My email discussion with Midwest is below. They answered all my questions honestly and courteously, although I was surprised by some of the answers
TL;DR: They are aware of the reports of breakage with the Big Mouth Bubbler and are always looking to improve the product but feel the breakage is exaggerated online compared to the overall number of happy users.
They DO filter out 1-2 star reviews. The 4.X star review you see on the site is NOT an accurate representation of all reviews. They do this because of spam, trolls, swearing, and because they feel that if they work with customers that gave a product a 1-2 star review then they can usually improve the customers review of the product. You can read more detail on this process below.
ME
I'm a homebrewer and have seen several posts on the Big Mouth Bubblers and breakage. Enough so that one forum I frequent is putting up a warning to avoid them. I see on your site they show a rating of over 4 stars with what looks to be all positive reviews. However on ALL homebrewing forums as well as Amazon there are several reviews mentioning that they shatter for no reason. Several people have cleaned up spilled beer and broken glass and a few have ended up in the emergency room. This item seems to be extremely dangerous.
Are you aware of the issues with the Big Mouth Bubbler? If so what are you doing to address these issues? Are you filtering the reviews on your site for this product? I looked through all the reviews on the 6.5 gallon version and all of them are positive, this seems very inconsistent with the reports on every other homebrewing site.
I hope you'll take that time to reply to these questions and that you are taking note of the issues people are experiencing with your product.
MIDWEST
Thanks for the email. We are aware of the posts regarding our Big Mouth Bubblers and are always working hard to make this hobby better (and in this case safer). We have also seen a number of forum posts on using glass in general. Our awesome hobby does carry some safety risks with some of the equipment we use, right down to a slippery floor in the basement causing a bruised tailbone (my own story for another time). We really wish that Reddit would post threads of all the awesome experiences customer's are having, but those would probably be down-voted and always on the bottom of the page for nobody to see. There are currently thousands of these fermenters in home breweries across the country. We keep a close eye on breakage and the percentages that we are seeing are very low compared to what we are shipping.
We are listening, and working hard to deliver the best products possible. We recently added a "caution" warning to the Big Mouth Bubbler web pages that will hopefully alert customers to the hazards of working with a large vessel that has been hand made. We have also added a "caution" sticker to our packaging to ask for care while opening. The homebrewing community was ecstatic when the Big Mouth Bubbler was announced, and we know that they are still excited. There was a lot of "why didn't anyone do this sooner" chatter and the fact that they are hand -formed is a big reason why. We had them at the National Homebrewer's Conference this year so that the 3000+ attendees could get their hands on them. The response was almost entirely positive, but we did get some feedback that we can use as well. There were many thoughts on the the lid design of the glass version, and we will keep working to make them as consistent as possible.
We use our reviews to make all of our products better. Our Customer Service team contacts all reviewers that give a product that we carry a negative review. We work with the customer to make sure that the product they end up with is what they would rate a 5.
I am personally a huge fan of the warning on the sidebar for some homebrewing hazards. There are a lot of people who are unaware of things that can happen (thermal stress is the most common we see) when they get started and it is just as important as knowing what equipment you need.
TL;DR We are here to help and want homebrewers to be safe, wherever and whatever they are doing. We did post a caution notice on the product page and will continue to work on even better products.
Thanks for the email. Please let me know if you would like any further clarification or have any additional feedback. We look forward to your next order.
ME
Thanks for the reply and the information on the Big Mouth Bubbler. I love the idea but have to admit that the posts I've seen make me hesitant, perhaps I'll try the plastic one as I prefer plastic. Could you clarify something for me? You said, "We use our reviews to make all of our products better. Our Customer Service team contacts all reviewers that give a product that we carry a negative review. We work with the customer to make sure that the product they end up with is what they would rate a 5.",which I completely understand. Are all the reviews that are posted shown on your site, or just selected reviews? If someone leaves a 1-2 start review are those figured into the overall review shown on the product page?
MIDWEST
I hope I can clarify.
There are reviews that are not posted, and there are many reasons why.
We find that the 1 or 2 star reviews are upgraded to a higher score for that product after our customer service contact. It is possible that the product that was reviewed is not reflective of our entire line of that product. When we have resolved the issue, we encourage the customer to write another review (currently, we are unable to edit/change the original It is in the works though).
Other reviews are left by trolls with guest accounts, and no means to connect them to an order. We cannot allow reviews from people who have not purchased product.
There are also reviews that come in that are laden with profanity or vulgar comparisons. One of my favorites that couldnt be posted was a very positive one for a honey ale. The brewer made mention of some creative uses for the honey and the beer.
Any review that is submitted is read by our product team, and those reviews that contain negative feedback are also read by our President. We take them very seriously and it will drive changes for the better in homebrewing. Keep your eyes open, because we are trying to do a lot of things that brewers on forums are asking for.
Once again, let me know if I can help with anything else. Happy brewing!
ME
Thanks again for your reply.
I have to admit that I'm pretty shocked that the reviews are manipulated that way. While I understand the issues with trolls and profanity and the desire to make a customer happy the open review system works for other companies, both small and large.
The major issue I see with this is that your system isn't telling potential customers what the full customer base thinks of a product, only the average of all 3-5 star reviews. In the simplest terms this is dishonest and in the case of a product like the Big Mouth Bubbler it is potentially dangerous, as no visitors to your site would be aware that anyone has had an issue with breakage.
I'll hope you'll pass on the information that this policy really should be reevaluated as it's extremely deceitful and potentially dangerous to your customers.
MIDWEST
I will pass our thread onto our entire product team, and our leadership team. It will be discussed and we appreciate your feedback.
We do have our caution warning on the site, on both of the galss Big Mouth Bubbler pages. We hope that visitors would see that, as it is even more up-front then the reviews. We do not have intentions to be deceitful, only to offer high-quality, innovative products that are designed specifically for brewers (and winemakers).
On our last email exchange I was offered a plastic Big Mouth Bubbler to try out. I was going to decline but decided 1) sweet, free carboy! and 2) I will use it and post an honest review. I was pretty surprised at the way they handle reviews, and I did let Midwest know I intended to share this info as I think everyone needs to be aware of this.
So, as far as the Big Mouth Bubbler goes, use plastic or proceed with extreme caution. As far as buying from Midwest goes, just be aware that the reviews you see are not an accurate representation of all customer reviews of the products.
