procedures.

Yes, we made some mistakes in the past. That is the past. This should no longer be an issue.

We are moving at the beginning of the year to a 18,000 sq ft building to increase productivity and improve quality control.

Alpha Acid has 3 stars by his name to triple check his order. This is one of the new procedures.

Usually when a store makes no mistakes no one says anything. Once they make a mistake and correct the problem to the customer's satisfaction, they everyone says how great they are. We have moved past this stage. Now I hope to not make any mistakes but still get props. Generally you don't get props if you never make a mistake.

Thanks for the props and continued business.
Forrest

alpha_acid said:

Should I not share my experience?
And yes I contacted them about all the shortages, some they took care of. Once they shorted me an oz of hops and they wanted me to scan the recipe to prove is should have been included. Never bothered.

again I still order from them, not sure why lumie here is a hater.

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I'm not hating on you, I was just saying that some posters make deliberate attempts to dirty a company's name.

+1

Fantastic customer service. Only time i've ever gotten a mis-shipment was 60 bottle caps instead of 3 lbs. Fair Mistake. I do a fair amount of picking and packing orders at work, and if that's the only mistake they've made with some of the order's i've placed, then props to them.

Couldn't be more pleased....unless i lived in austin and could just walk in the store.

sonetlumiere85 said:

I'm not hating on you, I was just saying that some posters make deliberate attempts to dirty a company's name.

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It sure seems like you were trying...
I still order from AHS and they have made mistakes, should I not say this? Like I said I almost dropped them about a year ago but it seems they have gotten their act together.

Austinhomebrew said:

I have put in place no procedures to virtually eliminate mistakes. Mistakes are unintentional. I have fired a couple people this year as part of this new set of procedures.

Yes, we made some mistakes in the past. That is the past. This should no longer be an issue.

We are moving at the beginning of the year to a 18,000 sq ft building to increase productivity and improve quality control.

Alpha Acid has 3 stars by his name to triple check his order. This is one of the new procedures.

Usually when a store makes no mistakes no one says anything. Once they make a mistake and correct the problem to the customer's satisfaction, they everyone says how great they are. We have moved past this stage. Now I hope to not make any mistakes but still get props. Generally you don't get props if you never make a mistake.

Thanks for the props and continued business.
Forrest

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This is good to hear, like I said my last two orders have been great. I have spec'd out full homebrewing kits for two of my friends and had them order everything from you, although you did forget a hydrometer on one of their orders. They didn't know you could brew without it so it held their brewing up for a week and made me feel uncertain for recommending they order from AHBS.

When was this?

Forrest

My experience is only 3 orders, but 100% accurate on a wide range of items (more than a couple recipe kits) 100% satisfied, and because of my location, if i get my order in before noon, it is at my house the next day.
I still do most of my shopping at my LHBS tho, because i like to support those who support my community, but if i order online, AHS is the first place i check with.

alpha_acid said:

Also just checked my e-mail and indeed there was three mistakes out of ten orders. Now I have a total of 12 orders so I guess their average has gone up.
I would still recommend that EVERYONE make sure all the ingredients are included.

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Do people NOT do that? Typically when I order stuff, it's stuff I want/need so I'd notice if it wasn't there.

My first AHS order is on the way from them, and even though I used the flat-rate shipping (no liquid yeast) it shipped out the next day!

Arkador said:

I still do most of my shopping at my LHBS though, because I like to support those who support my community, but if i order online, AHS is the first place i check with.

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Ya, I figured you guys in DFW have at least a couple of good homebrew shops.

We drove through Fort Worth about a month ago and ran into the manager from AHS at The Gingerman. I forget his name but I met him in San Antonio the week before at the ACCF. That guy is a marketing machine, too the point that it becomes annoying. All of the people at the bar knew he worked for AHS. Not because he was wearing a t-shirt or anything, but because he made it a point to tell everyone several times. He clearly didn't remember me because he acted surprised when I said I don't order from AHS.

Austinhomebrew said:

When was this?

Forrest

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She placed the order around June 3rd 2009

I have had a couple of missing items on a couple of orders but I order a lot of stuff so no big deal. I'd probably miss more stuff myself.

Dropping anything from an order is inexcusable, and I am sure Forrest would agree. Unfortunately, as the owner of a company, you place a lot of trust in your employees and some of them are going to let you down.

Quality systems prevent these problems. It usually means more people checking other peoples work, but it keeps these kinds of threads from happening.

I am very impressed with the vendors (Austin, Brewmasters) that sell through this board. You guys are great. Not perfect, but the fact that you show up in here means a lot to me.

passedpawn said:

I am very impressed with the vendors (Austin, Brewmasters) that sell through this board. You guys are great. Not perfect, but the fact that you show up in here means a lot to me.

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Exactly. It's the intention and honest desire to make the customer happy and get on a more personal basis with them that impresses me most.

As for quality assurance when shipping things out, I feel AHS has a good process in place. If they were to hire more people (even one) to check orders one last time, it could possibly raise our prices on the products we like. I personally have never had an issue with anything from AHS, and by the amount of mistakes listed on this threat to the amount of 100% accurate orders I'd say it doesn't happen all that often or with any regularity, besides the one guys poor luck. I'd much rather have an item or two slip between the cracks and have them re-ship it to me for free than to have raised prices on their goods.

I just recently received an order placed that had probably 10 items in it including a 33ft wort chiller, hop ball, bucket strainer, plastic wine thief (that you can put a hydrometer in...so cool), among other things, and the order arrived packed well and in it's entirety.

