Tom Hargrave and Kegkits.com (www.ic3.gov)

[slinn]

He should dig a deep hole and never come out from it. He still owes me 2 kegs from over a year ago. I complained in every way possible to him and every authority figure I could think of and was ignored or brushed off by everyone. I am going to throw a party this weekend to celebrate the demise of his business.

Another party to be thrown by me for his demise! I did the same, complained to every authority I could think of, including the IRS. Complained twice to the AL Attorney General's office - got no replies from anyone - not a single word. Be careful, I would imagine this guy will pop up with a new website sometime down the road. Ripping people off is simply too lucrative for a thief to give up on.

 

[Revvy]

You know, if you really wanted to get to him, then you could go viral with a video. Just like they famous "United Breaks Guitars" music videos. It got huge results after the video got millions of hits on youtube. It's being touted world wide as an instance of web based consumer activism.

you can read a good article on it here
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/24/united-breaks-guitars-did_n_244357.html



I've heard the story mentioned on both Irish and Australian radio, and as you can see it hurt United's reputation immensely.

Or the one where the guy dealing with the phone company posted all those calls between him and various customer service operators, and caught them in a lie.

If you did something eye catching and humorous, stated the facts without being libelous, where you would end up having him sue you for slander, it could do more for getting the word out and embarrassing him than anything he could ignore like a summons from the BBB.

I would something like the song above, but make it like the I am a homebrewer video, where each person screwed does a verse or something. That might even end up getting picked up by all the brewing podcasters out there, which would get the word out to more people as well. If you generate a buzz, it's going to start affecting him, and that might provoke him into action.....

Or you could find an attorney and do a class action suit against him, filing jointly. But I think the viral video would probably be cheaper for you guys and may get more publicity.

Or you could do both.

Just my 2 cents. Although I'm sorry you guys got screwed, but I am glad this site exists and you guys have spoken up to us about it so we know to shy away. Hope my ideas help.

 

[Yambor44]

You guys that haven't gotten anything in several months to 2 years haven't gotten a refund on your credit card yet? I would think all companies would refund after the 30 day wait period I mentioned earlier.

 

[Beerrific]

....

Neat video/story. Had not seen that before. The reason this kind of approach works is because with big corporations you can eventually get the attention of someone that is allowed to use common sense and is not bound by a written policy. With KegKits there is just one guy and he does not care, at all. I think in the end the only way to get this guys attention would be through criminal and/or civil action. We can only hope that the reason he is closing is b/c someone (an AG's office, the police, a lawyer, etc.) have made it clear that what he is doing wrong and if he continued to do it he was going to end up in court if not jail.

 

[neovox]

Hmmm. Site says they're going out of business -- unless that's BS too.

"kegkits.com is going out of business

We just finished cancelling and refunding about $5,000 worth of orders orders that were placed and have not been captured yet.

We will ship the remaining orders over the next two weeks from inventory we have in stock and in some cases, inventory we need to bring in to cover back orders.

Once we finish filling open orders we will put our remaining inventory on sale to cover any final expenses.

We have not decided if we will keep the kegkits.com site open as a information site for brewers."

 

[masonsjax]

You guys that haven't gotten anything in several months to 2 years haven't gotten a refund on your credit card yet? I would think all companies would refund after the 30 day wait period I mentioned earlier.

Unfortunately I paid using Paypal. They were completely unwilling to do anything about it, and the account was tied to a bank savings account. The bank would only take action if it was a checking account. Lesson learned for sure.

 

[SwampassJ]

With all of the whackjobs out there you would think someone would of shown up with a shovel and a 45.

 

[slinn]

Beware. Stir-plate.com appears to be the same guy.

Contact Information
Postal address
12021 South Memorial Pkwy, Suite N-4, Huntsville, AL 35803
Electronic mail
General Information: [email protected]
Sales: [email protected]

 

[Baja_Brewer]

Beware. Stir-plate.com appears to be the same guy.

