Midwest Supplies

[Pappers_]

Mod Note: Please post brief, factual reviews, once per transaction, without hyperbole and only about your experience.

 

[jeff0001]

I've ways had great success with Midwest. I plan my brew days long ahead of time because it takes about a week for items to get to me in New Jersey. Ordering in bulk helps and this time waiting is offset by their great customer service.

 

[Ghost1220]

Midwest excels in customer service. I order from them frequently, and if there is ever a mistake made, they fix it immediately and without question. To me the shipping cost is worth it because with them the sale does not end until the customer is satisfied.

 

[mors]

Well as an update I did get my order today. Only took about 1-2 days after it shipped to arrive. The order looks good except some of my grains were no labeled and I had to taste them to actually tell which was which... I also ordered some fermaid-o which was also unlabeled... things just in plastic bags when you have many other things that look similar in plastic bags should be labeled. Overall though pretty happy with the order...though shipping was kind of brutal. the 20% off coupon they sent me basically just offset the shipping.

 

[RuhlsBrew]

As a new guy, I tried Midwest twice. Both orders were missing items. I, called, they reshipped missed items.

 

[citingzero]

I've used Midwest many times and always had great experiences. Then I quit brewing for a couple of years but now I've started back. I still receive the correct items but the time does seem a little too long. I don't remember how long it used to take but now it takes about a week to get here. Their prices are great but I am tempted to buy a kit from my local hbs (which is part of a trendy over priced co-op) because of the shipping cost and time. They only sell brewers best extract kits (which I have heard mixed reviews) and they are over priced, but saving the $12 shipping puts them at about the same total cost for ordering from Midwest... And I can have it today.

 

[Bisco_Ben]

Just wanted to let you guys know that I purchased a half-pound of their mosaic hops, which came individually packaged by Midwest themselves, and not by hopunion. I recently brewed a single hop IPA with these bad boys and when I weighed each individually packaged ounce before adding, NOT ONE SINGLE PACKAGE was a full ounce!!! and trust me, my highly accurate .001 scale is calibrated. The most I got from a "one-ounce" package after opening 5 of them, was 27.23. The lowest it got was 26.45!!! Then I called to see what they would have to say, and they essentially told me there was nothing they would do about it other than "pass on the information". Bad service all around!

 

[passedpawn]

Yea 1-2 grams short on each bag. Im not that concerned, I just think that is some pretty bad business right there.

You hit the '!' at least 10 times in your original post, including 3 in the title, so it seems you are concerned. 1 gram is nothing.

FWIW "tough sh*t" is not an acceptable response to a product quality complaint in any industry I can think of.

I agree. Though, honestly, if a customer called and complained that a bag of hops was off by 1 gram I'd have trouble not laughing. But yes, vendors should bend over backwards (while laughing) to keep their customers happy.

I guess our members here will weigh this (pun) and determine how it changes their perception of the vendor.

I'm moving this thread to Company Reviews.

 

[Soc]

Funny timing for this post. A few weeks ago I bought some pin lock kegs from Midwest, yesterday I tried to open one up to clean it and had a problem getting the gas side disconnected, causing one of pins the come off. I called them today to let them know the problem, they are sending me a whole new keg and a prepaid postage to mail back the old one. I'm sorry you had a bad experience with them but I couldn't be more pleased with the customer service they provided to me today.

 

[Sippin37]

Funny timing for this post. A few weeks ago I bought some pin lock kegs from Midwest, yesterday I tried to open one up to clean it and had a problem getting the gas side disconnected, causing one of pins the come off. I called them today to let them know the problem, they are sending me a whole new keg and a prepaid postage to mail back the old one. I'm sorry you had a bad experience with them but I couldn't be more pleased with the customer service they provided to me today.

I'll agree with this post. I bought 2 reconditioned kegs from Midwest. After finally using the 2nd keg 4 months later I was getting a ton of foam when pouring. I finally found out it was missing the o-ring around the dip tube so a bunch of air was coming thru with the beer. I told them about it and they sent me out 2 packages of o-rings to replace as I needed, with them covering the shipping cost of course as well. No questions asked, that is how you do business!

 

[midwestsupplies]

WOW! What a thread. We love the fact that our customers are as passionate about the hobby as we are. We think the OP had a right to post, we think everyone should be happy with their order.
Now to the dirty part. The original post said that our customer service said they would pass the information on. It sounds like that wasn't enough. They did pass it on, and now our repack crew is looking into it. It could be that someone missed a tare, it could be that there was a scale that was off. We won't know until we dig a little deeper. This one instance shouldn't label us as being a short-seller, much like one infected batch shouldn't mean that someone is a bad brewer.
We all wish we were perfect, and never made mistakes. They do happen, and I am sorry for that.

