Midwest Brewing Supplies Love

[rivertranced]

I just had a tremendous customer experience with these guys, and wanted to give them props!

I ordered components for a keggle conversion from them about a month ago. I finally got around to opening the box last night (i'd been traveling in the interim), and realized they accidentally shipped me the wrong part. They've got audit measures in place to ensure that this doesn't happen, but somehow it slipped between the cracks.

I was hoping to brew on Sunday, so this put a damper on my plans. I chatted with their Customer Service team this morning (Todd), and he arranged to have the correct piece overnighted so I'd have it by noon tomorrow (Saturday).

Further, I somehow misunderstood what I was getting with one of the pieces and didn't order the necessary adapters to make it work. Though it was likely my error, when I ordered the correct parts Todd grabbed them to be shipped overnight as well, at no cost to me.

I have worked in retail for many years, and have some experience with how this type of situation can go, and I am very impressed! They took a negative situation and turned it into a great experience.

I will definitely order from them again, and highly recommend them to others!

 

[unionrdr]

I have to agree. Good quality stuff,& great service always. Their deliveries always get here a bit ahead of time. Well packed & unscathed! Props from me too!

 

[comer88888]

I go there once a week it seems like because i live ten minuets away. They always have great service and everyone that works there will answer any and all your questions. great place to go to and most of there stuff is the best price I can find.

 

[collinsDPT]

They have been awesome to me as well

 

[OldStyler]

Big ups for MW.

 

[xjmox14x]

Repeat customers is what retail business is all about. Spending a few bucks to overnight extra parts to a customer on the company's behalf practically ensures years of future merchandise sales in return. Everybody wins.

It's good to hear about good experiences too, because they don't often get heard. A person with a good transaction often tells 1 or 2 people. A person with a horrible transaction will often tell their mom, dad, wife, brother, dog, mailman, pool boy, 3rd grade teacher, waitress, car, etc.

 

[Joehova44]

Only place I order from. Unmatched customer service!

 

[BBKing]

I pretty much love MWS.

 

[Dogzbone]

+1 Their prices aren't bad either!

 

[BradleyBrew]

Never ordered from them... I pretty much a big fan of Farmhouse Brewing Supplies.. they are great for hops, grains, etc. the basics. Maybe I will check out Midwest on my next order...

 

[frydogbrews]

i only order from midwest anymore, i like that they don't pull B.S. on shipping offers, and that keeps the prices low, plus customer service can't be beat. i just thought about how much money i have spent with them in the past two years, i may have a problem,

 

[subliminalurge]

Absolutely love those guys. Their customer service is absolutely top notch.

I once placed an order with them and had inadvertently left some items in my cart, causing my card to be charged nearly $300 when I had intended to order about $45 worth of stuff. It was a debit card, so this was eating into my mortgage payment money. By the time I caught it my order was showing as a "shipped" status on their web site. Called them anyway and they gave me no problems about cancelling the order, and the money was credited back to my account within an hour of getting off the phone with them. (The order was placed at about 2:30 am on a Saturday night. Guess whose fault the mistake was?)

I did place a new order that day for the stuff that I had intended to buy, and bought the rest of the things that I had forgotten to clear from my cart over the next month.

Even though it was my dumb-ass mistake, the fact that they helped me out to that extent even though the order was already boxed up and waiting for the fed-ex truck means they kept a loyal customer, still ended up making the sales, and made many more sales to me over the next several years.

Only problem is recently I've been needing a few things, and the items I want seem to be perpetually out of stock, so as loyal as I'd like to be to them, I've been forced to shop elsewhere for the first time in over 5 years of brewing.

(I would have ordered my kegging setup from them, but the rig I wanted was out of stock for 2 weeks while I sat here with money burning a hole in my pocket, so I finally broke down and went with keg connection. I'm now shopping for a new IC, but again, the one I want is out of stock and a phone call says it will be for at least 2 more weeks. I need one sooner than that, so i'm either going to have to cough up for a bigger one than I need, or shop elsewhere....)

 

[danorocks17]

love MW. One time i made a big order and one thing I ordered was out of stock by the time it needed to be shipped, so they wrote me a note saying they would ship it as soon as they got one in stock, at no additional charge. it came like 3 days later. never had a bad experience with them and they are the only place i order from other than my LHBS.

 

[frydogbrews]

buy the bigger chiller for sure. you'll regret it soon enough if you don't.

 

[subliminalurge]

buy the bigger chiller for sure. you'll regret it soon enough if you don't.

I know what you're saying, and I've been thinking along those lines myself. Only thing is that by the time I need the bigger one I'll probably be ready to move up to a good counterflow anyway....

Haven't decided which way I'll go yet, still very much on the fence. Limited funds at the moment, and I've already spent a ton on brewing gear in the past few weeks, so it would be much, much easier to pull the trigger on $50 vs $100 at this particular moment.

