Brewmasters Warehouse

[tdiowa]

Thanks for the callback Ed. Going to be a great brewing weekend!!!

Never failed to disappoint!!

TD

 

[Yesfan]

This thread make me feel uneasy.

I have an order with BMW (placed on 6/15) and still have yet to receive it. It's not grains with mine, but with carboys and some BLC. Seems they can have both in stock at the same time. I sent an email earlier today. I also called them sometime last week, and was under the impression I would have gotten it this past Saturday.


The last order I had (placed on 5/19) was the same way (out of yeast), but after that first inquiry and a contact from them later, I got it the very next day as promised. Hope this order is the same.

I hate reading the last few posts in this thread. BMW has been excellent with the exception of this last order. It's not been as bad as what I've experienced with Northern Brewer, but to be so close to me, I shouldn't have to wait six weeks for any order, but since it's items I don't need "now", it's a semi-issue with me.

 

[ThickHead]

This thread make me feel uneasy.

I have an order with BMW (placed on 5/15) and still have yet to receive it. It's not grains with mine, but with carboys and some BLC. Seems they can have both in stock at the same time. I sent an email earlier today. I also called them sometime last week, and was under the impression I would have gotten it this past Saturday.


The last order I had (placed on 5/19) was the same way (out of yeast), but after that first inquiry and a contact from them later, I got it the very next day as promised. Hope this order is the same.

I hate reading the last few posts in this thread. BMW has been excellent with the exception of this last order. It's not been as bad as what I've experienced with Northern Brewer, but to be so close to me, I shouldn't have to wait six weeks for any order, but since it's items I don't need "now", it's a semi-issue with me.

I am also sad to see all the issues that are popping up recently with BMW turnaround times for online users. I can tell you from experience that quite often their shelves are far too bare when I walk into the store lately as well. BMW has been my LHBS since I moved to the Atlanta area and they are hardly local for me as I live in Buckhead. But before now they have always been excellent to do business with. Lately I find that I must modify my recipes even due to the fact that they are typically out of something I am looking for when I walk in. Which means I have now switched to filling some of my needs through Hop City lately. Most of their business is done online and I fear where things are headed for them. I have not yeet given up on them but I truly hope they can come to grips with their ability to keep their inventory at appropriate levels for timely delivery to their online and walk-in customers.

 

[bovineblitz]

This thread make me feel uneasy.

I have an order with BMW (placed on 5/15) and still have yet to receive it. It's not grains with mine, but with carboys and some BLC. Seems they can have both in stock at the same time. I sent an email earlier today. I also called them sometime last week, and was under the impression I would have gotten it this past Saturday.


The last order I had (placed on 5/19) was the same way (out of yeast), but after that first inquiry and a contact from them later, I got it the very next day as promised. Hope this order is the same.

I hate reading the last few posts in this thread. BMW has been excellent with the exception of this last order. It's not been as bad as what I've experienced with Northern Brewer, but to be so close to me, I shouldn't have to wait six weeks for any order, but since it's items I don't need "now", it's a semi-issue with me.

I felt that way too for a while. I've spent over $1.2k with them over the past 2.5 years. I was sold on the brew builder and the solid crush. There were a couple little bumps but nothing abnormal, then recently things took a turn for the worse. Slow fulfillment, lots of things out of stock... it got to the point where I was calling the day after I placed an order just to be sure I'd get it within two weeks.

Then I got a shipment of over 55lbs of grain (took 8 full business days to ship out and multiple calls) and the crush was abysmal. I got a steady 71% from their crush normally, then I got 55% on a batch. I filed a complaint and talked with Ed about it, he said he wasn't aware of the problem and they were reassembling the mill. I thought to myself "well that's great for people going forward", I thought that given my large order, $$$ spent over the course of several years, and for notifying them of the problem the least they could do is send me a few pounds of extract or refund me some money. I couldn't get a crush on my next batch so had to supplement with a significant amount of extract (55% efficiency again), and the third batch out of that I had a brew club member recrush for me.