We know that our crew on the phones, emails and chats have the best insight as to how we are doing. So, it is part of our job to share this feedback with everyone else at Midwest.
We are here to make life as stress free as possible. If you have a complaint or feedback, tell the company how they can make it right. (that works in non-homebrew business as well). Please email me, or call me so that we can get you what you paid for.

OP- I would like to send you an ounce of hops. I know you said that you didn't want anything other than to give us the feedback, but you were not happy with that reply.
Cheers to brewing good beer, and being accountable for our actions!
Todd Jackson
Customer Service Manager
[email protected]
952-562-5354 (direct)

PS. Sorry that we took so long to get here. Our Social Media guy (who gets paid to play online) is on Vacation. The rest of us don't get to spend our day here, but are here on an individual basis.

 

[user 144271]

I have said it before I will say it again. I have never had a bad experience with MW.
and I will continue to buy my supplies from them.

 

[BierMuncher]

Early on before I began buying in bulk, I brewed nearly 200 gallons using Midwest Supplies as my exclusive supplier. Customer service was always exemplary. Delivery prompt (one of the few that used Fed Ex to insure Saturday deliveries). If anything, they erred on the side of over delivering. My most recent experience was the purchase of two growlers they had on special. When they arrived, one was broken. I called Midwest. They answered on the second ring. They apologized for the mishap and OVER NIGHTED a replacement that day.

I still use them on occasion. I refer them first to friends looking to get into homebrewing. If I did not have a bulk purchase resource, I would use Midwest.

They are a great company with only one flaw that I can see. The place is run by humans.

As this has been moved to “Company Reviews” I am renaming this to “Midwest Supplies”. A (hopefully) less nefarious topic heading.

 

[Pappers_]

While I understand your logic, I cannot agree with the rename, at least keep the issue at hand in the title, I think that you are doing the Homebrew Community a great dis-service by hiding the reason behind the very open, candid, and adult discussion.

Also, as this ran it's course, all involved acted with tact and further prove that this was a worthwhile discussion, that ended very well.

Tim

I found the original title to be misleading, there are good and bad reviews in the thread and the title didn't reflect that.

The way we run the company review forum is that reviews are added to existing threads (if there is one) on the vendor being reviewed. This is so reviews can be found by members searching for them - there used to be more than a dozen pages of reviews here until we merged them together, and most members started new threads when adding a review. It was a mess. Now, good and bad reviews exist in the same thread, potential customers can read them and make their decisions. If you would like to share your experience with Midwest Supplies, please add a review to the main Midwest review thread.

Reviews are not edited or censored. But, posts must be actual reviews from actual customers, not back-and-forth interpretations of someone else's experience.

I'm closing this thread for now, will leave it for a couple of days for everyone to see, then merge the reviews from this thread (good and bad) into the main Midwest Supplies review thread.

 

[LaurieGator]

I placed my second order with Midwest Supplies on Sunday and it has shipped in 2 days.

I have been VERY pleased with their customer service and their deliveries. I have had 2 large orders and both were processed very quickly. The first order was 3 boxes worth of treasures including kegs, CO2 tank, a few kits, a few better bottles and small stuff like o-rings. The first kit was missing the beverage hoses from the order and the boxes had some damage (I feel that damaged boxes were the fault of FedEx). I called and emailed a couple of pictures of the boxes. The customer service was FANTASTIC (thanks, Lyndsey), they called me back and shipped the hoses the next day.

I was impressed enough to order another 2 boxes worth of equipment (I am moving from the stove to outdoors) and they had it boxed and sent in 2 days.

I would highly recommend them for equipment and kits! Their online help is great when you have questions too!

 

[AMonkey]

I mostly use Midwest and just wanted to say thanks. Had ordered a 7.9 gallon bucket a while back and never got around to using it. Just pulled it out of the box a couple weekend's ago and the inside of the bucket was pretty scratched up. I tried to send a picture and let them know and the next day they had a new bucket sent out to me. I was worried that I would have a little trouble getting a replacement but they made it very easy. Thanks!

 

[hipturn]

Anyone noticed the MW has gotten flakey lately?

