Brewmasters Warehouse

BMW has been my go-to for several years now because of their pricing, quality and service levels (Ed has been wonderful in the past). But this level of delay is just too long for me to deal with. My most recent order timeline:

-Friday, 4/19, 7am: placed the order online
-Thursday, 4/25, 1pm: hadn't heard anything, so I called them to ask about the status of the order. They said they were behind in getting to orders, and should fill my order on Monday (4/29)
-Thursday, 5/2, 8am: still haven't heard anything.

I'll reach back out to them again today, either to try and get an update or possibly at this point to just cancel my order (this will be the second nice weekend in a row I had hoped to be brewing but won't be). It's a shame, I always liked ordering from here in the past, and I hope they get things turned around.

benzy4010 said:

Love the brew builder hate everything else about them. Onlu use them cuz they are 10 miles away so no shippingn

Click to expand...

Not necessarily you but maybe some of the locals could talk to Ed face-to-face to let him know what's going on here in this thread. I believe he used to comment on here frequently but haven't seen him for a while.

I hate bashing the store without knowing what's going on, i.e. health or family issues, etc. but I don't even check the site anymore when I'm looking to order stuff because of the troubles I've had in the past.

Maybe the local business is good and they don't need to rely on the online sales, but it's too bad these issues cannot be resolved.

stevo155 said:

Not necessarily you but maybe some of the locals could talk to Ed face-to-face to let him know what's going on here in this thread. I believe he used to comment on here frequently but haven't seen him for a while.

I hate bashing the store without knowing what's going on, i.e. health or family issues, etc. but I don't even check the site anymore when I'm looking to order stuff because of the troubles I've had in the past.

Maybe the local business is good and they don't need to rely on the online sales, but it's too bad these issues cannot be resolved.

Click to expand...

I sent him a PM a few weeks ago pointing him to this thread but never heard anything.

FermentedNovice said:

BMW has been my go-to for several years now because of their pricing, quality and service levels (Ed has been wonderful in the past). But this level of delay is just too long for me to deal with. My most recent order timeline:

-Friday, 4/19, 7am: placed the order online
-Thursday, 4/25, 1pm: hadn't heard anything, so I called them to ask about the status of the order. They said they were behind in getting to orders, and should fill my order on Monday (4/29)
-Thursday, 5/2, 8am: still haven't heard anything.

I'll reach back out to them again today, either to try and get an update or possibly at this point to just cancel my order (this will be the second nice weekend in a row I had hoped to be brewing but won't be). It's a shame, I always liked ordering from here in the past, and I hope they get things turned around.

Click to expand...

Emailed them early this morning, and fairly quickly got the following response: "We should be getting to your order today or tomorrow. We are just backed up at the moment." Hopefully this holds true...

Darwin18 said:

I sent him a PM a few weeks ago pointing him to this thread but never heard anything.

Click to expand...

This is his thread! He used to address problems promptly and at times it was more like a gushing fan page than a feedback thread. The business has gone south, period. Ed can talk as much as he wants about how he's been trying to work out kinks or get rid of/straighten out employees who may be responsible, but the fact is that it's his business and he's responsible. He just flat out doesn't care anymore, and the proof is in the pudding. I've ordered thousands of dollars in ingredients from BMW but stopped when the out of stock issue started coming up which seems like around 6-8 months ago. He'll get on here occasionally and go through the motions of "please call or email so we can make it right, we've had higher than normal volume lately, bla bla bla" and then nothing changes. I want to place a small order again of unimportant ingredients just for the entertainment value.

FermentedNovice said:

Emailed them early this morning, and fairly quickly got the following response: "We should be getting to your order today or tomorrow. We are just backed up at the moment." Hopefully this holds true...

Click to expand...

FWIW, I placed an order on 4/17 and it just shipped yesterday so my guess is yours will ship tomorrow. I went through the same process you did - I emailed asking about shipping date, was told it would ship by 4/24. That didn't happen, so I emailed again 4/30, they said they're swamped but will put my order first in line for the next day. Pretty irritating that I have to nag them to get info about my order, but at least I'm getting my stuff (albeit 16 days later).

