Do (successful) breweries give a damn?

But isn't it up to consumers to say enough is enough? I'm aware of FFF's reputation and I think I've had enough of their beers to form an opinion of them. Basically, they are nothing special. In other parts of the country, with their combined beer quality and customer service, they would already have gone out of business. So I'd say, to all those who grudgingly patronize breweries like FFF in spite of their shitty attitude, just stop. There are plenty of other breweries, everywhere, that are happy to take your money, sell you good beer, and provide you a better overall experience.

 

only problem with it for people like me, is that FFF trades really well. so as a beer community as a whole we would have to say enough. FFF has just become a fad and a name now. the quality has gone down, the service is horrible, (to include at the brewpub), and if it wasn't for people outside of the midwest wanting what they have, i think they'd be gone.

 

Bells cared. I told them I had an old Two Hearted to let them know it was sitting on shelves, hoping they would get it replaced. They said thanks, got them replaced, and sent me a couple free pint glasses.

The other times I've had bad beers were from smaller breweries. Wynwood offered me a free growler fill, Due South did the same, Funky Buddha is going to replace the infected bonita with some other beer down the road.

Cigar city is super nice too, they replaced my catador glass for free when I told them I broke it while washing.

I've never had a brewery straight up ignore me, but I haven't had a lot of bad beers either. Well bad in the sense that there was something wrong and I felt the need to e-mail the brewery...I think Maple Bacon Voodoo Doughnut is supposed to taste that bad so I didn't e-mail Rogue.

 

I've actually found breweries including very successful ones to be exactly the opposite.

 

Ironically, FFF is one of a handful of breweries' beers that I've actually traded for. And after trying a few beers from other parts of the country and spending more than I care to think about on shipping etc., I basically just gave up on trading altogether, realizing that I'm far better off just not playing that game. I think trading plays a much bigger role in overall beer culture in some regions than others, although I don't have any real data to back that up.

 

Though there are some blatant examples one way or the other that comprise a trend, it can be hard to generalize. Sometimes the fault is just one employee, and employees can change over time. (even though sometimes I swear it is much harder for people to get fired these days for incompetence)

 

I personally would have spent the time it took to engage Lost Abbey on multiple social media channels writing them an email.

Twitter and its 140-character limit isn't really suited to serious product/service complaints, and severely limits the detail and care that a company can given you in response, not to mention the fact that any response they send you is going to show up in the feed of every person that follows them.

Facebook's direct message feature is slightly better, but it's still less than ideal (especially compared to email) for long or intricate interactions between people.

Social media is great and serves a valuable purpose, but I would tend to resort to Twitter/Facebook only as a last resort after any kind of email communication didn't work. Give the company a chance to address and fix the situation in private before you put them on blast in the public eye.

 

Every time I have a behemouth or artic panzer wolf or a number of other beers, I don't see this "fad" you are speaking of but just very very good beer.

 

Social media is here to stay but to expect a company to respond to every facebook posting or tweet or even being mentioned in a tweet is a bit much. That is more than a full time job.

 

As a brewer, who is relatively successful, I always reply to emails, beer mails, and social media messages.

I go even further on occasion to reach our to people who review my beer... good and bad. I also tend to respond to yelp reviews and others like it.

 

I once shot SN a casual email inquiry and got responses from not one, but two different people - the marketing guy and the some operations guy. Very promptly, too...

On the other hand, I once emailed Evil Twin and never heard back. Like, ever...

 

This exactly. Have yet to be disappointed.

 

I think that's a key..Social Media is just advertising for many breweries and not a way to actually dialogue with customers.

 

Of course breweries give a damn! We’re proud of the beer we make and care about the comments that our fans have. If someone sends us a legitimate issue, we route it to the right team to look into.

What OP is probably running into is the amount of noise on social media. We try to filter through all of the “give me free beer!” and “I didn't like it so it’s wrong!” to find those who have feedback. But there’s A LOT of people on social media. To that, it’s more effective if you email us. We might have people dedicated to keeping an eye out for that on Facebook and others, but not every brewery will. The Lost Abbey does have email addresses on their site to contact as well!

Cheers,
Stephanie