Midwest Supplies

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Just received my shipping information this morning. I also sent an email last night asking for my order to be cancelled if it was not shipped by the end of today. Of course it will arrive on Monday when I will be out of town, not Midwests fault but more issues here.
 
I got my shipment today after ordering on Saturday. They refunded my shipping and then upgraded me to overnight. So, I feel like they made it right, but it was still annoying that I had to call them 3 times to get it done.
 
Yeah... I bit on the 20% too. Got bit. Over a week and nothing happening. First BMW, now Midwest.

AHS: I am sorry I ever left you...
 
Ordered last Sunday, got shipping confirmation early this morning, UPS tracking says it should be at my house Monday. Not bad...not great by any means, but not bad.
 
I am disappointed that Midwest did not offer a discount or free shipping to me. I would not have canceled my order. Maybe my $90 order was too low for any offers though.

I imagine Midwest has lost a lot of business over all this. I know I wont be purchasing from them. There are plenty of other online shops who are not a hassle to deal with.
 
Just sent my "Dear John" e-mail.

20% off does not make up for the way-to-long long wait. If it's out of stock, send me an e-mail or ship my ****. Their policies say in-stock items ship in 2 days is crap.

Done.
 
One of the packets of hops was punctured either before they shipped or enroute to me. No sharp objects in the shipment, only bags of grain and yeast, so my guess is that whoever packaged it knew it wasn't sealed when they boxed it up. Also, the smack pack in the yeast was already burst but the package never swelled up. The yeast was 50 days old (4/22/13 mfr date) meaning only about 66% viability at best.
 
Can anyone suggest another online supplier that is actually consistent in their communications, and processing and shipping times? - preferably with shorter wait time.

I'd rather not say how frustrated I am but would rather go elsewhere and solve my waiting problems.
 
AHS or Annappolis Homebrew is also good. Not only do Annapolis ship very fast but they dont hold up your order for only one item. Plus thier descriptions of the poducts are spot on. No wondering if............
 
thanks for the suggestions - I want to see how Midwest responds first. Hopefully I don't have to cancel my order.
 
CZs said:
Can anyone suggest another online supplier that is actually consistent in their communications, and processing and shipping times? - preferably with shorter wait time.

I'd rather not say how frustrated I am but would rather go elsewhere and solve my waiting problems.
Click to expand...

morebrew ships very fast. Usually same day.
 
After 2 weeks they finally shipped mine, should arrive tomorrow........But good grief they need to get their sh*t together, Won't order from them again until I see better responses.
 
CZs said:
thanks for the suggestions - I want to see how Midwest responds first. Hopefully I don't have to cancel my order.
Click to expand...

I am sorry for the delay in shipping your order. I can promise that your order will arrive by this Friday. We are sorry that you had to reach out to us in the first place, but we hope we were able to rectify the situation to your satisfaction. Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance.

Cheers,

The Crew @ Midwest.
 
Well, I really hate to say it, but I received my last order from Midwest Supplies today. Again for the 3rd time in a row, the yeast was incorrect. Actually this time, I didn't even get yeast. Also got some crushed grains when I ordered them uncrushed.

I live in Germany and order my ingredients early so I don't have to delay a planned brew day. I ordered ingredients for 2 different brews. Can't brew 1 because I didn't receive the yeast and won't brew the other because by then, the crushed grains will have staled.

I feel bad for their customer service having to take all this heat for constant warehouse mess ups. It's also too bad to see them go down like this.

Thanks Midwest for the previous 3 years, but I need a more reliable brew shop with shipping to Germany and the time it takes to get here. I truly hope you get this worked out before many more leave.
 
CZs said:
Can anyone suggest another online supplier that is actually consistent in their communications, and processing and shipping times? - preferably with shorter wait time.

I'd rather not say how frustrated I am but would rather go elsewhere and solve my waiting problems.
Click to expand...

http://austinhomebrew.com

This is one of the best suppliers around, they will let me place an order any day of the week and at my request pack and ship on the next monday so my liquid yeast isn't cooked when it gets to my door.

When its 115 deg out, you have to find suppliers willing to work with you, Austin's is a good one.