Contact Information
Postal address
12021 South Memorial Pkwy, Suite N-4, Huntsville, AL 35803
Electronic mail
General Information: [email protected]
Sales: [email protected]

Yes that is the same guy. Note that that is stir-plate with a hyphen. Stirplate dot com is a reputable vendor who is active on HBT and makes good products

 

[matiasek]

Wow, thanks everyone for the heads up! I was about to pull the trigger on a gas manifold that I need in about 2 weeks for our club jockey box. If he went out of business I wonder why the site is still active.
Man, what a slimy of a character! He must have figured out early on that credit card orders were getting refunded with ease. Now he is set up only to receive paypal or check.
thanks again!

 

[HBRunner]

I think he is just selling equipment now, and no actual brewing ingredients.......thats just what I heard somewhere though......

 

[mmb]

He's been doing this for years and at one point there was a sticky about it.

When does it become wire fraud and a federal crime?

 

[mateomtb]

His stellar BBB report

http://www.bbb.org/northern-alabama...tom-hargrave-sales-in-huntsville-al-900050886

LOL

 

[EdWort]

Bumpity Bump Bump

 

[Caucasian]

Isn't it illegal to homebrew in alabama?

 

[EdWort]

Isn't it illegal to homebrew in alabama?

Yep, but not to sell the equipment. Ingredients are classified as food.

 

[fusa]

It might help to add your ratings to his website at http://www.mywot.com/ Its an addon for Firefox and Chrome that will warn people if they go to a website with poor reputation. His site still has a good reputation, if you've had a bad experience it might help others if you leave your ratings.

 

[jotakah]

I ordered from Kegkits about 2 weeks ago, and only started reading all of these negative reviews about the business afterward. I was very concerned about my order, but decided to wait it out.

Just received my order today, it's got everything I ordered and at a good price. Took a little bit of time to get here but I was definitely NOT scammed.


EDIT: AFTER CLOSER INSPECTION, THE REGULATOR ARRIVED WITH BOTH OF THE PRESSURE GAUGES BUSTED OUTWARDS. THE SAFETY RELIEF VALVE WAS ALSO BUSTED DUE TO THE DIAPHRAGM BEING ASSEMBLED INCORRECTLY ON THE INSIDE. GETTING MY LOCAL WELDING SHOP TO FIX IT BECAUSE I DON'T FEEL LIKE DEALING WITH KEGKITS ANYMORE. DO NOT BUY FROM THEM!!!!!!!!!!

 

[thargrav]

This is Tom from kegkits.com.

NON VENDOR LINK REMOVED.
are also my sites.

We have continued business since I failed almost 2 years ago and I'm proud to say that I have not received one BBB complaint since we imploded. Instead of me typing what happened over & over again you can read what happened to my business in the link below. And if you don't care, I guess you won't read it.

Brewers Hardware Stir Plate Review | Nick's Beer is Here

We hurt a lot of people when we failed but none more than me. I doubt if any of you have run a failing business.

And BTW, I see some other resellers advertising on this site going down the same path I went down. It's easy to see once you've been there. I won't mention who because it's not fair to them but I will say that any business that continuosly comes up with excuses for being late is in serious trouble. You know who they are.

I do not expect anyone I hurt to ever buy from me again and this is not why I posted this. I just want to set the record straight.

Thanks, Tom

 

[dallasdb]

Tom,

I'm not saying you aren't a good business man but if you want to continue selling your products... why not CHANGE THE NAME that got all the bad publicity???

Instead of fight an uphill battle, buy a new .com and start fresh. Or if you have some revenue still coming from kegkits.com keep that site AND build a new one that doesn't have such a black shadow over it.

Just my 2 cents.

I know they say there is no such thing as bad publicity but that's just a saying!

This video is pretty bad.



Another idea, you might not have kept very good records over the years but have you thought of trying to personally reach out to the customers you did hurt in the past?

 

[emjay]

Tom is a great guy, was recently a pleasure to deal with, and I wouldn't hesitate to deal with him again (and again).

It's a shame what happened in the past, and I can understand why some people might have a negative opinion and are wary of doing business with him again, but hopefully some of these people can give him the chance to redeem himself - maybe not by actually dealing with him directly, but at least giving it a rest, even if just temporarily, with regards to the spreading of negative opinions and attempts to convince others not to conduct any business with him, based on the events that occurred quite some time ago.

