Midwest Supplies
- Thread starter rycov
- Start date
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raouliii
Well-Known Member
Not defending them, but I can't find that quote. I found this on the customer service page, "Most in-stock orders ship within 1-2 business days", which, based on this thread, is not true either.
Shenanigan
Active Member
Looks like the emailing pushed my order out at the very end of Friday even though they didn't respond to my last one. Estimated arrival is outside of amazon's stated arrival date. I won't be ordering from Midwest again until long after I hear these problems have stopped happening. It's a shame because there are many kits I want.
lgilmore
Well-Known Member
Just placed a big order, roughly equal to 6 kits worth of brewing. Midwest came through on a discount I lost Saturday while double checking my order by a couple minutes. I contacted them on Saturday and completed the order this morning with the discount. I appreciate the effort and am in no hurry to brew as I did one yesterday, have another to bottle at week's end and have another kit to do still. This should get me through summer and restock my inventory which was reduced considerably this past week with a couple BBQ's.
aiptasia
Well-Known Member
My Wife purchased one of their ball lock keg kits for me (the one with two used ball lock corny kegs, double gauge regulator, new CO2 tank and lines/picnic taps) for a combination Father's Day/Birthday gift. She got no shipping notice on it but it did arrive via UPS in less than 10 days.
n240sxguy
Well-Known Member
Here's the final update to my order. I got my box with 46 lbs of grain in today. Midwest uses the suckiest boxes imaginable. They need to be thicker or reinforced in some way. The top was starting to come open, the corners were smashed, and there were a couple holes in the sides. Thankfully none of my grains were harmed. Hopefully this is the instance of shipping blunders I'll have to endure as I just purchased my grain mill. Bring on the bags of malt!
lgilmore
Well-Known Member
My order is filled and shipped yesterday. Should have it on Friday. Not bad.
Massey
Member
When I placed a big order, they got it out right away, as I mentioned before in this thread. However when I ordered another airlock and a packet of yeast, it took two weeks for them to even ship it out of their warehouse. When I emailed them about what might be going on, they didn't respond. So I emailed them again asking to cancel. The next day, they said they couldn't cancel because they had just shipped it. Interesting that they shipped it after I asked to cancel it. But hey no big deal, if its out the door, then great. However, I received the wrong yeast. The wrong brand, even. Two different signatures on the invoice saying they audited the order, yet it's a completely different brand and strain of yeast. It seems like they are very inconsistent, and I really don't like not getting a response until I threaten to cancel. Maybe I will give them a try in the future, but for now I think I will take my business elsewhere.
Bluelinebrewer
Well-Known Member
Well, expeditious they are not. Placed an order a week ago and still haven't gotten the shipping notice. Called today to find out what the deal is, and I was told that they were out of some of the hops that I ordered (Cascade, Magnum, and Simcoe). According to customer support, my order "should" be shipped tomorrow. While I appreciate the fact that they are trying to fulfill my order, given the chance, I would have rather substituted some other hops if it meant getting my order earlier. I had hopes of brewing this weekend, but now I'm not sure if that's going to happen. My biggest complaint with AHS was the shipping time, but it appears that it's just the same with MWS. Ah well, it is what it is I suppose.
Similar experiences lately. Just ordered a bunch of stuff and 10 days go by and the order still shows processing. I am in no rush for the stuff but I decided to call anyways. A few things I ordered I guess were on back order. Sounds like some of the recent posts. I have never had any issues with them in the past but seems like a trend is forming with the recent posts. I'm not mad and will still order from them again. Hopefully if I need my stuff this won't happen lol.
gnarlyhopper
Active Member
Hi
I recently ordered (a couple of weeks ago) a 20lb CO2 tank= through their Amazon store. Shipped in 2 business days. Tank appeared as in the picture, clean, shiny with a May 2013 recert date. Not every testimony here has rough edges.
Moderator Edit: Thanks for the review. I've deleted parts of this post that are not about your experience but commenting on others' experiences. With all the recent reviews, positive and negative, its best to stick to this forum's rules and only post reviews of your experience with the company. Thanks again for your review. Pappers_
I recently ordered (a couple of weeks ago) a 20lb CO2 tank= through their Amazon store. Shipped in 2 business days. Tank appeared as in the picture, clean, shiny with a May 2013 recert date. Not every testimony here has rough edges.
Moderator Edit: Thanks for the review. I've deleted parts of this post that are not about your experience but commenting on others' experiences. With all the recent reviews, positive and negative, its best to stick to this forum's rules and only post reviews of your experience with the company. Thanks again for your review. Pappers_
Tom_FL
Well-Known Member
First order with Midwest was four weeks ago... it didn't ship for 20 days and when it arrived it was short 13 lbs of grain! I called on a Tuesday night to let they know and was PROMISED they would ship me everything else that day and overnight it (though they were now all out of the pearl I ordered and had to sub MO). When I got home from work on Friday and still found no package I called and they had no record of a shipment or even a problem with my order... It still hasn't arrived.