This will be my last order from BMW. My LHBS is overpriced, doesn't sell grain in <1 lb increments, and has pretentious employees, but at least when I buy my grain there I can actually plan when I'm going to brew.

Hopefully Ed can make some positive changes and turn things around. I really like ordering from them and have usually gotten good service.

I have ordered items that were out of stock, more than once. They usually contact me, in the case of yeast, and ask me about making a substitution. Maybe he needs some type of inventory tracking system that interfaces with his site.

crap. Wish I'd read this before I placed my order - I haven't brewed in about 6 months - (relationship issues... this will be my first ever batch without her)
So...perhaps I should place a back-up order with another vendor.

I've always liked Ed's service and responses in the past...I really hate seeing all these negative reviews, but he's got to own his problems and fix them.

The reviews speak for themselves. Lets keep the posts to reviews please, and one review is fine rather than multiple posts.

Pappers_ said:

The reviews speak for themselves. Lets keep the posts to reviews please, and one review is fine rather than multiple posts.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry are rules of the site being broken?

stubbornman said:

I'm sorry are rules of the site being broken?

Click to expand...

Sometimes, yes. That's why some posts in this thread have been deleted.

The name of this forum is "Company Reviews" and our preference is to have the posts be reviews from customers. The rules are stickied at the top of this forum https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f173/company-reviews-rules-223829/

In cases like this thread, where there are an abundance of negative reviews, its easy to get lots of back and forth, responding to other people's experiences, posting many times about the same experience.

I think letting the reviews speak for themselves is the best way to go. For example, if someone writes a review and says Widget Homebrewing Supply gave them a great price and it took two weeks to fulfill their order, one person who values speed may say that's horrible customer and another person who values low-cost may say that's a great deal.

Four of the posts on this page are not reviews. I hoped that it would be more thoughtful to post a gentle reminder than to delete members' posts.

Bottom-line is that reviews from actual customers are welcome and not edited.

FYI things may be improving -

I placed my order on 4/29, on 4/30 I wrote on the "contact us" link and asked for approximate ship date, got a response within 24 hours that it would ship 5/2 or 5/3.
Package arrived Saturday, Fed Ex ground, 5/4.

pretty decent. standard flat rate, too.

I had a bad smackpack of Wyeast from a previous order. I emailed last week to ask about refund/replacement and it arrived 3 days later.

I anticipated the BrewBuilder causing some slowdowns once it got popular, but maybe the staffing was the root cause.

Hang Glider said:

FYI things may be improving -

I placed my order on 4/29, on 4/30 I wrote on the "contact us" link and asked for approximate ship date, got a response within 24 hours that it would ship 5/2 or 5/3.
Package arrived Saturday, Fed Ex ground, 5/4.

pretty decent. standard flat rate, too.

Click to expand...

Based on the fact that your order was placed 10 days after mine, but mine didn't ship until after yours, I'm guessing I had a backorder issue that they didn't tell me about. Or my order somehow got lost in the shuffle? My final timeframe & review of my last order:

-Friday, 4/19, 7am: placed the order online
-Thursday, 4/25, 1pm: hadn't heard anything, so I called them to ask about the status of the order. They said they were behind in getting to orders, and should fill my order on Monday (4/29)
-Thursday, 5/2, 8am: Emailed them early morning, and fairly quickly got the following response: "We should be getting to your order today or tomorrow. We are just backed up at the moment."
--Monday, 5/6: Emailed them again, and asked that if the order couldn't ship that day, to go ahead and cancel the order (glad they didn't). Didn't get a response that day.
--Tuesday, 5/7, afternoon: Called them, and was told they were waiting on a grain shipment to come in the next day, but that my order would definitely ship the following day when it came in....so I gave them one more day (glad I did)
--Wednesday, 5/8: Got an email saying my order shipped. Happiness ensues.
--Friday, 5/10: FedEx guy shows up on my porch to a hero's welcome.

