TheHomebrewcompany AITA?

[divrack]

Ordered some yeast and bits online and it took the best part of a week to arrive, turns out to be a month out of date, spoiling my brewday.
I contact them and they offer me a thirty percent refund!. I mean, it's one of the biggest brew companies in the British isles for crust sakes...
Am I the a hole for writing a pissy message in response and coming here to whine about it?
I'll not be getting yeast from there again.

 

[uDicko]

Not in my opinion. If the stock is out of date that's pretty bad. Week delivery could be deemed as normal for some places and depending what you ordered for delivery timescales.

 

[IainM]

No, whine away. I've only had quick deliveries, all in good nick, except once when they apologised and re-sent the damaged item immediately, so it's good to know when they drop the ball. If they say it usually takes two days and it takes a bit longer, that's annoying. If they send you out of date stock, it could be an honest mistake. Only offering a 30% refund for their mistake is an insult though.

 

[Hoddy]

If it wasnt advertised as being out of date yeast, which you can quite commonly buy, then i would want circa 50% refund or a total if your not into growing it back up again.

And feel free to whine away on here about it. It takes some public disappointment sometimes for the retailers to buck their ideas up.

 

[Llamaman]

I was just looking at ordering some bits and was looking at various suppliers.
This thread has put me off them.
Any business can make a mistake, but how they respond to it determines what kind of business they are. Their response to this mistake is extremely poor.

‘From feudal serf to spender
This wonderful world of purchase power’

 

[phildo79]

I bought a used corny off them and had some issues with it. In the end, the corny was fine but their replies to my emails left a lot to be desired. A bit too short and sweet for my liking and I was definitely left with the impression that should the corny be faulty, then tough sh1t. Now that may not have been the case but that was the vibe I was getting.

 

[strange-steve]

I started using them after a few issues with GEB and haven't had any complaints so far. In fact my last order had a Wyeast pack that was only 2 weeks old.

 

[peebee]

https://www.gov.uk/online-and-distance-selling-for-businesses

The £42 minimum cost is a bit of a nuisance, but I've never heard anyone quoting it. It's worth having a knowledge of these facts.

(EDIT: Since 2014 it has been the "Consumer Contract Regulations" which are currently "under review". But it's interesting to see that many of these informational snippets coming from a seller, isn't the seller being helpful, it's the seller acting in a way legally required of them).

 

[stz]

Like most things everything is fine until it isn't.
I've had four issues.
I had an issue with a corny (prv wouldn't hold) and got a nice email and replacement valve in the post FOC pretty quickly. Good stuff. Another time I ordered some essences and got a crème de menthe instead of a chocolate. They posted me out the replacement and said keep the crème de menthe. A few orders later I had a missing 500g bag of grain, I'd ordered 2kg and gotten 3 x 500g bags and never received a reply to my email. I never took it further because it was 80p of grain and I was up a crème de menthe! Another time I had a corny with a pretty badly split rubber top, like I'd have not sent it out as refurbished, as good as new grade, if you tried to lift it full it was coming off. I chased and chased this one because I was looking to fill into the kegs the following weekend I didn't want to if I was going to have to return it because I was prepared to. I got the impression that the owner/decision maker was only in when he was in and as it was with him it'd be with him until I got an answer. After about a week or so without resolution I suggested a partial refund, I was offered like £10 or so which I didn't think was enough. I called a few times figuring that a 5 second phone conversation would just square it all up without any fuss, but the owner was never able to take a call. I emailed back and said I'd keep it at 50% of the price paid so ... £22 quid or so came straight back via paypal with no further reply or comment.

I do want to say however, I've been ordering from them for ... 8 years? Maybe longer even and these are all the issues I've had in that time. I'd say I've placed ... 4-8 orders a year?

 

[Leon103]

So are they offering you 30% off the whole order or just the yeast?

If off the whole order I would be tempted by that and just get another pack of yeast, or build the yeast up via a starter

 

[samale]

Never had a bit of bother with them. Sent the wrong hops on an order by mistake. New hops sent out straight away. I use the Irish site.

 

[Badseed1974]

Bugger, I was just gonna order a Corny tonight, hopefully I'll get a good one!

I think for out of date yeast a free replacement or a full refund is in order.

 

[terrym]

I have used HBC about a dozen times and only ever had one problem which was resolved to my satisfaction. The delivery from ROI to the south of England from order to receipt usually takes three days i.e. only one day longer than normal internal UK deliveries.
I will continue to use them unless summat happens that I don't like
No online business is perfect, they all make mistakes, but in the end its a personal choice who you buy from.
And frankly I wouldn't be getting too upset about a packet of yeast costing under £5 but if I had spent £10s or £100s on some new kit and it was faulty it would be a different matter.

 

[divrack]

Not in my opinion. If the stock is out of date that's pretty bad. Week delivery could be deemed as normal for some places and depending what you ordered for delivery timescales.

Well I am in the Highlands. Thirty percent is **** though.
They did fully refund it after my pissy response to their offer, but really I don't think it's reasonable to go with that as an apology. They said they Mark yeast down by that much when it goes over, but even if that was a good deal which it isn't as you then have to make a starter etc, it's not like I chose that option so it's not an apology for a shitty service.
Incidentally it's that Irish yeast company Wicklow yeast or something. Looks interesting they claim higher viability which was an excuse the shop offered for it being off. Got a good selection of kveik

 

[divrack]

Bugger, I was just gonna order a Corny tonight, hopefully I'll get a good one!

I think for out of date yeast a free replacement or a full refund is in order.

I've ordered like 9 cornys from them all second hand unreconditioned And a bit gammy and in need of a clean, but for under 120 for three delivered to the Highlands who's complaining? Yeah I don't know, I've find them really good mostly, just might think about getting yeast from mainland in future as I don't think a week in transit is good in the summer. Keen to try these new Irish ones though as I presume the American stuff isn't perfectly handled getting here.

 

[Badseed1974]

I've ordered like 9 cornys from them all second hand unreconditioned And a bit gammy and in need of a clean, but for under 120 for three delivered to the Highlands who's complaining? Yeah I don't know, I've find them really good mostly, just might think about getting yeast from mainland in future as I don't think a week in transit is good in the summer. Keen to try these new Irish ones though as I presume the American stuff isn't perfectly handled getting here.

I ordered my keg today (the fully reconditioned one) and I got some of the Irish liquid yeast as well (Bjorn Kveik), I'll let you know if it's in date!

 

[foxbat]

Well I am in the Highlands. Thirty percent is s**t though.
They did fully refund it after my pissy response to their offer, but really I don't think it's reasonable to go with that as an apology. They said they Mark yeast down by that much when it goes over, but even if that was a good deal which it isn't as you then have to make a starter etc

I only buy liquid yeast from places that tell you the expiry date. Maltmiller, the-home-brew-shop and brewuk either have the date on the site or will tell you if you message them. A tip for future buys maybe?

 

[Gerryjo]

My preferred supplier and once had an issue with the wrong grain sent as I had ordered 10kg of Pilsen malt but but the bag said Minch Pale malt.Quick phone call and had a replacement the following day.....

 

[divrack]

I ordered my keg today (the fully reconditioned one) and I got some of the Irish liquid yeast as well (Bjorn Kveik), I'll let you know if it's in date!

The kveik I ordered has like a year shelf life they claim

 

[Badseed1974]

Should be fine then :)