For those of you who used to work with Neil Mechanic, it would appear that he monitors this listserv. While it could be a coincidence, shortly after he was mentioned in this thread I received a blast from him on behalf of his new employer, Invino.
This is not a listserv. Just saying.
Reading a listserv on a VAX… those were the days!
Tracey Rose is great. Highly recommended. After a series of issues with other specialists, she’s made it “all good”.
Ditto. Still waiting on some not terribly expensive 2009 brdx futures. Gave up on seeing the wine a year or two ago. Only place I’ve dealt with over the years that didn’t send the the wine, offer a refund or even a respond to my emails.
Easiest resolution was to chalk it up as a lesson learned and move on.
I just wanted to note that Alex just helped me clear up an issue with a futures order I placed a couple years ago. He was great in handling this and it wasn’t even his snafu to begin with. He was taking over order follow-up from someone else. Just wanted to put in a good word…
I used to use them a lot also. Geoffrey Binder was my rep–always good service, would answer email by end of the same day, never lost anything, always shipped what and when I asked. I’ve moved away from what they tend to stock, and the hold-policy encourages one to overorder, which I am trying to do less. I wouldn’t hesitate recommending them.
I also must say, I’m surprised to hear of people foregoing futures orders that never appeared. Even if not especially expensive, seems absurd to eat those costs. JJB is a huge concern, not some fly by night operation. Assuming proper paper work, they should definitely make that good.
Over the years I’ve been really happy with the promptness and service from Jeff Loo, but they have had several hiccups lately which I think comes from transitioning to a new computer system. The past year has seen lost orders which took many, many e-mails to resolve, giving them 72 hours notice that I’ll be by to pick up an in-stock wine only to have it not ready despite having e-mail confirmation it was, with nobody present capable of resolving such a screw-up, and really nobody willing to go out of their way to help. Ultimately I’m using them a lot less now.
I’ve been very happy with Jeff Loo since I started buying from JJB about five years ago. But I haven’t been buying much from them the past year or so.
I have not seen anything worth buying in a year. I used to have two big loads in the fall/spring but nothing this year. I don’t know why I bother with their emails anymore as I just hit delete.
Sissy Preston, who handles Texas, does a nice job. Very responsive.
I just took delivery of my last two cases of 2010 Bordeaux this past week. While these did take about 6 months longer than the bulk of my orders, everything wound up coming in with no issue.
While I don’t think the screaming deals are as prevalent as they once were, there are still some solid buys to be had. Wines I buy every year are available there and they are usually a few bucks cheaper than the next best option.
I haven’t seen any service hiccup on my end. I know there have been numerous posts in regards to shipping and lost bottles so maybe I’m just lucky. Alex Shaw has been great, answering all pricing questions very quickly and organizing pickup for my wines with no issue. I’d imagine JJB will get most of my wine buying dollars this year and continuing on into the future.
Ian has also left JJB so I am back for more suggestions.
As Tyler notes above, Alex Shaw is great.
Cheers,
Warren
I’ve been happy with Geoffrey Binder since I switched to him.
JJB has been courting me, and I have a new wine specialist who I find very personable, and he’s ON IT in a good way. How are we feeling about them as a retailer these days after some rocky months/years? I’m thinking of buying some futures from them, but am curious if people are still feeling cautious about them.
There remains some disconnect between what happens in the shipping/warehouse, versus what happens in sales or on the web. And kind of incredibly, in an omni channel sales world, once you get set up with a sales specialist, ordering over the web becomes complicated/screwed up etc. Most of the time, its good form to send their orders to their JJB sales coverage, but as others have noted, sometimes items in low supply aren’t around by the time the sales guy gets the order inputed. My error rate for pickups is material enough that I don’t have family/others do pickups - every order needs to be tied out to the manifest, which makes pickups take a long time. Obviously not a salespersons issue, but just a generic issue to be aware of.
All that being said, I like the spectrum of their Old World selections, and their hold policies. That is a big plus (for me) in dealing with them. Other places struggle with ship & hold (or hold til pickup) but JJB seems to accept that as part of the cost of the warehouse/internet wine sales model.
If you are getting stuff in person from their warehouse, its worth spending the 1.5 hours to get Indian food at Masala, about 5 min away. http://www.yelp.com/biz/masala-cuisine-oakland
All that reminds me I owe an email to my guy there to fix an old problem, and maybe order some new stuff.
So what exactly is a rep? How do they differ from any sales person in any store?
How real is private client pricing? In other words, do all the reps send out that same “special” offer, in which case it’s pretty much the same as WL or Winex or Grapes or RWC sending out an e-mail blast?
And what if you’re not particularly interested in responding to daily sales pitches for wines you have no interest in? Do you get screwed if you go to their website rather than get a pitch from your rep?
So what does a wine specialist actaully do? Seems like a question for the Bobs…
I’ll second that recommendation for Tracey. Zero problems, plenty of requests by me that are answered more than promptly by her. I met her at JJ and she is so pleasant and positive. Highly recommend.
If I see something I want to buy on their site, I e-mail my rep. Often he gets me a better price. Other than that, I’d guess the e-mail blasts are not unique to the rep. The sales pitch is tiresome, but easy enough to delete.