No… not the steaks – their meat is beyond fantastic. What sucks is their crappy customer service reps – who have now fucked us over for the holidays not once – but twice. For the past two years we have ordered Allen Brothers Steaks for my in-laws for Chirstmas – and for the past two years Allen Brothers has failed to deliver the goddamn steaks in time for Christmas for no apparent reason other than their own incompetence.
Last year after the steaks failed to show up as planned five days before Chirstmas, we called customer service and found out that although they had a record of the order leaving the warehouse, somehow it was eternally on a FedEx truck and never delivered – even after five days of calling. Um, we live in Chicago, where Allen Brothers is located. It does not take five days to get from Chicago to Chicago (well, unless you’re the Post Office, but that’s another story…) Each day they would tell us it was on the truck “out for delivery,” and each day nothing showed up. After a week, they finally conceded that perhaps the steaks were not “out for delivery” and sent out new steaks. Problem solved, although we looked like the assholes who got nothing for our parents for Christmas in front of the entire family, but oh, well. Anyone can have a snafu, right?
This year we were suckers again and ordered more steaks to be delivered to my in-laws. (Yes, I know – but they are that good….) On Christmas morning we trek over to my in-laws’ house to open presents. It is then that we realize that the steaks have failed to show up once again. They were scheduled to arrive on the 23rd. Again, we look like idiots to the rest of the family. One of them asked my why we keep ordering from them if they keep forgetting to actually deliver the order on time. Good fucking question! My husband calls this morning and the very uninterested CSR looks up the order and says that – oops – they forgot to send it out. That was the entire sum of the explanation on where the steaks were. No apologies, no offers to make it right. They just forgot to ship it. WTF?
Well, I think I will forget to order from them again any time soon. If you order from them, just know that their delivery is crappy, and the Customer Service reps don’t give a shit. But, those steaks are damn good! Curse you, Allen Brothers!
nachounderpants.com 
OK, good info to have. Personally, I’ve never heard of the allen bros., so i haven’t been scarred by their sucky delivery or lack of urgency. Anyway, as put so well in a fine country song of recent memory, that silence on their order line is me not calling…
i ordered a $350.00 rib roast and it was worse then an $8.00 per pound roast from my local stop and shop,no resolution yet(not expecting much) maybe it was just a bad one time experance with costomer service, not planning in ordering any time soon.
yum. its like the soup nazi. you will get your steaks when they feel like giving them to you, and you will love them.
pretty please don’t write off allen bros???
kt – I know you have a vested interest in AB 🙂
you are soooooooooooooo wrong about the customer reps at allen brothers, they are good!real good and they do care,its fed ex theat messed thing up
“fed ex theat messed thing up”
How could FedEx “forget” to ship the steaks???
Well, considering that when they fucked it up twice in two years and we explained that to the CSRs, they gave us the equivalent of a shoulder shrug. Not even an apology? FedEx is hired by AB to do the job they are supposed to and ultimately it’s ABs responsibility when something goes wrong. Passing the buck is not good customer service.
NO ONE IS PASSING ANY BUCK, IVE DELT WITH THEM JUST LIKE YOU……THEY TREAT ME AND EVERYONE I KNOW LIKE ROYALITY. THERE IS JUST NO PLEASING PEOPLE LIKE YOU ,PLEASE TAKE A MINUTE TO ENJOY THE LITTLE THINGS,YOU NEED TO RELAX. OH BY THE WAY ALLEN BROTHERS USES UPS NOW, WHERE YOU BEEN
I had a prime rib that was supposed to show up on Christmas eve a couple of years ago. Fedex had no record, but Allen Brothers swore they sent it. Long story short, the owner refunded my money, sent me another one for new years day free of charge! Then to top it off after all of that was done, Fedex called me that night and the station manager delivered it to my house personally. I called Bobby to tell him he owed me nothing, but he refused to budge, still refunded my money and sent me another prime rib for new years! There is nothing more in my opinion he could have done to be nicer or more accomodating. They are absolutely the best place i have ever dealt with hands down
Chris
You should try J.B. Hendry Steak Company (www.jbhendrysteaks.com). I placed multiple orders in both the 2007 & 2008 holiday seasons and did not have a single problem. I know that a few of the people that I sent gifts to in 2007 ordered gifts for their own family for 2008. Really high quality, nice packaging & great customer service.
