When a bottle of wine cost $3,750 and not $37.50 at dinner.

[manimal]

Also, has anyone ever sent wine back after they opened it? That seems bad form. I don't order wine I know I won't like, so it would have to be ruined for me to do that.

We have sent back maybe 2-3 bottles over the last 20 years probably. If it smells and tastes of vinegar ask them to pour it on your salad!


I send back steaks with more regularity but still very rarely.



Sometimes a bottle has been stored incorrectly in the supply chain. Dont feel bad since an expensive bottle gets sent back to the distributor who eats the loss. If you send one back for really being screwed dont you think the distributor wants to know that case is compromised and pulled before their wine or customer receives some bad press or worse a bad experience by a reviewer.

 

[NetWareHead]

We have a few faults here:

-A waitress who recommends a $3750 bottle of wine when a diner asks said waitress to recommend something decent. Someone who doesn't know the first thing about wine is not going to want to spend 4 figures on a bottle. There are many $50 and under wines that could have satisfied this guy. I cannot fault the waitress for pushing the expensive bottle of wine. After all, we all have to try and sell the items that will generate the most money for the restaurant. Not the waitress' fault but this bears mentioning.

-Ambiguous language of the waitress. The words "thirty-seven-fifty" mean $37.50 to me and not $3750.00. Regardless the price was printed on everyone's menu and the article mentions the entire table was in unison in agreeing on this wine. I dont feel the diner's lack of glasses should be a fault of the waitress

-The sommelier showed up with the corked bottle and asked the diner to approve. Diner admits to being distracted by table conversation and approved the bottle. Diner tasted a sample and again approved; bottle placed on the table. No indication if price again was mentioned

In short, I feel this was caused by the ambiguous language of the waitress. I dont think she bears all of the responsibility though. Due to the prices being posted and visible to not just one but all of the diners, I can't assign 100% blame to the waitress.

I think the restaurant was gracious to offer a part reduction in price but I dont think the diners should receive a write-off on the bill for just the wine.

 

[smackababy]

We have sent back maybe 2-3 bottles over the last 20 years probably. If it smells and tastes of vinegar ask them to pour it on your salad!


I send back steaks with more regularity but still very rarely.



Sometimes a bottle has been stored incorrectly in the supply chain. Dont feel bad since an expensive bottle gets sent back to the distributor who eats the loss. If you send one back for really being screwed dont you think the distributor wants to know that case is compromised and pulled before their wine or customer receives some bad press or worse a bad experience by a reviewer.

I would have to say that would be the only time I send it back. It would have to have gone bad. I just wondered if anyone sends it back because they don't like it.

I also haven't had to send back much food, but I don't frequent places that screw up. I've gotten freebies because the chef didn't like how a dish turned out and refused to let it out of his kitchen. But, then again, I don't eat out very much and when I do, it is at nice places.

 

[manimal]

We have a few faults here:

-A waitress who recommends a $3750 bottle of wine when a diner asks said waitress to recommend something decent. Someone who doesn't know the first thing about wine is not going to want to spend 4 figures on a bottle. There are many $50 and under wines that could have satisfied this guy. I cannot fault the waitress for pushing the expensive bottle of wine. After all, we all have to try and sell the items that will generate the most money for the restaurant. Not the waitress' fault but this bears mentioning.

-Ambiguous language of the waitress. The words "thirty-seven-fifty" mean $37.50 to me and not $3750.00. Regardless the price was printed on everyone's menu and the article mentions the entire table was in unison in agreeing on this wine. I dont feel the diner's lack of glasses should be a fault of the waitress

-The sommelier showed up with the corked bottle and asked the diner to approve. Diner admits to being distracted by table conversation and approved the bottle. Diner tasted a sample and again approved; bottle placed on the table. No indication if price again was mentioned

In short, I feel this was caused by the ambiguous language of the waitress. I dont think she bears all of the responsibility though. Due to the prices being posted and visible to not just one but all of the diners, I can't assign 100% blame to the waitress.

I think the restaurant was gracious to offer a part reduction in price but I dont think the diners should receive a write-off on the bill for just the wine.

