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Review content:
I’m having a party on Sunday and needed to buy a case or two of wine. I usually just buy wine by the bottle, so I grab it at my neighborhood grocery or liquor store. As this time I needed more, I thought about going to Total Wine or Bevmo when I remembered someone had given us a couple of gift cards to AZ Wine Co a while ago. I found the cards and saw on the attached receipts that they were purchased in December of 2009—two years ago. I called the number for their South store as listed on the front of the gift card. A woman answered, and I explained the situation including card amounts ($100 each x 2) date of receipt and that the receipt showed them purchased at a location on Hayden in the Scottsdale Airpark. She explained that the two stores had separated and the Airpark location has since closed. She said that she would have to see if she could find a record of the cards in order to honor them, as they were old. I told her I would come by today. I packed up my 2-year-old daughter and teenage son into the car, and we headed out into the pouring rain. (I have a zillion things to get done before Sunday and wanted to check the wine errand off my list.)
Once we were at the store, I showed the gift cards to the woman I spoke with, and she proceeded to look for the card numbers in a computer print-out packet titled Outstanding Gift Card Liabilities. It took her a few minutes, but she did locate receipt of both my cards. At this point, she told me she would have to get clearance from her manager. She went outside to find him, conferred for a bit, and then he came in to speak with me. The man told me that his store and the one in the Airpark separated three years ago, so these cards are not for his store. When I explained that the cards have his location listed on the front, he stated that the man at that store did “all kinds of crazy things and shouldn’t have been using those cards.” When I then asked why the cards were listed in his “gift card liability” ledger, he got all riled up and told me that he didn’t get any money from these cards and isn’t going to honor them. At that point, I became angry. I asked him about his concern regarding doing bad business and losing me a customer. He said, “I wasn’t going to make any money on you anyway.” I reminded him that maybe not this sale, but what about the future when I would be paying cash. He said, “I probably wouldn’t see you again for two years!” So, as I left, I said, “we’d never know now,” as I obviously would not be giving him any of my business—as well as making sure to pass the word about his abominable customer service.
I can understand not wanting to keep losing money from a bad business partner. But, anyone business savvy knows that respecting your customers can go a long way towards growing your business through positive word of mouth. This man could have offered to honor one of the cards as a sign of good will (after all, they were BOTH listed in HIS own liability ledger!!). Instead, he chose to speak rudely and basically tell me he couldn’t care less about my business—present or future.
I read the reviews for AZ Wine Co on Yelp today before heading out. I saw that while people thought they had a great selection of wines, the customer service was pretty bad. Boy, were they right!!! If you care about supporting small businesses that care about their customers, look elsewhere-- AZ Wine Co is not your store!!
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