Expired yeast, incomplete orders.

[BruceH]

Hi,

I'm wondering if this is a common trend or not.

Expired yeast sent, incomplete orders sent, orders that might of contained broken glass prior to shipment, had lots of broken glass upon arrival.

How many times has it happened to you? It's happened 4 times and I just started home brewing. Contacting the companies to fix their screw ups gets old. They say "we just got some new people, sorry" or "blah blah blah, sorry".

Then they send an email asking me to submit a review. However, the review link always defaults to an email to customer service (because I'm not selecting 5 stars?). Customer service lets me know how I'm just expecting too much and the review doesn't get posted on the company website.

What I'm getting at is are the home brew internet companies always this sketchy with orders? Yeast expiration has to be something they check and make a conscious decision to ship anyway.

Has anyone given up on internet home brew supply companies? I can get everything elsewhere and probably will.

 

[MaxStout]

I hope it's not a trend, but I've received a few "past its prime" ingredients in my orders. Probably just the store trying to get rid of some old inventory and monetize stock they've already paid for, rather than tossing it. Or maybe it's just some shipping clerk who doesn't notice or care. When it happens I call them out on it and they always send fresher stuff. They were probably hoping I wouldn't notice it.

BTW, I've noticed my LHBS keeping some past-prime yeast in its coolers and I make sure to dig out newer packets from the back. But at least I have the choice there and I'm not 1000 miles away, stuck with some old stuff in my order.

 

[JohnSand]

That sounds really bad to me. The worst I've had is the wrong ingredient sent, which was promptly replaced.

 

[kh54s10]

That has never happened to me. I got a wrong item once, it was quickly rectified.

Go to the company review forum, there are a few bad ones out there. But, my experience has been very positive with the companies I order from.

 

[kristiismean]

I order a lot (and also support my lhbs when I can) and have never had bad service, ever. Where the heck are you ordering from?

At first I started with Northernbrewer, not a fan of the buy out, and there are better out there, but never any drama.
My main online now are:
Williamsbrewing -> Only issue was a recall on the mkII wort pump. They reached out to me and had a new one shipped before I even called them. got an email saying, "some pumps may have this issue". mine did, I replied as such, their next email had a tracking #.. Excellent customer service.
Adventures in homebrewing-> Great extract kits (I have moved on) and great customer service. I also purchased 2 kegs, but it was missing the extra oring kit. Again, no hoops, they just mailed em out. Great prices on certain items, great online store.
Ritebrew (mainly for ingredients, in their speedee shipping range (cheap overnight shipping), weights are always dead on, yeast is fresh, milling is dead on, good selection, excellent website (as in simple, not flashy). You can tell they spend a little more on their boxes, they are really sturdy.

 

[mongoose33]

I've ordered a lot--a LOT--of stuff online, though relatively little in terms of ingredients. I've had almost no bad luck in terms of breakage or inaccuracies. Sometimes someone just tosses a box and that's that. Just rec'd a shipment in a small flat-rate box from Spike. They packed it fine, but a corner was mushed/torn a bit. That's not on them, it's on USPS.

But for the most part, things get here in one piece and without much drama. Even when I think they've screwed up--once thought Brewhardware had sent me the wrong item, turns out the person ordering it as a gift had misordered--Bobby was willing to make it right, even though it wasn't his fault. I thanked him and declined, he'd already invested enough in a small order that his customer screwed up.

A review such as OP has would be more helpful to us if the vendors were noted, and we could then see if it was an isolated instance or more indicative of a pattern.

And maybe....sometimes we're just unlucky. Or we have delivery personnel who are the common denominator in broken items.

 

[ILMSTMF]

Northern Brewer - any issues I've ever had have been minuscule and they go ABOVE AND BEYOND to correct. Quick example - bought AG kit from them, unmilled. Didn't know how to use a new mill I had (bought elsewhere). Brewed with what I thought were cracked grains... WHOOPS. Northern sent me a replacement kit, only paid shipping.

Homebrew Supply - think they sent me yeast which was within a month of expiration. Sent me a fresh replacement at no charge. Think they threw in a store credit too.

AIH - generally speaking, great customer service

Rite Brew - outstanding, competitive prices.

Notice that I've mentioned only positive experiences? I haven't found an online retailer in our industry that I refuse to give my business back to.

Ps - I surprise even myself with the great results I've had from stepped starters of "expired" and even harvested yeast stored over a year.

