ejlay's Wine Journal Entries
Villa Appalaccia Winery (written Sep 01, 2011)
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Worst run winery ever. We visited the winery at a local wine fest, and actually liked one of their wines. My girlfriend and I bought a few bottles. We were not charged for the wine for a full month, which was fine, but a little odd. A full month later, two months after the wine fest, we were charged again. I called the owner (Stephen) and he said there was an issue the day of the wine fest with his credit card company (Total Merchant)and he would handle it for us. I called the following day and Stephen told me it wasn't his job to come to my house and balance my checkbook for me. He also told me that my girlfriend should be calling to take care of her own business, even though it happened to me as well. I told him he was being rude, and he replied back 'I don't care what you think I am being.' Stephen kept telling me that I was lying about being double charged, and offered to exchange our wine. The problem was I wasn't lying and we couldn't exchange wine we never bought, but were charged for at the fest. I actually check my bank balance, retirement, and other finances every day, but I thanked him for the advice. We went back and forth, and Stephen is by far one of the rudest business owners I have dealt with in my life. I sent him copies of my bank statement showing that I was double charged, and we never heard back from him. I don't know why he couldn't see it possible that this was his third party's fault, especially since there were issues the day of running our cards originally. I ended up cancelling our cards and having our bank deal with the issue. When the bank closed the cases, they said that we were double charged and that we were not accountable for them. Unfortunately, Stephen didn't listen nor care. I am guessing that his business is going so well that he can treat customers like this. Maybe he should have taken a business class at the University he was a professor at for so many years... Needless to say, I would highly encourage every one to stay away from this winery. The wine is not worth the hassle or lack of respect that the owner gives his customers. I have also contacted the BBB to help prevent this from happening in the future.
