Ordered hops online, one package punctured. Still ok?

[hobomoto]

Quick question guys,

I ordered a half pound of Nelson hops from an online hop supplier and the package came punctured and thus no longer vacuum sealed. The other half pound of hops I ordered arrived fine with the vacuum seal intact.

Should I email them for a replacement package? Or would that be nit picky?

I could smell the hops strongly through the unopened shipping box they came in. My immediate thought was "huh... thats no good" and sure enough one package was no longer sealed when I opened the box. No way of knowing how long they were exposed to oxygen in transit for a few days at what temps, etc...

Thoughts??

Thanks!

 

[BigMack]

I would absolutely email them to let them know at the very least. Does it look like it could've been damaged during shipping? Because if that might be the case then you may also be able to talk to the shipping company.

 

[hobomoto]

They are pellet hops btw

 

[pshankstar]

I would absolutely email them to let them know at the very least. Does it look like it could've been damaged during shipping? Because if that might be the case then you may also be able to talk to the shipping company.

Agreed! If the packaging appears to be damaged then it could have been the shipper. I would take some pictures and email the seller. Or call them first and follow up with an email with pictures.

 

[hobomoto]

Hard to say if they were damaged in transit or not. I kinda misspoke when I said they came in a box. They actually came in a priority mail flat rate envelope. That being said, there are no punctures in the envelope, yet two punctures/slices in the bottom of the mylar packaging the hops came in.

This leads me to believe it wasn't a transit issue.

 

[slym2none]

Yep - e-mail 'em. They should make it right.

 

[pshankstar]

Hard to say if they were damaged in transit or not. I kinda misspoke when I said they came in a box. They actually came in a priority mail flat rate envelope. That being said, there are no punctures in the envelope, yet two punctures/slices in the bottom of the mylar packaging the hops came in.

This leads me to believe it wasn't a transit issue.

Take pictures and email them ASAP. Take pictures of both the hops bag and the packaging they came in showing there is no damage to the envelop they were shipped in.

Now go and do this and do not report back until after you contacted them! ;-) LOL Good luck and please keep us posted. I'm curious to know how this company's customer service is.

 

[hobomoto]

Take pictures and email them ASAP. Take pictures of both the hops bag and the packaging they came in showing there is no damage to the envelop they were shipped in.

Now go and do this and do not report back until after you contacted them! ;-) LOL Good luck and please keep us posted. I'm curious to know how this company's customer service is.

Email sent with pics! I hear you about not reporting back until they get an opportunity to handle the situation, hence why I left thier name out of the post

I used to brew extract pretty lax, but I really want to step up and try to produce some top notch ipas all grain. This was to be for my first all grain ipa recipe, eliminating o2 exposure, etc.

Been doing a lot of reading here on how to produce epic ipas, so was a little bummed when the package came punctured.

Anyway... thanks everyone for chiming in and verifying that it was worth contacting them!

 

[BigMack]

Also, do you have a vacuum sealer yourself? If so get them sealed and in the freezer. If not put them in a few ziplocs and get it in the freezer. Try to salvage any freshness you possibly can.

 

[hobomoto]

Also, do you have a vacuum sealer yourself? If so get them sealed and in the freezer. If not put them in a few ziplocs and get it in the freezer. Try to salvage any freshness you possibly can.

Good point. Yeah I have one.

 

[hobomoto]

UPDATE: The seller came through with a timely response and assured me that they would never ship a punctured/unsealed bag of hops and it must have been damaged during shipment. That being said, they still offered a replacement or credit to my account. A+ customer service.

Thanks again to all who chimed in!

 

[pshankstar]

Glad to hear they came through!! That's great customer service!!

 

[slym2none]

They tried to shunt any responsibility away from themselves, but they did make it right in the end.

*applause*

 

[pshankstar]

They tried to shunt any responsibility away from themselves, but they did make it right in the end.

*applause*

Accidents happen. Regardless if it was their mistake or the courier they made it right. They were quick to respond and sounds like they made it right on the first exchange. To me that would keep me happy and a returning customer.

 

[kevink]

Which company was it? I had the same thing happen to a pound of pellets from Yakima Valley. They sent a replacement and paid for all shipping. I just wonder what they did with the pound that I sent back...

