A group of us had an odd interaction today with the Wine Cellar Club in irvine.
We’ve been holding tastings here for several years, and had a Champagne tasting scheduled for today. Unfortunately, the tasting got interrupted early on by Felicia who asked one of our guests to leave the premises, based upon his Yelp review (authored two years ago) praising the merits of a competing local wine storage facility. We were more than a little surprised. How the hell did someone even know WHO was here at our tasting, much less single them out? Apparently, we were being monitored on their ceiling-mounted camera(s) - and they recognized someone they considered undesirable.
“Please leave,” one of our guests was told, “you’re not welcome in our house.” Asking our friend to leave not only seemed like a poor business decision on their part, it also seemed petty and an egregious effort to screen our invitation list. We considered this unacceptable, and decided to vacate their premises for a more friendly and hospitable venue - Legend Cellars.
Having seen and heard about other interactions of this sort, I will personally never visit this facility again. Their narrow-minded business practices and vindictive tactics are appalling.
Eric, sorry to hear about this unusual experience. Agreed that I would have left too. Full disclosure up front that I cellar my wines at Legends. I’ve been to Wine Cellar Club a few times and haven’t had a problem, though I did hear (someone correct me if I’m wrong) that Spectrum stopped doing their tastings there due to issues with the owner too. Now, Spectrum does tastings every so often at Legends.
So based on what you’re saying, they actually ran the names of the people that were going to the event? That does seem a bit crazy.
You left out the part where in his yelp review he states:
“I used to store my wine at the Wine Cellar Club just down the street, but the owner was so insufferable and rude that I just did not feel that my business was welcome there.”
I’m assuming this is your friends yelp review?
Don’t get me wrong, I find it terrible that your friend was kicked out and I don’t blame you for going elsewhere. I would too… But if you make disparaging and negative remarks about someone online, they just might kick you out on the street when you walk in their doors at a later date.
That situation just seems like crazy stuff to me… A couple weeks ago I was at my offsite (Not either location you mention, I’ve never been to either facility nor heard of them before today) and was chatting with the domestic buyer about some wines. Dirty and Rowdy came up and I said, “hey, I have some, have you had it before?.. C’mon!” and I gave him a bottle. It was the least I could do, I enjoy talking wines with the crew there and I figured who else will appreciate it as much?
This should have been a good time for Felicia to try and win back a customer with treating them well. Driving someone away will end up driving most of their business away.
Yep, that’s in part what he said, and he’s certainly entitled to express his opinion. He was, however, OUR guest, not theirs. Since we were not asked to submit our guest list to the owners (which would have been pretty oppressive), how were they able to single out one individual who was not to their liking?
Exactly! The spying was bad enough, but they succeeded in driving away more business.
I think some simply don’t realize what the internet age can do to damage a business, as it is FAR more powerful than some give credit to. Likely those who ‘have run their business this way for 30 years (sic)’ are those who feel that isolated complaints can be dealt with in a way as described above, but oh, no…no they can’t.
It’s pretty sad that Felicia harbors so much resentment after such a long time over a comment buried in another review that is not even about the WCC.
And, it should be noted, that Paul’s comment about the “owner” was not about Felicia (at that time!), but about her husband. And as someone who also used to store at WCC and who is also now at Legend Cellars, I wager that if you asked 5 random individuals at WCC to describe the “owner,” you would get a reply very similar to Paul’s.
Gratefully, Felicia cannot read minds, or a whole lot of other folks would find themselves not welcome at WCC. It is my last time stepping foot in there.
I am always amazed at this time to see how many businesses do not read or care about what is written about them online so they continue to make the same errors that will drive them to bankruptcy. I don’t like Restaurant Impossible and find it to mostly be scripted fraud but one of the few things I have seen on the show(when others have it on) is how clueless owners are to online reviews. Yeah, sometimes a Yelp or Tripadvisor reviewer gets a bug up their butt but when the same thing is said over and over, it is likely to be true.
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