If an error happens that is the fault of a retail company (and this goes for any company) and it puts you out or delays your ability to do something planned, or you're just really peeved about it, let the company know in person or over the phone. Remember to be very cordial and respectful, but make your point known to them how much the mistake disturbed you. They'll make up for it 9 times out of 10.

Let me first start with thanking everyone for their support.

I have observed that approximately every other week there is a thread started about how bad More Beer is and people jump in to say that everyone should try Austin Homebrew. And other people try to defend More Beer.

And there are threads that say how great Austin Homebrew is and people jump in and point out that we have made a mistake on an order so we are not as perfect as the thread makes us out to be.

We are working hard to be as perfect as we can be. Mistakes are unintentional and I feel we have improved dramatically in our order processing. I will forward this thread onto my shipping department so they are aware of your concerns.

We have implemented a second shift so that some days there are orders being processed non-stop. This way there is no delay in shipping your order.

Thanks for your continued business.
I am here for you.

Forrest
www.austinhomebrew.com

I snagged a few perlicks from AHS when they were on sale a while back. In fact I had missed the sale and posted in the thread about how I was a bit bummed that the sale ended before the end of day. Sure enough not long after I posted I had a PM from forrest letting me know that as soon as they were back in stock he'd honor the price.

Needless to say I was relatively impressed and purchased them as soon as they were back in stock.

I work in sales for a living for a massive corporation. Unfortunately many of our customers deal with our customer service department on a regular basis. What I have found is that if someone has no financial stake in the performance of the organization, leadership will have a tough time elevating their performance to the desired level. In our case we are all commissioned based on performance goals. We never let a customer walk if at all possible and bend over backwards daily to fix any problems we can. Unfortunately our customer care isn't quite the same. They F up stuff all the time. They over promise then send them into the store and expect us to give discounts, make exceptions, and otherwise do things that would get us terminated. We have no direct contact with the management of that department so it's virtually impossible to coach or correct the care rep who made the error.

As a result we have tons of customers who nay say our company, our store, and us. I can't tell you how many times I've been berated by an angry customer who says it's MY fault my VP won't let me give away a product that care promised we could. The point is that no matter how much control a business owner has they have to rely upon others to do the right thing. Being in the middle however I see it from the customer's and the company's standpoint. Don't wanna lose a customer but can't give away the farm.

If the prices are good, the responses to the mistakes are timely and sufficient, and you are noticing an improvement in your orders then props to Forrest and AHS for making strides to improve procedures. I think by him coming on and acknowledging the issues and personally taking responsibility he has bought a lot of respect. Not a plug for AHS btw, but I like the way they handle these things.

cvstrat said:

[...]taking responsibility he has bought a lot of respect.

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That's why I only use AHS for supplies and BW for grains/recipes.

Speaking as someone who screws up once in awhile, I always try to fix my errors and make things right. It's what happens AFTER the screw-up that is the measure of a person.

A long while back, I had a clone recipe kit sent from AHB. There was too much peated malt in it, and it ruined the beer. Forrest replaced the problem recipe ASAP.

Due to the fact that he stands behind his brand, and fixes things when/if they do go wrong, I am still a customer of his. I expect that from time-to-time there might be a screw-up. However, I know he will make it right. AHS/Forrest obviously cares about customer service... look at how many times he has participated in this thread alone.

Now if only OTHER companies would be so involved and care about the customer after the sale...

Noleafclover said:

Agreed. They're in my top 3 favs.

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They are not in my top three. They are in my top one fav. I don't know how many orders I have made to them, but it's a bunch. So far everything I have ordered has come in on time with nothing missing. Recently I ordered a product that caught them offguard and was backordered. That was the first time any delay has ever happened. I don't know how they do it. Base malt? Check out other suppliers and notice "items in blue are not elegable for flat rate shipping" or some such escape. Ha! AHBS beat the others hands down IMO.

sonetlumiere85 said:

I'm not hating on you, I was just saying that some posters make deliberate attempts to dirty a company's name.

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Why shouldn't someone speak on what experiences and problems they have had with a company? Although people talk more about the bad experiences than the good ones.

Not sure why people are getting so offended, clearly what I stated was fact. Forest confirmed what I said and stated that his company had quality control issues which they are dealing with.

alpha_acid said:

Not sure why people are getting so offended, clearly what I stated was fact. Forest confirmed what I said and stated that his company had quality control issues which they are dealing with.

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Your first problem is that you're trying to understand the actions of people

Got my order first from AHS today, so far they are hitting a 100% accuracy!!!

Well, I guess it's my turn to blast Austin Homebrew. O'h wait...I can't. I have only bought nine kits and the starter set-up from them but every time has been a great experience. Only one shipping order but I guess I could gripe that they are 120 miles from my house. The other kits I drove to Austin and bought three at a time along with a few "extra" things and I just told the guy at the counter what I wanted and he went and put them together and placed everything in paper bags on the counter. Everything has been right so if they were to ship it, it would have still been good.

Thanks Austin Homebrew.

I have never had a bad experience with AHS. I have never had an order that was wrong, I have had one take over a week to recieve, but that was during their first 10% off deal so I completely understood. In fact I ordered a cholcolate holiday stout on Saturday night, I just checked and it is out for delivery. I do usually go to my LHBS, Fort Worth Homebrew, because I like them alot and want to support them, but when I order online, or need something LHBS does not have I go to AHS. I also love how if I have any questions I can call them and they are more than happy to answer my questions.
Thank you Forrest.