Brewmasters Warehouse

[NuclearRich]

I have ordered 8 gallon buckets for fermenting in the past from BMW, but I don't see them anymore. Are they gone for good?

 

[ChemE]

Sadly I will be avoiding BMW until they finally do fix their website and they begin to maintain reasonable stock levels. I can only speculate that they either do not have enough cash to keep a reasonable amount of stock on the shelves or whoever maintains their stock levels continually gets it wrong. I have been placing orders for wine kits most of this year and they are always out of stock; some I have had to wait as long as a month for. This annoyed me but I love the company and they are really about beer not wine so I don't let that deter me from continuing to do business with them. My in-laws placed an order through my account to begin making wine from kits as well and this time they were out of things like carboy caps and corkers in addition to their wine kit. This struck me as odd, I mean seriously carboy caps?! Might as well run out of airlocks and carboys too!

Last week I placed on order for a few pounds of smoked malt, Wyeast 1272, and two more wine kits. ALL those items are out of stock! The lower prices and fast shipping are no longer worth having to wait weeks to months for an order to be fulfilled. I am all about planning ahead and not making my failure to plan another's emergency but having to order supplies 2-4 weeks out crosses the line for me.

I sincerely hope BMW ownership is keeping up with this thread and is aware of the issue. I for one will be glad to take my business back to BMW if they can update their site to reflect stock status AND keep a stock what they sell. Until that time I will be shopping with Austin Homebrew Supply. Sorry BMW, I can't wait to come back but I'm sick of waiting excessively for my order.

 

[sudbuster]

Well Dudes and NEIGHSAYERS, I have not had the experiences that have been so rampantly reported in this thread. BWH is just another web supplier. No doubt Ed is busting his arse to get the orders out and guessing at what to update his stock with. I say WTH, give the guy a break. Is that unreasonable? Try some planning ahead, after all, you are doing an internet order that requires shipping etc, right? If you are in a hurry just get the stuff from your LHBS. If you like some other internet supplier better, then go there and leave it be. BWH is just another AMERICAN business trying to serve the best they can. I have had NO REASON to bad mouth BWH for any of my orders, past or present... Cheers

 

[NorCalBrewin]

I placed an small order 2 and a half weeks ago, I noticed it didn't ship so I called them and they said it would ship in a week, three days later I got an email saying an item was on back order, I asked them to ship without the item, then ship the back ordered item. Now the item is being held by FedEx. Big headache. I don't know, could be a one time thing, busy week for them. maybe I'll make another order and update.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

Well Dudes and NEIGHSAYERS, I have not had the experiences that have been so rampantly reported in this thread. BMW is just another web supplier. No doubt Ed is busting his arse to get the orders out and guessing at what to update his stock with. I say WTH, give the guy a break. Is that unreasonable? Try some planning ahead, after all, you are doing an internet order that requires shipping etc, right? If you are in a hurry just get the stuff from your LHBS. If you like some other internet supplier better, then go there and leave it be. BWH is just another AMERICAN business trying to serve the best they can. I have had NO REASON to bad mouth BWH for any of my orders, past or present... Cheers

How many months should we wait for an order to be fulfilled when the product is listed on the website as in stock and shipping estimates are days, not weeks? Are we supposed to just place orders and hope for the best? Maybe I can get my order some time in 2014?

This isn't people placing orders on Monday and mad it didn't show up Thursday when they requested standard shipping. This is weeks and months of waiting.

I gave them the benefit of the doubt and placed another order after seeing about a year of the exact same complaints. Same thing happened to me that happened to everybody else. After a year, these problems should be fixed. If your vendors aren't fulfilling orders you find a new vendor. You don't just shrug and hope for the best. If your inventory system doesn't work, you fix it. Etc.

It bothers me that he's on here hyping his cyber monday sale but doesn't stop over here to address the problems. Just wants to get more unhappy customers. That's intolerable. If you have problems fulfilling orders don't try to drum up more business. That's not giving us a break. Of course, part of this could be fixed by putting the reviews next to the vendor ads but I know that isn't going to happen...

 

[lgilmore]

I don't know, never had a problem with them. But I have to question a bit. You want the lowest possible price, but don't want to pay for fastest delivery? Maybe they should run a higher margin and charge more for shipping?

My question to the extreme poster here, why didn't you just cancel your order and buy elsewhere? Was it that you couldn't get the item elsewhere for the price? I mean if you can get it eslewhere for the same price.. see ya BMW!

Maybe it's a double edged sword? Maybe you should go elsewhere and do yourself a favor and maybe you should go elsewhere and do them a favor too?

 

[stratslinger]

I'll say that one case was rather extreme - but let's not pile on the other customers here. There's plenty of examples (I've been bitten personally, more than once) where BMW's site lists ingredients or equipment as being in stock and available. People order said ingredients or equipment, only to receive notification, typically 4 or 5 days later (well after one would reasonably expect the order to have been processed, though I admit I haven't recently scanned their site to see what they list as their policy time to process orders) to say "item X is on backorder, would you like the rest of your order now, or when item X shows up." Even worse, there have been times when you place an order, and 3-5 days go by with simply no acknowledgement of said order, until you call and email them a couple times, and then the order gets processed - that one happened to me the very last time I used BMW.

