On July 5, 2022, I had an obnoxiously rude encounter with Petaluma BevMo manager, JT.
Reading Yelp reviews about Petaluma BevMo, my negative encounter with JT - the manager, was not an isolated incident. Reviews about this BevMo location consistently reflect a systemic behavior which alienates customer loyalty and creates a hostile consumer environment. Since June 2020, Petaluma BevMo has now received nine Yelp reviews, eight of them are one star, the other - a miserable two stars, and several of them specifically involved an employee described as rude who has colorful or purple hair, coincidentally, JT has colorful purple hair.
As a convenience while my wife was out shopping, I set up an on-line BevMo account to make a purchase and noted on the form that my wife would pick-up the order. Minutes after placing the order I received a telephone call from JT who was awkwardly rushed and curt stating my wife could not pick up the order unless she had a credit card with same number used for the order. When I told her we both have the same card number, JT argued and warned me in a doubtful and dismissive tone that if the numbers weren't the same, she wouldn't allow the pick-up. Despite her annoyed attitude, I asked if a 5% earned discount would be applied to the order since it was not reflected on my email receipt to which she said, it had been applied and rushed to hang up.
Sensing JT was going to be a problem for my wife and seeing the discount was in fact not applied to my receipt, I went to BevMo myself - so much for the convenience factor. I met a young lady at the register and explained I was there to pick-up an order and asked about the discount. After she talked with JT who was in a nearby cubical, she returned and related that JT told her the discount was deducted from the purchase. Not that the discount was a big deal, but as a point of clarity, as I was explaining to the cashier that the information she was given was incorrect, JT came forward to defend her erroneous input and told me the discount code was noted on the receipt. After I explained the code noted on the receipt was typed by me online as a reminder, and she realized she had made a mistake, JT became hyper talkative while trying to justify her mistake and out of the blue deflected her unprofessional conduct by saying; "you don't have to be rude." Given her obnoxious attitude, I walked away and told her I would make mention of her behavior on Yelp.
As I returned to the register, JT dismissed the cashier to conclude my purchase herself. While she displayed an air of huffy irritation, I told her that simply explaining an error does not make me rude, nor does her repeating erroneous information make it true. To that, she said "you were rude because you said you were posting on YELP", although my Yelp comment was after she called me rude. When I said I would post that comment too, JT snidely said; "go ahead, it won't matter."
As a manager, one would presume JT is tasked to lead by example, to motivate and inspire her employees rather than demonstrate intolerant and obstinate behavior. I suspect that JT's invincible attitude with remarks such as "go ahead, it won't matter" does matter... to BevMo. Needless to say, this location lost another customer.
Cc: BevMo Customer Relations: customerservice@bevmo.com
BevMo CEO, Josiah Knutsen: josiahknutsen@bevmo.com
BevMo Public Relations Contact / Kelly Durcan: kdurcan@devitoverdi.com read more