The good: Everything in my order shipped correctly, and the quality of the crush looks spot on (brew day efficiency will tell the tale, but everything certainly looks great). And their pricing is excellent (as I was preparing to cancel this order, I put together an identical order from another vendor, and it was significantly more expensive than BMW's was)
The bad: Communication. Waiting 19 days while my order sat as Pending was not fun, but would've been much more bearable if the communication was better. I was never told that anything in my order was backordered, just that they were "behind in getting orders out." I was also told on multiple occasions, verbally on the phone and via email, that my order would ship in a certain timeframe (see the timeline above), and then never did. That definitely built the frustration level up higher than it needed to be.

Overall, I still think this is a vendor worth working with, even though I was disappointed with the communication problems and that I lost two brewing weekends waiting on this order. The quality of their ingredients is good, their price is good, and I've had good experiences in the past. Hopefully they get their communication issues figured out and get back to the stellar service I've seen from them previously.

Cheers.

Jim

So I started brewing in the fall of last year and have used BMW almost exclusively, considering I live about 15 minutes from the store. Every order I've placed has been through the website, and since I select the option for in-store pickup rather than the 6.99 shipping, my orders are filled same day or next day (if I order when they're closed). And Ive usually been notified of out of stock items by phone or e-mail within a day of placing my order.

As for the quality of grain and crush, I guess I don't have much of an eye for quality since I'm still technically new to this and i've never milled my own, but i have a consistent efficiency of 75-80% and do a good job to hit my numbers when I remember to check them. Some of the best beer I've ever made came from the ingredients I purchased through BMW, and every piece of advice they have given me for subs, techniques, and equipment has been top-notch so far.

That said, they do have some disappointing features. First and foremost would be the (lack of)inventory itself and having no current integration with the website to make out of stock items un-orderable to prevent what seems to be the most common issue among their customers, online or otherwise. Ordering consistently from reliable vendors is basically rule #2 of retail (right after customer service), and I'm not entirely convinced they've got reliable vendors...I don't think anyone should be charged for an item that the seller doesn't have in stock, and I got mad at them for it in the past, but I'm pretty sure at this point that the site does and auto-charge for the full amount and I don't believe it's done with negative intentions, however annoying it may be. I've been waiting on some (paid for) silicone o-rings for a few months myself, and just yesterday picked up 3lbs of flaked corn I ordered last week that I ended up having to sub for in my mash...frustrating, but still not the end of the world.

I can't speak as the online customer that most of the other reviewers are, but the service I've received from BMW has always been great and usually all it takes to check on my orders is a simple phone call during business hours and a polite question. To sum up, I plan to keep using them as my main shop even after I move out of the local area and I hope to continue having a consistently enjoyable buying experience.

I realize this review may sound a little too defensive, and I've got absolutely no affiliation with the owner(s) or anyone that works there aside from giving them my money regularly. Happy brewing!

Edit: their ingredient prices definitely make it worth the hassle in my mind.

FermentedNovice said:

The bad: Communication. Waiting 19 days while my order sat as Pending was not fun...

Click to expand...

I should have read this forum b4 placing my first order with Brewmasters Warehouse. Like many other posts on this forum, my order has been sitting in PENDING for 10 days. My credit card was charged on Day Two, and now another weekend will come without any ingredients being shipped to me, meaning, no brewing.

Communication is awful: two recent inquiries went unanswered.

If I don't get my order soon, VISA will be instructed to kill my transaction.

In the Internet age, people have a right to get upset if they have to wait over 10 days to receive something ordered online. I would not order again despite cute commercials on The BN. There must be other online HBS's that can offer better fulfillment service than Brewmasters Warehouse.

I have also had problems with brewmasters warehouse. They have a great product, and I love the brew builder, but they don't have any kind of inventory integration with their website. This in itself would not be a huge problem, but instead of keeping tabs on which orders are going to be delayed and then contacting the customer about the situation they just let the orders sit in "pending" status indefinitely. I have lost brew weekends with these guys because of delayed orders which I thought were going to be shipped on time.

Until they fix the situation I'm going to order from Austin home brew instead. Come on guys, all it takes is an email.

