A couple of years ago I ordered a few bottles of Marquis Murietta Ygay Gran Riserva from K&L. The next day Wine Exchange sent an offer at $10 less per bottle. I called K&L and they honored Winex’s price adding that they cannot always price match, but in this case they could. I think their shipping can be somewhat complicated if in a time crunch, given several geographically separated locations with different inventory. Beyond that I’ve had nothing but great service at K&L. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
Wow, never checked this thread until yesterday. A lot of judgment here. As I re-read my text, perhaps some is deserved, but no one actually answered my question - whether anyone has experienced any issues with Grand Cru. I took K&L’s response to mean that there was something wrong with Grand Cru.
FWIW Later that day, I called and spoke with the K&L manager. He was very kind and agreed to cancel my order. I have since made other purchases at K&L and hold no grudge against them.
As for price checking, I did same before purchasing. When I bought from K&L, they were one of only 2 offering it, and they were the cheapest. 2 weeks later, after there was the announcement that the 2012 vintage was not selling well, they were one of the highest. I had previously tried reaching K&L several different ways, and they didn’t respond to me at all. Given they had no product to ship to me at that time, and had likely incurred no cost in “reserving” 2 bottles for me, I felt it was ok to ask for a price match. I found the salesperson to be rude, but re-reading my own writing, she probably read my responses that way as well.
Not that this has any bearing on K&L, but I am especially leery of buying futures from companies with whom I’ve not done any real business. About a decade ago, when I purchased several cases of wine on futures at Zachy’s, and they didn’t deliver 1/2 of it; and, despite e-mails and calls to managers, I only received the answer that they “did not have my wine,” and would refund the money they had been holding for ~ 2 years as my sole remedy. After I threatened to go buy it on the open market for the 50% increase and charge them for the difference, the wine magically was shipped to me 2 days later (apparently they did have it). Futures receipts and websites often state that the merchant has no liability if they can’t deliver the wines on futures.
Additionally, I was unsure whether K&L was all that reputable. Given that they were bashing a competitor, and given further my prior experience (with Zachy’s) and what I considered to be the customer service rep’s attitude (in addition to their complete failure to get back to my ims and emails), I came here.
While quite a few people did offer unsolicited, but constructive, suggestions to my situation (cancel the order), and others let me know that K&L was, in fact, a legitimate company, the rest seemed bent on judging me. So be it, but I’m not sure what you intended to accomplish other than making yourself feel better somehow, and me worse. In any case, thanks to those of you who tried to help/have constructive advice.
Posted April 26, checked on responses November 14.
Wow.
Yep, completely forgot about the post, not to mention the fact that posting online is not an avocation of mine.
Then maybe in the future you should refrain from making drive-by posts on popular message boards slamming companies if you have no intention of participating in the storm you created.
Maybe you should stop being so judgmental. I meant to check in shortly thereafter, but you have no idea what my life circumstances were since then. This is a wine board for giving and receiving (theoretically) useful information. It’s not where I chose to spend the greater part of my life. Even if I had checked in, it wouldn’t change the fact that unhelpful venting abounded in the responses.
Bill, stop digging. That is all. Good luck with your future message board endeavors.
I don’t read the k&l saleswoman’s comments as the least bit rude. She simply stood her ground. I also don’t see where she slammed a competitor. I read that she hadn’t heard of some of them and wasn’t willing to do what others do in order to make a sale, which is her perogative.
On the other hand, I read your comment that you don’t value k&l’s reputation as much as the salesperson does as needlessly argumentative.
She said what she was and wasn’t willing to do and why.
You simply received an answer you didn’t like.
The fact that you didn’t like it doesn’t make it rude.
Finally, your trying to assert your authority based on your being the customer was also unfounded. Being a customer doesn’t entitle you to set policies or prices for a company.
Being a customer entitles you to shop around before you purchase.
You had already exhausted your prerogatives.
Only polite option you had was to kindly ask for a refund, but here you are asking about Premier Cru and I can tell you they don’t give refunds after a purchase.
Basically, she told you she felt K&L was entitled to a premium because they have a good reputation, which they do. I see nothing rude in that. I just see it as inconvenient for you.
Bill, I think you mean Premier Cru. You can do a search on this site and you will find plenty of threads with strong opinions one way or the other on them. The short answer is that they have great prices but often very long delivery times. Most people seem to agree that you eventually get your wine (there are some exceptions which usually result in store credit). That is my experience, though in some cases it was quite frustrating calling every few months for literally years and being told that the wine would be there in a few months. Some people worry about the condition of the wines (as in “where were they stored during all that time?”) but personally I’ve never had a problem with it. In terms of reputation I would say they are on the shady end of reliable range.
K&L is pretty much at the top end of the reliable scale with customer service to match. I went in there this month having bought six bottles of a cheap Bourgogne and the guy who brought it out of storage said, “you’re going to drink one bottle of this and bring it back” and talked me out of taking it. Another time one of their people found some evidence of leakage/spillage on a bottle of 2009 Bordeaux and suggested I not to take any of the bottles from that case (even though we agreed it didn’t look like heat damage). He asked me to wait a week until another shipment came in.
Here is some helpful advice:
Never throw this line out there…for any reason.