Never again will I order from Midwest.
Moderator Edit: Thanks for the review. I've deleted parts of this post that are not about your experience but commenting on others' experiences. With all the recent reviews, positive and negative, its best to stick to this forum's rules and only post reviews of your experience with the company. Thanks again for your review. Pappers_
Never again will I order from Midwest.
Moderator Edit: Thanks for the review. I've deleted parts of this post that are not about your experience but commenting on others' experiences. With all the recent reviews, positive and negative, its best to stick to this forum's rules and only post reviews of your experience with the company. Thanks again for your review. Pappers_
itsme_timd
Well-Known Member
A buddy recently ordered an oxygenation system from them via Amazon to be shipped to my house. It didn't arrive within the shipping window (2 weeks after the order was placed) and he finally got an email from Amazon saying the vendor hadn't shipped within the stated time frame. He called them and was told that the item was on backorder and they didn't know when they'd get it in again.
MW never sent him an email or contacted him in any way, the only contact he got was the Amazon order confirmation and then the Amazon email stating they hadn't shipped.
MW never sent him an email or contacted him in any way, the only contact he got was the Amazon order confirmation and then the Amazon email stating they hadn't shipped.
lgilmore
Well-Known Member
My order showed up today, the day they said it would. From order to door in 12 days. While the box looked strained (about 80lbs of stuff, roughly 6 kits) everything inside was in great shape and all there. I will be brewing tomorrow for sure now. Thanks, Midwest. A nice job done.
Groner
Well-Known Member
First, I have to say that I was a huge fan of Midwest Suppplies before this experience, and your experiences may not have been the same at all. Also, I am sure that everyone has an issue with a supplier at one point or another. That being said, the following is an account of a recent order placed with Midwest Supplies for over $700. It's gonna be a long post but I want to make sure that no one else has the issues I did, and may choose to do their business elsewhere.
Let's start with the email I wrote to customer service, which should sum up the initial problems with my order:
Hello,
I am writing with regard to a recent order I made and with several past orders which have experienced the same difficulty.
With Order #1602515 I ordered a substantial amount of product. (I am sure I'm not your largest customer, but nevertheless...). The order was the result of gift cards I was given. I specifically requested gift cards for Midwest Supplies because I knew that I would be able to find just about everything I needed on your site and despite past experiences with the delivery of those orders, I did not want to shop in several different places. This is the reason I prefer Midwest Supplies over other sites.
Unfortunately my experience with the actual delivery of the products I requested was the same with this order as it has been with other orders. The status on the website remained as "processing" for the entire week. (I believe I ordered on a Sunday and eventually called customer service on Friday.) When I phoned customer service on the following Friday and asked about the status I was greeted courteously and professionally. Unfortunately I did not get the service representatives name. She explained that the entire order had been delayed due to 3 of the items I had ordered being out of stock. I asked her to please send the rest of the items and to ship the out of stock items in a separate shipment. She agreed to do this and even suggested that they wait until Monday since I had ordered some liquid yeast and she didn't want it to spoil. I appreciated the thoughtfulness and thanked her.
What I don't understand is why there was no notice of the items being out of stock at the time of order? I would understand if items were out of stock but there should certainly be some notice during the shopping process online. One would think that your inventory database is linked to the web page itself and if it isn't, why not? If the items were out of stock, there should really be an option to have the in stock items shipped separately or not, as decided by the consumer. I am happy to wait for products that are out of stock, but I don't want my entire shipment held up because of them. The biggest issue was that I had planned to brew on a specific date and I was sure that I would have my yeast in time to do so. Now, I don't think that will happen, but it could have been avoided with a phone call, either by Midwest to myself or vice versa. Of course, I didn't know there was a problem.
I had a similar experience with Order #1518798 where it was a week or more until I called and found out that the shipping was backed up. Again, if I had been notified, I wouldn't have had any issue. I would have been satisfied with that explanation.
On Order #1572056, I ordered 2 of the same product and I only received 1. This was clearly a simple mistake and when I called it was promptly corrected. Again, the customer service staff was friendly and apologetic. I have no issues with that. However, the replacement (or rather, misplaced) product took almost as long as or longer than the original product to arrive. Typically if this has happened to me with other companies, they have shipped out the misplaced or replacement product immediately so as to limit the amount of time that I was deprived of its use.