 

[hobomoto]

It was Yakima. They might want to consider different packaging if this is a repeat issue and it is happening in shipment. They use the bubble wrap style usps priority mail envelopes which maybe don't provide enough protection? The bubble wrap is very stretchy and maybe can allow the mylar to get damaged without itself tearing? Who knows...

On the plus side, they did come through promptly with the offer of a new package of hops and apologized for the inconvienience (which I feel was very cool to acknowledge as sometimes people forget how this affects our brew day plans, etc.).

I'll order from them again.

 

[BigMack]

Which company was it? I had the same thing happen to a pound of pellets from Yakima Valley. They sent a replacement and paid for all shipping. I just wonder what they did with the pound that I sent back...

They made you send the pound back...? That seems really odd to me. Like something you would do if you thought someone was lying. I would hope they went in the trash and that they didn't repackage oxidized hops.

 

[slym2none]

That's a good point. They already pushed off responsibility for tearing the bag - because let's face it, if the damage happened in shipping, the envelope would torn or cut as well, and it wasn't - so would they repackage hops that might be bad?

 

[Oginme]

Chances are that they wanted the package back to put in a claim with the shipping company if they felt it was an issue with the shipper, or to use to train/show/warn their packaging employee(s).

 

[BigMack]

I worked briefly doing fulfillment and I doubt that is the case. If the shipping company needed to be held liable then documentation from the person who received the damaged package and pictures would do the job. I also can't imagine they went to the shipping company unless it was a big order. With the time spent just to file a claim they would have already lost whatever money they would get in return.

Regardless it at least sounds like they are making good on a problem with an order. Accidents happen sometimes, and I respect companies that are quick to make things right. I do question why they would choose that style of packaging though. Just seems like they are asking for damaged goods sending them like that.

 

[hobomoto]

By having the customer return the bag it might eliminate the possibility of them being scammed out of 2 bags at the cost of 1... just a thought. I think its pretty standard to have the customer return products when asking for an exchange or refund, even online.

Highly doubt they would repackage the hops and sell them, they obviously care about thier rep.

 

[signpost]

It's possible that the cost of replacing a damaged package now and then is significantly less than the amount more reliable shipping methods would cost.

Like, they save a lot by shipping the hops that way, so they don't mind replacing/refunding orders that get damaged.

 

[hobomoto]

Just an update on this for what its worth... I ended up getting the run around a bit which got pretty annoying.

It took me over a month to get the replacement hops! I'm not sure if they were purposely trying to stall replacing my hops or just busy and dumb but it was annoying.

For example I would get an email back like "Yeah just let us know what hops they were again and we will get them shipped out asap."

I had already mentioned which hops it was in my first email! Why not just look up my order and send them?

So I reply back and politely inform them again... wait a week... getting close to two weeks.. nothing.

So I send another email asking about them and all I get is "We shipped them last week."

Okay... well I don't have them so... I respond "So should I have the by now? How were they shipped?"

I get: "Let us know if you don't see them by Friday (3 days later)"

Friday comes and goes, I send an email that I didn't get anything and ask if there is a tracking number.

No response... 5 days later, I write frustrated email with thier service.. no response.. 2 days later finally just call them and the girl I spoke with looks up the order and says "yeah he never shipped them, I'll send them right out."

Never a response or apology to my email where I finally stop being polite and tell them I'm losing my patience with thier service...

Anyway for what its worth... I bet lots of people buy from YVH everyday with no issues but that was my experience.

 

[eluterio]

My protocol with HBS goes email once call after.

 

[hobomoto]

Yeah, after calling and getting it handled quickly I realized that I should have called earlier.. but still, its not like they weren't communicating through email at first so I stuck with it. Too long though for sure...

 

[kevink]

I just had the same problem again. I specifically bought enough pounds so it would ship in a box, not a padded envelope, but a one pound bag of pellets was not sealed when I got it. There were no holes or other damage to the box. They didn't respond to my email, so I called. Not long after that I was emailed a tracking number for a replacement. I will now always take this into consideration when planning the brew day.

 

[brewprint]

I had an issue with them as well.

