Lads & Lassies,
I recently purchased a starter kit and a beer kit from homebrew.ie. I received an email confirming my order but since then I have heard nothing, tried ringing the land line and mobile, both ring out. Given the fact I live in limerick and the shop is based in templemore(Tipperary) I would have assumed the stuff would have arrived today, it's only an hour by car between the two.
Has anyone ordered from them before?
Monday morning this week.
Agreed, at least he should answer the phone. The cash was taken from my CC card as of last night too. Maybe I am being a little to eager. I'll give him until Monday.
I have noticed that all three main websites are really piss poor at updating their stock on their web pages. I can say this because i order stuff(not a lot) from all three and i am on all three sites regularily. I am sorry guys but if ye are out of stock then take it down, its misleading otherwise, Having 20 items from the one shop out of stock bad form as well.
In the age of computer inventory there should be no excuse for out of stock items to still be up after 48 hrs, no excuse. It is irritating and misleading IMHO. To the OP if it was out of stock the system in that store should not have allowed you to order it, thats fault of store. As for answering phones well thats the same all over.
Sorry for hijacking your post borgig.
Hbc website works well for me regarding out of stock items
Quote from: delzep on April 25, 2013, 06:44:22 AM
Hbc website works well for me regarding out of stock items
Me too re hbc.ie. if something is out of stock, it is clearly shown. Never had an order delayed or not completely fulfilled due to stock issues.
Quote from: deadman1972 on April 25, 2013, 01:21:01 AM
I have noticed that all three main websites are really piss poor at updating their stock on their web pages. I can say this because i order stuff(not a lot) from all three and i am on all three sites regularily. I am sorry guys but if ye are out of stock then take it down, its misleading otherwise, Having 20 items from the one shop out of stock bad form as well.
In the age of computer inventory there should be no excuse for out of stock items to still be up after 48 hrs, no excuse. It is irritating and misleading IMHO. To the OP if it was out of stock the system in that store should not have allowed you to order it, thats fault of store. As for answering phones well thats the same all over.
I have a feeling that some of the smaller homebrew companies order as needed, they simply would not have the turnover to have stock sitting around, so I'd imagine there's a lot of ordering to order so to speak.
No apologies needed deadman1972, what you said sheds some light on what I am dealing with at the moment. I am gonna keep trying to contact this guy at homebrew.ie until monday if I get no reply I simply don't know what to do, I will never use homebrew.ie again that's for sure. From now on I'll try ringing a supplier before ordering, also will give HBC.ie a go based on ye're reviews.
Lesson learned I guess.
Guys just to clarify, what i was driving at is that i have regularily been on all 3 and you could easily have 20 items marked out of stock on each and every one. After 48 hrs they should be taken down, if you have not got it in stock "you dont sell it" its that simple. Dont be drawing in customers looking for a particular item doing a search when you know you dont have it.
I tend to use HBC(seeing as ye named it) myselof and find them brilliant. I understand full well the issues around stock inventory, however i find no excuse no matter how small the business as to why you should still be diaplaying out of stock items 48 hrs down the road, its bad form thats all IMHO.
As for ordering to order, thats fine but its misleading to diplay an item you dont yet have IMHO.
Almost every website that sells things has items listed for which they are out of stock. I'd imagine it would be a pain in the arse to continually take down pages where stock = 0 instead of a counter type thing that doesn't allow an order once stock level = 0
Just had a call from my missus, a large parcel marked "homebrew.ie" was delivered to my house today. So as it turns out nothing was wrong with my order all along.
I had no contact from the supplier when I requested an update on my order I was left completely in the dark as to when my order would arrive, I could not reach the guy using email or any of the phone numbers on the website . In this day and age it simply is not good enough to run a business in the manor.
Anyway ......Rant over! Time to get my first brew started!
I'm not suggesting that the order to order model is good, but I do think it's understandable with small businesses.
I also think that if they were completely honest with their stock levels they would have people check and go elsewhere every time, so they simply do a small misrepresentation, I don't say it's right though.
To be honest, I started my home brewing by buying a kit from them when they were still in Athlone. Great people and i always offered them my business. I think that they have lost the potential that they could of gained in the last 3 years and hence are not a force compared to the homebrew company.
This is just my personal veiw but websites are the sole of business and hence updating, stock control and customer support should always be a priority.
Not sure how appropriate it is to be naming and shaming specific vendors on a public forum :(
If however you were to say that you ordered something from an Irish vendor on ebay and it never arrived and after 4 ignored emails, and in the end a dispute resolution was paid, we would all know who it was.
We all have our own favourite sellers ::)
Best of luck with your brew.
Sanitation.
Patience.
Temperature.
If you have issues like that with any CC transaction I'm sure you can always get in touch with your CC company and cancel the transaction.
Delzep i hear what you are saying but in all honesty this is 2013, computers have advanced to the point where i am sure they could get an el cheapo software to take down stock items not in stock after 48 hrs. No excuse whatsoever, the little white lie thing is one of the "oirish " ways of doing things that has this country in the crapper.
There is NO reason not to be completely honest here, if customers go elswhere tough titty. With more and more business conducted online bad site management is a major no no.
Quote from: Ciderhead on April 25, 2013, 09:33:02 PM
Not sure how appropriate it is to be naming and shaming specific vendors on a public forum :(
If however you were to say that you ordered something from an Irish vendor on ebay and it never arrived and after 4 ignored emails, and in the end a dispute resolution was paid, we would all know who it was.
We all have our own favourite sellers ::)
This is 2013 and its not about naming and shaming! It's about customer service and all of us could learn a little about it. The more people are willing to help each other instead of being negative, helping each other makes things progress better.
I sent over 10 emails over 3 days to a company just asking for some simply info until they replied. What???
I feel i must point out at this stage that i have no major issues with any of the big 3 myself. I am not singling out hombrew.ie or any of the other two for a rant against them. That being said i stand by what i said re misleading stock online,all are as guilty as each other. To be fair as well if we cant rant here then where?
Quote from: deadman1972 on April 25, 2013, 11:48:55 PM
I feel i must point out at this stage that i have no major issues with any of the big 3 myself. I am not singling out hombrew.ie or any of the other two for a rant against them. That being said i stand by what i said re misleading stock online,all are as guilty as each other. To be fair as well if we cant rant here then where?
I agree, once nothing defamatory is said and people stick to the facts then it's not a legal or a moral issue.
If we can't inform others here in the same hobby then what use are the forums?
They know what they are up against.
Interesting development in the UK re naming and shaming (Defamation bill), it has now been made the responsibility of the person who writes rather than the publisher, being the website, so websites will no longer be sued directly for the statements of their members.
I wonder will that be changing here too?
...so modding a users post counts as editing and so not advisable.