If they are so great, then why the big fuck-ups twice in two years? Why, when there is a fuck-up, there is no apology? Losing my order because “they forgot to ship it” is not treating me like royalty.
Yes, there is pleasing me – I am pleased when I place and order as a gift to someone important to me and IT SHOWS UP WHEN IT’S SUPPOSED TO. Or, if it doesn’t for some reason, an APOLOGY would be nice. It’s really quite easy.
FedEx, UPS whatever – still ABs responsibility.
I love AB meats, just not their ability to deliver them.
I think you should call them and tell them what you experenced, i bet they make sure it never happens again.I just cant believe they treated you in that mannor when i have had nothing but great experiences with them have since 2002.Maybe ite because i dont wait till a couple days before christmas to send my gifts!! seems to me thats your lack of planning, nobody knows whats going to happen days before a great holiday..does weather strike you at all?
Wow – the topic that keeps on giving…
First of all, I gave them the benefit of the doubt the first time so there was no need to bring it up when ordering the second time. The second time they failed to show up, we did explain what happened to us the first time and the CSR did not give a crap.
Second, did I ever mention when I ORDERED the gifts? No, I did not. It wasn’t two days before Christmas. Since you have ordered from them before, you must know you have the option to pick your delivery date and we wanted them there when we wanted them there. The first year it was 5 days ahead of Christmas, the second it was scheduled to arrive on the 23rd. We ORDERED them weeks before this, which is why it’s been a surprise each time when they fail to show.
Third, I live in Chicago. AB is in Chicago. If they have weather one day, then deliver the next. It’s in the same city!
Capisce?
you are somthing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
what ever…..they are a fantastic company.I BELIVE ITS YOU!!!
CAPISCE? PLEASE, YOUR PROBABALLY NOT EVEN ITALIAN
I had similar problems with allen bros. – but at least they apologized about the mix up. It’s too bad the customer service can’t match the great quality of the products.
Um, okay – so when people are losing an argument, they resort to stupid stuff that have nothing to do with the topic – like pondering about my heritage.
You know, I can read IP addresses on here, and gee – what a surprise, most of these posters giving me a hard time turned out to be from…. wait for it……
ALLEN BROTHERS INC ALLEN-BR16-123-152
(NET-12-2-123-152-1)
12.2.123.152 – 12.2.123.159
Maybe if you spent less time on my blog and more time on your customer service, then we wouldn’t have a problem.
Tiff, I too ordered from Allen Brothers this past Christmas and had a similar problem as you. I don’t know that we both spoke to the same Customer Service location but when I called to complain abotu my order not getting to me on time they were very apologetic and they offered me a $100.00 gift card for my troubles. I’m sorry that you feel that way about them but did you also know that you can pick up your orders at their location? Maybe next time you should do that instead of having the items shipped to you. That is something we are considering to do next time around.
Tiff (and other fine commentors) on “the suckage of Allen Brothers,” many thanks for all the laughs.
Personally, I think the AB customer service folks may have flagged your account as a “troublemaker” by now, so you may have to take your future custom elsewhere.
(redacted for privacy)
Good Afternoon –
My name is Mark XXXX, and I am a Manager at Allen Brothers. I became aware of some recent delivery issues and customer service related matters and I would like to discuss this in greater detail with you at your convenience.
Please contact me at:
XXX.XXX.XXXX x XXXX (office)
I look forward to speaking with you directly about your experience with Allen Brothers so that we can ensure your complete satisfaction.
Sincerely,
Mark XXXXX
xxxxxxxx@allenbrothers.com
Allen Brothers Inc.
