Retailer Issue - Resolved

UPDATE (copied from later in thread):

I’m pleased to say that I’ve now heard back from PJ Wine, and this situation is being resolved.

For anyone who reads this thread in the future, I will repeat what I said above: I have no reason to think this was anything more than an isolated incident, and my experiences with the store in the past have been fine (and their selection and pricing can be exceptional). I will now add that this particular incident is being resolved fairly, and to my satisfaction.

Thank you.

Some of you might recall that I have posted threads on several occasions to recognize retailers for exceptional service. Unfortunately, I’m now posting to share a different type of experience.

Last year I placed an order with PJ Wine (http://www.pjwine.com) that included a variety of Lopez de Heredia wines, among others. All of the LdH wines arrived in questionable condition. The gold netting was snapped; the capsules were nicked, torn, etc; the bottles were dirty. One bottle, a '94 Tondonia Gran Reserva, was especially bad. The wax capsule was broken and nearly half-missing; the bottle was so filthy it felt gritty to the touch; and the fill was down below the neck. (Photos below.)

I reported this to the store by phone and email. After multiple contacts went unanswered, I finally connected with a wine manager. (I won’t name him here, as that seems unnecessary.) I explained the bottles’ conditions and, thinking I was being reasonable, explained that I would keep all the bottles except the Tondonia GR. I asked to return it for a refund and sent photos. The wine manager told me that LdH wines are dirty due to storage conditions at the winery and that the fill level looked “pretty good comparatively speaking.” In any event, he agreed to address the situation with that bottle.

Rather than a refund, he encouraged me to keep the bottle and accept a deal that included a discount on a future order and some wines at “cost.” (I won’t give specifics here, so the store doesn’t get held to a standard for others’ problem orders.) I agreed and selected my wines and sent my order, including payment information, and asked to hold delivery for warmer weather. The value of the discount and the “cost” prices were not specified, so I waited for an invoice to review. That was in late November. Since then:

December 3 - Unanswered email from me to the wine manager, to check status

December 8 - Unanswered email from me to the wine manager, to check status

December 19 - Unanswered email from me to the wine manager, stating: “I’ve been asking for completion of this process, including an invoice reflecting the charges and discounts, for nearly a month. This is starting to alarm me. Please address it and respond. Thank you.”

December 21 - Email from me to the store’s general email account, copying the wine manager, stating: “Can somebody else please contact me to follow up on this? Thank you.”

December 21 (same day) - Email response to me from the wine manager: “My apologies, I’ve been out of the office for a short while. I will make sure to finalize this tomorrow.”

[Nothing further happened. I waited out the holidays, assuming they were busy.]

January 20 - Email from me to the wine manager, copying the store, expressing concern that another month had passed without action, noting my future business is doubtful, and that I have begun advising other wine buyers of the situation.

January 20 - Response to me from the wine manager: “I’m disturbed to find out that the refund was never processed. I will be contacting you tomorrow to confirm the refund. We had agreed to wait to ship until warmer weather, correct?”

January 20 - My reply: “What refund? I haven’t received an order confirmation, let alone any information related to a refund. I haven’t even received an indication of the charges. You’ve told me you would sell the wines for cost and add a discount related to the prior order; you haven’t told me the prices associated with ‘cost’ or what the discount will be. I have been asking for an invoice showing these amounts, and the order to be processed, since November. This isn’t the way I do business – I really would appreciate communication of information related to what I’m ordering/paying. Please address this ASAP. Thank you.”

That is where this stands. “Tomorrow” came and went again, with no communication.

I am still hopeful that the store makes this right. If so, I will of course update this thread. For now, I’ve become sufficiently concerned to share this information.

I am sending the link to this thread in another email to PJ Wine today. If anything I’ve described is inaccurate, they can correct me. I tried to be as neutral and fair as possible in the description above.

Other experiences with the store have been fine, so I’m hopeful this is an isolated misadventure. They have an exceptional selection of Spanish wines, so I would prefer to remain a customer.

I’m not diving into your back-and-forth with the store employees, but they are right that Lopez GR’s come with a wide range of fills (the pic you posted is not at all unusual) and the wax will crack if you look at it funny. I don’t let low fills deter me from the wines, although obviously I try to grab the better fills and color if I am in a store and have a bunch to choose from.

