Tom Hargrave and Kegkits.com (www.ic3.gov)

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I think he is just selling equipment now, and no actual brewing ingredients.......thats just what I heard somewhere though......
 
He's been doing this for years and at one point there was a sticky about it.

When does it become wire fraud and a federal crime?
 
It might help to add your ratings to his website at http://www.mywot.com/ Its an addon for Firefox and Chrome that will warn people if they go to a website with poor reputation. His site still has a good reputation, if you've had a bad experience it might help others if you leave your ratings.
 
I ordered from Kegkits about 2 weeks ago, and only started reading all of these negative reviews about the business afterward. I was very concerned about my order, but decided to wait it out.

Just received my order today, it's got everything I ordered and at a good price. Took a little bit of time to get here but I was definitely NOT scammed.


EDIT: AFTER CLOSER INSPECTION, THE REGULATOR ARRIVED WITH BOTH OF THE PRESSURE GAUGES BUSTED OUTWARDS. THE SAFETY RELIEF VALVE WAS ALSO BUSTED DUE TO THE DIAPHRAGM BEING ASSEMBLED INCORRECTLY ON THE INSIDE. GETTING MY LOCAL WELDING SHOP TO FIX IT BECAUSE I DON'T FEEL LIKE DEALING WITH KEGKITS ANYMORE. DO NOT BUY FROM THEM!!!!!!!!!!
 
This is Tom from kegkits.com.

NON VENDOR LINK REMOVED.
are also my sites.

We have continued business since I failed almost 2 years ago and I'm proud to say that I have not received one BBB complaint since we imploded. Instead of me typing what happened over & over again you can read what happened to my business in the link below. And if you don't care, I guess you won't read it.

Brewers Hardware Stir Plate Review | Nick's Beer is Here

We hurt a lot of people when we failed but none more than me. I doubt if any of you have run a failing business.

And BTW, I see some other resellers advertising on this site going down the same path I went down. It's easy to see once you've been there. I won't mention who because it's not fair to them but I will say that any business that continuosly comes up with excuses for being late is in serious trouble. You know who they are.

I do not expect anyone I hurt to ever buy from me again and this is not why I posted this. I just want to set the record straight.

Thanks, Tom
 
Tom,

I'm not saying you aren't a good business man but if you want to continue selling your products... why not CHANGE THE NAME that got all the bad publicity???

Instead of fight an uphill battle, buy a new .com and start fresh. Or if you have some revenue still coming from kegkits.com keep that site AND build a new one that doesn't have such a black shadow over it.

Just my 2 cents.

I know they say there is no such thing as bad publicity but that's just a saying!

This video is pretty bad.



Another idea, you might not have kept very good records over the years but have you thought of trying to personally reach out to the customers you did hurt in the past?
 
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Tom is a great guy, was recently a pleasure to deal with, and I wouldn't hesitate to deal with him again (and again).

It's a shame what happened in the past, and I can understand why some people might have a negative opinion and are wary of doing business with him again, but hopefully some of these people can give him the chance to redeem himself - maybe not by actually dealing with him directly, but at least giving it a rest, even if just temporarily, with regards to the spreading of negative opinions and attempts to convince others not to conduct any business with him, based on the events that occurred quite some time ago.
 
dallasdb,

You aren't the first who suggested a name change and I considered a name change. But traffic never stopped coming to NON VENDOR LINK REMOVED.
and even through all this mess, sales continued. I did start a second site - NON VENDOR LINK REMOVED.

And regarding the video? It's a video of me refusing to play the local TV station's games. They could care less about what's really going on - they could care less about what me and my business were going through at the time - all they wanted was someone flailing at the end of their hook to entertain their 6:00 viewers. And I refused to play their game.

At the end of the day the business failed and it was my fault. I'm just fortunate enough to be able to pick up the pieces and have the opportunity to pay off my landlord and suppliers and hopefully I eventually will.

And personally reach out to the customers I hurt in the past? One thing I did learn from this is how cruel and mean people really can be. I lost count of the emails, phone calls and threats I received from "customers". I lost count of the people who promised to personally come to Alabama and kick my a&&. Also, about $9,000 of product was kept by customers who somehow felt justified to file charge backs and not return these items. And I'm sure that every one of them felt self-justified in his or her actions. At this point these posts are about as far as I'm willing to "reach out".