3737 S. Halsted St.
Chicago, IL 60638
Maybe you can have Mark resolve the above issue by sending your lovely step-daughters an assortment of goodies (oh wait, we probably wouldn’t receive them).
Tiff! Don’t do it! Mark just wants to find out who you are so he can BLACKLIST you!
Ha – my stepdaughters love AB so much that they both chime in on this subject. 🙂 Yes, it’s that good.
Mark:
Although I appreciate your outreach, I find it to be too little, too late. I feel that the only reason you are contacting me now is that for some reason my little blog post is bothering your company. You should provide good customer service all the time, not just when there is something publicized. (Although I hardly call this publicized… this post would have been long buried had people from AB not kept it alive.)
I stand by my story – the facts are that for two years in a row we did not receive our order on time as promised. The facts are that the last time this happened, the CSR we spoke with did not handle the situation as we felt they should. All these things can be attributed to a “bad day,” but the facts remain as they are.
Again, I have no quibble with the quality of the product, just the customer service issues when there is a problem. Again, thank you for your effort to discuss the problem, but frankly I don’t see the point of it now.
I understand your frustration, but I would really appreciate the opportunity to have a candid conversation (off-line) with you.
Additionally, I would like to gather your order information so that i can examine and diagnose the delivery issues you experienced so as to prevent situations like this from occuring again. Currently, I do not have enough information to locate your customer profile and trace your orders.
Thank you for kindly removing my contact information from the public forum, but I hope that you use it to contact me soon.
Hmmm – I just ran across this review in Yelp. Sound familiar?
http://www.yelp.com/biz/allen-brothers-chicago
“My experience was incredibly unpleasant. No returned phone calls nor returned emails regarding an order. 800 # on site is NOT for customer service and when you call the posted # they tell you to call CS and simply hang up. When I finally got through to CS they told me they had not shipped my order “because it dd not get put on the truck”. Whnen I asked why that was i got the line repeated back to me. The solution they offered was to simply cancel the order. Stay away as they may have good prodcuts but the service is awful”
Nice job Tiff. Great information, especially when you found out that AB was the one trying to deface your comments (Applause).
AB, really? Is that your answer to a complaint? Tell your office personnel to respond “Anonymously”? Laughable!
I had the displeasure of doing customer service for several construction companies/builders in my life, and no matter what the situation, I could never imagine stooping as low as that.
Anyway, Tiff did say the product is great. That is a compliment that you didn’t deserve because a product is only great if it is available to the public.
BobNoxious
Incredible, I had the EXACT same problem with AB and their response from customer svc (o spoke to the Mike from AB on this blog that appears interested in resolving this!). My experience with AB was identical. I ordered it to be delivered on the 23rd and followed the online directions precisely. It showed a day late and dinner was completely derailed. I had a $200 bottle of wine delivered from CA to TX and they messed up the steak order. If AB knows they’re overwhelmed dyeing the holidays they should take it upon themselves to take measures of correction/prevention. I called to complain and the very Mike that is on this blog offered me $9 in return (a delivery fee u had paid). I returned the favor by posting a negative comment online elsewhere to be sure it could be found. AB is good, but they certainly aren’t the only show around. An above comment suggested an option and Omaha is excellent as well. Both Mike and AB had best get their act together. It only takes me once to learn my lesson.
Just getting around to reading these comments, years later, but if anyone finds this site, I want to point out that any idiot should know that you do not order something, and completely expect it to arrive one, or two day before Christmas. There are so many packages going out, anything is possible. Weather, the package was misplaced, or just put on the back burner because of the season. This is not the shippers fault. It is the shipping companies fault. That is why you should never 100% expect a package to arrive right at Christmas. Now the 2nd order sounds like AB messed up, if all this is true to begin with. SO far, I’ve never had a problem with AB, ever, but then again, I do not order from them and ask for Christmas delivery.
Well, Rob. Since you are “just getting around to reading the comments years later,” any idiot would know to read through all the comments and realize that I am not the only one who had a problem. And, why should I not believe that the items can be ordered and delivered in a timely manner, even a few days before Christmas, when they state on their website that they can? And, we are in Chicago, and so is AB.