I do remember them being great for Spanish wines, when I lived there.

Hope you get it sorted out, and sorry to hear that it had to get escalated to the board.

I have relatively limited experience, but I’ve received better fills for other bottles. On the whole, I would not have taken this particular bottle from a shelf; that is why I asked to return it but agreed to keep all the others. Regardless, my concern is not with the condition of the bottle at this point. I would have been fine returning it for a refund; I only agreed to the alternative because the store asked me to do so. Now I just want that bargain to be upheld.

I’ll also say that they have good pricing. Almost always at or near market-low, at least on Spanish wines. Overall a good shop.

Sorry your having problems
I’ve had favorable experience with them in the past, on several occassions.

C’mon man, quit yer bi*chin. These wines are 20 years old! Wax capsules break. Wires get snapped. Fills get low (as Keith has pointed out). Dirt accumulates. I’d say they are fine. Put a log on the fire, En-Joy, and Reelax.

I visited PJs on a Saturday afternoon once and had one of the biggest credit card frauds in our finacial history on Monday morning. The CC people told us it had originated there. I am just saying.

I have been buying an average of seven cases per year from PJ over the last four years. Their pricing has been good and their selection of Rioja is as good or better than anyone. Although there have been several shipping screw-ups on their part, I have never had a problem with the condition of any bottle. Customer service has been sub par at best and it is rare that I get a call back from a voice mail I left or a prompt response to an email. I grudgingly put up with it because they have what I want at a price I am willing to pay.

I hope they resolve the issues, getting the run around like that can be maddening.

I buy from PJs, but I don’t buy older stuff from them (unless late release) as the storage conditions are subpar. I don’t expect a shop to keep the whole store at 55 degrees but I’ve been in the shop on a hot summer’s day when it was definitely over 80 degrees inside. And plenty of the older Spanish stock is kept on the retailer floor. That said, my last time at the shop during the summer was about 6 years ago, so hopefully they’ve upgraded their conditions since then.

1. Bad customer service, even though it was the holidays, their busiest time of the year, they should have at least responded to your e-mails and given you a better, more comfortable outlook.

That being said, this is a pretty prominent store, and I don’t think what happened here warrants airing the dirty laundry in public. You know damn well they will take care of the situation.

PJ Wine has given me excellent service in the past, and every wine I’ve bought from there (and there have been many) has been sound. YMMV, of course, and the quality of customer service can be uneven, but then again, they are frequently the lowest price in NYC for the bottles that Berserkers are interested in.

I buy from PJs, a max of 2 cases per year comprising of 90% recent-vintage, current-drinker stuff and the rest are the older/mature wines. I’ve not had any reason to complain about the wines, even the mature ones. Plus, I’ve had good customer service experiences, albeit very rarely needed.

However, the 1994 LdH Tondonia GR that is pictured above is in-excusable, as far as I am concerned. I don’t buy the “it’s old 20-year year old wine” reasoning, nor about the winery condition that caused the bottle to be the way it is. I may be wrong but I believe that the ’94 GRs are the current releases, which I visited twice over the last 3 years and which they sell (provide for tastings) all the current releases at their winery in Haro, and every bottle that I see on display were immaculately clean and pristine. Even the current-release ones that were laying in the very, very old bodega when I toured were clean looking. Last year, I decided to purchase a bottle of a 1990 Tondonia GR Blanco and the lady who was attending to me did not like the look of the bottle that was brought in from the bodega as it had a slight smudge (negligible to me) on the back label and was apologetic to me as I had to wait 2 more minutes for somebody to bring in a more pristine bottle.

I’ve bought some ‘94s from PJs 2 years ago, and each one was in good-clean condition. The pictured one really looks very bad relative to all other ‘94s that I’ve come upon.

I’m pleased to say that I’ve now heard back from PJ Wine, and this situation is being resolved.

For anyone who reads this thread in the future, I will repeat what I said above: I have no reason to think this was anything more than an isolated incident, and my experiences with the store in the past have been fine (and their selection and pricing can be exceptional). I will now add that this particular incident is being resolved fairly, and to my satisfaction.

Thank you.

It would help to change the title now, and add this last bit into the first post

Good suggestion. Done.