I really do enjoy shopping with Midwest Supplies, I would like to think that I will be able to in the future. I do have reservations however. I find it a hassle to have to continuously call to find out what happened to and or fix my order. It's not just the time wasted on the phone that bothers me but the time I don't get to spend doing what I love to do; brew! I hope you will take this into consideration and it would be most appreciated if I could hear back from a manager about what can be done to correct the problem in the future. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Regards,
Jonathan Groner
Mood:
Their response intitially:
Hi Jonathan,
I am very sorry about the hassles you've had with us in the past, and we hope to keep you on board with us in the future. The past couple months here have been hectic since we moved our warehouse to a new location and are working out the bugs that come along with such a large change. As a result, some things regretfully don't get handled as well as we'd like, such as our backorder system. We agree that the current setup is not a good one, which is why we are working on reforming it so that these kinds of things don't happen again. I understand your frustration, and I apologize again for your unsatisfactory experiences. I have forwarded your email along to my manager, and he will respond to you as well, hopefully with more detail than I am able to provide. Please let me know if I can be of any further service to you.
Cheers,
Travis
Mood:
The response from the manager:
Jonathan-
I am very sorry for your troubles, and hope that we are past the issues that created them. We are glad to have you as a customer and appreciate the fact that you took the time to email us with your concerns.
We have had many changes around Midwest and the changes have lead to difficulties in many of our processes. As Travis mentioned we are working hard to get back to a service level that our customers have come to expect.
Here are a couple of things we have done to get there:
1.Synced our Out of Stock list with the website. Here is a snipped section of the sight for one of our problematic products that are on backorder from the supplier. (You can see the updated availability section. That also shows up on the shopping cart page.)
2.Customer Communication. We have defined a plan that will allow us to contact customers as soon as there is some sort of delay with their order. This will take a little time, but we hope to be able to contact customers whenever their order isnt shipping within 24 hours.
Once again, I am very sorry for the issues. We are not happy that they happened at all, but we are working to make the experience better for you and the rest of our customers. We realize the importance of keeping a scheduled brewday, because an empty beer fridge is worse than an empty food fridge.
In hopes that your next experience goes smoothly, I would like to offer you a $20 gift code to cover your shipping on another order. I am confident that your next order will be a much smoother one.
Happy brewing!
Cheers,
Todd Jackson
Midwest Supplies
Mood:
Then there was a bit of a back and forth becuase he never actually sent the $20 card but it was eventually worked out.
Later that week my order shipped. The backordered items showed that they shipped as well. I thought "Sweet, now I will be getting everything I ordered in one shipment." Then I saw the weight of the packages from UPS. There was no way all the stuff I ordered only weighed 60 lbs considering I ordered a 50 Lb sack of Briess 2-Row.
Mood:
Nevertheless I remained optimistic. The order arrived and the backordered items were not there. No big deal there since they told me about it eventually. Then I noticed my liquid yeast sitting in two envelopes which were actually HOT to the touch.
Mood:
You see I had paid almost $10 extra for a nice styrofoam container to have the yeast shipped in and instead it arrived in envelopes with just a few extra ice packs which obvviously didnt help.
I immediately placed them in the fridge and wrote back to Todd:
Mr. Jackson,
I'm not sure if I should be contacting you about this or if I should start the process over. As I stated before I had some concerns with shipping which I believe you are all trying to get under control. I received my partial shipment today (minus the back ordered items) and I noticed that the insulated box for liquid yeast that, I had paid $7.00 for (I believe that was the price) was not there. It too was apparently back ordered. But this was not even explained to me during my call to customer service the first time. I see they at least put the yeast in an insulated envelope and put in extra ice packs but nevertheless the yeast was extremely warm to the touch when it arrived. This may have happened with the insulated box anyway but I am concerned about its viability. I am also concerned that for the second time something was done (this time, in my opinion, an inferior substitution) to my order without any notice. If I knew the box was not available I would have asked them not to ship the yeast. I intend to make a starter with one package in the next day or so. If I find the yeast to not be viable I would like to receive a refund for both packs and the box that was not received.
A smaller concern is that I have no idea when my second shipment is being sent because on my account page it says everything was shipped. Can I expect shipping confirmation for the back ordered products?
I'm sorry to keep contacting you about this order. I just want to be sure I at the very least got what I paid for. Thanks again for your time.
Regards,
Jonathan Groner
Mood: Still
Then I noticed my bag of grain.... RAHR?! Really?! I mean I don't care one way or the other about which malting company I use but the flippin' sticker on the bag from midwest says Briess 2-Row! They put a Briess sticker on a bag that says RAHR in HUGE letters!
So then I wrote:
Also, forgot to mention that while it doesn't particularly concern me. I ordered 50 lbs. of American 2-Row which was described as being from Briess. The bag I got was from Rahr. Again, not an issue to me, but maybe to others...
Mood: Really
The response from Todd:
I am sorry for my delayed response. I was in Philadelphia as a Midwest Supplies representative at the National Homebrewer's conference.