Midwest has some of the best customer service I've ever experienced. They are always polite and always helpful. I've used them as my sole HB supplier for at least 3 years. My trouble is that recently (4 past orders) they seem to get something wrong with the order. The other day, they sent me an email asking me to come back as a customer, with a sizable discount. Weird b/c I had just ordered from them. So, I placed an order with the coupon and added my points for a sizable discount. Nice. The order never shipped. I placed the order on a thursday morning and on monday it was still listed as processing. Weird. I called. They assured me it would go out on monday. Tuesday, still processing. I called. "Oh, that's weird. Let me look into and call you back". No call. Wed still listed as processing. "we moved warehouses. . . " Thursday, still listed as processing. I went ahead and cancelled. Understand, midwest is always polite and I believe they try to do the right thing. I don't know what the issue is recently. Maybe they are outgrowing their ability to manage order volume. I'm trying morebeer and AHB for a while. I'll come back to MW in a few orders to see how things are going.

Has anyone had a similar experience recently?

 

[Calichusetts]

Wow...that stinks. Every time I read one of those stories I get nervous. I usually end up ordering my supplies for a brew day a week or two in advance. And yet every time. It ships the next day. Placing an order probably tonight so well see.

They are still amazing for me so I am sticking with them. Unfortunately for the top companies in this field, most prices are relatively the same and most have the same products, so a bad experience or two will make that customer jump ship.

 

[unionrdr]

I ordered my stuff from midwest for National Home Brewer's day Saturday on 4/25. Today,still listed as processing. Even after talking to them yesterday,they said it would ship today. No go on tracking number so far.
He did say they were expanding their warehouse & all that entales. But I may not be able to brew Saturday. I know the actual day is the 7th,but geez...they're backed up 6 days worth.

 

[BrewerE]

This is EXACTLY my current situation. (Except I just wanted to brew this weekend, brew day notwithstanding) I called them and they said something about moving warehouses, should ship by today, etc.
Still 'processing', still no tracking #
If I get it Saturday, that will be fine because Sunday is as good as Saturday for me. (Could even still do it Sat night)
BUT the reason I ordered LAST WEEK was so I'd have my stuff by Friday.

 

[BrewerE]

UPDATE--
There was a tracking # waiting for me in my email this morning, and it claims to be showing up tomorrow...we shall see...

UPDATE 2 --
FedEx tracking says it's waiting for me at my house... YAY!

Plan ahead I guess, because with all the "problems" I really can't complain about a week from order to front door.

 

[PJoyce85]

Anyone else out there waiting on a Midwest Supplies order that you ordered a couple weeks ago?

I talked to them Wednesday and they said that there was an issue with their warehouse transition and now their live help is down.

 

[Ridire]

Ordered something yesterday. Hope it doesn't take weeks to get here.

 

[PJoyce85]

I ordered on the 22nd and planned on brewing the 11th (takes a week for my orders to get here). Didn't hear anything so I contacted them and they told me there was some problems.

I understand stuff happens, but why is it that I wasn't contacted? Why nothing on their various social media outlets about the progress?

 

[LieutenantDan]

I had a problem 2 weeks ago with my order. I had placed my order Saturday night & still had not received confirmation Wednesday so I emailed them & they got it to me by Friday so I was still able to brew Saturday.:rockin:

 

[PJoyce85]

I ordered mine the Monday after yours and mine still hasn't shipped and I'm not about to call from Germany to ask why and ask why they shut down their live help. I'm guessing that because they shut down their live help that this is a pretty big issue.

They said the hold up was on my grains. Not that they didn't have them but something with processing I guess. Just kind irks me a bit

 

[dstranger99]

Surprising thread here, usually MW is spot on, god I hope they don't become another Brew Master's warehouse.........

 

[PJoyce85]

Surprising thread here, usualy MW is spot on, god I hope they don't become another Brew Master's warehouse.........

That's one of the reasons I order from them. NORMALLY when I order, it takes just about 1 week to get here to Germany (APO address).

I'm just irritated that when I contacted customer service, no one knew what the exact problem was or when they were expecting it to be fixed.

 

[stu4stew]

I ordered an extract kit from them on a Tuesday and it wasn't shipped out until the following Monday. Scheduled to arrive today but we will see. Defiantly not impressed and will switch back to morebeer for future orders

 

[amandabab]

Surprising thread here, usually MW is spot on, god I hope they don't become another Brew Master's warehouse.........

they won't become a brewmaster's warehouse. this is a temporary thing with Midwest.