I really wish I saw this thread before I placed my order a couple weeks ago. I've been a long-time supporter of AIH. Over the years, I have found them to have great products, reasonable pricing, and most importantly - exceptional customer service. I thought it was bizarre when I attempted to place my order that I needed to re-register a new account on their website, but didn't think too much about it as communication from the company hadn't changed. I am now regretting the decision not to look into it further.
After not receiving my order for nearly 2 weeks (usually their orders shipped same day or next day), I checked the website to see if the order status had been updated. Nothing, it just states "unfulfilled." I never received any email or anything indicating a problem with the order, so I decided to call. Instead of being greeted by the friendly and familiar voices at AIH, the phone was answered by a guy who clearly doesn't like his job and responds to customers as if they are a nuisance. Before I could even explain the situation he abruptly told me that "online orders can take up to 5 days to arrive once shipped so you'll just need to wait." Every time I attempted to talk, he would quickly interrupt me with some canned response about order shipping times, etc. I kept trying to explain to him that I don't believe the order had even shipped yet, until he finally acknowledged me and rudely stated "Well you need to give me the order number before I can do anything about that." Yeah guy, if you didn't interrupt me ever time I tried to explain to you and give you the order number, you'd have that information.
Long story short, he basically told me that it is not unusual for orders to take 10 business days to process and that I should receive an email when the order ships (it has already been more than 10 business days). I asked if there was a change to their business practices or if they were bought, because at this point I was becoming very suspicious. Also keep in mind that they still advertise Fast & Free Shipping for all orders over $59 on their website. I have NEVER had this experience with AIH staff nor any delayed shipping without proper communication. I always received all my orders within 3-4 days from the time the order was placed, they were extremely fast. He responded and told me that they were recently acquired by another corporation but that online sales remain the same. He wouldn't elaborate on who bought them or when, but did confirm all retail sales were no longer available and it was now an online only operation. Had he told me who they had been acquired by, I would have immediately cancelled my order.
A quick search online revealed that AIH and AHS were bought out by Blackstreet Capital (Northern Brewer) which is extremely sad but now explains why they have such terrible business practices and poor customer service. I rechecked their website and sure enough, they have updated the address to the MN location. Then I found the threads that outline how this all went down. So yeah, they bought AIH, flipped it upside down, fired all their employees without adequate notice, robbed the customers of their rewards points, changed their order processing and shipping practices without updating their shipping policy on the website, ran a bunch of sales to generate orders that would be immediately billed but unable to be fulfilled, and never once sent an email to loyal AIH customers to let them know anything was changing. Is all of this perfectly acceptable from a business standpoint in the realm of capitalism? I guess. But this is not the type of business I will spend money at ever again.
RIP Adventures in Homebrewing