Hi All, Rant follows:
I just got off the phone with St Pat's today and I have never, ever been treated so rudely and arrogantly in my entire time as a home winemaker, brewer and mazer. I asked a pretty simple question about a product I purchased off their website as a cleaner and sanitizer.
Text follows from their website follows:
Powdered product for washing and sanitizing wine filter cartridges. Instructions included on each jar. After cleaning a filter, allow the filter to completely dry and store dry. 20 grams/liter. 250 gram vial is enough for 12 cleanings.
Well, I thought it was a pretty simple question, is it a cleaner or sanitizer or both?
The guy who I spoke to said it was for breaking down protiens and it's more of a cleaner than a sanitizer. So I asked about contact time to be sure that the protiens had been broken down. He said that there's really no time limit, and that you just have to figure it out yourself when the color changes the protiens have been reduced. I asked how I would tell that with mead since most of the stuff I make is not going to have much if any color.
This is where the conversation turned ugly.
He gave off some incredibly arrogant and condescending attitude when I read him the text above from his own website and he immediately said if I didn't like the product or if I felt that I was being deceived to send it back and they'd return my money.
I said, wait a second, I'm just reading you stuff off the website, your website that is. He went on about he is a PhD chemist and Homebrewers aren't their target demographic anymore and every question he had answered fully and I had two more questions for each answer.
I said, hold on there pal, I'm a customer, I spent money with you people and you're treating me like this? I told him no one had ever treated me like this in any other dealings I've had with equipment/supplies purchases. He continued to bag on Homebrewers and amatuer brewers and said this is why they don't want to service us anymore because we have such petty little questions and he doesn't care that we spent money there because we're getting something for what we are paying and that is sufficient. That's when the yelling started on both ends. We went back and forth and I finally hung up because it was obvious this guy is a freaking loon with a massive superiority complex.
Well, just let me say here and now to St Pats that I will be going out of my way to speak with the many friends and I have in the commercial Beer, Wine and Mead Business (including my cousin who has just purchased a winery in Ensenada, Mexico) and urging them not to do business with your company.
I will post this message on every wine, beer and mead website that will allow it, and urge them not to do business with you as well. Your behavior as a business operator was deplorable and the way you treated me was unprofessional, uncalled for and completely inappropriate.
Oskaar <-------- Getting out his business card file and heading to http://www.morebeer.com to post this in their forums
I just got off the phone with St Pat's today and I have never, ever been treated so rudely and arrogantly in my entire time as a home winemaker, brewer and mazer. I asked a pretty simple question about a product I purchased off their website as a cleaner and sanitizer.
Text follows from their website follows:
Powdered product for washing and sanitizing wine filter cartridges. Instructions included on each jar. After cleaning a filter, allow the filter to completely dry and store dry. 20 grams/liter. 250 gram vial is enough for 12 cleanings.
Well, I thought it was a pretty simple question, is it a cleaner or sanitizer or both?
The guy who I spoke to said it was for breaking down protiens and it's more of a cleaner than a sanitizer. So I asked about contact time to be sure that the protiens had been broken down. He said that there's really no time limit, and that you just have to figure it out yourself when the color changes the protiens have been reduced. I asked how I would tell that with mead since most of the stuff I make is not going to have much if any color.
This is where the conversation turned ugly.
He gave off some incredibly arrogant and condescending attitude when I read him the text above from his own website and he immediately said if I didn't like the product or if I felt that I was being deceived to send it back and they'd return my money.
I said, wait a second, I'm just reading you stuff off the website, your website that is. He went on about he is a PhD chemist and Homebrewers aren't their target demographic anymore and every question he had answered fully and I had two more questions for each answer.
I said, hold on there pal, I'm a customer, I spent money with you people and you're treating me like this? I told him no one had ever treated me like this in any other dealings I've had with equipment/supplies purchases. He continued to bag on Homebrewers and amatuer brewers and said this is why they don't want to service us anymore because we have such petty little questions and he doesn't care that we spent money there because we're getting something for what we are paying and that is sufficient. That's when the yelling started on both ends. We went back and forth and I finally hung up because it was obvious this guy is a freaking loon with a massive superiority complex.
Well, just let me say here and now to St Pats that I will be going out of my way to speak with the many friends and I have in the commercial Beer, Wine and Mead Business (including my cousin who has just purchased a winery in Ensenada, Mexico) and urging them not to do business with your company.
I will post this message on every wine, beer and mead website that will allow it, and urge them not to do business with you as well. Your behavior as a business operator was deplorable and the way you treated me was unprofessional, uncalled for and completely inappropriate.
Oskaar <-------- Getting out his business card file and heading to http://www.morebeer.com to post this in their forums