I made my first order on BMW on May 19th. I had been away from brewing since about September, and decided to try out BMW based on all of the past positive reviews I had seen here. My order is still in Pending status, and I haven't received a response to my Contact Us question sent early last week. I like to try to support all of the vendors, but this will probably be my last order from BMW

I have gone back to AHS and Morebeer for my orders and am more than happy. MB has free shipping over $59, and AHS will ship for $6.99 (same as BMW) or $4.99 over $100. AHS will also fraction out the grains for you as well, but it will cost you more than BMW.

As I have said before that BMW has some great things going for it with the Brew Builder and fractioning grains AND LME at a true cost fraction too. BBBBBUUUUUTTTTTT, they can't friggin' ship it within a month!

Hate to keep piling on but I have been VERY disappointed with BMW in the last 6 months. Every order I have placed has been a week plus to ship and I am within a 6 hour drive. My current order is been pending for over 10 days with 0 communication on items being back ordered or anything. At this point I will be moving on to another vendor. Fare thee well BMW. It was a good run.

metasyntactic said:

I just gave them a call (I guess they just don't like email), and they've dropped crankenstien as a supplier and will be sending out a comparable monster mill on Monday.

Click to expand...

So, another month later, and still no mill. Every time I've contacted them, they've promised it would be shipped "next week." Last thursday I called them, and they promised to look into it and call me back, and didn't even manage to return that call. This Thursday, the same.

I'll try emailing Ed directly one more time, but at this point it looks like they've taken my money and run.

metasyntactic said:

So, another month later, and still no mill. Every time I've contacted them, they've promised it would be shipped "next week." Last thursday I called them, and they promised to look into it and call me back, and didn't even manage to return that call. This Thursday, the same.

I'll try emailing Ed directly one more time, but at this point it looks like they've taken my money and run.

Click to expand...

I waited several months for a Crankenstein from BMW. My experience sounds very similar. BMW kept blaming Crankenstein. I eventually gave up and bought a different brand mill elsewhere.

alestateyall said:

I'll try emailing Ed directly one more time, but at this point it looks like they've taken my money and run..

Click to expand...

My experience:
- they responded to my first email, but not to others weeks later when inquiring about the whereabouts of my order
- call the credit card co to cancel your transaction. My ccc got BMW on the line for a 3-way conv. The guy had no problems canceling the order. He then emailed a confirm.

Strange way to run a business.

metasyntactic said:

So, another month later, and still no mill. Every time I've contacted them, they've promised it would be shipped "next week." Last thursday I called them, and they promised to look into it and call me back, and didn't even manage to return that call. This Thursday, the same.

I'll try emailing Ed directly one more time, but at this point it looks like they've taken my money and run.

Click to expand...

And just when I'd pretty much given up, I have a tracking number

I should have looked here before placing my order. 12 days and still says pending. But that seems to be normal. Luckily I just brewed this week with the last if my grains so I am not in too much of a hurry.

12 days is not normal for other vendors.

Darwin18 said:

12 days is not normal for other vendors.

Click to expand...

+1. I left BMW for this reason. I now get my order within 3 days (standard Fedex shipping).

Man oh man, what happened to BW? I put an order in on May 20. Sent an email about 10 days later asking about shipping time, got no reply. A week after that I called and was told it would be going out "soon." Sent another email last week, again no response. Just got shipping notice yesterday, which makes a solid MONTH to ship. To be fair I was told that one item was backordered, and I asked them to wait for it, but it took THREE WEEKS to get to that point.

I run an e-commerce site- out of stocks happen. But I used to get almost immediate response to emails and even a phone call if something was out. What I have a real problem with is the absolute lack of communication.

Sad to see this, I really liked getting pre-measured grain.

I placed my first order with Brewmaster's Warehouse because of the flat rate shipping and comparably cheaper prices. Their brew-building tool was pretty useful too in order to create and purchase a recipe. I had really high hopes for this vendor, but they were quickly met with dismay.

After placing my order, I received no confirmation email for a week. Checking back with the website, my order was still pending. I emailed the warehouse, wondering what was going on and was quickly given a response that they were simply experiencing a high volume of orders. That's fine by me, and I was told they would be getting to my order by the end of the week or early the following week.

