Bottle Shop Experience: Airing of Grievances

I'll probably catch flack for this, but I think it needs to be said.

Anderson's in Dublin (Sawmill), OH has one of the best selections in Cbus, but due to terrible customer service, I will no longer be shopping there.

Last night I called to them to see if they had received any Backwoods Bastard and the clerk on the phone assured me that indeed they had two four packs left. When I arrived in the store, I approached the same gentleman that I talked to on the phone and he went and got a four pack of the beer for me.

At this point, I decided to go talk to the beer dept. manager about KBS and whether he would taking names for reserving some bottles when Anderson's received them since they usually go within an hour or so. He told me that his policy is first-come-first-serve and that he would not be taking any names. This is understandable, but I thought I'd ask since some stores around Columbus do exercise this practice.

At this point, he realized that I was holding a 4-pack of BB in my hands and asked me sternly "Where did you get that?" I told him that one of the clerks had given it to me when I asked if Anderson's had any left. Immediately he asked for it back grabbed the beer out of my hands! As he walked towards the store clerk, he said that this was reserved for someone else, RIGHT AFTER TELLING ME that this was not the policy.

He reprimanded the store clerk for not asking him first and the store clerk apologized to me and to him, but assured the manager that they had several 4-packs left. The manager said it didn't matter, they were reserved, and that he should still check with him first. The manager didn't issue any apology or explanation to me, and was more concerned about publicly reprimanding the store clerk (there were about 10-12 people witnessing this event).

This was disappointing for several reasons:
-I was mislead about Anderson's policy of "reserving" beer

-The manager grabbed the beer out of my hand, didn't ask for it, making me fee like I had done something wrong.

-The manager didn't issue any apology or explanation to me, other than "this is reserved for someone else" right after he got done explaining that this wasn't his policy

- I was not offered any consultation deal, like an opportunity to buy 1 bottle, 1/2 a 4-pack, etc

- I felt bad for the store clerk who was publicly reprimanded for doing nothing absolutely wrong, in my eyes, but was still apologetic towards me.

- I've been a long time customer (6 years) to this Anderson's store and have spent thousands of dollars on beer alone in this time frame. I also always recommend the store to someone who asks about which bottle shop I prefer in Columbus. I love this stores selection, but am disappointed to say that I will no longer be shopping there and will be recommending that people take their business elsewhere like Whole Foods down the street or Savor in Clintonville.

-This is not the first time I've had an experience like this, with the same manager. The first time wasn't as bad, but similar to this situation, I called ahead to see if they had received any Better Half. He told me that they indeed had a case but he wouldn't be selling it until 6pm on a first come first serve basis. For good measure, I showed up 15 minutes early to assure that I could get a bottle. As I approached him, he told me that he was already sold out. When I reminded him of our conversation on the phone, he dismissed it and didn't offer an explanation. Yes, this was disappointing, but I didn't make a big deal over this because I know that there are forces outside of our control (maybe he had a large line at 5pm or something that was distracting to the other shoppers), especially when retail stores receive these highly hyped beers and come up with some way to be fair. Unfortunately in the end, there are always some that end up empty handed. So I chalked this 1st situation up to misfortune and didn't raise any complaint.

But I feel that this recent situation that happened last night was unacceptable from a customer service experience, for the reasons I stated above. I don't know if there is something going on behind the scenes, if there's some inner circle of customers that get dibs (and it's not like I'm sort of joe schmo truck chaser from Anderson's perspective), but this has been twice now where I ended up getting short-changed and this manager has treated me poorly.

I'm sad to say that Anderson's has lost a long time customer. Because, yes, quality selection is very important, but not at the expense of customer service. With a flooded market of quality bottle shops to choose from in Cbus, this is bad business practice.

Do you guys think customer service is important, or is it something to be disregarded as long as there is quality selection?

 

Yes I think a letter would be warranted

 

Just through being a consumer over the years, I have decent relationships (if you want to call them that) with a majority of the managers at the upper echelon of bottleshops in cbus. Yeah, sure, I don't expect great customer service EVERY time I go in to these shops, but COME ON there needs to be a bear minimum, right? Also I'm not a stickler for great customer service as long as there is quality selection. However there are way too many bottle shops in this area for a store like Andersons to deal turds to its customers and expect them to keep coming back.

 

To be honest I have had many positive experiences there. This one major negative experience along with other minor negative experience that I both referenced in my post were enough to persuade me to go else where.

As far as holding on the bottles and raising hell - I agree, I should've done that, but I was so shocked when it happened and literally felt bad like I had done something wrong because of how furious the manager was. In hindsight I should've raised hell and hulk smashed some BrewDog beer

 

Hmm sounds like a repeat offender with multiple people. Sad to hear

 

No he does not own the place. I plan on writing the higher ups but am having a hard time finding contact info for the correct people.