It's great that some folks have had no problems - I wish you continued luck. Me, I've moved on. But to suggest that the problems folks are having are somehow their own fault (which I think is what I'm reading into the previous post), just isn't fair.

 

[Pappers_]

Generally, responding to other members' reviews is not a good idea. The best response is to post your own review.

 

[brew2enjoy]

I placed an order on Sunday. Order was still pending yesterday so I sent an email and got a quick response basically saying they are very backed up and my order will ship late this week. Kinda sucks because I was planning to brew this weekend. BMW has always been super fast with shipping which is the main reason I order from them. Hopefully they get it together.

 

[jerseyale]

do the fermentation buckets have volume marks? do you plan to get ale pails within the next week or 2?

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

It's too bad. They used to pound out orders quickly and have great service. If you check the BMW review thread in the review forum it seems like this has been a problem for about a year now. I've been bitten by it too and decided I can find more reliable service elsewhere.

 

[lgilmore]

Sorry if I rubbed anybody the wrong way. My apologies. Of the vendors I use, all take some time for product to get to me as I live on the west coast. When I order, I expect at least a week to ten days. I have a home brew store in the next town over, but the cost in fuel is almost twice the cost to have things shipped to me. When I'm there I use it.

I guess it's a matter of expectation. I expect at least ten days, so when it shows up after 7 days, I'm pretty happy.

Again sorry if I offended anybody, didn't mean to.

 

[[email protected]]

Try Grape and Granary. Granted I only live an hour away, when I place an order I get it the next day. They seem to ship the same day consistently and very few back orders. FYI they have an ad in How To Brew magazine.


http://www.thegrape.net

 

[Brewmasters Warehouse]

I wanted to throw in a couple of words to everyone that has had issues with out of stocks.

I am well aware of our issues with the website showing things that are out of stock. We turn over inventory very quickly, and it is a very difficult task to keep up with everything. I agree that we have been less than what we want to be at times.

Our web guy has been working very hard on being able to tie the actual inventory and sales data into a live system. I personally am very frustrated over the huge amount of time it has taken to get the system working properly. I am no web expert but the major issue lies with the shopping cart software. There are lots of programs out there that a business can buy to tie everything together. Unfortunately there is not anything that we can buy to use for that purpose since there are no other shopping carts that are available for purchase that would work with the brew builder. So some of the things that make us a great site are currently keeping us from being an even better site.

I am doing my best to mitigate the issues buy just buying more and more stock, but it seems that no matter what I do people have a great knack for ordering what we don't have. As soon as we run out of one thing even if it is only sold once a month, we get 5 orders for it the next day. I look at our out of stock list daily, and try to do the best to make sure that everything gets back in stock as soon as possible.

I have said this before and I will say it again if you ever have an issue with an order, or customer service that you are being given let me know. Not only will I take very good care of you, I can actually help my staff improve.

You can PM me here, email me (ed at brewmasterswarehouse dot com), or call the store if you need to. If you do call please tell the guys that answer the phone that you are a customer, not a sales call. I get tons of sales calls and the guys will not let anyone that they think might be a sales call talk to me directly.

I know contacting me is more than I should ask for if you are not being taken care but it really does help out a lot.

Thanks,

Ed

 

[Brewmasters Warehouse]

do the fermentation buckets have volume marks? do you plan to get ale pails within the next week or 2?

Sorry but the fermentation buckets do not have volume marks. The 5 gallon mark is right where the handle connects to the bucket. We have plenty of them in stock.

Thanks,

Ed

 

[MalFet]

I always liked Brewmaster's Warehouse, and I've defended them in the past here, but I must confess that I too have moved on to other suppliers. Ed and the other guys there have always been great, but it's hard to forget the fact that three of my last five orders were majorly delayed. In each case, what bugged me was that I didn't even find out until a week later that the orders were going to be late. If I had gotten an email that day, it would have been no problem.

I get that it's tough, and I've been on the other side of things too, but there's just too much solid competition in homebrew right now. I really like the guys at BMW, but I really like the guys at three or four other stores too. I hope they figure out their logistics, because it would be a shame to see them sink. But, at the end of the day, I just like knowing when I'll get my ingredients.

 

[Nateo]

Ed - I seriously appreciate you taking the time to address some of these issues.

That said, I have to echo Malfet's experience:

In each case, what bugged me was that I didn't even find out until a week later that the orders were going to be late. If I had gotten an email that day, it would have been no problem. . . I hope they figure out their logistics

Please let us know when you fix your website/inventory system, and I'd be happy to try you again.