I have no problem admitting this mess was my fault - it was. I also can't change yesterday but I'm not going to crawl under a rock either. So the only real choices are to quit or continue and I chose to continue.

Thanks for your feedback.
 
emjay said:
Tom is a great guy, was recently a pleasure to deal with, and I wouldn't hesitate to deal with him again (and again).

It's a shame what happened in the past, and I can understand why some people might have a negative opinion and are wary of doing business with him again, but hopefully some of these people can give him the chance to redeem himself - maybe not by actually dealing with him directly, but at least giving it a rest, even if just temporarily, with regards to the spreading of negative opinions and attempts to convince others not to conduct any business with him, based on the events that occurred quite some time ago.
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Thanks for the positive feedback. And actually a lot of older customers continue to shop with me. This is what kept me in business. One point I made earlier is I have received no BBB begative feedback since the business imploded and this has to stand for something.
 
Honestly......

You know I don't know where to start.

Sent from my Galaxy S 4G using Home Brew Talk for Android
 
I moved this thread into company reviews. Just letting you guys know.
 
This guy is a piece of work. Glad I read the sticky before purchasing my key setup from a different vendor. I for one won't risk my money on this guy's rehabilitation.
 
For what it's worth, when I came on here complaining about Tom's Stirplate 2000 that I bought, Tom responded immediately by offering to exchange for a replacement, in the next model up, for free.
 
If my business ever goes down that badly, crawling under a rock would be the least I could do. It sounds like a horrible case of gambler's delusion. If I can just make that one big score, I could get the ship back on course. I'd say it takes some brass balls to screw people over that badly and try to keep going in the same business.

Maybe you can earn back a decent reputation, but for now .... eh.
 
bernerbrau said:
For what it's worth, when I came on here complaining about Tom's Stirplate 2000 that I bought, Tom responded immediately by offering to exchange for a replacement, in the next model up, for free.
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You did and thanks for the opportunity to make things right. I've not heard anything else from you so I assume the Stir Plate 3000 is working fine?

For those of you who did not read that thread, here is a link:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/please-make-your-own-stir-plate-229276/

And BTW, as of the first week of December we have built and sold over 1000 stir plates. Most have been sold to homebrew shops across the country through FOXX Equipment. They have committed to carry my new Black MAXX stir plate along with the other two models starting the first of the year. FOXX is a great company to work with.

NON VENDOR LINK REMOVED
 
Bobby_M said:
If my business ever goes down that badly, crawling under a rock would be the least I could do. It sounds like a horrible case of gambler's delusion. If I can just make that one big score, I could get the ship back on course. I'd say it takes some brass balls to screw people over that badly and try to keep going in the same business.

Maybe you can earn back a decent reputation, but for now .... eh.
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Brass balls or maybe just a thick head. And anyways I did not intentionally screw anyone over. I failed and a lot of people were hurt, including me.

And BTW, I decided to re-open this thread by commenting and I could have just let things lie as they were. But I believe in addressing and solving issues & I guess that's why I'm still in business.
 
thargrav said:
You did and thanks for the opportunity to make things right. I've not heard anything else from you so I assume the Stir Plate 3000 is working fine?
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No complaints on the 3000, except I've had a bock starter sitting on it for the last 2 months that I haven't gotten around to stepping up.
 
Screw Me once, shame on you. Screw Me twice, shame on Me. (Not me, but the collective HBT Me.) Just keep that in mind.
 
Isn't it funny how he keeps saying HE was screwed over? I hope everyone remembers what customers went through with this dude still taking orders when his communication was non-existent and nothing was being shipped.

Tx, isn't this guy pushing the line talking about his business while not being a vendor? Boot him!
 
thargrav said:
Brass balls or maybe just a thick head. And anyways I did not intentionally screw anyone over. I failed and a lot of people were hurt, including me.
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You seem to think that is good enough. You are using a blanket excuse to justify what is literally hundreds of screwed over customers. You weren't hurt, you are the only one who came out on top in this. Had you refunded every single dime and then shipped product out, or refunded product cost and shipped product out for the cost of shipping, then you could say you were hurt. Even then you would have simply been doing right by your customers.

