While I realize some will simply wish to bash Mr. Leve, I think it raises the more general question of how consumers should deal with wine retailers when there’s a problem. Do you think a consumer should tell retailers that if they don’t do X, the consumer will post about it on an Internet wine board?
http://dat.erobertparker.com/bboard/showthread.php?t=207088" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Bruce
I agree with your post, if you’re going to do something, just do it. Why threaten and try to use what ‘power’ you have to get what you want? It doesn’t make sense and I think quite a few people on that thread are realizing this.
As an aside, I think Kris Patten’s post is hilarious…
You shouldn’t need to threaten them, all businesses should realise that if you piss off a customer they will tell people about it.
Whether it’s over dinner, on a message board, Twitter or other social media, writing in a magazine - doesn’t really matter.
Of course it’s one thing to say “I’m going to tell people about this”, but it’s another to get all “do you know who I am” about it.
Interestingly if a business screws up and then goes all out to fix the screw up you’re far likely to tell more people about
the great experience you had than if they hadn’t screwed up in the first place.
That thread prompted the first post from me over there in a long time…
while I think Dee Vines acted inappropriately and handled it poorly, they should not have been threatened like that…they changed their minds, they reversed his charges, he paid nothing, while he might have a technical claim, it really is much ado about nothing… he wanted to deliver some revenge…
this is just more of the “I am the most important bordeaux bloggers in the US stuff”…
If it were most customers I could understand the desire, though I would think there are less vindictive ways to get the message across, such as not shopping there.
For the moderator of a well known web site to do so is being a bully. Granted the store could have handled it better, but to try and blow them out of the water like this puts the ‘dick’ in vindictive. There is no need to go to this measure over the situation considering he has x thousands of other Bordeaux in his cellar.
If you have a beef…then air it. Don’t try to intimidate the retailer before hand. Sounds kinda like blackmail to me…but I never went to law school.
I find it odd how Jeff started the whole post…“I am pro retailer.” That says to me that he is still courting all the ITB members over there while the rest of the post tells the tale that he will out you if you mess with him.
Gutterball.
Like Scott, this thread has me posting there for the 1st time in a long time. I agree that what Dee Vines did was wrong, but his actions were just as wrong if not moreso. Two wrongs do not make a right.
Cheesy.
I don’t believe in blackmailing to get the result I want. Give them the opportunity to do right, and then take action if they choose poorly.
Nope. Grow up and come to a resolution on the phone or in person. Airing dirty laundry on the internet seems to me childish at best and says quite a bit about one’s conflict resolution skills.
It’s useful to have a card printed you can keep in your wallet that says, “Do you know who I am?”
That way, whenever anyone is treating you like a little bitch, you can just whip out the card and demand satisfaction.
It is useful for extracting rare wines from wine retailers as well as getting out of speeding tickets.
If it doesn’t work, you can always try whipping out your other card, which says, “Do you have any idea who my father is?”
I wonder if the information posted by Jeff on eBob (and any emails that he might have sent to Dee Vine) constitutes extortion?
That thread is getting blown out of proportion.
Jim
I am not a lawyer, but I play one on the internet, it strikes me as “tortious interference.”
After filming “Lost in Translation” Bill Murray told a funny story – he started trying to learn Japanese and gave up on it, but he decided to learn one sentence perfectly, “Do you have any idea who I am?” And he memorized that and practiced it and waited for an opportunity to use it. Finally something went wrong in the hotel and he whipped out his one sentence – the poor clerk blanched and ran to get his supervisor, it was actually probably kind of a cruel thing to do.
Tortious interference with what?
a bottle, no lube
Jim–As a litigator I’ve had to deal with this area of the law. Obviously, each state defines extortion differently, but usually the threat is of physical violence, criminal prosecution, or public exposure of certain facts. Also, if your threat is to obtain the property that belongs to you, as opposed to the person supposedly being extorted, it may not be.
Having said that, the exact parameters of extortion can be unclear. That is why I generally tell people to just report the issue rather than threatening to report the issue.
Bruce
Cinnamon!
Kumquat