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That's just awful. We have a local homebrew shop (www.perfectbrewing.com) that *is* just basically a garage where they warehouse their supplies and ship them off to internet customers. It's located in a fenced off area inside an electronics warehouse. The owner *there* is always happy to see us and practically talks our ears off about homebrew, mead, hot sauce, gumbo, and tells corny jokes. It's great. And his primary employee has shared some of his homebrew with us (we owe him a couple next time we go back.) I'm pretty sure that they appreciate the local business because it saves them on shipping. Plus, since he's by far the most convenient place for us to go, he knows we'll be back, spending something like $100+ every two weeks.

If your guy "doesn't care about local business", he should close up the storefront and ship out of his house. It'd be a lot cheaper on rent.
 
WAGNER BREWING said:
Home Brew Beer Supply
See Our Great Prices
Award Winnning Home Brewers Are Available For Help
- When you need assistance, you want someone who knows the products and techniques that will help you brew beer you´ll love. We´re brewers ourselves. We´ve done our homework and we will steer you in the right direction. Our help line number is (407) 298-4103. The best times to call are before noon and after 4 pm. We want to help you brew better beer. If you don´t see what you want on this on-line-catalog, ASK FOR IT! We´ll get it for you at a terrific price. We hope to hear from you soon, and as always, we appreciate your business! Happy Brewing!



The above came from his site! F***ing losers...damn false advertisment.
I read that too...:mad:

Let's all email him and say we heard his service sucks....:D
 
Maybe someone should just email him a link to this thread...maybe he'll get a clue!

Unfortunately, this shop sounds an awful lot like my local homebrew supply shop.
 
Incidentally, one of the owners (not the clerk in question here, I don't believe) did respond over on the greenboard. Basically acknowledged/took responsibility for the problem and pledged to try and correct it.
 
I'm glad for that update. I hope its not just piss in the wind.

But, ****, if that is the owner's attitiude, why have a store front if you don't care about selling to locals? Get a warehouse in the middle of nowhere and save some bucks.

Idiots.
 
Just read this...I live in kissimmee and that's where i do my shopping.. I had to go through the same ****.. 2 guys run the place and they were both ********. I went once with my girlfriend when i was first starting to brew and she couldn't believe how rude they were. I think they might have read this because they are cool now.Or maybe it's because i know what I'm doing now and don't ask them questions.Everytime i go in there now i bull**** for 15-20 minutes..
 
Wow, that is a bad one. I know you probably don't want to hear this, but everyone has bad days. You may want to give him one more shot. Its likely that he was in a bad place and vented, I'd bet he regretted it immediately.

As an owner of a business for 16 years, the one luxury you don't have as an owner is bad days in customers presence. There is no excuse possible for this type of attitude and behavior.
 
Baron von BeeGee said:
Incidentally, one of the owners (not the clerk in question here, I don't believe) did respond over on the greenboard. Basically acknowledged/took responsibility for the problem and pledged to try and correct it.
I think he said it was the/a owner, not a clerk, right?
This to me sounds like he's just trying to not lose customers, people that act like that only care/apologize when it hurts them and are usually not sincere. I'm all for giving people second chances that might deserve them, but if they're this brazen/rude I am inclined to think they don't -especially when others have similar stories. I'd like to see his business dry up, not just be annoyed with spam, etc.
 
LOL I went there before in Orlando and he was kind of an ******* when I asked what is a good recipe.
 
gonzoflick said:
Owner: "We are mostly mail order so we don't care about local business."

Me: "Are you saying you dont care about making your customers happy and helping them out"

Owner: "Our local ones, nope. Thats not the kind of business we're in."

Me: "Well buddy you just lost a local one."

Owner: "Ok see ya"

I guess your buddy there learned a valuable lesson in all this....when you are doing business on the internet with all the forums, groups, chats, ect. that exist, everyone becomes essentially a "local" customer and word of poor service can travel wicked fast.
 
gonzoflick said:
Owner: "We are mostly mail order so we don't care about local business."