So they didnt cork it at the table?

 

[sourceninja]

We have sent back maybe 2-3 bottles over the last 20 years probably. If it smells and tastes of vinegar ask them to pour it on your salad!


I send back steaks with more regularity but still very rarely.



Sometimes a bottle has been stored incorrectly in the supply chain. Dont feel bad since an expensive bottle gets sent back to the distributor who eats the loss. If you send one back for really being screwed dont you think the distributor wants to know that case is compromised and pulled before their wine or customer receives some bad press or worse a bad experience by a reviewer.

I've had this happen before (with a sub $100 bottle). It was a anniversary and we ordered a bottle of wine suggested to us. It was horrible and they gladly took it away and suggested a different wine.

 

[smackababy]

I've had this happen before (with a sub $100 bottle). It was a anniversary and we ordered a bottle of wine suggested to us. It was horrible and they gladly took it away and suggested a different wine.

Had the wine gone bad or did you simply not like it?

 

[NetWareHead]

So they didnt cork it at the table?

My understanding of the language of the article is the sommelier presented a corked (aka sealed) bottle to the table and opened it in front of the diners. Before opening bottle, he asked the diners to again approve which the article says they did

 

[DesiPower]

What the heck did they eat for $ 250? better be large group

 

[Sonikku]

In anandtech terms, thirty seven fifty means $3,750.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

My understanding of the language of the article is the sommelier presented a corked (aka sealed) bottle to the table and opened it in front of the diners. Before opening bottle, he asked the diners to again approve which the article says they did

But that's dumb. They don't reiterate the price when the bottle gets to the table, they double check that its the same wine you ordered.

 

[smackababy]

But that's dumb. They don't reiterate the price when the bottle gets to the table, they double check that its the same wine you ordered.

I've never had them reiterate the price. Just check the wine was what I ordered, and after uncorking, that I approve of the taste. They don't know what the waiter or host might have told me or if it was recommended or ordered by name by me. Granted, a good place would call them over to discuss what would be the best choice for your particular meal and that didn't happen in this case.

 

[mizzou]

This is so stupidly simple it's ridiculous. #1, a person who ACTUALLY wants to buy a $3k bottle of wine, is not going to bitch about how much it costs.

#2 since the waitress reasonably said "thirty seven fitty" you can assume that the buyer felt it was $37.50. This is a reasonable price for a bottle of wine..It's not like she said "ten" and you say "But she told me it was ten cents!!!"

Problem? You are now out of stock of one bottle of really damn expensive wine.

Solution? Get rid of a cheap waitress.

 

[purbeast0]

We have a few faults here:

-A waitress who recommends a $3750 bottle of wine when a diner asks said waitress to recommend something decent. Someone who doesn't know the first thing about wine is not going to want to spend 4 figures on a bottle. There are many $50 and under wines that could have satisfied this guy. I cannot fault the waitress for pushing the expensive bottle of wine. After all, we all have to try and sell the items that will generate the most money for the restaurant. Not the waitress' fault but this bears mentioning.

-Ambiguous language of the waitress. The words "thirty-seven-fifty" mean $37.50 to me and not $3750.00. Regardless the price was printed on everyone's menu and the article mentions the entire table was in unison in agreeing on this wine. I dont feel the diner's lack of glasses should be a fault of the waitress

-The sommelier showed up with the corked bottle and asked the diner to approve. Diner admits to being distracted by table conversation and approved the bottle. Diner tasted a sample and again approved; bottle placed on the table. No indication if price again was mentioned

In short, I feel this was caused by the ambiguous language of the waitress. I dont think she bears all of the responsibility though. Due to the prices being posted and visible to not just one but all of the diners, I can't assign 100% blame to the waitress.

I think the restaurant was gracious to offer a part reduction in price but I dont think the diners should receive a write-off on the bill for just the wine.

so you don't think it is the waitress fault that she said "thirty seven fifty" when she meant "thirty seven hundred fifty" or "three thousand five hundred fifty"?

it's 100% the waitress and only the waitress fault.

if i asked what the food specials of the day were, and they told me there is a lobster dish that is "thirty seven fifty" and the bill came out to be $3750 for that dish, you don't think it wouldn't be the waiters fault for not telling you the real price?

