Brewmasters Warehouse

[stageseven]

I called them last Friday about my order that had been pending for about a week. They said they were behind and my order should be shipped Monday or Tuesday. It is now Tuesday late night and the order is still pending. Maybe tomorrow

Following up on my experience. I called them on 2/23 and was told as well that they were behind, but my order would ship that day or the next. It still hasn't shipped as of today. I also sent them a message through their website on 3/3, but haven't gotten any response. I just filed a charge dispute with my credit card company, I'm done waiting for a 2 month old order to ship.

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

Do they even read messages anymore?

I asked them to cancel my last order, and it still pending.

Guess I'll have to call, or reverse the CC charge.

 

[eps2103]

I don't use them anymore. The last time I ordered from them they charged my card, and *then* they told me the stuff was not in stock. After a couple months of a few emails & phone calls, I was able to get them to issue a refund. Very poor customer experience.

 

[ratten46]

I placed an order on 2/23, hadn't seen this thread with all of the problems listed. Waited about 10 days, then contacted them via email. No response, so I sent another email. At 14 days, I left a voicemail. At 16 days I called during business hours, no answer, left another voicemail, asking for order to be cancelled. Also sent a message via facebook this week, asking for same. Order still listed as pending, but haven't gotten any form of response from them. Next step is dispute with CC company.

 

[454k30]

I still use these guys. I have made it a habit to call a couple days after the order is placed to ask if there are issues. My closest LHBS is a couple hours away so my choices are limited.

 

[Mountainjack1940]

I called them last Friday about my order that had been pending for about a week. They said they were behind and my order should be shipped Monday or Tuesday. It is now Tuesday late night and the order is still pending. Maybe tomorrow

Finally after 3 more calls I was assured it would ship on Monday March 2nd. The order had been placed on Feb 17th. The partial shipment with missing item that was marked as shipped arrived on Mar 3rd. Two more phone calls and the missing item arrived on Friday Mar 6th. Refund on credit card for items not in stock was applied on Mar 5th was a couple of $$$ short. I am not sure it will be worth the hassle as the flat rate shipping and small refund shortage was still a bargain.

Will I use them again. Maybe if I am not in a hurry :beard: as the prices and shipping are hard to beat if you can put up with the aggravation. :smack:

 

[SteveH aka shetc]

Don't think they will be around much longer.

 

[theonetrueruss]

Don't think they will be around much longer.

I am sad to say I agree. BMW used to be my go to store.. I was in there early last week and they pretty much were out of everything. Even the guy working didn't seem to have any belief that anything was going to be in any time soon. Total look of a business that is done for.

I do hope they manage to pull things back together but I seriously doubt that is possible at this point.

 

[mysteryshrimp]

Former employee here.

Brewmasters Warehouse is effectively closed at this point.

There has been a serious attempt at an employee buyout for the last two months or so, but the negotiations have broken down to the point that it is nearly impossible to envision terms.

For several years, most of the employees have been very unhappy about certain aspects of the business. Several have left over these issues. The employee buyout was designed to bring some life and a bit more integrity back into management. In the last two weeks, three out of the four employees have either simply walked away or put in their two weeks notice. This leaves (in about a week) one part timer and an owner that is occasionally in on a Saturday.

The employee that was heading the proposed buy-out is now exploring options to open a shop in the Marietta/Smyrna area. He would be bringing at least one other long-term BMW staff with him, probably more. He is estimating 6-12 weeks before opening.

The employees do appreciate all of our customers. We have had our hands tied with all of the inventory issues, the shipping issues, and the incredible institutional inefficiency. The new store will take most of the good things that were in place in BMW, fix most of the more serious issues, and offer the services that BMW was known for 3 or 4 years ago. We know how much our service has slipped in the last 2 years or so, but there was not much that the employees could do while being out of 2-row, extract, and/or US-05 most of the time and being given information that was nowhere near reality. I still believe in the business, but it sometimes seems like the employees are the only ones who still do.

As of now, we are still open, but not operational. No employee has access to the code of the website, so we can't make a statement on there. I frankly expect us to be officially out of business on Monday.

When the new LHBS is nearly opened, the announcement will be made on HBT. If the thread still is up at that point, I will post here as well. In the meantime, I really have enjoyed helping you as much as I could, and I hope that some of the customers will at least give us the opportunity to let us serve them. Thank you all for being customers in the past, and I look forward to having some of you as customers again.

Sam
Brewmasters Warehouse

 

[cayslayer]

That is sad to hear, but I'm so glad you posted this so we can all know the deal.
Obviously that means that my order from January isn't ever going to ship, so what do you think I (and others in the same boat) do about getting a refund?
Hopefully the website gets taken down soon; I just now heard an ad for BMW on the Brewing Network..

 

[cyanmonkey]

Former employee here.

Brewmasters Warehouse is effectively closed at this point.

There has been a serious attempt at an employee buyout for the last two months or so, but the negotiations have broken down to the point that it is nearly impossible to envision terms.

