FYI about this place..
Its in Champaign Illinois (about 30min from me) and its a homebrew/pet supply/hobby shop.
I ordered 1 5 gal and 1 6 gal non-ported BBs plus a racking cane and carboy caps.
The only positive about the experiance is that they allowed a friend of mine to pick up the order and bring it to me (he works here, but lives there) and didn't charge shipping.
So, I ordered after many emails back and forth to ensure things were ok. It took about a week and a half and I got a phone call that the item was in the store and could be picked up. Good so far.
It happened to be close to a weekend and my buddy was unable to get there until the next Monday. I got a call from them on saturday stating "We need you to pick your order up, it is taking up valuable room in our warehouse" I indicated that my buddy would be there early in the next week. At this point I thought it was odd that they would say something like that to a customer who has PAID for the items.. but anyway.
My buddy got over there on tuesday and picked up the items. Wednesday he droped them off at my house. I was going to just put them away, but he sugested that I check the order, which is always a good idea. I'm glad I did, I got my caps, cane, and the 5 gal carboy just fine, but the 6 gal was ported, the box CLEARLY marked as ported and an invoice INSIDE THAT BOX clearly showed I ordered a plain/unported model. THEY HAD TO OPEN THE BOX TO PUT THE INVOICE IN and it was clearly marked ported.
Well, I'm not one to get upset, and mistakes happen, so I called them. The young lady who answered indicated to me that the guy who handles the internet orders would be in in the morning, and to call him then. Fine with me!
So, the next morning about 9am I called and talked to a different person, not the internet guy, and that person proceeded to tell me that I souldn't have called, I should send an email since its an internet order. I explained that it had been picked up by a friend so maybe it was a special thing, he asked me to hold. After a LONG hold he came back and said that the internet guy was on another line and he took my contact info and said he would have the guy call me.
A few hours later, I had heard nothing, so I emailed the guy with my problem. It took more than 2 days to get a response (never got a phone call). His response was that he saw that I ordered unported and wanted ported. He indicated he would have to order the right one and would let me know when it came in. I offered to him that I would ship him the wrong one if he cross-ships the right one to me, so we can save the hassle of my friend picking it up and taking up his warehouse space.
His response to me was that since he was nice enough to not charge me shipping the first time, and because his margins are so clear, he will NOT ship anything to me.
I said that was fine and arranged with my buddy to make the exchange once I recieved notice the correct item was in the store. 3+ weeks later, after EMAILING THEM to find the status, magically the item finally arrived. My buddy went in, they swapped the item (litterly swapped, pulled the new one out of its box and put it in the old box and vice versa). My buddy checked the bottle to make sure it was ported and we were all good.
When he droped off the new bottle, his first question was "are you going to do buisness with them again?". My answer was no.
As I said, I don't really get upset about things, and I wasn't in a hurry, but the extreemly slow working of the deal, and the rude comments about taking up his warehouse space and unwillingness to fix his mistake without going through hoops turned me off. If I happen to be in champaign, and go into the store, I won't hesitate to purchase things they have instock, but I would stay away from internet orders from this outfit.
Just my 2 cents.
