I had been a Defalco’s customer for almost 20 years, since the early 90’s. This all changed rapidly.
Over those years, I had brewed 1-2 x each year, slowly and regularly collecting rewards points. In the recent past, things had become busy – work taking more time, wife having been ill – various distractions that took away from time to make the wine. Recently, I began back at the brewing, and went to the store for some supplies. Interestingly, when my purchase was rung up they were not able to find me in the system – I had not been in for a while as mentioned.
No problem – they would check the database and call the next day with an update. 2 weeks went by – so I returned to the store to find out the status. Here’s where the sad part begins. I was abruptly told that if the card was not used within the last year – too bad, so sad, you lose your points. Of course the first time you hear this is when you get dropped – “oh but it is in the fine print when you sign up”, I am told. “We enforce this policy as we have clients come in, try a brew, and don’t come back”.
When asked if this was also true for long standing clients – “well we put a new system in 5 years back, you must have not registered for this”. Again first I have heard about any switch – and most certainly I have been in, made purchases, was identified in the system, and had an update as to my point status.
I recall that I had just met the level 2 reward status (~$40) I believe. All of this run around, poor client relations to avoid this small token of long-standing client appreciation. Where was the call after a year of not being in the store to ask about my ongoing status after 15+ years of purchases?
This policy – and effectively rude answer to my rewards status has ended my desire to be a client any longer. When my new supplier heard the story – they immediately offered a gift certificate to me to ensure my experience was indeed unique with Defalco’s and not standard practice for the industry. Read more
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