The truth is you have NO leg to stand on, and NO RIGHT to be here on this forum regardless of reason or intention. You have NO RIGHT to be on here listing links to your scam artist of a "business", and your posts are a blatant insult to the intelligence of our members and our community.

If you had one ounce of caring for your customers and the homebrewing community, you would have shut down the ability to order from your websites, refused to take any more money, and filled orders and fixed your problems. But you didn't. You chose instead to pay for yesterdays problems with tomorrows money. You ran a float, and at most points along the ride you just looked at the list of pending orders and said "**** 'em".

I view your actions as criminal. You don't deserve to view this community as a guest, let alone sit there as a member and respond. I would ask how many people you had to screw to pay for that premium membership, but the truth is you screwed enough people to buy us all a premium membership.


thargrav said:
And BTW, I decided to re-open this thread by commenting and I could have just let things lie as they were. But I believe in addressing and solving issues & I guess that's why I'm still in business.
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You decided to respond in the hopes that people would forgive you and send you more money. Go away.

Airborneguy said:
Isn't it funny how he keeps saying HE was screwed over? I hope everyone remembers what customers went through with this dude still taking orders when his communication was non-existent and nothing was being shipped.

Tx, isn't this guy pushing the line talking about his business while not being a vendor? Boot him!
Click to expand...

Amen.
 
1726009shutupandtakemym.jpg
 
Airborneguy said:
Isn't it funny how he keeps saying HE was screwed over? I hope everyone remembers what customers went through with this dude still taking orders when his communication was non-existent and nothing was being shipped.

Tx, isn't this guy pushing the line talking about his business while not being a vendor? Boot him!
Click to expand...

No - I did not say I was screwed over - I did say that some customers kept product and then filed for chargebacks and then got their money back. It was part of a comment I made about people in general.

And no, I'm not drumming up new business. I don't expect anyone I hurt to ever buy from me again and I also don't see how dragging up old dirt will help my business. I only woke this thread back up by commenting to try and explain what went wrong and to warn homebrewers to watch for others going down the same path.

The bottom line is I screwed up the business. And in the process I hurt a lot of people, including myself. But that was 2 years ago, so why do you and others continue bashing me? Will this continue 5 years after the business failed (3 years from now)? Ten years after the business failed? And if the answer is "as long as your in business" then I suggest you plan for a very long run.
 
thargrav said:
No - I did not say I was screwed over - I did say that some customers kept product and then filed for chargebacks and then got their money back. It was part of a comment I made about people in general.

And no, I'm not drumming up new business. I don't expect anyone I hurt to ever buy from me again and I also don't see how dragging up old dirt will help my business. I only woke this thread back up by commenting to try and explain what went wrong and to warn homebrewers to watch for others going down the same path.

The bottom line is I screwed up the business. And in the process I hurt a lot of people, including myself. But that was 2 years ago, so why do you and others continue bashing me? Will this continue 5 years after the business failed (3 years from now)? Ten years after the business failed? And if the answer is "as long as your in business" then I suggest you plan for a very long run.
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How many times are you going to say this? You are one of those people that can never simply take responsibility for something. It's always someone else's fault, or there's some comment to go along with it. You're a scam artist dude, even if you did loose out what do we care? I'm sure not a single one of your victims gives a second thought about you and your "losses".

And you know what, I hope some of them did keep merchandise after they filed charge backs. ALL of your customers should have got a full refund and something to benefit from.

People like you always end up in jail, and some day it will come around on you. At least maybe you can be the guy that makes the hooch, and then you only have to be one guys girlfriend instead of the gen-pop play toy. As you put it to us, I suggest you plan for the long run.
 
You don't know me and you have never met me and yet you know exactly who I am and what I'm all about.

If I brought myself to your level I'd write about 5 paragraphs about you, etc, etc. But I don't play that way.

So, since you are obviously making this personal and I don't know you, I give up and will not post any more to this thread.
 
thargrav said:
You don't know me and you have never met me and yet you know exactly who I am and what I'm all about.

If I brought myself to your level I'd write about 5 paragraphs about you, etc, etc. But I don't play that way.

