drinkstore sold me beer past its best before date

beglee

So i bought 2 cases of beer form drinkstore.ie (Magic Hat #9 was the beer), delivered this morning. My wife checked them and said that the best before dates are either January 2nd or February 1st 2013. The bottles are fairly dusty as well, so have obviously been sitting in their warehouse for some time.

My question is, are they allowed to sell beer that is past its BB date? Are they allowed sell it at full price, which I paid? Can I even drink it safely?! It's american craft beer, so not sure how safe it is to drink etc.

I'll be contacting them to complain, but not sure of my ground here

The Hill Billy

Moved from Beers/Wines/Spirits.

tHB

Paulw

Allowed, yes? Recommended? No.

Bring it back. Get it replaced or get a refund.

Simple.

syklops

It says "best before" which means its best before the date given. It didn't say "consume by", which means you should drink it before a given date.

Are they allowed sell it when the best before date is passed? Yes they are, however if you were to demand a replacement, I am sure they would be required to comply.

Are they allowed to sell it at full price? Yes.

It's american craft beer, so not sure how safe it is to drink etc.

My own reservations about how safe to drink American craft beer is aside, its no less safe to drink because it is 2 weeks older than the best before date.

coconutpie

I've got stuff from them before that was out of date by a couple of weeks but they had it reduced and made sure to let me know. I would imagine that informing the customer is the minimum they would have to do.
As in drinkability - it tasted fine and I'm still here.
In this case, I'd definitely be getting on to them about it.

BeerNut

The best before date on beer has no effect on how safe it is to drink. The most harmful thing in there will always be the alcohol. I doubt Magic Hat #9 is a beer that would be affected too badly by lack of freshness. With hoppier beers you definitely don't get the same full flavours and aromas when they're older.

It's legal, but it's not good practice all the same. I would expect the DrinkStore guys to give you a refund if you asked.

beglee

I've sent em off an email complaining, and asking for a refund. We'll see what they say.

I love this beer though, so I'd really like to drink it anyway, as it's probably fine. Would probably have to get through the 48 bottles faster than I had originally planned though

Gillo

Forget the date, your wife was at your beer stash!!!

There's a big difference between best before and use by dates you should be fine. My landlord owns a pub and gave me a crate of various beers which had gone past its date, they were all grand. That said I'd expect if buying beer that it'd be within date so yeah they'll probably change them or refund you.

beglee

drinkstore are going to refund me and collect the beer later today. So but also

They said they hadn't realised that the BB date had passed. The beer hasn't been selling, so been sitting in their warehouse for some time. And he said that the distributor is giving up on the beer, due to the low sales.

Sadness, as it's really really great. If i'd known this would happen I would have bought some(loads) much sooner

syklops

beglee wrote: »

drinkstore are going to refund me and collect the beer later today. So but also

They said they hadn't realised that the BB date had passed. The beer hasn't been selling, so been sitting in their warehouse for some time. And he said that the distributor is giving up on the beer, due to the low sales.

Sadness, as it's really really great. If i'd known this would happen I would have bought some(loads) much sooner

Why dont you make them an offer for the crate. 50% off or whatever?

schemingbohemia

They've previously sold short-dated or out of date Porterhouse beers on their site but clearly identified it as such with a hefty discount. At Christmas they were selling Hersbrucker cases for €20, if it had been Wrasslers I'd have been all over it.

Anyway, seems they handled the situation well. Sometimes I think people might be better waiting to see the reaction of the shop before posting a complaint on here that ends up being handled well by the shop.

[Edit] Actually they still have the Hersbrucker for sale

http://www.drinkstore.ie/Heresbrucker-Case-24-x-330ML-Heresbrucker-Case-24-x-33/

beglee

Just to conclude, one of their managers came around to collect the beer around 630pm on Friday. I'm guessing that's outside his usual working hours. Had a chat with him too about some of the other beers they'll no longer be carrying etc. CC refund processed yesterday, which is about as quick as can be expected with a CC.

He let me keep a 6 pack (free), which was nice 2 of the bottles were maybe 10% less enjoyable than usual (or maybe I only thought that knowing about the date issue), but the rest was lovely

Perhaps I should have offered to keep it all for 50% discount or something now that you mention it, doh!

Very good customer service once the issue was brought to their attention.



Although I see that Magic Hat is still up for sale at full price on their site. They should really update that, or drop the price.

syklops

beglee wrote: »

Although I see that Magic Hat is still up for sale at full price on their site. They should really update that, or drop the price.

Then tell them. They probably have dozens of beers, if not hundreds, and the guy who knows what all the prices should be is not necessarily the guy who updates the website. You had a chat with the manager. Give him a ring and point this out to him.