Brew Uk

[BeerCat]

Ordered the 4th and still waiting. Cant brew until it arrives. Oh well seems i am not alone.

 

[matt76]

I placed an order on Mon 23rd March then 11 days later received an email on Fri 3rd April saying it has been dispatched. It arrived a day or two later via PF.

I placed a second order on Sun 5th April - let's call it Mon 6th as that's the next working day. So on the previous basis I would have expected to hear something yesterday but still no news. Hopefully I'll hear something by Mon or Tues...

On the one hand it's frustrating to be kept in limbo, especially when you hear of others receiving orders from other suppliers within a few days. I do wonder if the issue is more with the couriers that Brew UK themselves.

But on the other hand it's strange times so we have to adapt and accept there will be longer lead times - we're lucky to be able to get anything at all under the circumstances, better late than never, first world problems etc

 

[Tim Martin]

I've had a different experience to many, and I hope that it's not becoming usual.
I live in France and have used BrewUK regularly as they are one of the few companies to despatch to Europe. Their service is usually very efficient, and I can plan brewing session with great accuracy.
Anticipating a delay in sending stuff out, and the probability of their having a supply problem with some ingredients in the short term, I placed a large order with them on 7th. April. Everything that I ordered was in stock on their website at the time. The order was acknowledged, with the message that it would take longer than usual to deliver, which was to be expected.
I waited a few days and tried to contact them to find out where I was in the queue. I did this via their help line (offline at the time, although the message was automatically acknowledged). Nothing further, so I sent them an email on Thursday; again acknowledged, but so far no reply.
As it is now more than ten days since I placed the order - the time that they say they will look in to problems - I checked in to my account earlier today, looked up my ordering history and was amazed to find out that this particular order has been cancelled. No reason, and certainly not at my request.
The disturbing thing is though is that I paid for the order at the time that I made it, but I have not received a refund, or a reason why it has been cancelled. I can fully appreciate the problems that they faced when this all started, and realise that there may be ongoing issues, but if they can't fulfil an order they surely have a legal responsibility to refund the cost, and a professional one to offer an explanation. Needless to say, and attempt to speak to them, either on line or by phone, is hopeless.
Has anyone else experienced anything similar?

 

[Buffers brewery]

I placed a small order for some bits on 30th March still haven’t received it. Placed a large order for ingredients 1st April and received it yesterday.

 

[Tanglefoot]

Made an order end of march, dispatched on 25th and it took just over a week - service and pricing seemed good to me. Also used thehomebrewingcompany.co.uk with similar results.
Dpd and couriers seem pretty reliable though obviously under extra pressure,
Royal Mail much slower ( but probably better working practice regarding covid 19 etc.)

Something to look forward to in lockdown when you're brewing supplies hit the matt !

 

[Jonnymac]

Well mine has been 22 days and nothing since the email acknowledgement of the order with corresponding order number. When I log in, there is nothing on the order history, but yet the money has gone from my account. No response to the follow up email, or phonecalls. I have to say I am very unimpressed. There is busy and downright fookin ignorant.

 

[clyne]

I ordered on 5th - so not quite as bad as @Jonnymac with 22 days, but agree it's pretty disappointing that no comms have been sent - their website does say allow a week after all. Not that difficult to (a) update the homepage or (b) send an email to customers with orders to let them know. Not sure I'll use them again to be honest....

 

[Jonnymac]

Just as a heads up, I raised a paypal refund against them, and I had an email within an hour saying it had been dispatched. I shall report back once delivered.

 

[Ghillie]

Still waiting on my order (placed 11/04). Would usually be asking questions, but given the circumstances - I'll happily let them take their time. Plus, the 10 sachets of Saflager W-34/70 yeast I ordered was just £4.67/11.5g - and no arbitrary postages charges to North-East Scotland which is nice. So I'm happy to wait.

Good on the boys for keeping the operation going, ***** for those waiting on a "critical brewing delivery" - but really, how critical is "critical" in terms of a hobby right now.