 

[Yooper]

I've ordered a ton (quite literally) online. There isn't a homebrew store within 150 miles of me, so I order or have to travel.

I've never had an issue with an order. I currently mostly order from Ritebrew since it's cheapest and fast, but I've ordered from all of the major online stores. I've never received old yeast or poor products.

 

[BruceH]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm not usually the guy who complains. I try to use the expired yeast and it usually still works. Out of three times getting expired yeast I've complained once which was the last time. All from the same company. They offered replacements but didn't have the S-189 in stock ($6.99) so I opted for two D-47 ($.99 each) as a replacement. They also sent an expired 1116 but didn't send a replacement for it even though they said they would. They have also sent part orders in the past. The part orders were resent but I have to ask why would a company send out partial orders and why would they repeatedly send expired yeast? Is there a note on my account that says I don't complain? Lol.

I'm not looking for extras, all I want is to get what I ordered and paid for. Expired yeast isn't something I expect unless it's declared and on sale due to being expired. I'm just wondering if this is common with online brewing supply places or if it's isolated to a few companies I've done business with.

So far I've just had some screw ups from two companies. I'll have to pass doing business with love2brew.com any more.

 

[cloudybrewer]

I buy from northern Brewer. Have for over two years now. My orders are always complete, packaged well, and ingredients seem fresh. Dry Yeast is always several months from expiration. A lot of people got pissed about the sellout, but they are close to me and I'm happy with them.

Edit. For equipment, I've ordered from Midwest Supplies, Morebeer, Ritebrew, AIH, Kegconnection, and Amazon. Haven't been unhappy yet.

 

[Yooper]

I just bought from Ritebrew, and got my order two days later. One thing I noticed but didn't take advantage of is that they have a "order" yeast option. All of their yeast is guaranteed to be fresh (something like at least 30 days before the "best buy" date, but don't quote me on that!). But if you want it super fresh, you can preorder it and when it comes they ship it to you immediately. I just ordered "regular" and I bought about 5 packages of different yeast strains. The oldest one was 40 days old, and the newest were just a week after packaging date! So your experiences with the shops you deal with are not at all typical, and just downright suck.

Homebrew stores are struggling to survive right now, and maybe that's why they had old and inadequate stock (D47 for S189- not even CLOSE!) but trying to pass it off to a customer is really a sucky thing to do.

 

[BruceH]

Homebrew stores are struggling to survive right now, and maybe that's why they had old and inadequate stock (D47 for S189- not even CLOSE!) but trying to pass it off to a customer is really a sucky thing to do.

Just to be clear, they offered a solution and it was up to me to define it. I thought about it like this: I'm going to try the expired yeast and see what happens. They don't have a replacement so I'll make it as easy as I can for them and me. That's why I asked for D-47 to replace the expired S-189.

As far as I was concerned that was an ok remedy. When they didn't send the replacement 1116 for the very expired 1116 is when I started thinking about it more. I thought about the past incomplete orders and the other orders with expired yeast.

I finally decided to ask on this forum because maybe it's just how it is with home brew. I'm new to it and maybe crappy service is what to expect from online suppliers, I really didn't know.

Once again thanks for the replies!

 

[beerbomb]

I just ordered from Morebeer my order arrived the next day.
They sent from California and I'm in Pennsylvania! All ingredients accounted for. They must have a warehouse on the East coast?

 

[MaxStout]

I just ordered from Morebeer my order arrived the next day.
They sent from California and I'm in Pennsylvania! All ingredients accounted for. They must have a warehouse on the East coast?

Yes, they have a PA warehouse.

I just got my MoreBeer shipment a couple days ago, it arrived about 4 business days after I ordered. A few gadgets and about 30 lbs. of various grains. The grain was about half the price per pound compared to my LHBS. And free shipping for orders >$59.

 

[beerbomb]

Yes, they have a PA warehouse.

I just got my MoreBeer shipment a couple days ago, it arrived about 4 business days after I ordered. A few gadgets and about 30 lbs. of various grains. The grain was about half the price per pound compared to my LHBS. And free shipping for orders >$59.

It's economical to order

 

[beerbomb]

Thanks, MaxStout I kinda thought that was the case.
I also made an order of over $59, to get the free shipping.
Seems like a good deal, when my local lhbs does not have a big turn over and grains sit for extended periods of time, in open bags.
I will be making this my go to supply.