 

[thargrav]

dallasdb,

You aren't the first who suggested a name change and I considered a name change. But traffic never stopped coming to NON VENDOR LINK REMOVED.
and even through all this mess, sales continued. I did start a second site - NON VENDOR LINK REMOVED.

And regarding the video? It's a video of me refusing to play the local TV station's games. They could care less about what's really going on - they could care less about what me and my business were going through at the time - all they wanted was someone flailing at the end of their hook to entertain their 6:00 viewers. And I refused to play their game.

At the end of the day the business failed and it was my fault. I'm just fortunate enough to be able to pick up the pieces and have the opportunity to pay off my landlord and suppliers and hopefully I eventually will.

And personally reach out to the customers I hurt in the past? One thing I did learn from this is how cruel and mean people really can be. I lost count of the emails, phone calls and threats I received from "customers". I lost count of the people who promised to personally come to Alabama and kick my a&&. Also, about $9,000 of product was kept by customers who somehow felt justified to file charge backs and not return these items. And I'm sure that every one of them felt self-justified in his or her actions. At this point these posts are about as far as I'm willing to "reach out".

I have no problem admitting this mess was my fault - it was. I also can't change yesterday but I'm not going to crawl under a rock either. So the only real choices are to quit or continue and I chose to continue.

Thanks for your feedback.

 

[thargrav]

Tom is a great guy, was recently a pleasure to deal with, and I wouldn't hesitate to deal with him again (and again).

It's a shame what happened in the past, and I can understand why some people might have a negative opinion and are wary of doing business with him again, but hopefully some of these people can give him the chance to redeem himself - maybe not by actually dealing with him directly, but at least giving it a rest, even if just temporarily, with regards to the spreading of negative opinions and attempts to convince others not to conduct any business with him, based on the events that occurred quite some time ago.

Thanks for the positive feedback. And actually a lot of older customers continue to shop with me. This is what kept me in business. One point I made earlier is I have received no BBB begative feedback since the business imploded and this has to stand for something.

 

[nukinfuts29]

Honestly......

You know I don't know where to start.

Sent from my Galaxy S 4G using Home Brew Talk for Android

 

[TxBrew]

I moved this thread into company reviews. Just letting you guys know.

 

[Airborneguy]

This guy is a piece of work. Glad I read the sticky before purchasing my key setup from a different vendor. I for one won't risk my money on this guy's rehabilitation.

 

[bernerbrau]

For what it's worth, when I came on here complaining about Tom's Stirplate 2000 that I bought, Tom responded immediately by offering to exchange for a replacement, in the next model up, for free.

 

[Bobby_M]

If my business ever goes down that badly, crawling under a rock would be the least I could do. It sounds like a horrible case of gambler's delusion. If I can just make that one big score, I could get the ship back on course. I'd say it takes some brass balls to screw people over that badly and try to keep going in the same business.

Maybe you can earn back a decent reputation, but for now .... eh.

 

[thargrav]

For what it's worth, when I came on here complaining about Tom's Stirplate 2000 that I bought, Tom responded immediately by offering to exchange for a replacement, in the next model up, for free.

You did and thanks for the opportunity to make things right. I've not heard anything else from you so I assume the Stir Plate 3000 is working fine?

For those of you who did not read that thread, here is a link:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/please-make-your-own-stir-plate-229276/

And BTW, as of the first week of December we have built and sold over 1000 stir plates. Most have been sold to homebrew shops across the country through FOXX Equipment. They have committed to carry my new Black MAXX stir plate along with the other two models starting the first of the year. FOXX is a great company to work with.

NON VENDOR LINK REMOVED

 

[thargrav]

If my business ever goes down that badly, crawling under a rock would be the least I could do. It sounds like a horrible case of gambler's delusion. If I can just make that one big score, I could get the ship back on course. I'd say it takes some brass balls to screw people over that badly and try to keep going in the same business.

Maybe you can earn back a decent reputation, but for now .... eh.

Brass balls or maybe just a thick head. And anyways I did not intentionally screw anyone over. I failed and a lot of people were hurt, including me.

And BTW, I decided to re-open this thread by commenting and I could have just let things lie as they were. But I believe in addressing and solving issues & I guess that's why I'm still in business.