My only gripe is that they haven't updated the banner on their website to increase the 10 day lead time (or sent a generic email to all customer accounts) explaining that there is an increased backlog and/or larger delay with processing.

 

[Rodcx500z]

All i can say is i got my last order from geb took 7 days, so i thought as i dont usually shop online i like to keep my hbs open even though its 15 miles away, i am waiting for an order from thbc ordered on the 16th april had an email yesterday saying its been dispatched so not bad will update when it gets here, i am inclined to give these companys a lot of slack under the conditions they are working

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Plus, the 10 sachets of Saflager W-34/70 yeast I ordered was just £4.67/11.5g - and no arbitrary postages charges to North-East Scotland which is nice.

In those volumes you'd almost be better off getting a 500g brick and vacuum packing it into smaller packets. eg Faram do 500g of 34/70 for £62.17 (£1.43 per 11.5g) and 38xretail packs for £111.91 (£2.95/pack). Or talk to local breweries to see if you can get some via them. It doesn't help that AIUI brewing yeast in commercial packs is exempt from VAT but retail packs are VATed.

Up there www.brewstore.co.uk in Edinburgh is another one to bear in mind, they have standard p&p to anywhere on the mainland and a couple of the islands - and measure malt to order, without any of the extra charges levied by eg TMM for small quantities. Very handy for someone like me who is a very occasional brewer of dark beers....

 

[matt76]

I ordered on 5th - so not quite as bad as @Jonnymac with 22 days, but agree it's pretty disappointing that no comms have been sent - their website does say allow a week after all. Not that difficult to (a) update the homepage or (b) send an email to customers with orders to let them know. Not sure I'll use them again to be honest....

Yeah, same here - as noted previously I ordered on 5th April and still nothing. And as you say, the website says allow 7 days - I don't have a problem with that, I wouldn't really have a problem if it said 14 days under the circumstances. I think the issue is an expectation has been set but unfortunately

Still waiting on my order (placed 11/04). Would usually be asking questions, but given the circumstances - I'll happily let them take their time. Plus, the 10 sachets of Saflager W-34/70 yeast I ordered was just £4.67/11.5g - and no arbitrary postages charges to North-East Scotland which is nice. So I'm happy to wait.

Good on the boys for keeping the operation going, ***** for those waiting on a "critical brewing delivery" - but really, how critical is "critical" in terms of a hobby right now.

My only gripe is that they haven't updated the banner on their website to increase the 10 day lead time (or sent a generic email to all customer accounts) explaining that there is an increased backlog and/or larger delay with processing.

Spot on, mate - there are a lot more "critical" things going on in the world right now. I'm sure there are people having a worse day. Nevertheless, I agree with you that updating the website with a current estimated wait time would work wonders in terms of managing expectations.

FWIW, I just got off the phone with Tanya at Brew UK - I feel a quick call was justified as they've had 2 working weeks and not a dickie bird. She answered straight away and was very nice. She reckons they'll get to my order placed on 5th April either today or tomorrow. She did ask if it was urgent although I said no, the issue is more the lack of comms. She said there's no issue with supply, it's simply getting the orders out the door. They are also aware that they and others are all getting a slating on various forums but I guess they're doing the best they can.

So I guess the best we can do is sit tight - and maybe have a homebrew!

 

[trueblue]

.

FWIW, I just got off the phone with Tanya at Brew UK - I feel a quick call was justified as they've had 2 working weeks and not a dickie bird. She answered straight away and was very nice. She reckons they'll get to my order placed on 5th April either today or tomorrow. She did ask if it was urgent although I said no, the issue is more the lack of comms. She said there's no issue with supply, it's simply getting the orders out the door. They are also aware that they and others are all getting a slating on various forums but I guess they're doing the best they can.

