Weird Customer Service Experience

[Mike_Cohen]

I think you asked them to reserve the wine for you…you didn’t buy the wine.

Seinfeld - Car Reservation

[Victor_Hong]

@Mike Cohen

I think you asked them to reserve the wine for you…you didn’t buy the wine.

Seinfeld - Car Reservation - YouTube

When do we start a thread on Weird Customer-Servicing Experience?

[Markus_S]

@Bruce Leiser_owitz

For some retailers, the idea of having to hold a bottle or two here and there until you finally fill up a case for shipping is more trouble than its worth. Lots of variables here–how large the store is, how many different bottles they carry, space available to store wine for months, concern about misplacing wines you’ve ordered, etc. It wouldn’t surprise me that some retailers would conclude that a customer like you isn’t worth the trouble in terms of how they manage staff and storage space.

Bruce

And then there are some retailers (who shall be nameless, but one where Berserkers buy from) who will take your money for wine that won’t ship out for nearly another year and then when it comes time to ship, conveniently finds those bottles were smashed in the warehouse.

[John_Morris]

@A.Altman

@rfelthoven

Adam – I agree they shut you down and that’s unfortunate, but I wouldn’t call the decision “super bizarre” and certainly not the “most unacceptable and frankly bizarre customer service experience I have ever” heard about. I would just let this one go. For what it’s worth, I know small-ish wine retailers who will hold bottles for shipping for me but I know that’s not going to fly with all retailers. Just find someone who doesn’t mind doing this and give them your cash.

The phone conversation was what made it super bizarre, when the owner started talking about data mining and insinuated that my intent for asking questions had some sort of weird intentions. They just came off as paranoid and just not right.

Reading that, I wonder if he suspected you were a competitor fishing for info on his prices and inventory. It’s odd for someone in another state to be asking about a bottle here and there and then not ordering, and then ordering a couple of bottles. It might have raised flags.

[Clint_S_Q_U_I_E_R]

There is no mystery. The retailer is passing on a guy who has taken nearly a year to pull the trigger on 4 inexpensive bottles with a requirement he be allowed additional time to buy 8 more at the store’s effort to track and store.

Adam, you sound like a well intentioned person and I don’t mean offense, but the retailer isn’t under any obligation to provide the most efficient economic path for you to buy wine, which is obviously your goal. Wise man once said, shit or get off the pot.

[Bruce_Leiser_owitz]

@A.Altman

@Bruce Leiser_owitz

For some retailers, the idea of having to hold a bottle or two here and there until you finally fill up a case for shipping is more trouble than its worth. Lots of variables here–how large the store is, how many different bottles they carry, space available to store wine for months, concern about misplacing wines you’ve ordered, etc. It wouldn’t surprise me that some retailers would conclude that a customer like you isn’t worth the trouble in terms of how they manage staff and storage space.

Bruce

Which would have been totally understandable and I would have had zero problems with. But issues with limited space and staffing in never came into the conversation. The issue they had was with taking time to answer the above questions and a weird paranoia about data mining.

Only the retailer in question knows the exact reason or reasons why they declined to do business with you. But given how you’ve described your interactions with them, most people don’t seem surprised
by their decision.

Bruce

[SteveG]

FWIW, my policy as a customer is this:

If a vendor is in the business of “building” cases because they sell pre-arrival wines, or because they only ship seasonally (Fass, Garagiste…), then I feel free to order as I go, and if wine and/or shipping season arrives while I still have a partial case, I will ask what they have in stock to fill it, and order from those.

For normal stores, if I prefer shipping whole cases (which I almost invariably do), then that is what I order, solid or mixed. The only times I have asked a vendor to wait for me to fill a case is if they cannot fill my case as ordered (because they are short of something I ordered), and then i will fill it from their stock within 24 hours. I have never received any complaints about this, nor do I have any myself.

[John_Davis]

Customers get fired more than some might think-even in the grocery business. Not very common but at some point retailers just get tired. Right or not, good or bad for them but it sounds like they just decided the sale, or possible sale, wasn’t worth the effort. And, of course, they could be wrong in the long run.

JD

[Jay_Miller]

And that’s not to say that you did anything wrong. Neither of you did.

[Martin_Steinley]

@A.Altman

Both times I spaced on the placing the order

(and it’s not the typo)

[terrance.c]

wow - to some of the responses here.

[Dennis_Borczon]

@Randy Bowman

We had a person who used to call and talk to Carrie for up to an hour. At one point he would call once a week. Questions started out about various wines, wine makers and growing regions. Then one day he showed up at the shop and talked with Carrie for an hour or more, with the conversation moving towards how he could get into wine making and asking for introductions and/or wineries he could intern with. That’s how we met Ray Walker.

Wow, this is the best comment in the thread. “of all the gin joints in all the places in all the world, and he has to walk into mine” Apologies to Humphrey Bogart.
Awesome story.

[David_Glasser]

Totally unrelated to the type of experience in the OP, but here’s my weirdest customer service experience.

[Richard_Albert]

After decades in retail…

Their prices are great and you asked about an additional discount–cutting into their already reduced profits. Strike one
You asked for a multiple part order which means they have to set aside and keep track of a few bottles at a time at busy time of year. Strike two
You asked if they can get you another wine from producer X which means time for most probably multiple calls back and forth to a wholesaler to check availablility for a client with many more questions than purchases. Strike three
There is an unnecessary time and effort factor to process multiple small charges and keep track of the paperwork at a busy time of year from their point of view as well. There is no strike four, you’re out!

In the future, i suggest you buy a case all at once, then ask for a discount, especially at stores with reduced pricing.
You may also want to consider ordering earlier in the Fall so you can ship via ground safely for about half the price of two day air.

[Scott_Everson]

Holy shit Randy that’s a funny story.

I think the inundation of emails in our society creates a stress response among a lot of people, especially in older folks who weren’t raised with computers and who can only type a few dozen words per minute. I bet if you had called them it would have been a different story.

And what do you mean you ‘spaced’ on placing the order? Everyone here is a professional alcoholic. Either you wanted the wine or you didn’t. No one messes around.

[scott_davis]

@Scott Everson

Everyone here is a professional alcoholic.

I’m an unprofessional alcoholic.

[Martin_Steinley]

@Scott Everson

And what do you mean you ‘spaced’ on placing the order? Everyone here is a professional alcoholic. Either you wanted the wine or you didn’t. No one messes around.

Exactly. Anyone reading carefully called “bullshit” at the second sentence. There were good reasons for the retailer not dealing with him and even more now.

Edited for typo.

[Glenn_L_e_v_i_n_e]

Lol, I space on buying wine I want all the time.

[S_Stevenson]

@Michael Martin

As a business owner I can tell that sometimes you have to fire a customer. He had his reasons, right or wrong, but he decided that you weren’t worth the effort.

This. High maintenance customers are not worth it, believe me.

[CFu]

@Glenn L e v i n e

Lol, I space on buying wine I want all the time.

After you email the seller multiple times asking questions about the wine?