I made it pretty clear that the situation wasn't acceptable, and I haven't spent a dime with them since. There goes a consistent regular customer, and what I'm spreading by word of mouth isn't helping them either.

 

[Yesfan]

.....I can tell you from experience that quite often their shelves are far too bare when I walk into the store lately as well......

Damn. I hope that's not an indication of them possibly closing the doors. Either way, that can't be good.


Hope it's something they can turn around. I love the flat shipping and the recipe database and brew builder is pretty cool!

 

[Effingbeer]

I know it may be little comfort to those who have been worried about their orders, but there was a personal reason that BMW has been a little unsteady. He posted a response on the Brewing Network forum of how he was dealing with a serious family medical issue and the ensuing personal and relationship situations. He said that BMW is getting back on track. I think they will be a great supplier again soon.

 

[mcstout]

Received an email yesterday that one of my products was out of stock. After speaking with them I was able to change that product out and get the order shipped right then.
My LHBS has is really just a hobby shop and the Homebrew section is about the size of my closet. So I usually order online and then I get what I need. I could drive down to Cambridge and get it but its just easier.

 

[broadbill]

Here is my recent experience with BMW: Disclaimer- I was an early customer and have been really happy with their service on previous orders.

Ordered 2 batches of grain on 6/12, order still read pending on the 19th (1 week); at that point I shot them an email and then I immediately received a shipping notification (not sure if my email was timed right or if it prompted them to get moving). Received my stuff pretty quickly once it shipped...looks good.

I did notice they were out of alot of the hops that are in my recipe book. Not a problem for me as I have bulk hops, but something to note.

I was prepared for a bit of a wait based on the comments in this thread so I planned accordingly. BMW might be getting beat in the turnaround time by other vendors, but I'm not going to say that 1 week is too long to wait, considering I like their website, their product (never had problems with their crush, for example) and their service.

Having been an early customer who was accustomed to 24-48 hour turnaround times, I could see where some people would be upset by the current turnaround time. My suggestion to BMW would be forthcoming on their current turnaround time (say, post it on their website) so customers could plan ahead (or maybe offer a rush charge option?).

Overall, they have a great web front-end and a consistent product for reasonable prices. They could be doing better in getting orders shipped, but that is most likely because they set the bar really high when then first opened.

 

[Pappers_]

A gentle note about the deleted posts above - please don't take the deletions personally, but I'm taking pains to keep the conversation on-topic (i.e. reviews from customers). In cases like this thread, where there have been many problems reported, it is especially important to keep the conversation to reviews.

Reviews of other businesses should be posted in their review thread. More philosophical posts and discussions are welcome, but need to be posted in their own thread.

 

[Yesfan]

Got an email from Eric at BMW. My order will ship today (assuming it already has today). I ordered some Star San and BLC and it was one of those that kept holding up more order. That out of stock item should ship next weekend.


If I had to gripe, I would say 6 weeks is a bit too long for any order, especially since I'm "up the road" compared to other members' locations. Either way, I'm happy my order (part of it) shipped.

 

[ultravista]

Effingbeer - please post a link to that thread. I would like to read what's going on.

 

[disney7]

Effingbeer - please post a link to that thread. I would like to read what's going on.

Not a review, but it certainly sheds some light on the cause of BMW's poor performance lately:

http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=30530&start=8

 

[Yesfan]

Not a review, but it certainly sheds some light on the cause of BMW's poor performance lately:

http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=30530&start=8

There's good and bad to that. First, I hate it for Ed (I lost my mom to cancer this past April). Second, it sounds like the place has went to **** in his absence. I'm not trying to point any fingers, but you would think that the place would be more 'unified' in Ed's absence, especially considering what Ed is going through.

On a lighter note, I did get my stuff from BMW today (was expecting it tomorrow). Hope things get better Ed. I'll keep you in my thoughts and prayers.