Also, FWIW I have no interest at all in your Brew Builder, but not having real-time inventory management is a deal-breaker for me.

 

[passedpawn]

I don't care about the Brew Builder either.

 

[GoldMiner]

I love the Brew Builder...just sayin'.

 

[bottlebomber]

I don't care for the brew builder.. I buy my base malts in bulk, and the things I order are specialty grains and yeast, things like that. Occasionally I will order a grain kit if it looks especially sexy. To be honest, the brew builder has made the site appear a little cluttered in my opinion, with 15000 recipes many of which have probably only been brewed once by one customer. I loved that you can order grain by the ounce, and I bet most interfaces would allow that. But like several people have mentioned, I've gone from BMW fanboy to sceptic over the last year because of the out of stock thing. If the BrewBuilder is the thing that's holding up better software, I say scrap it.

 

[Brewmasters Warehouse]

I love the Brew Builder...just sayin'.

So do most of our customers. For every customer that orders individual grains there are 4-5 customers that build recipes and order them.

Granted the recipe section of the website needs to be better arranged and sorted.

 

[mikeysab]

If the BrewBuilder is the thing that's holding up better software, I say scrap it.

Amen to that. I say get the inventory thing straightened out and work the brew builder around that.

 

[Brewmasters Warehouse]

I have ordered 8 gallon buckets for fermenting in the past from BMW, but I don't see them anymore. Are they gone for good?

We have moved away from them as of now. We had lots of trouble getting them in stock, so we stopped carrying them. If we can get a consistent supply I would bring them back.

 

[cosmo]

I ordered on Nov 4th and two items were on backorder. They shipped the rest, but the yeast was wrong. I e-mailed and they said they would ship the right one with the other items. It still says pending. Thats almost a month ago.

 

[bovineblitz]

The MO vs GP statement is a bit disconcerting... I hope that's not the case. I imagine it's not since the price is different and they come from different maltsters.

 

[CGVT]

+1 to the brew builder. It is what drew me to Brewmasters in the first place.

 

[andycr]

I ordered on Nov 4th and two items were on backorder. They shipped the rest, but the yeast was wrong. I e-mailed and they said they would ship the right one with the other items. It still says pending. Thats almost a month ago.

You should email them, any time my order is taking awhile that's what I do. They don't seem to have the best order management system in place, but if you talk to them things usually start happening fairly quickly.

I am usually disappointed by how long things take to ship, but I understand this is a busy season, and every time I order I manage to pick something that's out of stock. I just need to start planning my brews a couple weeks in advance.

 

[WilliamWS]

When, at some point, I finally buy a mill the brew builder won't be particularly useful to me but until then it is nice to be able to save recipes, though I don't generally use the brew builder to create recipes.
I never look at the recipe section and don't generally make my recipes public on the site so the cluttered recipe section doesn't bother me nor do I add to the clutter (not that I have anything against sharing my recipes but unless someone asks for one I don't see the point in posting them all).

Having said that, what initially drew me to BMW wasn't the brew builder. It was their combination of good grain selection (not the best out there but better than most), great crush (again I don't yet own a mill and I used to get 90% eff with their crush), quick turnaround, and the fact that you can buy grain by the ounce and have an entire recipe packaged together (I don't know why more vendors don't do this-selling only by the pound and packaging everything separately is just so wasteful). Add their solid prices and flat-rate shipping and what wasn't to like?

The first year+ that I ordered from them everything was flawless. I think it was around the time they moved that things changed. I still do business with them but they're not the 100% go-to that they used to be.
I've only had one order that was a total mess shipping/inventory-wise but turnaround times in general have definitely gotten longer. The crush has also changed. It's still not bad, better than some vendors, but I'd say it's about average to slightly better than average now. My eff went from a consistent 90% to a consistent 81% (about the same as my LBS) with no change in process, something that did screw me up a little on a couple of batches.

In general I feel like they've probably been experiencing growing pains, growing a little faster than they could really handle. I haven't given up on them yet but with all the competition it wouldn't take much. I'm still hopeful that they can get back to the level of service that they used to have and it wouldn't hurt my feelings if their crush were to go back to being the best around (I can't complain too much, though-my eff is still fine).

 

[NorCalBrewin]

Well I placed a small order with them, it said all items were in stock then proceeded to checkout. A week later I ask call and ask when my order is going to be shipped, they say tomorrow or the next day, I wait 5 days and then get an email saying one item is on back order! I tell them ship the items that aren't on back order then when the other item comes ship it alone 6 days later I get a shipping confirmation email, then the shipment is held by FedEx for 5 days. Big headache, meshed up my brew day. From order to my door it takes 23 days?
Hmm, I'll stick with Morebeer or Northern Brewer.

 

[brew2enjoy]

My order from Sunday is still pending. I think I'm just going to cancel it and drive down to my LHBS tomorrow. 4+ business days to ship an order is too long IMO. Nothing against BMW but I'll probably take a break from them for a while until they get it together.