B21 Wine in FL - Major Disappointment, Ending my 25+ Year Relationship with Them

[MChang]

I don’t buy a ton from them but I’ll steer clear as well.

[Robert.A.Jr]

Businessman? I thought you were a country lawyer (which are run like charities, right?).
Sounds like a bad experience, but booze shops have been awfully busy during this pandemic, as they are an essential business supplying the troops. Response times have been slower. Also, many shops have some type of “restocking” (or whatever “sock-it-to-you” fee they call it) charge if you cancel. At any rate, sometimes we know when a relationship has ended and its time to move on.

Ha! Lawyers gotta run their business, too! I had an aviation-sector concessions retail business as well, but we shuttered it as a result of Covid. Seems to me in a bad economy, when some folks have lost their jobs, the busier companies, like wine And liquor retailers, could perhaps hire more to meet demand. I think that is only a piece of the problem here. Any business that is up during this terrible time in our nation’s history, should be jumping up and down, happy as a clam.

[Anthony_Sanford]

Sorry to hear…and this kind of CS sucks. I’ve had such terrible experiences with B-21…and will continue to steer clear from them as well.

[Nick_Christie]

No bueno. Very infuriating.

[Greg_K]

I’m sorry for your experiences Robert. I think customer service everywhere has slipped during the pandemic, but I’ve yet to experience anything at this level. This has been true all around - my bank, restaurants, wine stores, etc. I’m generally willing to cut a fair amount of slack, but don’t image I’d agree to deal with a fully automated system. That sounds awful.

I will say, as COVID has progressed, I’ve found I’ve narrowed my list of retailers I deal with. The older I get and the more stress there is in my life, the less the 5% I might save somewhere else is worth it.

[G_Curd]

From the looks of it, many people will be avoiding this store (myself included). They probably had no idea that treating one customer this way could possibly cost this many customers. However, as a small business owner myself, you always have to remember that word of mouth is the greatest marketing there is. Every customer should be treated like your most valuable customer. That way something like this never happens. It is somewhat a sign of the times as more companies move to a more internet based model. However, no matter what your business is you can always treat customers well. Word of mouth is a powerful thing.

[Albert_R]

I have received average service (at best) from them over the years and have not purchased anything from them this year. This type of CS for a long term customer is simply unacceptable.

[Robert.A.Jr]

I’m sorry for your experiences Robert. I think customer service everywhere has slipped during the pandemic, but I’ve yet to experience anything at this level. This has been true all around - my bank, restaurants, wine stores, etc. I’m generally willing to cut a fair amount of slack, but don’t image I’d agree to deal with a fully automated system. That sounds awful.

I will say, as COVID has progressed, I’ve found I’ve narrowed my list of retailers I deal with. The older I get and the more stress there is in my life, the less the 5% I might save somewhere else is worth it.

You are 100% correct.

And I also know this, you are at a sterling law firm doing truly concierge work. I guarantee I am right when I say this - you doubled-down to make sure your clients get even better service during this period. I know that I did. Now, I’m sure as far as b21 wine buyers go, I’m like a minnow.

[Greg_K]

I’m sorry for your experiences Robert. I think customer service everywhere has slipped during the pandemic, but I’ve yet to experience anything at this level. This has been true all around - my bank, restaurants, wine stores, etc. I’m generally willing to cut a fair amount of slack, but don’t image I’d agree to deal with a fully automated system. That sounds awful.

I will say, as COVID has progressed, I’ve found I’ve narrowed my list of retailers I deal with. The older I get and the more stress there is in my life, the less the 5% I might save somewhere else is worth it.

You are 100% correct.

And I also know this, you are at a sterling law firm doing truly concierge work. I guarantee I am right when I say this - you doubled-down to make sure your clients get even better service during this period. I know that I did. Now, I’m sure as far as b21 wine buyers go, I’m like a minnow.

I won’t regale you with some of the client tap dancing I had to do at the start of the pandemic to account for working from home working pains.

[Mark_Golodetz]

I suspect this is not over. You will get a call this week from the owner. Over under is Wednesday morning

Sounds like a small problem which was allowed to get totally out of hand.