 

[benzy4010]

Ok let's see if my review is deleted again.... I live close to brewmaster warehouse and have used them for over thirty batches. I took their intro to brewing class which got me into brewing. I noticed that the employees seemed to not really seem to enjoy teaching the class it was more of a task. I may be stupid but a person who works at a brew shop wold enjoy teaching their craft to people who are very interested to learn. Anyways I enjoyed the class and researched brewing on YouTube after getting vague answers to my questions from BMW staff when trying to get started. I jumped right into all grain. I enjoyed that the store is just around the corner but found it interesting that when I would call in an order ( so it would be ready after work) and being told it would be ready for pick up I arrived to find out it was never filled and no one knew what I was talking about. So why would I have been called by ERIC? Anyways their shelves seem to always be empty and never restocked when they say an item will be in. Their excuse " the trucks never came in" or " trucks running late come back tomorrow" next day same answer. They talk to you like it's a inconvenience. I have also realized their crush I pretty poor. The brew builder is a nice idea and a good list of recipes to choose from. One thing that bothers me is that a brew shop is there for you to buy ingredients and supply's of course but also get advice and however they don't seem to have either.

 

[Pappers_]

Ok let's see if my review is deleted again.... I live close to brewmaster warehouse and have used them for over thirty batches. I took their intro to brewing class which got me into brewing. I noticed that the employees seemed to not really seem to enjoy teaching the class it was more of a task. I may be stupid but a person who works at a brew shop wold enjoy teaching their craft to people who are very interested to learn. Anyways I enjoyed the class and researched brewing on YouTube after getting vague answers to my questions from BMW staff when trying to get started. I jumped right into all grain. I enjoyed that the store is just around the corner but found it interesting that when I would call in an order ( so it would be ready after work) and being told it would be ready for pick up I arrived to find out it was never filled and no one knew what I was talking about. So why would I have been called by ERIC? Anyways their shelves seem to always be empty and never restocked when they say an item will be in. Their excuse " the trucks never came in" or " trucks running late come back tomorrow" next day same answer. They talk to you like it's a inconvenience. I have also realized their crush I pretty poor. The brew builder is a nice idea and a good list of recipes to choose from. One thing that bothers me is that a brew shop is there for you to buy ingredients and supply's of course but also get advice and however they don't seem to have either.

Your previous reviews weren't deleted. You have a review earlier in this thread, and a number of posts reviewing BMW in a thread you began in the wrong forum.

Two of the posts deleted immediately above this were not reviews, and one was attacking me for deleting your posts.

I'm leaving this review up, despite your repeated swipe at me. Since you took this public, I'll share with everyone that I tried to talk with you about this via PM, my last PM to you was a question that you did not reply to. Instead, you come here to say that I or someone deleted your previous review.

That is hogwash. Reviews in this thread are not edited or censored in anyway. Non-reviews are deleted.

Benzy4010 has been given a vacation from HBT for 10 days.

 

[Hang Glider]

Preface - Not a review, although I am a loyal BMW customer and have a few posts in this thread.

This is copied from the link above, and since Ed posted it there, publicly, it will likely be okay here as well. Mods, please feel free to delete if this is inappropriate.

from the Brewing Network forum about two weeks ago:

Thank you very much J for bringing this thread to my attention.

I will start off by saying to all of our customers that I am extremely sorry for all of the troubles you have had with the store. The problems are completely my fault and I am doing everything I can to fix the problems you have been experiencing with your orders.

About 6 months ago my older sister was diagnosed with Stage 4 Colon Cancer (It has spread from her colon to her liver and lungs). Without going into great detail about my very long and difficult family life growing up but she is very special to me because she was always there to take care of me when things were not the best. Her cancer really did a number on me personally and I have not only spent a lot of time out of town to support her, but also very depressed and certainly not engaged in the business like I should have been. As of right now she has about 2 months to live as the chemo treatments she was receiving were not working on her cancer.

At this point although my support and love for her is still fully in effect, I have finally reached a good place with it personally, and I am back and engaged in the business on a day to day basis. I am doing everything I can to get the problems in the store fixed as quickly as possible. We are slowly catching up on the back log of orders, and the inventory levels in the store have improved with a lot more on the way. This will not get fixed overnight, but things will be back to the way I want them soon. Again I sincerely apologize to everyone for the troubles.