For several years, most of the employees have been very unhappy about certain aspects of the business. Several have left over these issues. The employee buyout was designed to bring some life and a bit more integrity back into management. In the last two weeks, three out of the four employees have either simply walked away or put in their two weeks notice. This leaves (in about a week) one part timer and an owner that is occasionally in on a Saturday.

The employee that was heading the proposed buy-out is now exploring options to open a shop in the Marietta/Smyrna area. He would be bringing at least one other long-term BMW staff with him, probably more. He is estimating 6-12 weeks before opening.

The employees do appreciate all of our customers. We have had our hands tied with all of the inventory issues, the shipping issues, and the incredible institutional inefficiency. The new store will take most of the good things that were in place in BMW, fix most of the more serious issues, and offer the services that BMW was known for 3 or 4 years ago. We know how much our service has slipped in the last 2 years or so, but there was not much that the employees could do while being out of 2-row, extract, and/or US-05 most of the time and being given information that was nowhere near reality. I still believe in the business, but it sometimes seems like the employees are the only ones who still do.

As of now, we are still open, but not operational. No employee has access to the code of the website, so we can't make a statement on there. I frankly expect us to be officially out of business on Monday.

When the new LHBS is nearly opened, the announcement will be made on HBT. If the thread still is up at that point, I will post here as well. In the meantime, I really have enjoyed helping you as much as I could, and I hope that some of the customers will at least give us the opportunity to let us serve them. Thank you all for being customers in the past, and I look forward to having some of you as customers again.

Sam
Brewmasters Warehouse

I've been wondering what the take is of the employees there. It sounds like you guys really do care and I'm sure they'll take that passion to the new store. Hopefully they'll put together something equivalent to the Brew Builder software because that was what set BMW apart from the rest of the competition.

 

[fuzzybee]

Well, damn.

 

[user 21663]

That is sad to hear, but I'm so glad you posted this so we can all know the deal.
Obviously that means that my order from January isn't ever going to ship, so what do you think I (and others in the same boat) do about getting a refund?
Hopefully the website gets taken down soon; I just now heard an ad for BMW on the Brewing Network..

Based on some of the responses here, I think you best bet is to have the credit card company reverse the charge. If it is true that they expect to be closed by Monday, it will be nearly impossible to contact them or worse, they will claim bankruptcy.

P.S. I just posted mysteryshrimp's post on the BN forum

 

[mysteryshrimp]

That is sad to hear, but I'm so glad you posted this so we can all know the deal.
Obviously that means that my order from January isn't ever going to ship, so what do you think I (and others in the same boat) do about getting a refund?
Hopefully the website gets taken down soon; I just now heard an ad for BMW on the Brewing Network..

My guess is that the easiest way to get any refund going forward is to do a chargeback on your card. I wish that I could do more for you.

 

[Baja_Brewer]

Former employee here.
...

Sam
Brewmasters Warehouse

The website was a key part of why I loved BMW. I know Ed said he put a lot of money into that up front but i think it was a huge part of BMW taking off from the get go. See if you can buy that!

 

[broadbill]

I'll let you know it is near impossible to contact them at this point as I have been trying for the past few days.

For the past couple of months I have been trying to use up a $100 gift card and get something, ANYTHING shipped. The latest attempt was a burner which I knew would get shipped direct from factory, betting that I would have a better chance of getting it shipped. No luck.

I even got Ed on the phone was Tuesday (3/17/15), and he offered to either refund my money or try to get it shipped by Thursday (3/19/15). I stupidly gave them one last chance to make good. By Thursday, no one was picking up the phone. Guess I can kiss that $100 goodbye, I'll dispute the rest of the order that went my my credit card.

So not only did I get ripped off by them, but I continued to defend Ed/BMW even when the writing was on the wall. What I'm particularly upset about that he had no problems with continuing to take peoples' money, put pending orders on his website, and not ship anything. Hell, this website is STILL active and accepting orders. Crook.

So Ed Meyer...enjoy my $100. I'll be googling your name every month or so to see if ever get back into a business, any business. I'll make sure your customers know you treated us and my opinion of what will happen to them, too.

Edit to Add: the employees there seemed very good, when I spoke to them on the phone (especially Scott)...I wish them luck on their new venture.

 

[Pilgarlic]

A new LHBS, with or without BMW's employees, will likely be undistinguished without BrewBuilder.

 

[kh54s10]

A new LHBS, with or without BMW's employees, will likely be undistinguished without BrewBuilder.

Not necessarily. There are plenty like me that use Beersmith or other recipe builders, but in bulk etc. That would never use the BrewBuilder. I never used Brewmaster Warehouse because I got better prices elsewhere at the time.


Good inventory, good prices and great customer service are the keys.

 

[Pilgarlic]

Good inventory, good prices and great customer service are the keys.

Agreed. And they're ubiquitous.

 

[broadbill]

Not necessarily. There are plenty like me that use Beersmith or other recipe builders, but in bulk etc. That would never use the BrewBuilder. I never used Brewmaster Warehouse because I got better prices elsewhere at the time.


Good inventory, good prices and great customer service are the keys.