Cheers :mug:
 
I started my brewing hobby with Midwest. After a few orders I decided I wanted to try getting things closer to home. I found a shop in Nashville, TN that I could visit on occasion, but primarily have things shipped from. They charge a flat $10 for shipping. I went back to Midwest for an order because I got the 20% off email. Apparently they have gone way way down hill since my previous orders. I called since I didn't want to mess with a grain order online. Everything went smoothly. I got a confirmation email that had quantities wrong in three lines. No biggie. Everyone makes mistakes. I called and had them add the missing items. Just some yeast and hops. Whoever put it in didn't charge me for them. It was a mistake, but I figured that made us even. A few days later, I get a small box that has a ups label that says 58 lbs. It weighed about 10 lbs. They had left out 46 lbs of grain. One complete line, and 20 out of 25 lbs of another line. I called back. They shipped out the remainder of my grains, and I am waiting for them now. Shipping finally bit them back on this order. I paid for one, and they had to turn around and pay for it again. Also, one guy there apparently thinks it takes 7-10 days to get any grain through their grain room. I placed the original order on Saturday June 1, and was told it would ship by the following Tuesday. I called Tuesday to see if it was going to ship on time, and he said it could take until the following Tuesday for it to ship. It shipped on the 5th, and arrived on the 7th. Apparently I was one of the lucky ones who got their order to ship in a reasonable amount of time. Unfortunately it wasn't correct. Anyway, I don't plan to order from them again anytime soon. I like a little professionalism with my business.
 
For what its worth:

I went through the twin cities recently and visited both Midwest Supplies and Northern Brewer.

Midwest's store was ok, not set up the greatest by far but ok. The work staff?, meh. There was nobody to greet me and nobody eager to help, reminds me of Walmart.

Northern Brewer was a fantastic store laid out in a simple fashion, slightly smaller than MW. Everything felt up to date and eye appealing to lead me to believe that they were savvy in their biz. But not to be fooled, they greeted and started conversation in my doings the way that made me feel they actually cared "why" I was there, let alone help fund their pay. They were quite knowledgeable and gave me tips and tricks for upcoming brew day. They had a tricked out training facility onsite for seminars which was impressive. And what drove their store home to me as a great lhbs was the fact I could print off my recipes at my will and gather/ weigh my own grain...as well as crush how I liked (double crush, which MS couldn't offer me regardless of my asking). And not that NB wouldn't get my grains for me, I just thought it was cool that I could and that they'd offer the choice. And then for price? I bought a few items just because I thought MS be cheaper...yup, wrong. The hops I bought there were cheaper at NB...thank you very little MS!

So, not to sound like I'm crushing on NB but they were by far a better store. In product and more importantly service! So after seeing the store in person, it backed up my experience of my purchases online with them...as well as all of the others' in this thread. Sorry MS, you reap what you sow. I had to chuckle seeing a Facebook post from MS about finding someone to work at their facility...maybe a day late and dollar short to recoup what you lost in customer base? Not sure.
 
^

There's even a you tube video of John Palmer brewing in there with the staff, and another of him giving a water chemistry lesson..........
 
Midwest will NEVER get another penny of my money. After placing an order and getting the immediate email that it will ship within 2-5 business days, it still had not shipped almost two weeks later. I asked them when it would ship and they told me another day or "so". I asked them to ship the next day or to cancel my order and refund my money. Their response was, sorry, we will cancel your order and refund your money. That email came May 31st. As of today, I still don't have my money back. Luckily I paid via PayPal and have already filed a dispute against them. They have been sent three emails now regarding my refund and have ignored every one of them. The first one was sent June 1st, the next one June 5th and the last one June 11th. It seems hat they are on this forum quite a bit, maybe now they will do something about my refund.
 
Well, my replacement package from Midwest didn't show up today. UPS distribution center busted the box all over the back of the truck heading to my local distribution center. Midwest is sending out a replacement order.
 