Thanks,

Ed

Ed - so sorry for your situation, best and sincerest wishes for your emotional health and for your store to get back on track.

 

[limulus]

BMW have been my go to shop for the last couple of years also. The Brew Builder has also be quite useful to me. But my last couple of orders have been very slow to ship. They have been out of Centennial hops for months. I hope Ed is able to get it back on track after he takes care of his sister. I normally just order on line and use the HBT discount and have it shipped. It would cost me more in fuel to drive over there than the $6.99 flat rate shipping.

 

[alestateyall]

I haven't used BMW in a while. I decided to give them another try.

Ordered July 5.
Shipped July 11.
Received July 12.

All of my order was correct.

I made a mistake and left "crush all grains" checked when submitting my order online. I called after entering my order to ask them not to crush. The person who answered was very polite. My order arrived correct (no crushed grains).

EDIT: one of the yeast vials I ordered is marked best before July 5, 2013.
EDIT2: new yeast on its way.

 

[TXjayhawk]

First of all, I want to say to Ed that I am sorry that him and his sister are dealing with cancer. I know how it can affect one's life as I have a 5 1/2 year old that just finished 2 1/2 years of chemotherapy (858 days of treatment & 126 nights in the hospital).

Based on all stellar reviews of Brewmaster's Warehouse prior to this news, I hope the business can get its "mojo" back as it would be nice to see someone who built this business continue to succeed. My family had their own business as I was growing up and I have seen the hardwork it takes to keep it going.

I want to leave this feedback as constructive criticism for Brewmaster's Warehouse and not as beating them up as I think they still have some areas to improve upon.

I was upgrading my brewing equipment to go all grain and was in the market for a larger pot to do full boils. I ordered my pot on July 9. A couple days went by and I did not receive any communication about my order nor did the status of the order change. So I call them on July 11 to inquire and they informed me they are backed up about 1 week. He did go check on the inventory of the pot and accessories and told me the pot and one item was not in stock and hopefully should be in the following week. On July 12, I decided to cancel the order as I needed the pot quicker than they were going to be able to deliver. There were no problems on July 12 with cancelling that order.

So I waited 3 days (time for the bank to credit back my account) and saw that the credit for the order did not come back into my bank account. So I called on July 17 to see why the credit has not been processed. They did not have an answer but did say they would take care of it. I saw later in the day on their website that my order status changed from 'Pending' to 'Cancelled'.

I again waited 3 days waiting for bank to credit my account which would have been July 22. When I still did not see the amount credited back to my account, I called them again. They looked up my order and told me the credit was processed on their end on July 18 and that it takes between 3-5 days to process on my bank's end. Well, today (day 3 from July 18) the credit showed up.

I have read how great Brewmaster's Warehouse has been in the past, and I hope they can get their business back on track. It seems they still have some improvements to make and I wish from my experience they could have done the following:

1) when I placed the order it would have been nice to have the item listed as out of stock and possibly even a re-stock date. That would have helped me know when I could have possibly received my order to begin with.

2) to have my credit processed immediately after I cancelled my order instead of basically having to wait an extra week for the refund.

3) to have the status of the orders better communicated on the website or via email.

 

[ThatGuyRyan]

Sorry to hear about the family troubles Ed but unfortunately I had to call my credit card company to reverse the charges. I submitted my order on 07/10 and never heard back. I finally contacted BMW and on 07/16 I was told some items were backordered 5-10 business days so I said no problem just ship them all once they come in. That was the last I heard from BMW. It’s now 13 business days later and nothing shipped and no response from my last email. If I was just told upfront about the family issues I would have said no problem and just ordered these items from another company until Ed got his feet back under him but receiving no notification at all about what is going on is just not the way to do business. Someone at BMW should be servicing their customers if Ed is unable to but that doesn’t seem to be happening.