As you mentioned, we are working to get our shipping and inventory under control. With that, we are working to get our communication under control as well. As you can imagine, the increase of issues like yours has lead to many contacts from many customers. In an effort to get the primary issues resolved, we decided that our communication would have to be reactive instead of proactive. Now that we are seeing some resolution to the fulfillment side of things, we are freeing up some of our Customer Service team who was helping out in the warehouse. That will give us the resources to get back into proactive communications.
I know that doesn't change your experience, and we all recognize that we still have many things that we need to fix. I will make sure that you are refunded for the difference in products. Please let me know if the yeast was any problem, as we will make sure you are able to brew a successful beer.
I will also address the Briess/Rahr 2 row issue with our grain room.
Sorry again for all of the issues.
Cheers,
Todd J
So after that I wrote a nice note back thanking Todd for his help:
Thanks Todd! Your continued efforts to fix the problem are what keep me coming back! I hope the NHC went well!
Regards,
Jon
After I recieved the response from Todd I decided to call that afternoonn and check on my backorder shipment. Customer service answered the phone promptly. And told me this:
Me: Hello I want to check on the backordered items on order number -----15.
MS: Oh well what were you missing?
Me: Ummm.... the products on backorder....????
MS: Oh ok, which ones?
Me: ALL OF THEM.
MS: Oh those won't be in for 2 more weeks unfortunately.
Me: They were supposed to have come in on the 28th.
MS: Well I am not showing that unfortunately.
Me: Can you please chck to be sure.
MS: Please hold.
<Phone disconnects.>
I call back:
Me: Hi I was just talking to someone about my order?
MS: Oh hi yeah, sorry about that, I checked and all of the items are in stock.
Me:.......... OK?
MS: So they should be shipping within the next day or so.
Me: How about you ship them,like, right now?
MS: Well unfortunatley I have no way of telling what the status of the order is.
Me: Well how can we find out.
MS: <pauses>...<typing>... Actually it looks like they are being picked right now from the floor...
Me: :smack:
So this is what I have dealt with up to this point.... I am seriously hopinng the rest of my order ships tomorrow or the next day because I would really like to be able to brew this weekend instead of waiting ANOTHER week for the stuff I paid for...
Whew! Anyone else had this experience?
If you continue to shop with Midwest I would just like to warn yoou of my issues. Also, I didnt even address the issue with their rewards points system. Basically, if you want that to work successfully, you had better phone your order in.
So now after a few cold beers...
Mood:
Let's start with the email I wrote to customer service, which should sum up the initial problems with my order:
Hello,
I am writing with regard to a recent order I made and with several past orders which have experienced the same difficulty.
With Order #1602515 I ordered a substantial amount of product. (I am sure I'm not your largest customer, but nevertheless...). The order was the result of gift cards I was given. I specifically requested gift cards for Midwest Supplies because I knew that I would be able to find just about everything I needed on your site and despite past experiences with the delivery of those orders, I did not want to shop in several different places. This is the reason I prefer Midwest Supplies over other sites.
Unfortunately my experience with the actual delivery of the products I requested was the same with this order as it has been with other orders. The status on the website remained as "processing" for the entire week. (I believe I ordered on a Sunday and eventually called customer service on Friday.) When I phoned customer service on the following Friday and asked about the status I was greeted courteously and professionally. Unfortunately I did not get the service representatives name. She explained that the entire order had been delayed due to 3 of the items I had ordered being out of stock. I asked her to please send the rest of the items and to ship the out of stock items in a separate shipment. She agreed to do this and even suggested that they wait until Monday since I had ordered some liquid yeast and she didn't want it to spoil. I appreciated the thoughtfulness and thanked her.
What I don't understand is why there was no notice of the items being out of stock at the time of order? I would understand if items were out of stock but there should certainly be some notice during the shopping process online. One would think that your inventory database is linked to the web page itself and if it isn't, why not? If the items were out of stock, there should really be an option to have the in stock items shipped separately or not, as decided by the consumer. I am happy to wait for products that are out of stock, but I don't want my entire shipment held up because of them. The biggest issue was that I had planned to brew on a specific date and I was sure that I would have my yeast in time to do so. Now, I don't think that will happen, but it could have been avoided with a phone call, either by Midwest to myself or vice versa. Of course, I didn't know there was a problem.
I had a similar experience with Order #1518798 where it was a week or more until I called and found out that the shipping was backed up. Again, if I had been notified, I wouldn't have had any issue. I would have been satisfied with that explanation.
On Order #1572056, I ordered 2 of the same product and I only received 1. This was clearly a simple mistake and when I called it was promptly corrected. Again, the customer service staff was friendly and apologetic. I have no issues with that. However, the replacement (or rather, misplaced) product took almost as long as or longer than the original product to arrive. Typically if this has happened to me with other companies, they have shipped out the misplaced or replacement product immediately so as to limit the amount of time that I was deprived of its use.
