Free Beer

hksoftware · 10 April 2014 at 9:46AM

I signed up for this without reading these comments a few days ago, then when I read the rest of the thread I immediately emailed them and asked them to terminate my membership and delete my details from their system. Thought I'd been conned.

Look what just came in the post:

i.imgur.com/OVXvtqt.jpg (new account, cant post images sorry)

Now I feel horrible for being so abrupt with them and assuming the worst.
It's all well and good taking advantage of big companies giving away dishwasher tablets with no intention of going on to buy their product, but please don't take advantage of small companies, they just can't afford to be abused and they're just doing something nice to promote their product or service. If we all take the p*ss, they'll stop offering free stuff.

I for one will be contacting Beer52 and setting up a paid subscription for at least a couple of months. They were so polite over email and have sent me a fair few quids worth of beer here. It's not nice to screw over small companies like this.

Also, a load of you have slagged off this company cos you didn't get your free stuff. Just step back and take a look at yourselves guys. That's not cool. Negative online publicity can really hurt small businesses. It's not as if you were charged money

Just want to mention that I am no way affiliated with this company. Just feel bad after receiving free beer despite being a d!ck to them!

dlusman · 10 April 2014 at 10:03AM

hksoftware wrote: »

It's all well and good taking advantage of big companies giving away dishwasher tablets with no intention of going on to buy their product, but please don't take advantage of small companies, they just can't afford to be abused and they're just doing something nice to promote their product or service. If we all take the p*ss, they'll stop offering free stuff.

All well and good - but if they cannot handle the orders they shouldnt be offering them , and it would only be good customer pratice to contact customers to apologise and say something like "We are sorry that we have been overwhelmed by enquires and we cannot fullfill the free trial". Just to ignore the order is extremely poor.

sachatith · 10 April 2014 at 10:36AM

hksoftware wrote: »

I for one will be contacting Beer52 and setting up a paid subscription for at least a couple of months. They were so polite over email and have sent me a fair few quids worth of beer here. It's not nice to screw over small companies like this.

Also, a load of you have slagged off this company cos you didn't get your free stuff. Just step back and take a look at yourselves guys. That's not cool. Negative online publicity can really hurt small businesses. It's not as if you were charged money

Just want to mention that I am no way affiliated with this company. Just feel bad after receiving free beer despite being a d!ck to them!

I'm a CAMRA member so actually had all full intentions of signing up with them if I was happy with the beer. The fact that the free trial pack didn't show up made me worry and I didn't want to risk entering a contract with someone when the product didn't show up. When I emailed them to say that I wanted to cancel my contract as my free trial didn't show up and did they know why, they didn't give any explanation as to why it hadn't turn up, in fact they completely avoided the comment. Yes in hindsight I Should have asked them where it was and then made a decision to cancel it but I was on holiday for a week before (having set it up a week previous) and only arrived back the date before they were going to take any money.

I completely agree that some people (not necessarily people on here!) can take the mickey with freebies, but I certainly wouldn't do that (particularly to a small company providing beer, like I say, I pay my CAMRA membership every year and actively support small breweries and companies); however when a company hasn't been providing the offer that they have set out to delivery then it sets of alarm bells. There are a few companies offering the same sort of thing 'pay subscription get new beers each month' and I am still looking for one now, but I need to know that I am going to get what I pay for.

Out of interest how long did it take between sign up and delivery? Like I say, mine was two weeks and no sign and no missed delivery which is a shame.

Hope the beers were good - let us know what they were like! :beer:

hksoftware · 10 April 2014 at 3:11PM

I subscribed on Monday evening 7th, three days ago.

I agree, failing to deliver on a promise or to reply to emails is indeed a red flag. I also hit a couple of bugs in their website which were more red flags. Maybe they couldn't keep up with demand and had a meltdown. Who knows. Failing to communicate is unacceptable and I hope they sort that out.

I pointed them to this thread, maybe one of them might come and try and put things right.

I for one received top notch customer support. They politely replied to my !!!!!y cancellation email in good time, the free beers came in good time, properly packed in a special box. They even included a pack of olives (which I don't like unfortunately) and a poster.

If they cannot handle the orders they shouldnt be offering them

I agree to an extent, but I think it pays to distinguish between what's legally right and what's morally right.
For example, if you walked into your local corner shop and saw a bowl of sweets with a sign saying "Free! please help yourself", you could start filling your pockets. Different scenario, but a similar idea.

If that shop was ASDA, then I would be less reserved about filling my pockets as the the company would not be financially damaged by their failure to properly restrict their offer.

These beers probably cost that company £6-8 a pop. They may not have accounted for people grabbing freebies with no intention of subscribing to their service. Sure, free means free, so I'd be doing no wrong by getting my beers, getting my family to create their own accounts and cancelling after getting their freebies, but morally I think that's wrong and that wouldn't sit right with me.

Good on you sachatith and any other people who genuinely consider purchasing products after getting expensive freebies.

JackRussell · 10 March 2015 at 12:07PM

I got a free trial over Christmas. Beers arrived on time and enjoyed them thoroughly. Cancelled before the next installment without any issues.

Last month got an email tempting me back for 50% off my first case. Took up the offer and beers delivered again without any problems. Cancelled subscription once again, but will be using on an adhoc basis.

They must have turned things around since the original complaints as they reply to emails and twitter within hours :T

Here's the link for anyone wanting to give them another go;
http://www.beer52.com/friday50

asajj · 10 March 2015 at 12:26PM

Bought this as a Christmas present for OH and he was most pleased. Delivery wasn't an issue and he also said he'd use them on an ad-hoc basis. Very interesting selection of beers, sadly not much lager for me!