DrHops said:
Midwest will NEVER get another penny of my money. After placing an order and getting the immediate email that it will ship within 2-5 business days, it still had not shipped almost two weeks later. I asked them when it would ship and they told me another day or "so". I asked them to ship the next day or to cancel my order and refund my money. Their response was, sorry, we will cancel your order and refund your money. That email came May 31st. As of today, I still don't have my money back. Luckily I paid via PayPal and have already filed a dispute against them. They have been sent three emails now regarding my refund and have ignored every one of them. The first one was sent June 1st, the next one June 5th and the last one June 11th. It seems hat they are on this forum quite a bit, maybe now they will do something about my refund.
Click to expand...

We sure will. I will also look into the missing emails. If they were ignored, I will take action. What's the order number, or auto-response ticket number from the email? I will move this conversation to email once I have that.
Please don't take our issues personally. We really don't want to cause any brewing issues for anyone and are working to get everything fixed up.

My personal email is [email protected] and my direct line is 952-562-5354.
Sorry again, Todd I, Midwest Customer Service Manager
 
midwestsupplies said:
We sure will. I will also look into the missing emails. If they were ignored, I will take action. What's the order number, or auto-response ticket number from the email? I will move this conversation to email once I have that.
Please don't take our issues personally. We really don't want to cause any brewing issues for anyone and are working to get everything fixed up.

My personal email is [email protected] and my direct line is 952-562-5354.
Sorry again, Todd I, Midwest Customer Service Manager
Click to expand...

Todd,
I received an email from Midwest and PayPal this morning telling me that my money was refunded. Thank you.
 
DrHops said:
Todd,
I received an email from Midwest and PayPal this morning telling me that my money was refunded. Thank you.
Click to expand...

I am glad that it was taken care of. The Customer Service agents must have gotten to your email and processed everything. I apologize again for the delays.
We are improving around here, which is great for our moral. More importantly though, it is great for brewers (winemakers too). Our goal is to be issue free. If there are issues though, please let our customer service team know. Please remember that universal customer issues do put extra stress on the Customer Service team, so our responses might take a little longer than normal. (I am not making excuses and I assure you we are working to prevent anything like this in the future). We have learned a lot during these past few weeks. Thanks for the posts and keeping us in check.
Cheers,
Todd J
 
^

Well, I got my order yesterday, and everything looked great ! All items shipped, my only peeve was it took 2 weeks to get it........But thanks!
 
Although I was one of the early doubters, I'm happy to see that MWS seems to be stepping up. Anyone can stumble, it's important to note when folks take corrective action.

Not a review, per se. But I hope the mods will allow this post to stand since I was originally critical.
 
I placed an order last Friday, shipping confirmation says it should be here today. Not bad in my eyes. Was shipped Wednesday so really a three day turn around.
 
Ordered from Midwest through Amazon on Sunday and my package still hasn't shipped yet. I emailed and got a response the next day (yesterday) that they were having trouble with a warehouse transition? Said it would be pushed through but it hasn't shipped yet. Really disappointed because they were all items I wanted for my first brew to go well tomorrow ($100+ order, not small to me at least). I think 5 business days is beyond reasonable to wait for an order to ship so if it doesn't ship by the end of today the order is getting cancelled and I'll take my business elsewhere.
 
I as well have not seen anything regarding my order being shipped. I placed an order on May 31st and although I was assured that it would be shipped out promptly, I still haven't seen anything to make me believe that has happened.
 
Follow up to my prior.
Got my ~$75 order on the day they said is would be at my house.
Today, in email, I got a request to do a customer satisfaction survey, with option for full commentary input. So I gave them full & detailed feedback

I have no doubt that Midwest has had some customer service issues & has ticked some people off.
Coupla things to remember.

Dissatisfied people out-comment satisfied people, generally, at a ratio of roughly 11 to 2 ( this is business 101)
So take all posts here with that grain of salt.

They have made a recognizable effort to fix their customer's perceptions that things are broke.(Witness the vendor traffic in this thread & the comments from those who've gotten CS follow-up}

Opinion:
Midwest realizes that things are not up to snuff & are working to rectify the situation.
None of us homebrewers are privy to what may or may not be happening within the company.
I see evidence that they are trying to fix what was broken & mitigate the fallout.
We shall see how it resolves out. We shall see
 
"Dissatisfied people out-comment satisfied people, generally, at a ratio of roughly 11 to 2 ( this is business 101)
So take all posts here with that grain of salt."