If that's the case, why have a retail storefront at all? Idiot could probably cut his operating costs by 20-30% if he just ran the internet side out of a warehouse (cheaper real estate, no price labelling, shelf stocking, helpful employees walking the aisles...oh wait...)
 
well i have to say that i have had some bad experiences with them too. they really seem like walk in customers are a mere inconvenience for them.

i usually go in with a long laundry list of items and just have them run around and fill the list. usually ending in the same comment, you know if you email us the list or fax it in we can have it ready for you to pick up.

thats nice and all but i love the way that place smells. for a walk-in place we have no other option in orlando.

honestly i hate ordering stuff like this over the web.
 
Hmm I wonder if the LHBS chap realizes what's transpired on our forum. My guess is many of us buy from him. I'm smelling an apology to the Home Brew Community.
 
I am with OP on this one.. No more Hearts for me. It was hard for me to bite my tounge and not lash out at the guy today.

All I wanted was a pound of specialty grain that would add good color to an amber. He would not answer that question, and berrated me for not knowing what grain I really needed!

So pissed am I..

AVOID HEARTSHOMEBREW.com and their local store.
 
Email just sent--- Please feel free to copy and paste.


Greetings,
I have been in your store a lot lately. I have
purchased over $500 in the last month. Each time I
have been treated curtly and as if I was a nuisance.
That is your perogative.

Today I was treated rudely and as a result you
have lost my business and I will do everything I can
to make sure no new customers come to your store or
visit your website. As you know, your reputation
around town is horrible. And now I can truly
appreciate how nasty you guys are to in store
customers.

Y'all can treat customers any way you like. And as
customers we can spend money anywhere we like. It
won't be at your store any longer.

Respectfully,
Austin Hardy
 
I like my local brew store and they really tend to be great when I call on them. But I also have to drive about 45 minutes to get there. What I have done is started using Listermann.com which has free shipping with a a purchase of $35 or over to anywhere in the US east of the Mississippi river. I buy the grain in bulk from there and save my gas money. Because you live in FL you can also get this good deal.

Good luck and sorry to hear about that. I wonder how many noobs have been turned away from brewing because of that A@@
 
I have lived in 2 states since I started brewing (Florida and Alabama) and continue to use Austin Homebrew Supply due to their reasonable shipping rates. I have never had any trouble with any of the ingredients, including liquid yeast shipped UPS in the Hot summers in Florida.

Best of all, I can call them anytime for advice and they are always helpful. I am not trying to advertise for them, they just happen to be who I use and I am very happy with their service and the orders always ship promptly.
 
Why is this guy still in business? I have gone there several times with some attitude every time. :mad:
 
I know this is an old post, but I thought it was worth revisiting. I live in Orlando and have been to Hearts many times. Unfortunately, this is still the only option available in Orlando unless you want to order online. His prices make it fiscally unwise to order online elsewhere (at least for me). However, it wouldn't break my heart (no pun intended) if they didn't get any more new customers.

Every time I go in, he does act like I'm an inconvenience. He gives me the same "if you order online we could have this ready..." spiel.

As another poster noted, he does have tons of ribbons and trophies on the wall. This is ironic, as he doesn't seem very well informed on brewing. During one of my visits, he informed me that he didn't have toasted malt, but smoked malt was pretty much the same thing. On another visit, I asked what had happened to his dry T-58 Belgian yeast. He "assured" me there was no such thing as a dry Belgian yeast and that safale didn't offer anything like that, even though it was at his store the prior month that I first saw it.

Talking tithe local homebrew club (Central Florida Homebrew Guild) won't do much good because as I understand it, he is an active member and the store sponsors most of the homebrew events in the area. In fact, he was once a head judge at many competitions.

To be fair, he does have his good days. I once talked to him for a good half hour talking about the upcoming competition and how to enter and the best ways to get a beer noticed. Unfortunately, this isn't the norm. I often see him frustrated and snippy with people who don't have his level of experience and who ask simple questions.

Basically, this was a long way of saying if you live in Orlando and need to buy grain and don't need any advice, go there. It IS a good deal. If however, you need any advice, come here or go to the guild. THEY are a great resource.
 
Yeah that guy sounds like a dick. I haven't had any really bad experiences, but one that kind of pissed me off was when I asked the owner of my LHBS if I could use their grain mill on some malt I had in my car. He asked me if I bought there and I told him no, and he looked at me like I was trying to scam him and said in a ******* voice "Well, there you go."

I said "A simple 'no' would have been fine, but thanks."

Not a big deal, but his attitude pissed me off.
 
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