Over 2 weeks and still not sent! Why does there website say 10 days surely that can't be hard to fix. As I said earlier in this thread my malt miller order took 2 days but they do say allow 2-3 days, I do appreciate they are a bit more pricey, geterbrewed are quoting up to 7 days and The home brew company are not taking new orders until they have cleared the backlog which shows me they care about their customers as they don't want to let anyone down. It looks to me as if brewUK are just happy to let the order stack up, poor customer service.

 

[Banbeer]

Ordered stuff on the 6th April from them and not had any notification at all(after the initial email with my order number etc), sent an email yesterday and had an automated reply to which I replied back to that asking for some sort of update to my order. I don't think I'm being unreasonable in expecting a reply, don't mind if they replied saying it will be another week, at least I know i'll be getting it.

 

[Tim Martin]

I've had a different experience to many, and I hope that it's not becoming usual.
I live in France and have used BrewUK regularly as they are one of the few companies to despatch to Europe. Their service is usually very efficient, and I can plan brewing session with great accuracy.
Anticipating a delay in sending stuff out, and the probability of their having a supply problem with some ingredients in the short term, I placed a large order with them on 7th. April. Everything that I ordered was in stock on their website at the time. The order was acknowledged, with the message that it would take longer than usual to deliver, which was to be expected.
I waited a few days and tried to contact them to find out where I was in the queue. I did this via their help line (offline at the time, although the message was automatically acknowledged). Nothing further, so I sent them an email on Thursday; again acknowledged, but so far no reply.
As it is now more than ten days since I placed the order - the time that they say they will look in to problems - I checked in to my account earlier today, looked up my ordering history and was amazed to find out that this particular order has been cancelled. No reason, and certainly not at my request.
The disturbing thing is though is that I paid for the order at the time that I made it, but I have not received a refund, or a reason why it has been cancelled. I can fully appreciate the problems that they faced when this all started, and realise that there may be ongoing issues, but if they can't fulfil an order they surely have a legal responsibility to refund the cost, and a professional one to offer an explanation. Needless to say, and attempt to speak to them, either on line or by phone, is hopeless.
Has anyone else experienced anything similar?

Have now managed to get in touch with them and sorted out the misunderstanding. Apparently a cancellation was made in error due to some sort of glitch with their credit card processing operation. In fairness to them they remedied the problem immediately and got the order off immediately. I'm pleased it's been resolves as they're a good company to deal with, and usually offer an excelllent service.

 

[Banbeer]

Being the type of person that isn't a fan of bad communication I called Brew UK this morning(bearing in mind that two emails had been sent prior to this) and they answered quite quickly, I told the person there that I ordered my stuff on the 6th April and he said that they were dealing with the 6th today, told him my order number and he confirmed my order was being processed today, so at the mercy of PF now.

 

[Buffers brewery]

I placed a small order for some bits on 30th March still haven’t received it. Placed a large order for ingredients 1st April and received it yesterday.

Just been on their site and discovered the item I ordered on the 30th is now out of stock but was in stock when I ordered it! Just got to be patient now

 

[Rodcx500z]

I dont usually order online much prefare my hbs but they are closed, so what i do is mail them to see who they use if its pf they dont get my money

 

[Ghillie]

In those volumes you'd almost be better off getting a 500g brick and vacuum packing it into smaller packets. eg Faram do 500g of 34/70 for £62.17 (£1.43 per 11.5g) and 38xretail packs for £111.91 (£2.95/pack). Or talk to local breweries to see if you can get some via them. It doesn't help that AIUI brewing yeast in commercial packs is exempt from VAT but retail packs are VATed.

Up there www.brewstore.co.uk in Edinburgh is another one to bear in mind, they have standard p&p to anywhere on the mainland and a couple of the islands - and measure malt to order, without any of the extra charges levied by eg TMM for small quantities. Very handy for someone like me who is a very occasional brewer of dark beers....

I did check it out (buying in 500g blocks) but I'd be more concerned with my ***** Chinese sealer to promise me stability, etc. Nevertheless, I'm prepared to give it a go. And your comment may well force my hand pal. Thanks.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

You should be OK as long as you can keep them cool, like fridge temperature.