Refunds for 2015 Regular BCBS and 2015 Prop

You may be OK, no single date has been entirely bad.

 

All my bottles are 11/4 and I've been drinking through them pretty steadily. Have had probably 7 so far and they've all been terrific (most recent was 2 days ago).

 

Hey maybe they should come out with a new variant called "Intentionally Cherry BCBS"

 

And this thought process is why you aren't in customer service or hospitality (or you are failing at it). If you screw your customers, they don't come back. Not making up for the hunt is a bit like an online merchant charging you return shipping on a defective product.

 

Come on. Are there really people that believe this? The hunt is more analagous to trying to get that big flat screen at Walmart on Black Friday. When you get a tooth broken because some other moron knocked you down in the rush to get it, Walmart is not paying for it. That's on you for being there.

In related news, I flew to Denver recently and bought a bunch of stuff. One bottle was infected, but the brewery won't even reimburse me for my flight there!!! What bastards!!! (Note: This story is made up and stupid)

 

While I have yet to find any issues with any of my regular or regular from others, I opened my bottle of Prop last weekend and it was a tart sour green apple. I was both embarrassed and very disappointed.

 

Those examples seem to be a bit extreme to the absurd. No one is asking for the moon or travel reimbursement. You don't acknowledge an inconvenience factor and maybe an effort more than just a refund is in order? When 3 floyds had some barrel aged beers that went bad, they refunded double the amount people paid because they realized people went out of there way to purchase their beer and wanted to make the situation right. Yes, GI doesn't have to do anything, they don't even have to give out refunds, but losing customers is not in their best interest and you'll see they will go do something to make up for people's inconveniences. Do me a favor and read some of the infected beer threads in this forum and see if you can't find examples of other breweries going above and beyond for customers when their experience hasn't met expectations.

 

What hunt? I walked into the beer store an hour and a half after they opened, no line, no BCBS even sold yet.

 

As customers we need to hold these companies accountable by refusing to patronize them. They made bad product and still made millions off it. Beer hoarders are so greedy they refuse to hold these types of shenanigans against the company. This isn't some start up brewery. They can absorb the full impact of making it up to customers. If you guys just brush it off, they think they can get away with selling bad product.

 

Huh. I see you are a beer trader, I suggest you don't try to add those costs to your beers when figuring $4$.

And in this game any brewery that gives refunds for infected beer is at the top level of brewery responses. No one has, or will be giving refunds for travel or inconvenience. Or needs to.

Hopefully GI decides to give refunds for these latest infected beers.

 

I don't disagree that they need to do something, but I'm curious to know how you know the bolded statement? Lots of people like to make statements about how big companies can just absorb these kinds of things. It reminds me of the old Kramer "write it off" bit from Seinfeld. GI may very well be able to absorb this, but some craft beer fans seem to be so hell bent on sticking it to bigger companies (and I'm not saying that is you), that they think bigger companies of an endless amount of cash to make things right.

When I feel as though a refund of some sort is deserved, I don't really factor in whether they are a big or small company. If you get into the business of making something and it goes bad, then I expect the right thing to be done (granted the definition of the "right" thing is subjective) no matter what your size...even if it's Little Susie's Lemonade Stand on the sidewalk .

 

i don't know. i agree in concept, but, contrary to possible belief (based on interactions here), i am realistic on SHIT HAPPENS. discovering how, what factors contribute to it happening etc are important.

as far as how much needs to be done to make it right or what exact amount of appeasement amounts to "make it right", i can't really quantify. i am pretty sure they are aware they can't "get away with selling bad product". their problem is more like they did already sell bad product which is sort of like toothpaste already out of the tube - nearly impossible to put it back. aasher pointed out what's obvious & identifiable that could be improved immediately. they lack coordination & organization in their response department & efforts.

 

Do yourself a favor and read them and you'll find even more examples of breweries doing nothing about infected beer.

 

Yeah, generally agree with the statements above. The impetus for the frustration and backlash (which is warranted, in any event) is really not financial compensation, but GI's lack of coordination and prompt (if any) response to a defective product that was sold. I can definitely see why it being a "big company" may play a factor because of its wide distribution network. Perhaps an issuance of a coupon credit to purchase future GI products would dampen the impact resulting form refunds, and even encourage customers with bad bottles from re-purchasing such product next year and showing that a portion of this batch was merely a one-off. I hope they value their company goodwill and/or loyal customer base to at least do something.

 

They don't need a loyal fan base to sell bourbon county. For every person that won't buy this year ten more are figuring out where to stand in line.

 

I think that is somewhat contradictory in a way. Without a (or diminishing) loyal fanbase for next year or a protracted period of time, I highly doubt they will be as successful as they have been. In any event, I sure hope you are not suggesting that simply writing off goodwill is an acceptable or good way of doing business.

 

Just as a PSA, I posted (again) on the GI FB page a couple of days ago asking for a progress report on their plans with regular BCBS, since the podcast did say more information would be coming, and was told: "We're on it, stay tuned," which I suppose is better than "pound sand." I'm still holding out hope for good news.

 

Mine are all this date and have been great. Just drank one the other day that had been stored at room temp and it was perfect. I still have 36 bottles so I'm glad they aren't showing signs of infection. I have them all in the fridge now just in case.

 

So when GI handed out t-shirts with the refunds if it wasn't for inconvenience with the BCBS Coffee and Barleywine fiasco, were they just finding it cheaper to send out shirts than to liquidate them by other means?

 

What I don't understand is how beer isn't somehow classified as food under the FDA. It should probably be co-regulated by the FDA and ATF. If there were noticeably foul batches of Coca Cola, they would have to recall it, but not beer? Yes, "shit happens", but if Apple puts out an iPhone at a 50% defect rate at 6 months of age, or if Coca Cola starts tasting like piss after 3 months, they would have to recall it. They should offer compensation for every bottle produced, and then improve their quality systems. That's how most other industries operate. If you put out bad product, which has one sole purpose, to taste good, and it doesn't, you deserve financial loss. We can't keep cutting these companies a break because they're going larger and taking advantage of the consumer base way too much. They probably knew they could get away with a two month refund window because most people don't drink theirs until much later... and they know how the beer dude bro industry operates. They know beer hoarders don't care and will still line up regardless of their 5 Prop bottles that were infected. That's why capitalism is breeding corporatism. There isn't enough consumer diligence to keep these companies in check because of the consumers own personal greed.

I must say though, I have seen cases of regular BCBS sitting at my local liquor stores for a few weeks now, so it must be having a sales impact, which is good.