I'm the kind of consumer who makes a point to share both good and bad customer experiences I have, in order to hopefully help other consumers and to also encourage businesses to actually take good care of their customers. So, that's what this is...
My wife is throwing a big birthday party for her friend Anne on Friday night. My Herculean Summer Wheat (really Reno_eNVy's
Honey Orange Hefe) is Anne's favorite beer in the world, so I used this as an excuse to put taps in the wall of our kitchen with my keezer in the basement below. SWMBO signed off on it over the weekend and I started doing the calculations to see how I would balance the lines with both the rise in height and the longer 8-10' run instead of taps right through the collar on the keezer. I realized yesterday that 1/4" ID beer line would let me balance the system at around 12.5 PSI, which is also about what I carbonate at, whereas 3/16" line would require about 20 PSI to push beer through the faucets. I have three kegs and three taps, so I needed about 40-50' of beer line.
I called my LHBS as soon as he opened this morning and he said that he only carried 3/16, which is what I expected. I then called Keg Cowboy because I've heard good things about them in the past. Their website says to allow 3-5 days for orders to be shipped, so I wanted to make sure they had what I needed in stock and would be able to get it here by Thursday or Friday at the very latest. I'm not sure who I talked to, but he told me that he did have 50' in stock but that he wouldn't sell it to me because it would mean he couldn't process any other orders until he got more in stock. I said, "Just to be clear, you're telling me that you won't process my order for 50' of tubing because you want to be able to process other orders that may or may not come in later this week?" He said, "Yes, that's what I'm saying." I thanked him for answering my question and then hung up.
About this time my neighbor, also a brewer, told me about
RiteBrew.com. I checked their site and their per-foot price was higher ($.69 vs. Keg Cowboy's $.50), but they had a 100' roll for $39.49 ($.395 per foot). I emailed them right away asking them if they would be able to get me what I needed by Thursday or Friday. A guy named Neil replied back within minutes asking for my zip code. I sent it back and within another couple of minutes he told me that they could ship my order still today and that it would be 2 days shipping via UPS Ground and it would be here by Thursday. My order total was just over $50 for 100' of 1/4" beer line, shipped. Within 30 minutes I had an email shipping confirmation including a tracking number.
Bottom line for me, the guy at Keg Cowboy treated my situation like an impossible task that he was unwilling to take on. The guys at RiteBrew.com took care of me like getting things shipped out right away for a very good price was just part of how they do business. I will still go to my LHBS whenever I can, but when I can't get what I need there I will definitely be checking RiteBrew.com first.