Another half week passed, and my order was still pending - no emails, no confirmation, no notice of delay. I emailed them again, hoping to figure out what was taking so long. No response this time after a day, so I called the following day. When I got ahold of Eric, he told me that they were out of a few things in my order, and would try to get the order out later in the week. At this point I was becoming a little frustrated that I hadn't been notified that items were out of stock in my order, but I figured as long as my order got out soon it would be fine.

A few more days passed, and STILL not a single update from the company. I emailed the warehouse again, asking for an update since it had been nearly two weeks since my order was orignally placed, asking for an update. Again, I got no response within a day, so I called. I was told they'd be getting to my order by the end of the week, or early next week... the same thing they told me last week. When I voiced my frustrations and said I was about to cancel my order, I was told that they'd do their best to get it out in the morning the next day, but they were still out of an item in my order.

I gave them the next day to get their stuff together, but when I called in the morning, my order was still not yet processed. I told them I wanted to cancel, and was met with an "Ok... bye" and was hung up on.

At no point in this process was I ever offered any kind of apology for the slow service, nor was there any hint of remorse on the seller's part that they were letting down the hopes and expectations of a new customer. The only impression I got from this vendor was that they simply did not care - their order volume was apparently too high. Having gone through this ordeal, I placed my order with another company and I'm hoping to get brewing soon, now that I'm a week off from when I planned to be brewing. Based on my experience, I'd never recommend this seller to anyone, but perhaps your mileage will vary.

Yay, I got my mill!

Thanks for the callback Ed. Going to be a great brewing weekend!!!

Never failed to disappoint!!

TD

This thread make me feel uneasy.

I have an order with BMW (placed on 6/15) and still have yet to receive it. It's not grains with mine, but with carboys and some BLC. Seems they can have both in stock at the same time. I sent an email earlier today. I also called them sometime last week, and was under the impression I would have gotten it this past Saturday.


The last order I had (placed on 5/19) was the same way (out of yeast), but after that first inquiry and a contact from them later, I got it the very next day as promised. Hope this order is the same.

I hate reading the last few posts in this thread. BMW has been excellent with the exception of this last order. It's not been as bad as what I've experienced with Northern Brewer, but to be so close to me, I shouldn't have to wait six weeks for any order, but since it's items I don't need "now", it's a semi-issue with me.

Yesfan said:

This thread make me feel uneasy.

I have an order with BMW (placed on 5/15) and still have yet to receive it. It's not grains with mine, but with carboys and some BLC. Seems they can have both in stock at the same time. I sent an email earlier today. I also called them sometime last week, and was under the impression I would have gotten it this past Saturday.


The last order I had (placed on 5/19) was the same way (out of yeast), but after that first inquiry and a contact from them later, I got it the very next day as promised. Hope this order is the same.

I hate reading the last few posts in this thread. BMW has been excellent with the exception of this last order. It's not been as bad as what I've experienced with Northern Brewer, but to be so close to me, I shouldn't have to wait six weeks for any order, but since it's items I don't need "now", it's a semi-issue with me.

Click to expand...

I am also sad to see all the issues that are popping up recently with BMW turnaround times for online users. I can tell you from experience that quite often their shelves are far too bare when I walk into the store lately as well. BMW has been my LHBS since I moved to the Atlanta area and they are hardly local for me as I live in Buckhead. But before now they have always been excellent to do business with. Lately I find that I must modify my recipes even due to the fact that they are typically out of something I am looking for when I walk in. Which means I have now switched to filling some of my needs through Hop City lately. Most of their business is done online and I fear where things are headed for them. I have not yeet given up on them but I truly hope they can come to grips with their ability to keep their inventory at appropriate levels for timely delivery to their online and walk-in customers.

Yesfan said:

This thread make me feel uneasy.

I have an order with BMW (placed on 5/15) and still have yet to receive it. It's not grains with mine, but with carboys and some BLC. Seems they can have both in stock at the same time. I sent an email earlier today. I also called them sometime last week, and was under the impression I would have gotten it this past Saturday.


The last order I had (placed on 5/19) was the same way (out of yeast), but after that first inquiry and a contact from them later, I got it the very next day as promised. Hope this order is the same.

