Home Brew West...

Mesrine65

http://www.homebrewwest.ie/

Is anybody else having issues with their orders lately?

I've had an account with them for a long time but my loyalty is fading.

My last two orders have been a disaster, half order being sent out without explanation, short dated stock & faulty equipment being sent out (obviously not being inspected before shipping) etc.

I know they have been moving premises recently & was willing to give a little leeway, but it's getting to the point where I'm considering moving to another supplier.

Anyone else experiencing issues?

fobster

No recent experience... though I guess that might say something itself! Bought a boiler 3 years ago that had a large dent, could have occurred in transit as the packaging wouldn't have offered much protection, no trouble getting a replacement sent thankfully.

I have had no problems with www.thehomebrewcompany.ie, while they may work out a little expensive for some things. All my orders have been hassle-free.

I used Geterbrewed a few months ago and experienced some IT issues with their site across several browsers but have just checked them again and the issues appear to be fixed which is great as I really like their recipe builder!

Ronan|Raven

Mesrine65 wrote: »

http://www.homebrewwest.ie/

Is anybody else having issues with their orders lately?

I've had an account with them for a long time but my loyalty is fading.

My last two orders have been a disaster, half order being sent out without explanation, short dated stock & faulty equipment being sent out (obviously not being inspected before shipping) etc.

I know they have been moving premises recently & was willing to give a little leeway, but it's getting to the point where I'm considering moving to another supplier.

Anyone else experiencing issues?

I stopped using them over a year ago. Got sick of the delays for shipping. Now I use a mixture of www.geterbrewed.ie, www.thehomebrewcompany.ie or http://themottlybrew.ie/

Padraig Mor

I've had big hassles with HBW as well, and that's well before their warehouse move. Found them very unhelpful when there was issues, and even rude when I followed up on problems of their own making (and it got to the stage where there were problems with every order). However, they do have a good range and some great prices. Their Craft Range kits are generally great, as is their Craft Range LME. Have found HBC and GEB much better (although still issues with short dated stock).

mordeith

I've used http://www.homebrew.ie/ for a while now with no problems. Can be a tad more expensive but never had an issue with deliveries.

Wafaa79

They have awful customer service.
I ordered early March a brand new pressure keg for my husband's 40th, worth € 370.
I ordered it 3 weeks in advance to make sure it would be there on time for the party. I didn't hear from them for 2 weeks, called, sent emails and texted to no avail.
I ended up contacting them on their public forum and what do you know? They responded very quickly. They were however quite rude and defensive, writing a long post on how hard it was to move warehouses and having difficulties due to staff missing. They even told me that it was difficult to locate such a large item (?). Interestingly, they found it and shipped it within 24 hours after my complaint.
Like you I was willing to give them leeway due to the move but didn’t appreciate the way they handled the issue. Many customers pointed out that if they actually kept them updated on their on-going issues, they wouldn’t get so many complaints.
Keg arrived and it turned out that the tap was faulty. This time I contacted them directly on the forum and same thing, they didn’t apologize and were quite aggressive, even deleted my post. I was always polite in all my dealings with them, although they really didn’t deserve it.
They agreed to replace the item despite hinting that my husband must have done something to damage it. I also specifically told them to send the item to a different shipping address as the previous one was no longer applicable, they confirmed they would and a couple of days later I contact them to know if the item was shipped and they just replied that they sent it to the previous (no longer applicable) address. Luckily we will be able to collect it.
I told them how dissatisfied I was with their service considering that I spent so much money with them and they simply never replied.
My advice is to contact them on the forum if you have any further issues.
Personally, this was the first and last time I’ll ever buy from them.

