Yes I know LFW have been idolised in these pages. Their customer service was second to none, delivery was brilliantly quick, and any queries were dealt with. For that reason our cabal's non SMWS purchases went through LFW if at all possible.
Last year LFW were bought out by one the bigger boys, the Whisky Shop. Article here.
Things didn't seem too bad, but a recent experience means I won't be ordering from them.
So we placed an order for four bottles, one very nice old Glen Grant, a Springbank and a couple of the Hazelburn Rundlets and Kilderkins release.
I had to email twice before getting a reply - asking if they had the R & K.
As the R & K wasn't on the website yet, I had to call through the order.
We realised pretty quick that the price we'd been charged wasn't what was advertised on the website. So I email back and pointed this out, got a reply saying sure we'll sort that out.
Yeah about that.
There were over 12 emails, 8 phone calls, and two weeks before the difference was refunded. Sure it wasn't a significant amount, but really - getting assured every time that 'yes, that'll be refunded today' - effectively a repeating lie - doesn't make it likely that I'll think happy thoughts about the company, or want to spend more money there.
So LFW are off our xmas card list, and our whisky ordering list. I think we'll add Whisky Shop onto that blanket ban too.
So who does that leave? I'm quite happy to order from the distilleries themselves, unfortunately not all of them have online ordering (Benriach, Glenglassaugh are you reading this?!) so I'm open to suggestions. I've used Royal Mile Whiskies and Whisky Exchange a few times, and aside from WEx being a little pricey I've been happy with them.
But we'd rather support a small company, so suggest away....
I'd say we'd order 4-6 bottles about 4-6 times a year, obviously slightly more at Xmas :)
B
13 March 2014
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3 comments:
Thanks to helpful suggestions elsewhere, it's looking like we're moving to the good spirits co
http://www.thegoodspiritsco.com/
Did you get the Rundlets and Kilderkins in the end? I enjoyed it muchly when we got a bottle or two over here. I think it won on the night of the tasting I went to, but surprisingly not overall (when combined with the second nights scores). Cost me a 7 out of 7 score though, as I wasn't expecting it to be quite so good!
Oh, and I guess Loch Fyne should keep to the kipper supply business in future. Speaking of bad service I have a few tales of woe from Christchurch, between the five of us we agreed that over the weekend we received genuinely the worst service we'd ever consistently experienced ...and this was from different bars/restaurants, during the bits where we were sober and well behaved (and it wasn't just us, entire establishments were failing their customers - at one point the hotel the tasting were held had twenty people waiting at the bar and one person serving - but about 5 other staff poncing about serving water and setting empty tables!) Anyway, I won't bore you with further details,but it really was a shocker, especially for a city trying to get back on it's feet and encourage more tourists. Even more of a shame because the quality of the product (both the food and drink) was superb throughout. Ahh... Christchurch, you're really not doing yourself any favours...
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