I really do enjoy shopping with Midwest Supplies, I would like to think that I will be able to in the future. I do have reservations however. I find it a hassle to have to continuously call to find out what happened to and or fix my order. It's not just the time wasted on the phone that bothers me but the time I don't get to spend doing what I love to do; brew! I hope you will take this into consideration and it would be most appreciated if I could hear back from a manager about what can be done to correct the problem in the future. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Regards,
Jonathan Groner
Mood:
Their response intitially:
Hi Jonathan,
I am very sorry about the hassles you've had with us in the past, and we hope to keep you on board with us in the future. The past couple months here have been hectic since we moved our warehouse to a new location and are working out the bugs that come along with such a large change. As a result, some things regretfully don't get handled as well as we'd like, such as our backorder system. We agree that the current setup is not a good one, which is why we are working on reforming it so that these kinds of things don't happen again. I understand your frustration, and I apologize again for your unsatisfactory experiences. I have forwarded your email along to my manager, and he will respond to you as well, hopefully with more detail than I am able to provide. Please let me know if I can be of any further service to you.
Cheers,
Travis
Mood:
The response from the manager:
Jonathan-
I am very sorry for your troubles, and hope that we are past the issues that created them. We are glad to have you as a customer and appreciate the fact that you took the time to email us with your concerns.
We have had many changes around Midwest and the changes have lead to difficulties in many of our processes. As Travis mentioned we are working hard to get back to a service level that our customers have come to expect.
Here are a couple of things we have done to get there:
1.Synced our Out of Stock list with the website. Here is a snipped section of the sight for one of our problematic products that are on backorder from the supplier. (You can see the updated availability section. That also shows up on the shopping cart page.)
2.Customer Communication. We have defined a plan that will allow us to contact customers as soon as there is some sort of delay with their order. This will take a little time, but we hope to be able to contact customers whenever their order isnt shipping within 24 hours.
Once again, I am very sorry for the issues. We are not happy that they happened at all, but we are working to make the experience better for you and the rest of our customers. We realize the importance of keeping a scheduled brewday, because an empty beer fridge is worse than an empty food fridge.
In hopes that your next experience goes smoothly, I would like to offer you a $20 gift code to cover your shipping on another order. I am confident that your next order will be a much smoother one.
Happy brewing!
Cheers,
Todd Jackson
Midwest Supplies
Mood:
Then there was a bit of a back and forth becuase he never actually sent the $20 card but it was eventually worked out.
Later that week my order shipped. The backordered items showed that they shipped as well. I thought "Sweet, now I will be getting everything I ordered in one shipment." Then I saw the weight of the packages from UPS. There was no way all the stuff I ordered only weighed 60 lbs considering I ordered a 50 Lb sack of Briess 2-Row.
Mood:
Nevertheless I remained optimistic. The order arrived and the backordered items were not there. No big deal there since they told me about it eventually. Then I noticed my liquid yeast sitting in two envelopes which were actually HOT to the touch.
Mood:
You see I had paid almost $10 extra for a nice styrofoam container to have the yeast shipped in and instead it arrived in envelopes with just a few extra ice packs which obvviously didnt help.
I immediately placed them in the fridge and wrote back to Todd:
Mr. Jackson,
I'm not sure if I should be contacting you about this or if I should start the process over. As I stated before I had some concerns with shipping which I believe you are all trying to get under control. I received my partial shipment today (minus the back ordered items) and I noticed that the insulated box for liquid yeast that, I had paid $7.00 for (I believe that was the price) was not there. It too was apparently back ordered. But this was not even explained to me during my call to customer service the first time. I see they at least put the yeast in an insulated envelope and put in extra ice packs but nevertheless the yeast was extremely warm to the touch when it arrived. This may have happened with the insulated box anyway but I am concerned about its viability. I am also concerned that for the second time something was done (this time, in my opinion, an inferior substitution) to my order without any notice. If I knew the box was not available I would have asked them not to ship the yeast. I intend to make a starter with one package in the next day or so. If I find the yeast to not be viable I would like to receive a refund for both packs and the box that was not received.
A smaller concern is that I have no idea when my second shipment is being sent because on my account page it says everything was shipped. Can I expect shipping confirmation for the back ordered products?
I'm sorry to keep contacting you about this order. I just want to be sure I at the very least got what I paid for. Thanks again for your time.
Regards,
Jonathan Groner
Mood: Still
Then I noticed my bag of grain.... RAHR?! Really?! I mean I don't care one way or the other about which malting company I use but the flippin' sticker on the bag from midwest says Briess 2-Row! They put a Briess sticker on a bag that says RAHR in HUGE letters!
So then I wrote:
Also, forgot to mention that while it doesn't particularly concern me. I ordered 50 lbs. of American 2-Row which was described as being from Briess. The bag I got was from Rahr. Again, not an issue to me, but maybe to others...