I dunno, I've just always found "out of stock" situations to be frustrating. Especially when it's something that I'm anxious to get. And when it comes to new brewing gear, I'm kinda like a little kid waiting for Christmas morning, no patience at all. (Even when it's in stock, I hate waiting the day or two for shipping.)

 

[frydogbrews]

allright, yuo said you bought a keg system. so go buy a whole bunch of thin copper tubing and wrap it around one of your kegs to get uniform chiller shape. attach tubing with clamps, instant chiller. if you really want to get fancy, fill teh copper tubing with sand and then wrap it around the keg, this will avoid any metal kinking. obviously flush sand out before use.
shouldn't cost you more than thirty bucks.

 

[subliminalurge]

I'm actually considering doing exactly that as soon as my keg system shows up. I was really wanting to go with a stainless chiller, though, and I can't find stainless tubing around here. (I've owned both stainless and copper chillers, and to me the advantages of stainless far outweigh the advantages of copper.)

Also not sure where you came up with your $30 number. I must be shopping in the wrong places. I've been finding that the copper tubing is going to cost me closer to $50, and that's for smaller diameter and shorter length than just buying the $50 chiller all ready to go. (Really the only reason I'm considering buying a ready made one. I know they're easy to make and I already have all the parts aside from the tubing sitting here in my basement.)

 

[Face Eater]

i only order from midwest anymore, i like that they don't pull B.S. on shipping offers, and that keeps the prices low, plus customer service can't be beat. i just thought about how much money i have spent with them in the past two years, i may have a problem,

I try not to add up my spending on my home brewing addiction haha. I also had really good experience with them. They forgot to ship out my star san once. I called them up weeks after I had ordered and finally realized since i was out of town. They didn't ask any questions, apologized and shipped one out. Also one of the kegs I received from a keg kit leaked which was supposed to be reconditioned. Again they sent out new poppets to correct the problem at no charge. I will always purchase from them.

 

[frydogbrews]

the price of copper varies dramatically all over the country and missouri has good prices. if you want it the cheapest, go hang out at a copper recycle center in the lot for 30 minutes and buy it from one of those guys.
i just go to dickey bud (local farm store)

 

[slykwilli]

All too often you only hear when things go wrong... thanks for posting this.. great company!

 

[rico567]

Since I started home brewing, most of my stuff has been ordered from Midwest. Unbeatable service.

 

[Dogzbone]

And when it comes to new brewing gear, I'm kinda like a little kid waiting for Christmas morning, no patience at all. (Even when it's in stock, I hate waiting the day or two for shipping.)

I feel the exact same way! I become OBSESSED with tracking shipments after I order something.

 

[erikhild59]

I feel the exact same way! I become OBSESSED with tracking shipments after I order something.

Me too

 

[subliminalurge]

Since I started home brewing, most of my stuff has been ordered from Midwest. Unbeatable service.

Yep. Me too.

I ordered my original starter kit from another place, because I simply didn't know any better at the time, but everything other than that, including ingredients, has come from Midwest up until recently.

Their prices are great, and even when they're not the absolute cheapest I can find, I've built a level of trust with them that I'm willing to pay an extra 1 or 2% just to know that it will be shipped quickly and that I'll be taken care of if there are problems.

But for some reason when you read this and other message boards around the 'net you only hear about MoreBeer, Austin, and Northern Brewer for the most part. Very rarely hear Midwest mentioned, even though (IMHO) they're a far better "go to" supplier than any of those.

I hope their problems I've noticed recently with having tons of items out of stock aren't an indicator that they're on their way out. It would be a shame to lose the best online homebrew supplier out there just because people don't mention them enough.

 

[Indyking]

I basically just buy from Midwest supplies. I have tried all the major online ones plus my LHBSs and Midwest prices and quality are unbeatable to my needs in the end of the day, even after considering their shipping charge. I aways know when I will receive my stuff from them, they ship next day and fedex ground takes 2 days to deliver to my house. I love their consistency. They also often ship me extra stuff. I find their crush quality in the gains perfect, always get at least 70-75% efficiency with my system,, but sometimes over 80%. My only complaint is their online interface, not for lack of information, but I wish it was more user friendly. Their search engine is absolutely horrible; it often give me too many results that has nothing to do with what I was searching for. Some items in my cart has once disappeared during check out, but I called them and they not only managed to instantly fix the problem but also shipped me extra goodies. So, I think they just need to work in their website to become 100% perfect.

 

[rivertranced]

Wow! Glad to hear that everyone else on this thread has had a great experience as well. And I'm extra glad they sent me the missing components on Saturday, as I was able to work on my brewing set-up all weekend. Huzzah for MW!

 

[zeno27]

For what I usually order, I find their final delivered price to be a few bucks cheaper than the competitors like NB or Austin. +1 to a website redesign, though.