Wine Styles Down the Drain

I go to a store here in my development called Wine Styles.
They have a wine club which Rick and I enjoy. 
Every month we get 2 bottles of red wine.
We chose to only receive red wines.
You can get both red and white or just one or the other.
We have discovered some great wines this way.
These 2 bottles are $34 a month.
Most of these wines cost that or much more per bottle so two at that price is great. We have given up a lot of our extras during this financial crunch time but not our wine. I figure we can live under a bridge as long as we have our wine. Is that wrong? Or if I'm living under a bridge it will help if I have my wine. Either way it works for me.  

This place also has free wine tastings.
They have food and music and had always been just plain fun there.
The person who I always believed to be the owner was really the manager.
She was so knowlegable in wine and not in that wine snobby way.
She was so friendly and remembered what you liked and always had great suggestions.
When I needed to have a special bottle for someone's 40th birthday I went there.
She helped me pick a great white wine since I know nothing about white wine. She suggested I have the label personalized for this person signifiying her big birthday. Great idea! This gift was such a hit and this manager made me look good. She even asked about the 40th party when I was in the following month. Good customer service and we all know how I like good customer service.

But this manager went on maternity leave and never came back.
The place is now a hot mess.  The owner is a Grade A Ditz. 
She has very poor social skills as well as poor customer service skills.
She is the franchisee and I can't fathom what the franchisor must be thinking.

I met a friend there one afternoon after work.
There were people only at 2 tables other than myself and my friend.
A grand total of 6 people in the place.
She couldn't handle it. She kept saying I'll be right back and then forget us. And not just my friend and I....the collective 'us'
We'd wave her down again and she'd fly by while yelling, "I'm really busy I'll get right to ya"
After 20 minutes of waiting I finally got up and asked the woman behind the counter who I had never seen before if she could get us a drink.
She said, "No I'm new and I don't know what to do."
Gee don't ask what to do or try to work here.
In the mean time someone had come into the store and obviously knows this owner very well. They stop and chat....for a long time. She ignored us all.
I walked back to my table utterly convinced that this ditz was now hiring the mentally challenged. Although all people I know who are mentally challenged have far better skills than the people working here do. They at least smile and are kind.

It used to be like going to Cheers. You saw a lot of the same people and the employees were always the same. It was fun and yet relaxing there.
Now it is rotating faces. I have never seen the same person there more than once with the exception of the inept owner.

Rick and I went in the other day to pick up our June wines.
The monthly charge is automatically debited from my account.
She again told me that my credit card didn't go through.
I said, "we've given you our new credit card 4 times now since we had debit card fraud, why do we have to do this each time? Can this be rectified in some way?"

She tilted her head like the RCA dog and said, "Really?  Hmm...I don't think that I've ever seen you here before." 
Great. I say nothing and just hand her my card yet again.
You can't match wits with those that are unarmed so why say anything.

Now this is the same nut who when I applied for a seasonal job told me to come back at Christmas time. It was December 1st.
So I went back and she said she was too busy to talk now but to please come back closer to Christmas.  AND she added, "I really need people here please come back at night okay so we can talk, promise?" 
It was 7:30p and it was December 15th? 
That isn't night at Christmas time? 
That should have been my first clue huh? Guess I'm as slow as the owner.
And no, I did not go back. I thought about it but I thought I might hurt her if I did.

So Rick & I get home and open our wine bag and see the wines are the same ones we got in May.
Then I see inside the bag it reads, 'May Reds' so I am now sure these are the same.

I called the store and asked if I could exchange for my June wine.
I also asked if possible to only exchange one. Because we loved the one wine from Spain from May. But if too confusing we'll just do an exact exhange.
A young girl answered. She said, "Gee I don't know."
silence. you can hear the birds tweeting.

I finally say, "Could you ask someone there if you don't know?"
She says all sing songy, "Nope. I'm the only one here and I'm new."

I wonder if I am being punked. I was expecting, "I'm sorry I'm alone right now and I'm new so I'm not sure of the policy on returns/exchanges. May I take your name and number and find out for you and give you a call back?"
But silly ole demanding me that wasn't going to happen.
So I asked if she could do that for me.
She tells me in such a cavaliar way it startled me, "No I don't think so."
I just politily said, "Thank you." and hung up.
God knows why I thanked her she didn't do anything.

The fact that my favorite place is now awful really bums me out.
We loved to stop by after work or on a Saturday afternoon after errands and have a glass of wine or two and play the trivia game on the table and have a few laughs.
We no longer do that because it's just not fun anymore. It's just frustrating.
Rick can get rude with her and I hate that. No reason to do that!
He does make me angry when he stoops to that level.
But when she told him once she was too busy and she'd get his order in a minute. (she always appears frazzled and says 'a minute' but it could be 20 of them)
He responded with,"there are no other customers here, you're too busy to provide me with customer service for the last 5 minutes?"
I about died!  
She just smiled and walked right by our table and went behind her register and grabbed her cell phone. We just got up and walked out the door.

I wish I could buy this store because they have a captive audience in a nice neighborhood. It should be growing business not losing business. Everyone we talk to that used to go there complains. I hope it is sold to someone great before they just go out of business. No wine in the neighborhood makes Peggy an unhappy gal. But bad service at the wine store is even worse!