So, you can take your condescending attitude and stick it in the freezer with your AB steaks. Have a nice day!
Haha Irony I saw them on a cooking show was gonna order and their web site is down. These people are clowns.
I have to say I have been ordering AB steaks for years. I place an order with AB all the time and never had a problem. Once you eat another steak you will always return to AB. Thank you AB for a great steak.
I ordered sausages and beef ribs because there was an offer of 6 5 0z. filets and 4 rib-eye steaks ($149 value). I spent $149 for what I bought. The ribs were chewy, inedible. Allen Bros. sent me a $50 gift certificate. I still have 3 packages of ribs we can’t eat. Tonight we tried the filets and they were chewy and inedible as well. After years of buying from Allen Brothers we are done and will not frequent restaurants who serve their meat.
thanks i was just about to drop a couple hundred bucks at AB tonight…
Have you ever considered ordering from Lobel’s of New York? They over even better quality steaks than Allen Brothers, but with superior customer service. I have never had a bad experience with them, and when my brother did have a problem with their shipping they were more than happy to refund the purchase and give him the steaks for free.
way disaapointing- the meatloaf was a lb vs advertised weight of 2 and the red velvet cake weighed in at 2 and 1/2 lbs vs 5 lbs as advertised. stay away-
poor customer service
Disappointed with them too. We order a dinner ham for this years Christmas and it didn’t show up. When contacting them they gave me a UPS tracking number which UPS showed never being delivered. Allen Bros just said, “sorry and do I want a refund”, not much customer service here.
Bye bye, Allen Bros.
Found this while searching for AB reviews. I’m a little leery of the company after reading everything and will stick with Omaha. Thanks.
I had a similar situation happen with an order from amazon.com… it wasn’t a food product, but an order I paid money for nonetheless. We have a very very “small town” post office that, if I were a private detective & a novelist, I would start a stake out and bet my life that they have an employee with sticky fingers. THAT SAID… I tracked my order right to the post office, where it stated it was “scanned” as “received”. The next step in the process is “out for delivery”, and the final step being indicated on the tracking system as “Delivered”, with the time & date. Well, my Pfister shower-head made it as far as the post office. Ok – the post office is the size of a 1 car garage (seriously). WHERE did it go? They scanned it – but now they can’t FIND it?? They came up with all sorts of scenarios as to where it could be. Anyway – my point: If an ice cold box marked “Allen Brothers” suddenly disappears — guess what? Someone on its path to your grill decided they needed it more. Thankfully in my case, amazon.com not only cheerfully sent me another shower head, which arrived in almost less than 2 days, they told me that THEY would deal with my post office and for me not to worry about it. INCREDIBLE customer service. So THIS is where Allen Brothers is going wrong — response from them should have been IMMEDIATE, and cheerful, and they should take up the loss with their postal service.
Did you ever consider that at Christmas time, when delivery folks are working very hard, they may consider a Christmas present for themselves?
I got a free shipping offer in the mail yesterday. Placed 500 dollars worth of items in my cart and they tried to charge me shipping. I called and they basically blew me off and told me to call customer service on Monday. Wasted an hour out of my day try to give a company money! Fucking Idiots!
I ordered from their website for delivery yesterday – the package didn’t arrive. When I called customer service I was placed on hold for 25 minutes! Once they answered the phone I was told the free item I choose was out of stock. The free item delayed my shipment! No one called to ask if I would take something else! The free item was Burgers. How do you run out of burgers?
I asked when it would ship, and was told that because it is Friday they would ship until Monday next week, meaning the package would arrive until Wednesday next week almost a full week after it should of delivered. What happened to Saturday delivery? I honestly live less then 20 miles from the place, next day Saturday is an option when I try to check out… The order was for almost a thousand dollars, someone could of delivered this on their way home from work.
Guess caring about its customers passed at the same time as Bobby did. Wonder if the restaurants they serve are having the same problems – I did notice that most of the major Chicago steak houses are no longer listed on the website as partners.