 

[limulus]

I have already replied to this thread once and I was close to placing an order last night, but I decided not to. I could drive the 1hr over to Marietta and hope my order would be ready. BMW were my go to source. I really like the Brew Builder, but how long can you be out of Centennial hops? It has been months. The sealed bag of pre-crushed grain has always been a nice touch. Now, I'm going to another well know source and they just use a twist tie. But at least it ships and arrives in a week or less. I also don't understand the term "backed up". If business is that good and it takes 1 week to pack and ship an order, I think it is time to create a proper shipping department with a proper supervisor or manager. That way an owner can keep growing his business as well as his customer service even when he is away.

 

[Yesfan]

July 18th- Ordered 2 better bottles, bungs, airlocks, and a Firestone ball lock liquid post.
July 19th- Billed for the order.
July 22nd- Got an email saying the Firestone ball lock liquid post was out of stock.
July 25th or 26th- Firestone post should be back in stock (according to their email).
August 2nd- Called to find the Firestone post is still out of stock.
August 2nd- Order, minus Firestone post, shipped today.
August 3rd- Should receive order minus Firestone post.

UPDATE:

August 3rd - received order minus Firestone post.
August 12th - sent message to BMW inquiring about Firestone post
August 12th - ordered Firestone post and other items from William's Brewing
August 12th - sent message to BMW to cancel Firestone post and apply refund
August 13th - William's Brewing shipped order (from California).
August 14th - received order from Williams Brewing
August 14th - BMW applied refund

 

[MotorcycleMike]

Since I wasn't in a rush for anything, I thought I'd give BMW another try.
7/29 Placed order
7/30 received an e-mail thanking me for the order and that 2 items were out of stock (cap's & Starsan) and that they should be in by the following Monday.
8/5 (Monday) received notice that my order had shipped & a tracking number.
8/6 Fedex site says my order is out for delivery.
That's a total of nine days. Not as good as they used to be but much better than my last couple of orders.
Hopefully they are getting their problems worked out.

 

[tdiowa]

Ordered on Aug 2, Order recieved on Aug 7, brewing on the 8th.

Cannot and will not complain.

Thanks Ed

TD

 

[limulus]

Since they were my go to supplier, I gave them another shot:
8/25 - placed order for a custom recipe with crushed grain
8/25 - received confirmation
8/27 - received confirmation that order shipped

I sure hope they are back on track because they were an excellent supplier!

 

[broadbill]

I'll also add my recent good experience with them:
order placed 8/19 (monday), shipped 8/21 (wednesday), on doorstep on 8/23 (Friday). That is the fast BMW shipping I was getting when they first opened!

 

[mm1473]

I will share my positive experience with them. I usually order from AHS but they were having some issues getting in flaked corn and I was almost out of beer. So I got on the forum search and saw that Brewmasters Warehouse was getting good reviews. Order sent right then. Then, I wanted to reference something I saw on that forum search and noticed the thread recommending Brewmasters Warehouse was from 2008 or something. When I looked at the newer threads they were ripping them--needless to say I was very nervous. But I am happy to report that my order came yesterday--8days after ordering--which is as good as anything I have gotten from any of the other online brew shops. The crush looks good. Everything was as I ordered it. Price was wonderful. Shipping was actually reasonable. I will DEFINITELY use them in the future.

 

[MotorcycleMike]

8/26 - Placed order
8/26 - Received order confirmation
8/28 - Received phone call informing me that the White Labs yeast was on back order and asking if I'd like to substitute with Wyeast.
8/28 - Received shipping confirmation.
It looks like they may be getting their problems worked out. :rockin:

 

[libeerty]

Awesome to hear. Ill give them a whirl too.

 

[limulus]

My package was delivered today...only to the wrong house and I don't know which one. BMW had the address correct and they turned my order around quickly. Now, I'm dealing with FedEx ground...I wish it were FedEx Express because they are much quicker at resolving these things. So my grain and yeast could be sitting out on someone's front porch.

Nevertheless, BMW is back on my good list!