What's the proper response when a vendor yanks you around?

Would appreciate advice on how to handle a situation with a retailer. I’m trying to balance my outrage as a customer who’s been treated unfairly, versus not responding too harshly.

I ordered 3 bottles of a wine that I really wanted, right after they popped up on wine-searcher. The order was processed on the vendor site, my card was charged, and I received confirmation.

Then later that morning I get an email from the president of this wine merchant telling me the wines were “spoken for” and would be paid for by the other person “within a week or two.” He cancels my order.

I ask him to make things right, and I even suggest another wine I’d be willing to take as a substitute (comparable wine from same winemaker) if they can acquire that.

The guy doesn’t do anything to make it right. Doesn’t offer an alternate wine, doesn’t offer to split the parcel with this other customer, doesn’t say he’ll try to acquire the substitute I suggested. He does nothing whatsoever to try to make it right. His responses are blunt, and it’s now clear he thinks it’s ok to advertise wines on wine-searcher and cancel people’s orders.

It’s particularly frustrating that he cancels my order for someone who won’t even pay for the wine for a couple of weeks. If the customer wants them so badly that he has the guy canceling other people’s orders, then throw down a credit card.

Am I being unreasonable for getting bent out of shape about this? Is it appropriate to relay the facts of this story on the merchant’s ratings?

Thanks,
Alex

Sounds fair that you’ve given the retailer an opportunity to make amends, especially with a pretty bogus basis for not fulfilling your order. If they don’t provide a satisfactory resolution, then it’s fair to warn present and future customers of what may happen.

If it was me personally and there was no additional offer to make it right (even something like a 10% discount on any other order) I’d out then, never buy from them again, and move on. Too many reputable retailers out there with excellent service.

Out them. Your order was confirmed. Your card charged. You had a deal. They reneged plain and simple. They don’t want your business, but people on this site (including I bet the wine searcher overlords) want to know who this is. Knowing of such behavior, we all would think twice about buying from that retailer.

It seems to me you may also have the basis of a BBB complaint, but I’ve never done that so I don’t know.

NB: I am a lawyer but nothing above is, or should be construed as, me providing legal advice. I am not. I’m just a consumer who would be pissed off if a retailer tried to do this to me.

You can certainly report them to Wine-Searcher. This won’t get you the wines, nor a credit, but if this company does this regularly, then Wine-Searcher will de-list them. I would urge you to do this, as it allows them to deliver a harsh blow if the merchant is a regular offender, but only delivers a warning for a one-off administrative f*ck up.

Certainly in your position I’d commit to never buying from them. You’ve not lost anything but a few days interest on that money, but a business worth its salt will offer something to offset the annoyance.

Bummer, I feel your pain.
I presume the wine is something hard to get, the least I would expect is a bit of grovelling from the Boss and a great deal on something comparable

Wouldn’t be the first time or last time I’ve had an order cancelled within a day of paying it cause of lack of stock. I just report it to wine searcher as not being in stock. Sometimes stock errors happen.

To be clear, they have the wine. They just prefer to give it to another customer.

One who hasn’t even paid for it, which is a bizarre and infuriating thing for them to have informed me.

My order has been cancelled and they haven’t lifted a finger nor made even a token gesture to make amends.

I would just move on. No point whinging about it, channel your energy into something positive.

Similar issues occur in the PA state run wine stores. Customers call in and ask to hold bottles and the store obliges, but the bottles continue to appear as in stock until they are picked up and paid for.

It sucks when you show up to buy in-stock wines only to find out they are being held, but it is a great thing if you’re the one who has the bottles held.

They’re probably doing the right thing for a customer that called in to pick up the bottles. Probably best to just move on, but easier said than done after getting the shaft.

Move on. Plenty of wine in this big ol’ world of ours. If you want to punish them, I am sure you could and there are probably many instructions online on how to do it. You might feel good for about 2 seconds, but…you Still won’t have your wine.

+1

You vented here. Done.

Three things:

  1. Wine Searcher will show the names of vendors who DO NOT pay to be on Wine Searcher, particularly when there are only one or two vendors offering the wine being sought. Every time we have a hard to find wine for sale and WS lists us, then notify us they did us this great service and ask if we are ready to pay to be on WS.

  2. Many or most eCommerce sites automatically process orders. Works well for businesses with an up to date POS system but it has its shortcomings too including overlapping orders/purchases and the inability to put the wine on hold if you don’t have access to that portion of the POS system. The bigger the company/inventory, the higher error rate. A shoplifted bottle can go unnoticed for years. Every cancelled order costs the vendor twice in fees.

  3. The year Kosta Browne Sonoma Coast P/N was Wine Spectator’s number one wine, we had one bottle. On the website, it clearly showed “one bottle available.” We don’t use a POS system so if somebody orders it on line it’s still there until we physically remove it. (We don’t have orders automatically processed. Funny, we do it this way because of all the fraudulent orders we have received over the years.) Anyway, the KB turns out as number one and we were already home. We laugh that we’ll probably get 10 orders for it by the time we open the next day. This first order was for 6 bottles. Among the 30 something orders was one for one case of the wine. We dutifully notified everybody that the first person to order got the ONE bottle listed on the site. The guy that ordered the case of KB called and demanded his money back. Told him his card was never processed and he called me a *&^%$ liar and was going to sue me, screw me on Yelp, social media and run me out of business. If the ITB people start having trouble with this guy I’ll give him up.

There’s gonna be some crazy or questionable stuff going on all the time, so perception can be skewed. I’m not as worried about a screw up like this one as I am about the crooks in vendor and vintner clothing. Customer service is very important and if this vendor doesn’t think so, he needs to rethink it. I’d sent you a bottle of something as an apology. That pays in spades.

Do you buy from them regularly? No? Move on…

I had this situation at the east Liberty store with a rose, 17 bottles shown in stock. I go there intending to buy 3 to 6 bottles, the wine guy tells me they’re not supposed to be listed as in stock sine a customer ordered the wines and had them transferred. He offers to sell me one bottle and I accept.

Can’t blame them if you’re a one off customer and they want to sell to a regular.

Hard to create new regulars if the go-to response is to offer nothing for an inconvenience to a potential new customer.

Doesn’t really change my comment. It wasn’t in stock cause it was held back for another client. Maybe their Point of Service just isn’t sophisticated enough or someone messed up and forgot to pull it.

It sucks but I don’t see it as yanking you around.

The vendor may have committed prior to your purchase- it may not be he’d rather sell it to someone else. In today’s world of internet buying, these things happen. A courteous apology is all that’s really needed. Get over it and move on ( although mentioning the vendor is always good to put everyone on notice ) Definitely not worth aggravating over.