This is purely pluck from air. The way I learned it years ago is about 1 out of 25 people will come forward to complain about a problem. The other 24 will go elsewhere. I guess it depends on where and when you went to school. ;)
 
lgilmore said:
"Dissatisfied people out-comment satisfied people, generally, at a ratio of roughly 11 to 2 ( this is business 101)
So take all posts here with that grain of salt."

This is purely pluck from air. The way I learned it years ago is about 1 out of 25 people will come forward to complain about a problem. The other 24 will go elsewhere. I guess it depends on where and when you went to school. ;)
Click to expand...
I don't think he's talking about complaining to the company. I've heard it explained slightly differently:

A happy customer will tell a friend.

An unhappy customer will tell 10 friends.

Of course, in today's world of instant, world-wide communication, it can probably be better stated a happy customer will tell a friend (or maybe could be expanded to he'll tell his friends as they're sitting down having a beer). An unhappy customer will tell everyone he can via the internet.

At any rate, I typically keep that in mind reading customer reviews online; for every positive review, there is likely to be 10 negative.
 
Crowdsourcing is all well and good, but there still needs to be some statistical validity. If you have 20 reviews, 19 of them positive and 1 negative, the negative review is likely an outlier.

I look for patterns. If several people are expressing problems with a company, I'll steer clear. OTOH, I can usually spot the 1 or 2 bad "get even" reviews for an otherwise solid vendor. You kind of have to read between the lines with online reviews.
<End OT rant>

That said, I have always had great service at Midwest. However, it has always been in-store, as I have never ordered online. I live 15 miles away, so it's convenient, and I have been there 10 or 12 times without a bad experience to speak of. It's where I bought my starter supplies last year when I began this pastime, and I am kind of loyal to them, as they were helpful then and patient with a noob.

I was in there today getting supplies for my next 2 batches. The girl who greeted me spotted me with my shopping list and proceeded to walk me around to find all the items (they have moved things around in the store recently). Then she showed me how to measure/bag/tag grain, as I am kind of new to AG. I was impressed.
 
My recent order:

Made an order midday on Tuesday, June 4, which included unmilled grain, yeast, hops and dme. The order shipped late on Tuesday, June 11 and was received midday, Friday, June 14. Not bad considering some of the posts here.

However, I received a Wyeast 1762 Belgian Abbey II package with a born on date of Jan 30. That's over 4 months old. :eek: I'll be propagating it before using but full price should buy fresh yeast, not yeast that has only 30% left on its 6 month shelf life and much reduced viability.

The WLP940 Mexican Lager has a best before date of Sep 1, which gives it a May 1 born on date, which is not bad.

BTW, the yeast was ordered with the deluxe shipping option plus two ice packs. The box was shipped with a total of 6 ice packs and arrived at my home with its contents at 86deg. Summer shipping is rough on yeast.

In addition, I received 1oz of hops, out of 6oz that had lost its vacuum seal. Used it already.

Side Note: I wish my LHBS would stop coasting on his stock. I prefer to purchase locally but the last three visits were frustrating, substitution fests.
 
Update to my previous post. They did finally charge me for the items they originally forgot. Since other people have gotten shipping refunds, I'm gonna request one. I'm gonna be three weeks out by the time this is all said and done.
 
Well, Midwest has impressed me. I sent an email through their website two hours ago, and Travis just emailed me back with a shipping refund. If everything comes through fine with the final shipment, I may give them another chance sometime. I am shocked someone responded at 8pm on a Sunday.
 
When I received my shipment from Midwest I was happy to see that everything was in order. No expired yeast, kits just the way I ordered them. I appreciate the efforts by Midwest to rectify the problems they are having with their online ordering. But I do not like how they advertise their shipping turn around on the website. "99% shipped the next day" pushed me to order from them, figuring that it would most likely be more like 2-3 days at most. 9 days later, 2 phone calls, and one email asking to cancel my order it shipped. It sounds like a great LHBS, if I was closer I would forget all the other online stores. Their are too many choices online to deal with all of this.
 

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