I ordered some roasts, at the recommendation of some friends, to have for Christmas dinner, but they did not ship the roasts until after they were supposed to arrive. Their customer service told me they had shipped the raosts and that UPS had them, but I later discovered that they were not shipped per what Allen said, they lied. Will advise all my friends to avoid using them in the future!
This is my FIRST on line review of ANY company or product and ALLEN BROTHERS
service is SO BAD I am writing a review on Christmas EVE 2013 at 6:30 pm for
NONE of my more than !000$ order has shown up for our Christmas EVE meal
Never mind I called six times–and spoke to six people, the one whom I find the most
interesting is the service person who told me ” no matter how many times I called
to check the progress of my order–it would not change the answer on their end”
The answer on their end–Its ON A UPS TRUCK—
They tracked it a few places then said that was the LAST info they had and
THEY–who contorted UPS to bring my 1500$ meat to me—
had NO way of tracking the order–through THEIR delivery system–UPS.
I WISH I had READ the online complaints BEFORE I ordered their meat
FOR it does not matter how good it might taste—their service is non-existent
to borderline uncaring.
They promised the moon when I placed the order–and delivered nothing
DO NOT GIVE THIS COMPANY YOUR BUSINESS
FIND A GOOD FMAILY OUT THERE WITH GOOD MEATS AND TAKE YOUR BUSINESS
TO SOMEONE WHO NEEDS THE BUSINESS AND WILL CARE ABOUT THE CUSTOMER
Good evening
Unbelievable
My order did NOT arrive as promised on Christmas Eve for our dinner
and I just called at 9pm CA time to CANCEL the order and customer service
told me how sorry they were than they could NOT do that—–
only ordering could do that and they return on Monday—-
This company is just this side of THEFT
I can’t say enough about how they FOOLED me when I placed the order–into
thinking they were going to take great care of me, get my order to me NO problems,
guaranteed morning delivery and NOTHING showed, NO matter how many times
I tried to TRACK the order with their shipping number–NOTHING was available
exept ” its in route on a truck”
Seems the theme on several of these complaints is—they will take an order and our
money and they DO NOT DELIVER and not only do theyNOT deliver, their
customer service people are useless–with canned response and NO service
In the future contact your credit card company fraud department. They will take care of this for you.
I order about 3,00.00 worth of allen brother steaks and other products every year for last 5 years and they never had a missed delivery yet and my one only problem was rectified immediately with no problems and no charge.Are we talking about the same Allen Brothers prime steaks?
Perhaps you should read the rest of the comments on this thread and see that not everyone has the same stellar experience that you have. Otherwise, it would be pretty quiet on this thread, wouldn’t it?
Just placed order for my 4th year straight. Ordered prime beef assortment for my employees at $450 ea with 2.5 weeks to go before the Christmas holiday. Nothing delivered as of Christmas Eve and here I sit after 3 calls, 2 emails and 3 social media posts. They actually blamed UPS, despite the fact that the confirmed the steaks have not left Allen Bros shipping dock yet. Will never order from this over priced, horrible customer service debacle. Absolute embarrassment!
On 12/17/14 we made a $364.00 order to be delivered to my Boss on 12/23/14.
On 1/13/15 (almost a month later), I called to make sure it was delivered as I hadn’t heard anything about the carcass from my boss. No return call. So, I called again today (the 14th). They said it didn’t ship. They didn’t realize that because “the order was made on line”. WHAT? But hey, they were willing to ship it out today. I told them no thank you. But, even more importantly, I have to wonder what would have happened had I not called. There was no contact with me and no credit to my card. Were they just going to keep my money? Screw me once…never again.
I ran across this, interesting I was about to order.. I can’t even get on the web site…Anyone know what is up with that? I certainly would be worried as to order for a special event. I wanted to do Top notch steaks for a client… now not sure if I can afford the disappointment if they fail to deliver….is Chicago Steaks as good? I used them no issues, great packaging… but no idea if they are better?