Mood: Really
The response from Todd:
I am sorry for my delayed response. I was in Philadelphia as a Midwest Supplies representative at the National Homebrewer's conference.
As you mentioned, we are working to get our shipping and inventory under control. With that, we are working to get our communication under control as well. As you can imagine, the increase of issues like yours has lead to many contacts from many customers. In an effort to get the primary issues resolved, we decided that our communication would have to be reactive instead of proactive. Now that we are seeing some resolution to the fulfillment side of things, we are freeing up some of our Customer Service team who was helping out in the warehouse. That will give us the resources to get back into proactive communications.
I know that doesn't change your experience, and we all recognize that we still have many things that we need to fix. I will make sure that you are refunded for the difference in products. Please let me know if the yeast was any problem, as we will make sure you are able to brew a successful beer.
I will also address the Briess/Rahr 2 row issue with our grain room.
Sorry again for all of the issues.
Cheers,
Todd J
So after that I wrote a nice note back thanking Todd for his help:
Thanks Todd! Your continued efforts to fix the problem are what keep me coming back! I hope the NHC went well!
Regards,
Jon
After I recieved the response from Todd I decided to call that afternoonn and check on my backorder shipment. Customer service answered the phone promptly. And told me this:
Me: Hello I want to check on the backordered items on order number -----15.
MS: Oh well what were you missing?
Me: Ummm.... the products on backorder....????
MS: Oh ok, which ones?
Me: ALL OF THEM.
MS: Oh those won't be in for 2 more weeks unfortunately.
Me: They were supposed to have come in on the 28th.
MS: Well I am not showing that unfortunately.
Me: Can you please chck to be sure.
MS: Please hold.
<Phone disconnects.>
I call back:
Me: Hi I was just talking to someone about my order?
MS: Oh hi yeah, sorry about that, I checked and all of the items are in stock.
Me:.......... OK?
MS: So they should be shipping within the next day or so.
Me: How about you ship them,like, right now?
MS: Well unfortunatley I have no way of telling what the status of the order is.
Me: Well how can we find out.
MS: <pauses>...<typing>... Actually it looks like they are being picked right now from the floor...
Me: :smack:
So this is what I have dealt with up to this point.... I am seriously hopinng the rest of my order ships tomorrow or the next day because I would really like to be able to brew this weekend instead of waiting ANOTHER week for the stuff I paid for...
Whew! Anyone else had this experience?
If you continue to shop with Midwest I would just like to warn yoou of my issues. Also, I didnt even address the issue with their rewards points system. Basically, if you want that to work successfully, you had better phone your order in.
So now after a few cold beers...
Mood:
Ive ordered from Midwest Several times. I've also ordered from NB and Rebel a few times, and once from Austin. I've come to realize a few things about online home brew shops (as well as a few things about other online retailers).
1. Yeast, even if packed with an ice pack or two, will still get warm. i've ordered yeast from three of the four sites listed above and all have arrived warm. I've just accepted that if im using liquid yeast, im making a starter. I didn't make this decision because they get to me warm, i made that decision because a starter is one of the only ways to guarantee the yeast are healthy and viable. On that front, I kill two birds with one stone and just work a starter into my brew schedule unless im working with dry yeast.
2. Timely shipping, is a joke. Ive paid for expedited shipping, ive paid for regular shipping. Its all varies, maybe because the warehouse is slow, maybe because of an issue with the shipping company, maybe an issue with the product being in stock or coming from a third party. After ordering products and hoping they arrived on a particular date so i could brew on a set date, only to be disappointed not once but twice, I gave up. Now I just ordered the stuff I need and when it comes, decide when i wanna brew. Im lucky in that my LHBS is only 15 minutes away and has a great selection of grain that he can mill for me when i want it so I don't need to worry about it sitting somewhere for longer then a few days at most. If you don't have the ability to locally order crushed grain when u want it and have to rely on it being crushed/shipped from a few states away, my heart goes out to ya. Im sure thats the case for more then just a few people and can understand ur concern with shipping times. Luckily for me, its not something i need to worry about and im sorry i can't offer better advice for this other then suggesting u purchase ur own mill (believe me i agree thats ****ty advice cuz its expensive).
3. Just cuz it says "In Stock" on the web page, doesn't mean thats always the case. And this applies to alot of online retailers, not just HBS. Ive had issues with Amazon, Bestbuy, Lowes, etc. Ordering and thinking it will be shipping fast and then getting an email a few hours or days after the order was placed with "Sorry its out of stock". These outlets pay big money to link their inventory with their web sites but nothing is perfect. Besides YOU as the consumer can never tell who will be placing an order for the exact same item that you are buying at the same exact time. Neither can the seller of said product, which is unfortunate, but I think everyone involved agrees and wishes this was different. Ive spent enough Cyber Mondays filling my cart with items, only to get those emails later in the day saying they are out of stock and won't have the product in until after Christmas.
