I am surprised at the NB hatred.
I don't "hate" them, supposedly customer service is their strongpoint .
HOWEVER, they have had what i feel to be unethical business practices so i choose not to give them my business. What practices you may ask?
1 - a few 3 or 4 years back they got their computers hacked and a large amount of their customers credit information was compromised. They didn't inform the public or their customers about it. They got called out on it on forums and months later after enough people were complaining about it, they then fessed up to it.
2 - the original Big Mouth Bubbler. Its glass version was paper thin and was putting homebrewers in the hospital with serious injuries.(look at the glass carboy horror story thread) People were posting here and calling/mailing NB saying things like "Hey, your product is dangerous. Stop selling it." To which they basically ignored it. I warned an owner of a homebrew shop in Arkansas about them and a few trips to his shop later he tells me that they called his store trying to unload them on him.
Thankfully sinse he was warned he did not put them on his shelves endangering brewers.
3 - the NEW and improved Big Mouth Bubbler....
NOW WITH 15% THICKER GLASS!!!!!
Imho 15% more of paper thin is still too thin.
Too little, too late. i won't buy one and you couldn't give me one for free even. At least they came to terms with the fact that the original was dangerously thin.
Any one of these reasons is enough for me to stop giving business to a company. Which is exactly what i did.
I'm not saying that they are evil and hopefully it's not even the same people anymore but i've other reasons not to buy from them but that has much more to do with me "supporting local business" than anything NB has or hasn't done.
I hope that clarifies my view for you....not hate.
Just my perogotive.
