BeerBorg

Has anyone had successes or failures with BrewDemon's dented or expired cans of extract? I am looking for an inexpensive way to keep using my Mr Beer since I upgraded to a Conical Fermenter.

LLAP

On the Mr. Beer forum someone ordered a lot and they were very poorly packed. Many of the plastic caps broke during shipping and yeast packets ripped open. One box was over 60 pounds, the other 77. He was very upset with them.

I've bought several of their "stock up savings items" and had very few problems. Nowhere near the size of the orders that RickBeer said though. I've also had great results with their customer service whenever I've had a question or issue.

TonyKZ1 wrote:I've bought several of their "stock up savings items" and had very few problems. Nowhere near the size of the orders that RickBeer said though. I've also had great results with their customer service whenever I've had a question or issue.

Cool beans. I have also had stellar experiences with Sam at BD...well beyond customer service.

I bought a bunch of BD kits that were past their best buy dates. I knew what I was getting as far as potential maillard, etc, so it was all good. I did have some attenuation issues, but they weren't a huge concern, since I keg and they eventually fermented out.

Because of that, when I saw the rant on the Mr Beer site, I figured it was a good time to shop.

So I bought a large order of UME.

Every can was dented in a way that I feel is compromised to the point where I don't feel it's safe to use the contents.

I've sent an email to them, so I hope they'll do something to help me out. 

Wow. Not good business practices.

RickBeer wrote:Wow. Not good business practices.

I've sent an email. I hope they'll do something to correct it.

But they really need to do something to ship large orders successfully.

Edited to correct creative autocorrected text.

I was contacted by Sam at brewdemon customer service today. He asked for some pictures and also asked if the cans were shipped in the original boxes of 8. He said that they are supposed to be packed two per box and that box is then supposed to be placed in a padded box. He said that he'll use this as a training opportunity.

He also said that he'd send a replacement order ASAP.

bpgreen wrote:I was contacted by Sam at brewdemon customer service today. He asked for some pictures and also asked if the cans were shipped in the original boxes of 8. He said that they are supposed to be packed two per box and that box is then supposed to be placed in a padded box. He said that he'll use this as a training opportunity.

He also said that he'd send a replacement order ASAP.

Sounds like a great response and good customer service.

^^ Yep, I've always had quick response and customer service from them.

I decided to post an update. I traded a few emails with Sam from BD customer support and also a few phone calls. He told me that the cans come to them in boxes of 8 on pallets. They're SUPPOSED to be repackaged two to a box, then padded and no more than 4 of those per package. They're NEVER supposed to be shipped in the original boxes (which work fine on a pallet) and they're also NEVER supposed to go out in packages so large that they're not comfortable to carry around.

He also found that I was overcharged (charged for HME instead of UME) and had the wrong cans sent (charged for wheat HME, got light UME).

He refunded some shipping (I thought I made one order, but it got entered as two) and the difference between what I paid and what I should have paid.

He also sent replacements for the cans that came damaged (these haven't come yet, but based on my dealings, I'm sure they will soon).

All in all, I have to say that it was an excellent customer experience. I might have felt differently if this had been an order for a specific batch that I wanted to brew last weekend, but this was a stock up order so it works out fine for me.

Kudos to Brew Demon customer support and especially to Sam at BD Customer support for making this a positive experience. My usual cost for LME is $2/lb but with the stock up, it's less than $1.50 (albeit less fresh).

I'll just mention that although I haven't used Brew Demon stuff in a while (except for my LBC fermenters) when I have needed to talk with Sam / Support in the past they have always been awesome.

mashani wrote:I'll just mention that although I haven't used Brew Demon stuff in a while (except for my LBC fermenters) when I have needed to talk with Sam / Support in the past they have always been awesome.

I haven't bought much HME in years, but I've been traveling a lot, so time counts, so I bought some of their deals. When the price per pound dropped below my already low LHBS, I jumped.

I don't often post at the Mr beer site, but I posted about this

^^ I'm sure they liked that.... I used to post occasionally about deals or recipes that I was brewing from over at BrewDemon. At one time, the forum software would block out any reference to BrewDemon when I typed it in like it was a swear word or something. I noticed more items on their stock up savings page the other day, so I guess I need to put another order in and try some more of their 6G recipes.

And yeah, whenever I've had a question or issue Sam / Customer Support has been great handling the problem whether it's fixing a wrong order, shipping or whatever. One time I had ordered several recipes and the next day they went on sale. I mentioned that I wish I had known that they were going on sale and I would have waited another day to place my order, it wasn't a problem and I wasn't upset nor expecting anything. I was surprised when he refunded the difference.

TonyKZ1 wrote:^^ I'm sure they liked that.... I used to post occasionally about deals or recipes that I was brewing from over at BrewDemon. At one time, the forum software would block out any reference to BrewDemon when I typed it in like it was a swear word or something. I noticed more items on their stock up savings page the other day, so I guess I need to put another order in and try some more of their 6G recipes.

And yeah, whenever I've had a question or issue Sam / Customer Support has been great handling the problem whether it's fixing a wrong order, shipping or whatever. One time I had ordered several recipes and the next day they went on sale. I mentioned that I wish I had known that they were going on sale and I would have waited another day to place my order, it wasn't a problem and I wasn't upset nor expecting anything. I was surprised when he refunded the difference.

I posted a reply to a thread started by somebody else where he complained about "the other guy" without naming the other guy. That was actually what made me check out the stock up page and place my large order, since I've had good results the few times I've ordered from BD.

After I posted my response with what happened with BD customer service, the OP said that almost all of his cans were usable, just sightly dented and he never contacted customer support. Maybe if he had, my order would have arrived undamaged.

As an update, I got a delivery today. None of the cans were damaged, but I was short one can. I think they also failed to follow the packaging rules set down by BD (I think they shipped much larger boxes the they're supposed to).

I emailed Sam (after hours) with details. The missing can is no big deal. They can send it or refund the price, whichever is easier for them.

I'll post an update when this is all finished.