Tigger

homebrew west are in Galway which is the most chilled out place in Ireland
they run a good value business with low overheads and they know their stuff
but they are waaayy too laid back
i order off them in advance of when i need stuff and get freebies all the time when the stuff is invariably late or wrong
don't order off them if you needs stuff soon but do if you are planning ahead
thats my observation

Wafaa79

Tigger wrote: »

homebrew west are in Galway which is the most chilled out place in Ireland
they run a good value business with low overheads and they know their stuff
but they are waaayy too laid back
i order off them in advance of when i need stuff and get freebies all the time when the stuff is invariably late or wrong
don't order off them if you needs stuff soon but do if you are planning ahead
thats my observation

Ignoring your customers and being rude to them is not being laid back in my opinion, it's having poor customer service.
And I ordered the item on March 10th to present it on 1st April.
I'm pretty sure that was giving them sufficient notice considering that delivery in ROI takes 48 hours max.

Tigger

Wafaa79 wrote: »

Ignoring your customers and being rude to them is not being laid back in my opinion, it's having poor customer service.
And I ordered the item on March 10th to present it on 1st April.
I'm pretty sure that was giving them sufficient notice considering that delivery in ROI takes 48 hours max.

i'm nothing to do with them but the prices are good and the info i'm giving is so people know what to expect

Wafaa79

Tigger wrote: »

i'm nothing to do with them but the prices are good and the info i'm giving is so people know what to expect

When I said "you", I didn't mean you personally. It was a general "you".
My issue is not the price but the appalling service they provided me with.
I spent € 370 with them and they were rude and aggressive to me when I asked about my item.
That’s why I won’t be dealing with them in the future.

MarcoAntonio23

I had an issue with a Hambleton Bard cylinder refill recently that was replaced within 24 hours without question as the cylinder sent was faulty.

mjv2ydratu679c

Used them before - weren't great, stuff missing out of orders with no explanation given. Don't use them anymore.

aaronm13

Same here, joke of a company. Ordered my first set up from them and waited 3 weeks for the stuff to ship. No answer to emails and only got somewhere when I rang them. Got part of my order and a whole load of excuses and waited another few weeks for refunds. Such a bad experience in this day and age. Fair enough if you're willing to put up such poor service go ahead. Have bought from The Homebrew company a few times since and have been perfect. Wouldn't even entertain HBW, not worth it. They are definitely up there with some dodgy Chinese sellers on Aliexpress.

boboboland

I used to deal with them all the time but the last year or 2 i never go near them. You go to buy something and theres no sign of you getting it then you email them and they say oh it's not in stock. I got a kit for storing yeast and everything was out of date. I would not recommend these to anybody, Very poor service from them and they used to be good. I always use the homebrew company now and on the rare occasion that theres an issue with the order they ring apologizing and can't do enough to make it up to you.

The One Doctor

Agreed, I always use homebrewcompany, way better.

Buona Fortuna

I agree with the above.

Thought the other day, I should get some brews on but the thought of dealing with their "customer service" just made me put it on the long finger.

My first ever order had a faulty bottling stick. I e-mailed them and got the answer "Yeah we'll see if we've got and put it in your next order".

Another time I ordered a fermenter, quite nice and a reasonable price. Nothing for a couple of weeks. E-mailed again to ask if there was a problem. "Yeah, they're out in the warehouse and somebody has got to go and get them."

I'm sure there is the making of a sketch show in some of their comments.

RasTa

Yeah HBC are the best in Ireland. Motley is decent but I'm pretty sure he gets most of his stuff from them but I'll throw some business his way sometimes.

Not a fan of geterbrewed

dashcamdanny

For such a small niche market with an over saturation of brew shops they must be suicidal in today's market.

I used them once and they sent out 10kg of uncrushed grain. Completely useless to a person without a mill. They offered free postage on the the next order. Naw.. don't think so..

The home brew company is best for crushed grain by far IMO. I always hit my numbers with the size of their crush. Cheap gear and fast tracked DPD delivery.

The motley brew is only a 30 min drive and great for bits and bobs as well.

Geterbrewed is another great shop for equipment. Except they don't use DPD tracking so god know what time of day it will land. Thats the only reason I dont use them more..