I order 2 pounds. 1 Amarillo and the other Mosaic. The Mosaic came with a hole in the bag. I told them; then they wanted me to send it back with a pre paid label. I asked how much to just keep it and they said $18. It was fine because a guy in the club wanted them.

Then the new package of Mosaic arrived and it was shipped the same way. This one was deflated also.

I just sent them an email saying that it was deflated and it's useless to swap this one out since it'll be shipped the same way again and probably get popped. In which case I never received a reply.

Oh well....not my favorite place.

 

[m00ps]

IMO, a food saver is a must for buying hops by the pound, unless you are doing some big IPAs. Ive had a few sealed packaged that had a slow leak somewhere before, but with the vaccuum sealer you dont need to worry about it

 

[kevink]

I have a vacuum sealer, but I won't accept a pound of hops that are not under vacuum. Who knows how long they were exposed to oxygen? If I pay for a vacuum sealed pound of hops, it better be vacuum sealed when I get it.

 

[slym2none]

TIL that I won't ever buy hops from Yakima Valley because I don't want hops with holes in the packaging.

 

[normonster]

I had an issue with them as well.



I order 2 pounds. 1 Amarillo and the other Mosaic. The Mosaic came with a hole in the bag. I told them; then they wanted me to send it back with a pre paid label. I asked how much to just keep it and they said $18. It was fine because a guy in the club wanted them.



Then the new package of Mosaic arrived and it was shipped the same way. This one was deflated also.



I just sent them an email saying that it was deflated and it's useless to swap this one out since it'll be shipped the same way again and probably get popped. In which case I never received a reply.



Oh well....not my favorite place.

Deflated? Is it supposed to be filled with co2 or what? I've bought a few lbs now and I can't recall any being inflated. All pretty good too, and as mentioned above, with a food sealer they last a while.

 

[hobomoto]

Deflated probably wasn't the best wording but I understood what he meant by it.

The bags come vacuum sealed normally. All the air is sucked out of the packaging and sealed. It looks kind of shrink wrapped and tight around the hops when done properly. If the package gets punctured it will then INflate with air and begin the staling process...

If you recieve a package of hops in the mail that is punctured and inflated with air its kinda like getting a busted bag of tortilla chips... your chips are going to be stale.

You wouldn't buy a busted bag of chips off the shelf in the grocery store so why should you accept a busted bag of hops in the mail? Same reason.

Cheers!

 

[normonster]

Deflated probably wasn't the best wording but I understood what he meant by it.

The bags come vacuum sealed normally. All the air is sucked out of the packaging and sealed. It looks kind of shrink wrapped and tight around the hops when done properly. If the package gets punctured it will then INflate with air and begin the staling process...

If you recieve a package of hops in the mail that is punctured and inflated with air its kinda like getting a busted bag of tortilla chips... your chips are going to be stale.

You wouldn't buy a busted bag of chips off the shelf in the grocery store so why should you accept a busted bag of hops in the mail? Same reason.

Cheers!

Ok, that makes sense. Well, I've purchased a few lbs now from that same company and haven't had a problem yet. Fingers crossed I guess.

 

[slcalex]

Had the same experience. Half pound of Citra came punctured. They promptly sent a return label and sent and replacement which was fine.

Ordered 5 more pounds, various kinds. Nugget was punctured. I didn't bother seeking replacement since they will be just for bittering. Annoying none the less.

 

[brewprint]

Deflated? Is it supposed to be filled with co2 or what? I've bought a few lbs now and I can't recall any being inflated. All pretty good too, and as mentioned above, with a food sealer they last a while.

Yep poor wording. The vacuum seal was broke.

 

[JWheeler]

Just thought I'd share my experience...Bought a bunch of hops from Farmhouse Brewing Supply, 6 1-Lb packages and 2 4oz packages. The 1 Lb of Citra had lost it's vacuum seal, probably damaged during delivery. I emailed and called them and they sent me a replacement pound and didn't even have me send the bad pound back. Great experience, I'll definitely be ordering my hops from them from now on.

 

[Miguel Dlm]

I also bought a 200 G Cascade pellet bag of hops, unfortunately it got delivered unsealed with a small hole on it. Thanks to this post, I figured it was not normal. I called them and confirmed it, it should not happen, usually during delivery they get damaged. Finally they sent me a new bag, all good.