Burned by the Bait and Switch

I'm loath to say something unkind about the wine dinner I attended last night at Ella's in Fayetteville. The food was fabulous and well paired with a delicious variety of wines from the Reynolds Family vineyard in Napa. Unfortunately, the final taste left on my palate was the feeling I'd been cheated.  I felt burned by the old bait and switch routine.

Here's what I think: If businesses are going to use social media to market to me, to reach right into my inbox and ask for my patronage, they need to be honest. They need take responsibility for their messages -- and craft them with care. They need to make sure they've communicated a clear message, and if they fail in that regard, it's their responsibility to remedy it.  If they want to "build a relationship" with me they should prove to be friend and not foe.

No doubt Ella's didn't intend to bait me with dishonesty. But what was marketed to me as a great deal ended up costing three times as much. A wine dinner advertised for $52.50 became $155. A discount that was offered by email wasn't honored and my request to have it remedied dismissed.

It was our first visit to Ella's. Will we be back? Maybe. If I can get the burned toast taste off my tongue. If I can replace it with the memory of that delightful ahi tun with maitake mushroom, or that yummy crisp Reynolds chardonnay. (The only chardonnay I've ever enjoyed. And now I know why, thanks to the winemaker's discussion on the different acids in the wine.)


Take what you will from this message -- a person whining about a wine dinner gone sour at the end; or a lesson to businesses using social media to market their wares. Snake oil and bait and switch tactics are taboo. Customer service is the most important thing you sell no matter what you are selling.