The only plus side on all of this that I can see from Midwest is that they are genuinely trying to fix the problem. I think they may be trying to blow some smoke up ur ass with giving u dates that the stuff may be shipped but they may not know when they themselves are getting the products in. Should they just tell ya that flat out? Yes. Why aren't they? I dunno. I wish i could give some better advice besides "Lower your expectations" but I don't have any. I know we all pay our hard earned cash for this hobby we all love but i've just come to realize that across the board with all the popular home brew shops, not a single one can deliver each and every time.
1. Yeast, even if packed with an ice pack or two, will still get warm. i've ordered yeast from three of the four sites listed above and all have arrived warm. I've just accepted that if im using liquid yeast, im making a starter. I didn't make this decision because they get to me warm, i made that decision because a starter is one of the only ways to guarantee the yeast are healthy and viable. On that front, I kill two birds with one stone and just work a starter into my brew schedule unless im working with dry yeast.
2. Timely shipping, is a joke. Ive paid for expedited shipping, ive paid for regular shipping. Its all varies, maybe because the warehouse is slow, maybe because of an issue with the shipping company, maybe an issue with the product being in stock or coming from a third party. After ordering products and hoping they arrived on a particular date so i could brew on a set date, only to be disappointed not once but twice, I gave up. Now I just ordered the stuff I need and when it comes, decide when i wanna brew. Im lucky in that my LHBS is only 15 minutes away and has a great selection of grain that he can mill for me when i want it so I don't need to worry about it sitting somewhere for longer then a few days at most. If you don't have the ability to locally order crushed grain when u want it and have to rely on it being crushed/shipped from a few states away, my heart goes out to ya. Im sure thats the case for more then just a few people and can understand ur concern with shipping times. Luckily for me, its not something i need to worry about and im sorry i can't offer better advice for this other then suggesting u purchase ur own mill (believe me i agree thats ****ty advice cuz its expensive).
3. Just cuz it says "In Stock" on the web page, doesn't mean thats always the case. And this applies to alot of online retailers, not just HBS. Ive had issues with Amazon, Bestbuy, Lowes, etc. Ordering and thinking it will be shipping fast and then getting an email a few hours or days after the order was placed with "Sorry its out of stock". These outlets pay big money to link their inventory with their web sites but nothing is perfect. Besides YOU as the consumer can never tell who will be placing an order for the exact same item that you are buying at the same exact time. Neither can the seller of said product, which is unfortunate, but I think everyone involved agrees and wishes this was different. Ive spent enough Cyber Mondays filling my cart with items, only to get those emails later in the day saying they are out of stock and won't have the product in until after Christmas.
The only plus side on all of this that I can see from Midwest is that they are genuinely trying to fix the problem. I think they may be trying to blow some smoke up ur ass with giving u dates that the stuff may be shipped but they may not know when they themselves are getting the products in. Should they just tell ya that flat out? Yes. Why aren't they? I dunno. I wish i could give some better advice besides "Lower your expectations" but I don't have any. I know we all pay our hard earned cash for this hobby we all love but i've just come to realize that across the board with all the popular home brew shops, not a single one can deliver each and every time.
I ordered one time from midwest..... maybe february or march of this year.... took 7-10 days for them to even process and send order. One and done. Will never order from them again unless I somehow end up with a gift card that I have to use...... and then, it will certainly not be on yeast of something that could die during the eternity that it takes them to send something. I give almost all of the business I can to my LHBS.... even though prices are higher - great service, no shipping, no hassels..... Northern Brewer usually if I cannot get it through LHBS.
Groner
Well-Known Member
Called Midwest again today to track down my back ordered items. Sat on hold for 20 mins. Then got a answering machine that said "Sorry your wait was so long. Please leave a message and someone will get back to you."
So naturally I hung up and called back because I didnt care about the wait, I just wanted to talk to someone.
I checked their online holiday hours. Nope, no problem there.
Called back, 7th in the queue....
When I got to the first in line, it happened again.
"Sorry your wait was so long..."
Called back immediately, 5th in the queue...
Got to the number 1 position.
"Sorry your wait was so long..."
If you want to close for July 5th, no problem, but you need to tell your customers. I have a feeling all those other people in line were doing the same thing I was out of confusion.
If I wasn't locked into this order with gift cards I would demand my money back and never shop there again.
What the %*!@ is going on over there? Why cant they get their $@#! together?
So naturally I hung up and called back because I didnt care about the wait, I just wanted to talk to someone.
I checked their online holiday hours. Nope, no problem there.
Called back, 7th in the queue....
When I got to the first in line, it happened again.
"Sorry your wait was so long..."
Called back immediately, 5th in the queue...
Got to the number 1 position.
"Sorry your wait was so long..."
If you want to close for July 5th, no problem, but you need to tell your customers. I have a feeling all those other people in line were doing the same thing I was out of confusion.
