No, Brady, you are wrong about that. I am neither speculating nor judging. i am saying that Kyle Smith owes his clients an explanation. Some of us, myself included, have bought wine from the Smith family for over a decade (probably two for me at this point). I bought wine from both Paul and Kyle at Woodland Hills. We KNOW that Kyle left the family business, but we do not know why, at least on a collective basis. We KNOW that Kyle went to work for an outfit called AOC Imports a very short time ago, and now he is gone, with the news of his departure coming not from Kyle, but in a terse, very ominously worded letter which dwells on payment methods and details having to do with outstanding orders that were presumably placed with Kyle. It was not a happy sendoff letter.
I wish Kyle nothing but the best, and hope that whatever is going on here is satisfactorily resolved for all concerned. However, enough board members have been screwed by enough retailers over the years that fearing the worst and being pleasantly surprised is the best that wine buyers can ever hope for when it hits the fan. If you prefer blissful ignorance to pressing for facts, you are welcome to it. I have no skin in the AOC Imports game, so I will go pop some popcorn and watch this movie unfold, although I suspect that I have seen it before. I am confident that others on this board do have pending orders placed with Kyle at AOC Imports, and do want to know what is going on here…
Weird - I received the second letter (about Kyle no longer being employed there) but not the first. I signed up a couple of months ago but never received any e-mail offers. Oh well, my bank account’s happy about it!
Kyle worked with Holly and AOC while he was at WHWC; then they bought a house together; then with WHWC’s rolodex in tow, he went to work at AOC, from which he was publicly terminated after a few months.
That termination sure must make things awkward at home.
Also, Brent left WHWC in late May, to sell inflatable boats. Related? Coincidence?
So a guy leaves his family business for a new business & starts sending emails from the new business to addresses he acquired during his stint working for the family business. A few months later, he sends an email claiming a broken server is preventing emails from being answered, so customers should remain calm & send any inquiries to his personal email address. What follows is an email from the owner of the business, who is/was this guy’s girlfriend, stating that he no longer works for her company & that all emails are to be directed to her.
You’re right on Brady. Nothing to see here, that’s for sure. It’s just a bunch of folks poking their noses in where they don’t belong. Everyone should mind their own business & avoid commenting on the goings on at AOC Imports. There has never been a wine business that has imploded & left consumers holding the proverbial bag so we should all just move along.
I received the email from Holly today out of the blue. I had never previously received anything from Kyle or AOC Imports; I did not even know they existed. I only recently started buying wine from WHWC, although my wine has not shipped yet. If Kyle left WHWC last year, I’m not sure how AOC Imports even got my email address.
The mail just showed up in my box also. I’ve never dealt with them other than as the importer of the 2009 Maison Ilan wines. That was a bit rocky, but I got my wine in seemingly good shape. When I saw the initial AOC/Kyle Smith e-mail several months ago I was hoping for a reliable source of Burgundy. Maybe not.
I’ve ordered twice from WHWC, both times last year. I have never done any business with AOC. Today, I got the e-mail from Holly, the first e-mail I’ve ever gotten from AOC, no e-mails have come on the matter from Kyle. The only e-mail I have ever gotten from Kyle was a promotional e-mail in January while he was still with WHWC.
So, regardless of what else has happened, at the end of the day AOC is in possession of at least part of WHWC’s e-mail list. I realize that this is not surprising, nevertheless I’m not thrilled about my e-mail address being tossed around like that. Yes, I know this happens all the time, but when it is this obvious and clumsy it makes me wonder how all involved are handling the more sensitive information.
I got the email today as well. I have never heard of AOC imports before that email. That whole things seems beyond shady. You could sense her anger in the email. Weird.
whatever happened between Kyle & WHWC, and Kyle and AOC (and Holly?), it surely hasn’t been elegantly handled. they’d be wise to come clean and cut the obfuscation, especially as some pending orders are hanging out there surely at this time of year.
Holly’s email was in my spam folder. I got both. Very strange. Add me to the chorus who thinks that someone needs to explain what is going on to assuage the fears of the Burg-soaked masses.
I thought it was odd back when I got the first AOC email offer from Kyle. Wondered how they’d gotten my name until I realized it was the same Kyle from WHWC.
Really glad I ignored email offers now, considering the disaster it appears to have become.
Must say that I enjoyed this “I can assure you that your business is important to me and AOC Imports will continue to provide you with good customer service.” in the email from Holly and wondered when exactly the ‘good’ customer service was delivered that could be continued?
I thought hard about the Felettig offer from AOC a month or so ago since Kyle was offering the '10 and whwc doesn’t have any of that vintage, but checked here first and they didn’t seem to have a track record, so I passed - glad I did! Didn’t get the first email from Kyle, but did get Holly’s email today. Crazy stuff.
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