So, since you are obviously making this personal and I don't know you, I give up and will not post any more to this thread.
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I know you aren't talking to me, I was one of the unfortunate people who hit the checkout button on your excuse for a website.
 
nukinfuts29 said:
I know you aren't talking to me, I was one of the unfortunate people who hit the checkout button on your excuse for a website.
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You know, perhaps this could be a good opportunity for you. I ordered a 5 gallon used keg from you last summer (2010), and I never saw the keg or my money. Paypal told me where to go basically, and you never made it right. Quite frankly, I gave up after 7 months.

So if you are truly looking to turn things around, make it right publically here in a show of good faith. Send me the keg.
 
thargrav said:
But that was 2 years ago, so why do you and others continue bashing me?
Click to expand...

This is why....

nukinfuts29 said:
You know, perhaps this could be a good opportunity for you. I ordered a 5 gallon used keg from you last summer (2010), and I never saw the keg or my money. Paypal told me where to go basically, and you never made it right. Quite frankly, I gave up after 7 months.

So if you are truly looking to turn things around, make it right publically here in a show of good faith. Send me the keg.
Click to expand...
 
Well bud you may choose to do it in private, but the public wants answers. There is no reason to respond to me in the shadows, so I'm here to light it up and I will respond to you here.

This PM came in response:

We've not turned things around yet - I still owe my landlord and one supplier a lot of money and we won't be clear for at least one more year. But we are catching up. This is why I PM'd you instead of responding through the public forum. We just don't have the money to refund even 10% of the customers I hurt. Also, with all of the chargebacks and customers keeping stuff at the end I really don't know who I owe stuff to.

I don't have any used kegs in stock but I have no problem sending something else close to the same value. Just plug in the order through the web site & choose check payment. Also, I need your name so I can match the order up with you and ship it.

And BTW, did you read the Keg Cowboy posts? He is one of the resellers I was trying to warn the list about. He's also one of the "more vocal" customers I hurt.

Thanks, Tom
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I have no problem ordering something and posting when you make right by it, no problem at all. That is the entire point of this discussion. You obviously have a lot to catch up on, so that I will do here in a bit and PM my information over. To be honest what I order probably won't even come close to what I spent, simply because I know what it is like to be hurting and I have no intention of making it difficult for you to take a step in the right direction.

What I don't get is calling out Keg Cowboy? They have issues, and it's a whole separate thing. Shedding light on the issues of someone else is not a good way to promote a positive image.

So with that said I will get an order in and send you the information. Don't take this post as an attack, if you are truly looking to make amends with the community this is actually in your favor.
 
I did not call out Keg Cowboy specifically. Also, scan through my posts and you'll see that I never have bashed anyone else in a effort to look good. I did PM the info only to you and you copied the PM into this thread. But now that it's out, I do believe they are in trouble. They are making the same excuses I made when I was in trouble. And I believe that there is only one outcome once you get to where I was at.

I believe that some others who advertise on this list are also in trouble.

Here is the exact statement I made earlier in this thread.

And BTW, I see some other resellers advertising on this site going down the same path I went down. It's easy to see once you've been there. I won't mention who because it's not fair to them but I will say that any business that continuosly comes up with excuses for being late is in serious trouble. You know who they are.
 
Yes and no.

Yes, for the reason that it seems obvious that Mr. Hargrave is using this thread as a vehicle to advertise his business.

No, because that business has such a shoddy reputation on this forum.

I think if he truly wants to make things right he should contact each customer he was unable to deliver product/return payment to and keep a running tab in this thread with verification from those customers on the status of their orders and what he has done to right each situation. Is that a bit unfair? Arguably, but so was the position he took in the past and if he truly wants to re-invent his business and make things right he'll do this. At any rate, that's my suggestion. Good luck to all.
 
Update:

Before I even woke up this morning I had a confirmation email with a tracking number, and the package I ordered last night for a resolution has shipped via USPS.

I will confirm when I receive it, probably Tuesday possibly Monday, but it would appear to me at least that he is making an effort. I'm but a drop in a large pond, but he has to start somewhere.
 
This thread needs to be deleted. This is nothing more than a shameless ploy to dupe more people in to buying from you. I was fortunate enough to get my kegs and regulator. The regulator however is complete junk! He's totally plugging all three of his sites.
 
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