If I wasn't locked into this order with gift cards I would demand my money back and never shop there again.
What the %*!@ is going on over there? Why cant they get their $@#! together?
sparkyaber
Well-Known Member
I did not read all of the 38 pages but I did not read anything related to the following:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f19/northern-brewer-midwest-supplies-merger-397771/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f19/northern-brewer-midwest-supplies-merger-397771/
n240sxguy
Well-Known Member
I heard a rumor about that a few days ago.
I recently (6/12) ordered some kegging equipment from Midwest. It took them a full week to ship the order (UPS delivered it in a reasonable time). All of the items I ordered were listed on the shipping confirmation email. However, when the package arrived, the dual faucet shank I ordered was not included, only a small note saying it was out of stock. At no point prior to this did they indicate that they were out of stock. Had I known, I may have chosen a different vendor.
It has now been over two weeks since I received the package (almost a month since I placed the order), and I have no idea if I will ever get my shank. Midwest has not responded to my emails.
Needless to say, I won't be buying anything from Midwest again.
Update 7/7/13: Midwest has refunded me for the shank.
It has now been over two weeks since I received the package (almost a month since I placed the order), and I have no idea if I will ever get my shank. Midwest has not responded to my emails.
Needless to say, I won't be buying anything from Midwest again.
Update 7/7/13: Midwest has refunded me for the shank.
ECUmedford
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My dad and I both had huge fraudulent charges on our credit cards Friday July 5th. Our banks called us to let us know about them.
The only place we both order from is Midwest Supply. So we suspect that they are the source and perhaps have had a security breach. The timing of both of us having this issue is not coincidental.
Has any other Midwest customers had a similar experience this past week?
I am an E-commerce consultant/entrepreneur and use the same Magento system they do. I noticed they have the credit card save feature enabled which I would never do on my sites.
Just beware and please post if this happened to you so we can verify the source of this issue. Thanks!
The only place we both order from is Midwest Supply. So we suspect that they are the source and perhaps have had a security breach. The timing of both of us having this issue is not coincidental.
Has any other Midwest customers had a similar experience this past week?
I am an E-commerce consultant/entrepreneur and use the same Magento system they do. I noticed they have the credit card save feature enabled which I would never do on my sites.
Just beware and please post if this happened to you so we can verify the source of this issue. Thanks!
Leubega
Well-Known Member
I actually had some charges to my account that B of A called to let me know happened Wednesday night. They ordered some Adobe products and one chargeto a game company in the UK. Been a while since I've ordered from Midwest but I guess it's a possibility
Did u guys place orders from the same computer?
ECUmedford
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No...not even the same house.
ECUmedford
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My dad had charges to Office Depot and I had charges to Sears.
I'm still annoyed at them for the crappy service they've had in the last few orders. Long shipping delays... and they forgot yeast in my last order, which has yet to be replaced, despite several messages to them and a promise to ship the missing packets.
This is why I use paypal as often as possible. i use it,& I have more recourse then I would otherwise. Other times,it usually happens from someone at stores or something to do with there credit processing that got jacked.
You have to be signed up with paypal first. then you click on the pay with paypal logo button to use it. It takes you to paypal where you log in,see everything is right,click pay button & it takes you back to midwest. easy peaasy.
Question, has the OP contacted Midwest to see if they have had any hacking issues? Before a company is discussed in this way it would be best to talk to them first. I hope the OP did.
A St. Louis supermarket chain Diebergs, recently had this happen to them. A hacker got into their system and stole all of the credit card and bank check information they had. They have 25 locations and a good IT department. No one is immune these days.
A St. Louis supermarket chain Diebergs, recently had this happen to them. A hacker got into their system and stole all of the credit card and bank check information they had. They have 25 locations and a good IT department. No one is immune these days.
ECUmedford
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My dad called and talked to someone in customer service. He was unaware of any issues but said we should speak to IT on Monday.
Three people so far with the same issue last week.
I had the same issue on Friday. I am on vacation and went to use my card and was told it declined. Shortly thereafter my bank called and said my account had been compromised. They were unable to determine what caused the issue but I recently placed an order through Midwest.
ECUmedford
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Yeah...I had to deal with this on vacation as well.
Calichusetts
Well-Known Member
Hacked last week...last order about three weeks ago. Don't know if its related, my sisters was hacked for the third time and she never goes there. Just keep an eye out and stay with a reputable credit card company. I hate capital one from an incident a few years ago but they literally called me 5 minutes after the card was used
midwestsupplies
Active Member
We are very sorry to hear about the issues with fraudulent credit card charges. We take this kind of thing very seriously, and we want to make sure the problem is not on our end. We have contacted the OP by phone and email, and we hope to get to the bottom of the issue soon.
Thank you for doing so. It is the right thing to do.