[tpetty]

Agree with your righteous fury regarding this. I have no similar local wine retailer, so do most everything online, but I certainly would not tolerate this either.

[alan_weinberg]

sorry to hear. I’ve bought on and off there also. No more. Good luck.

[Scott_Brunson]

Sorry to hear all this. I’ve bought from them for years with no problems.
Please let us know should you get a satisfactory ending to this story.
Until that occurs, I’ll not buy!

+1

[Bdklein]

I think you should make a road trip and see how they respond in person. Could be interesting material for WB.

[scamhi]

I had cut off buying from B-21 in 2011. I don’t recall why and they deliver to my LBK home on Thursdays. They do have 2014 Ulysse Collin Champagne Les Roises at a good price $159.99 a bottle on pre-arrival due to arrive 10/26
I bought 3 bottles and a bottle of liquor total $541.00. They refused to deliver to me via truck because my pre tax wine only was $479.97 and it is a minimum $500 wine only for van delivery.
F*ck these guys. I will have the bottles shipped in December and I will block them from wine-searcher.

[Jim_Stewart]

Wow, that escalated the wrong way! Poor customer service often translates as disrespect. Hopefully someone at B-21 contacts you soon to try to see if things can be fixed. If not, like you say, time to move on. Their loss. Good luck.

[Victor_Hong]

I had bought some stuff there recently for Robert. The customer service was as friendly and helpful as a past-due corpse.

[Robert.A.Jr]

I had bought some stuff there recently for Robert. The customer service was as friendly and helpful as a past-due corpse.

LOL, but I did get those bottles, and thanks again! Had one on Friday sitting on the ocean with cheese and meats!

[Howard_Cooper]

Robert- Bob is still the owner but they have made it difficult to get folks on the phone. Not sure why other than some changes due to covid and I think their volume is up quite a bit. I’ll send you Bob’s email. He is usually very responsive and I think he would hate to lose you as a customer.

Thanks, Fred. Much appreciated.

I just drove back from the beach and was reflecting on this whole thing. I’ve had my cathartic, I think I will pass on reaching out to the owner. I’ve spent enough time on this mess, including another call to Am Ex to make sure this retailer is blocked. Am Ex said them not deleting my credit card information on my request is a problem, and they are looking into that business practice. I’m very disappointed, and actually upset, that a retailer I used to love is basically gone for me. I am assuming that the owner decided to embark on an internet, transaction-based model over a customer-service model. There are no names and emails on the website, as far as I can tell. You cannot reach a live person. The call-in system is fully automated. That was not the case before. I assume this was a business decision, and I assume perhaps it means there is more volume now with the internet and the ease of interstate shipments. It’s really no longer a family business in the old sense of the word. If it remained customer-oriented, I do not think I would have experienced what I experienced. While I know in life there is some gray and “he said, she said” stuff in most disputes, but what cannot be disputed, or explained, is why they would respond to some of my emails but they never ever once would give me the contact information to the owner. I asked five separate times in five separate emails. These emails went to the sales department and the shipping department. No less than two people responded to me, including the rude person on Friday. So two “live” people acknowledged receipt of my emails, responded to part of them, but deliberately chose not to give me contact information. That’s pretty basic customer service, and for a family business, totally surprises me that the contact with the owners has basically been blocked. These employees failed, but customer service starts at the top. Seems like the owner checked out and nobody is properly training or monitoring these people.

Robert, I do not believe that becoming an internet based business is an excuse to stop providing customer service. I know that for myself I only buy from internet businesses that provide good customer service, whether automated or by person (and usually a combination of the two). I have to believe that if a business like this lets customer service slip this badly, they are going to lose a lot of business whether they are on the internet or not.

[RehbergK]

I had pretty much stopped doing business with them around 12 years ago when one of their employees was very rude to my wife at one of their tastings. Gave them another shot 7-8 years later on some insane deals they were having, only to have them call and tell me they couldn’t fill 1/2 the order and now what they could fill was below the free delivery threshold…so ended up cancelling the rest.