Seriously – are these people for real? I have taken lots of classes with Keith and others on his team. They have all been worth the money and met my expectations. I don’t think the “X” family had any expectations – then merely had the chutzpah to complain and see what would come of it.

I will definitely take another class and hope to make the trip to France with you one day. Cathy

Personally, I like a relaxed environment much better. I think this guy was trying to impress his party, trying to be fancy as they probably discuss wine at length and now it was his turn to show off. He should have done his research for exactly what he was looking for.

I will have to look into your classes next time I’m in Philly–I have so much to learn. Great website!

The simple fact of it is Student and Father X here both had expectations radically different than what the Wine School could have ever possibly met, and are most likely very used to complaining until they get their way from the service industry (I would wager that they’re also lousy tippers and sent complaining e-mails or talked to the manager after a vast majority of their meals, most likely for not being given ice cubes with their wine).

However, it’s up to you to decide how the Wine School’s customer service policy would deal with something like this. At the store where I worked, if someone complained enough we would give them some money back or a discount to another class, a classy way of saying “we didn’t make a mistake but we don’t want to deal with you.” Certainly here you’ve already gone pretty far in the opposite direction, customer-service wise, by publishing all this. You may get some cheerleading and help establish the School’s identity as “the customer isn’t always right,” which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But I would say you should do something for these people by way of apology for any confusion, just to settle it all. Maybe offer a free foundation class to the father for his troubles, or send the student a bottle of wine with a gift certificate to KFC.

You’ve got great advice above. Give the guys their money back, and then put it behind you.

More importantly there are a load of people out there who know your operation and its style, and keep coming back for more.

On the constructive side, it is always worth looking for improvement – and I know you do. Feedback forms for these events would allow you to both improve and give you a sense for the validity of such a reaction in the future.

Most important, you’ve built a great organization in just a few years. Don’t let the outliers pull you down!

There’s never much point in getting into an ongoing debate with someone like this. Would’ve been better to offer half or all his money back and simply walk away. At this point, you need to decide if Student X is an influential — does he have a wide audience online or elsewhere. If so, then apologize for his misunderstanding of the class and refund half his money without any further commentary. If not, you’ve been more than patient in your responses so I’d recommend ignoring the guy at this point and moving on…and remove the blog from the website. In other words, just put it all behind you. (And don’t change a thing if it’s been working for you.)