I hate reading the last few posts in this thread. BMW has been excellent with the exception of this last order. It's not been as bad as what I've experienced with Northern Brewer, but to be so close to me, I shouldn't have to wait six weeks for any order, but since it's items I don't need "now", it's a semi-issue with me.

Click to expand...

I felt that way too for a while. I've spent over $1.2k with them over the past 2.5 years. I was sold on the brew builder and the solid crush. There were a couple little bumps but nothing abnormal, then recently things took a turn for the worse. Slow fulfillment, lots of things out of stock... it got to the point where I was calling the day after I placed an order just to be sure I'd get it within two weeks.

Then I got a shipment of over 55lbs of grain (took 8 full business days to ship out and multiple calls) and the crush was abysmal. I got a steady 71% from their crush normally, then I got 55% on a batch. I filed a complaint and talked with Ed about it, he said he wasn't aware of the problem and they were reassembling the mill. I thought to myself "well that's great for people going forward", I thought that given my large order, $$$ spent over the course of several years, and for notifying them of the problem the least they could do is send me a few pounds of extract or refund me some money. I couldn't get a crush on my next batch so had to supplement with a significant amount of extract (55% efficiency again), and the third batch out of that I had a brew club member recrush for me.

I made it pretty clear that the situation wasn't acceptable, and I haven't spent a dime with them since. There goes a consistent regular customer, and what I'm spreading by word of mouth isn't helping them either.

ThickHead said:

.....I can tell you from experience that quite often their shelves are far too bare when I walk into the store lately as well......

Click to expand...

Damn. I hope that's not an indication of them possibly closing the doors. Either way, that can't be good.


Hope it's something they can turn around. I love the flat shipping and the recipe database and brew builder is pretty cool!

I know it may be little comfort to those who have been worried about their orders, but there was a personal reason that BMW has been a little unsteady. He posted a response on the Brewing Network forum of how he was dealing with a serious family medical issue and the ensuing personal and relationship situations. He said that BMW is getting back on track. I think they will be a great supplier again soon.

Received an email yesterday that one of my products was out of stock. After speaking with them I was able to change that product out and get the order shipped right then.
My LHBS has is really just a hobby shop and the Homebrew section is about the size of my closet. So I usually order online and then I get what I need. I could drive down to Cambridge and get it but its just easier.

Here is my recent experience with BMW: Disclaimer- I was an early customer and have been really happy with their service on previous orders.

Ordered 2 batches of grain on 6/12, order still read pending on the 19th (1 week); at that point I shot them an email and then I immediately received a shipping notification (not sure if my email was timed right or if it prompted them to get moving). Received my stuff pretty quickly once it shipped...looks good.

I did notice they were out of alot of the hops that are in my recipe book. Not a problem for me as I have bulk hops, but something to note.

I was prepared for a bit of a wait based on the comments in this thread so I planned accordingly. BMW might be getting beat in the turnaround time by other vendors, but I'm not going to say that 1 week is too long to wait, considering I like their website, their product (never had problems with their crush, for example) and their service.

Having been an early customer who was accustomed to 24-48 hour turnaround times, I could see where some people would be upset by the current turnaround time. My suggestion to BMW would be forthcoming on their current turnaround time (say, post it on their website) so customers could plan ahead (or maybe offer a rush charge option?).

Overall, they have a great web front-end and a consistent product for reasonable prices. They could be doing better in getting orders shipped, but that is most likely because they set the bar really high when then first opened.

A gentle note about the deleted posts above - please don't take the deletions personally, but I'm taking pains to keep the conversation on-topic (i.e. reviews from customers). In cases like this thread, where there have been many problems reported, it is especially important to keep the conversation to reviews.

Reviews of other businesses should be posted in their review thread. More philosophical posts and discussions are welcome, but need to be posted in their own thread.

Got an email from Eric at BMW. My order will ship today (assuming it already has today). I ordered some Star San and BLC and it was one of those that kept holding up more order. That out of stock item should ship next weekend.


If I had to gripe, I would say 6 weeks is a bit too long for any order, especially since I'm "up the road" compared to other members' locations. Either way, I'm happy my order (part of it) shipped.