I agree here. Brewbuilder was nice and shiny, but it was a pain as you had to have recipes saved on their site which was another thing to manage. Making changes to recipes was cumbersome, which you had to frequently because they need had stuff in stock.

Why I bought from them was good prices, you could order partial amounts, and they delivered in less than a week. That was back in the glory days.

 

[itsme_timd]

Damn. Good luck, Sam!

Scott and Sam are good guys and helped me out a lot at BMW, I know of some of the struggles they went through there in recent months. I would 100% support a new LHBS close to me. Like others I would be looking for good inventory and friendly staff. I've got several smaller shops near me and they are great and I support them when I can, but they frequently don't have all of what I need to brew a recipe.

I agree that the BrewBuilder wouldn't make a difference for me, I personally never used it and I know none of my friends that shopped there did either.

 

[stickrod]

I've lived in both atlanta and Nashville. I will take rebel brewer over BMW any day hands down! Anyone who used to use BMW, switch over to rebel. Great everything!

 

[pointcity-homebrew]

I've lived in both atlanta and Nashville. I will take rebel brewer over BMW any day hands down! Anyone who used to use BMW, switch over to rebel. Great everything!

I use them, although shipping is a little more. If I order one day, I will have it the next. Great customer service as well.

 

[brianhewitt]

Former employee here.

Brewmasters Warehouse is effectively closed at this point.

There has been a serious attempt at an employee buyout for the last two months or so, but the negotiations have broken down to the point that it is nearly impossible to envision terms.

For several years, most of the employees have been very unhappy about certain aspects of the business. Several have left over these issues. The employee buyout was designed to bring some life and a bit more integrity back into management. In the last two weeks, three out of the four employees have either simply walked away or put in their two weeks notice. This leaves (in about a week) one part timer and an owner that is occasionally in on a Saturday.

The employee that was heading the proposed buy-out is now exploring options to open a shop in the Marietta/Smyrna area. He would be bringing at least one other long-term BMW staff with him, probably more. He is estimating 6-12 weeks before opening.

The employees do appreciate all of our customers. We have had our hands tied with all of the inventory issues, the shipping issues, and the incredible institutional inefficiency. The new store will take most of the good things that were in place in BMW, fix most of the more serious issues, and offer the services that BMW was known for 3 or 4 years ago. We know how much our service has slipped in the last 2 years or so, but there was not much that the employees could do while being out of 2-row, extract, and/or US-05 most of the time and being given information that was nowhere near reality. I still believe in the business, but it sometimes seems like the employees are the only ones who still do.

As of now, we are still open, but not operational. No employee has access to the code of the website, so we can't make a statement on there. I frankly expect us to be officially out of business on Monday.

When the new LHBS is nearly opened, the announcement will be made on HBT. If the thread still is up at that point, I will post here as well. In the meantime, I really have enjoyed helping you as much as I could, and I hope that some of the customers will at least give us the opportunity to let us serve them. Thank you all for being customers in the past, and I look forward to having some of you as customers again.

Sam
Brewmasters Warehouse

Sorry to hear that. I wanted to like the place, but every time I visited, it felt like walking into a going out of business sale. I hope you guys are successful in opening up a new shop.

 

[cyanmonkey]

I use them, although shipping is a little more. If I order one day, I will have it the next. Great customer service as well.

Rebel or BMW?

 

[pointcity-homebrew]

Rebel or BMW?

Rebel

 

[Disintegr8or]

I knew this day would come.

I placed my last order with BMW April 2013. It took them almost 10 days to get it to me back then (american wheat recipe plus US-05 hardly anything uncommon)

After spending hundreds, probably thousands of dollars with them, I sucked it up and started driving 75 minutes to my "LHBS" instead. They more than appreciate my business.

 

[BigFloppy]

A new LHBS, with or without BMW's employees, will likely be undistinguished without BrewBuilder.

BrewBuilder functionality is easy enough to replicate and expand on so it can take a BeerSmith or other recipe file

 

[tdiowa]

I too have probably spent thousands of dollars with them. I mainly stayed with them because I always bought my recipes in bulk so timing was not a issue. I finally gave up last fall and began buying supplies at Homebrew Shop 30 minutes away.

After reading all the positive reviews I made my first purchase with Rite Brew last week. They have basically a striped down all in one bag function which is nice for your recipes. I ordered on Friday morning and was shipped by noon.

Arrived on Monday. Will be using them again.

May even start my on thread on Rite Brew.

TD

 

[douglasbarbin]

I too have probably spent thousands of dollars with them. I mainly stayed with them because I always bought my recipes in bulk so timing was not a issue. I finally gave up last fall and began buying supplies at Homebrew Shop 30 minutes away.

After reading all the positive reviews I made my first purchase with Rite Brew last week. They have basically a striped down all in one bag function which is nice for your recipes. I ordered on Friday morning and was shipped by noon.

Arrived on Monday. Will be using them again.

May even start my on thread on Rite Brew.

TD

I use them a lot and they are excellent. Good prices and great service. They are my go-to online shop now.