 

[NetWareHead]

But that's dumb. They don't reiterate the price when the bottle gets to the table, they double check that its the same wine you ordered.

We dont know if they did or didn't reiterate the price the second time at the table. All the article mentions is that the sommelier asked for approval before opening. Truthfully, in my experience with restaurants, the waitress deals with pricing and the sommelier deals with the product. So in all probability, the sommelier didnt mention the price.

We still cannot overlook that the price of the wine was in fact posted on the menu conspicuously. The diner attibutes his overlooking this price due to #1 lack of corrective eyeware and #2 being distracted by table conversation. I cannot all of this blame to the restaurant and still say the majority of blame belongs to the diner.

 

[NetWareHead]

if i asked what the food specials of the day were, and they told me there is a lobster dish that is "thirty seven fifty" and the bill came out to be $3750 for that dish, you don't think it wouldn't be the waiters fault for not telling you the real price?

Thats different. Are the prices for the specials of the day posted somewhere? Most of the time they are not. The waitress recites from memory what the items are and consist of. Most of the time you dont get a price unless you ask. In the case where the price is not posted and you get an ambiguous answer like this, I'd say the waitress is 100% at fault.

But in the case of this case with the wine, you have a conspicuous posting of said wine prices, a price which each diner had a menu and where supposedly each diner approved of the wine as well. The only way it would be 100% fault of the waitress is if the wine list prices were not posted somewhere and you were lead to believe the wine was "thirty seven fifty"

 

[mizzou]

I don't think they should have waffled and split the bill honestly...I realize many people think cops are stupid, but you aren't breaking any laws if there is simply a dispute of verbal contract.

They could have easily walked out of there, throwing down $37.50; the stated contracted price.

 

[purbeast0]

Thats different. Are the prices for the specials of the day posted somewhere? Most of the time they are not. The waitress recites from memory what the items are and consist of. Most of the time you dont get a price unless you ask. In the case where the price is not posted and you get an ambiguous answer like this, I'd say the waitress is 100% at fault.

But in the case of this case with the wine, you have a conspicuous posting of said wine prices, a price which each diner had a menu and where supposedly each diner approved of the wine as well. The only way it would be 100% fault of the waitress is if the wine list prices were not posted somewhere and you were lead to believe the wine was "thirty seven fifty"

they were lead to believe it was "thirty seven fifty" ... since, you know, the waitress who works for the restaurant told them that. are we supposed to assume waitresses are lying to us now whenever we go to a restaurant? and keep in mind this isn't apple bee's, this is a high end restaurant, where part of the high price you are paying for items is in the experience. these are the places you should have to do the least amount of effort and have the best possible service.

and we have no clue if they had a wine menu on the table or not, since they didn't consult it but rather asked the waitress to recommend something.

 

[Humpy]

I understand how the world works.

LOL

 

[NetWareHead]

and we have no clue if they had a wine menu on the table or not, since they didn't consult it but rather asked the waitress to recommend something.

From the article:

"I asked the waitress if she could recommend something decent because I don't have experience with wine," Lentini said. "She pointed to a bottle on the menu. I didn't have my glasses. I asked how much and she said, 'Thirty-seven fifty.'"

Tells me right there the wine ordered was on the menu and I'm going to bet with high confidence the price was right there.

 

[sourceninja]

Had the wine gone bad or did you simply not like it?

I'm not a wine expert, but I think it had gone bad. That said, I've had wine at tastings that I was sure was a trick to see if you really enjoyed wine or just said you enjoyed it.

 

[smackababy]

From the article:

"I asked the waitress if she could recommend something decent because I don't have experience with wine," Lentini said. "She pointed to a bottle on the menu. I didn't have my glasses. I asked how much and she said, 'Thirty-seven fifty.'"

Tells me right there the wine ordered was on the menu and I'm going to bet with high confidence the price was right there.

It might not have been, but even if it was, her giving a very ambiguous answer is moronic at best. If I ask how much something costs, she should answer in a manner that is understandable. "Thirty seven fifty" in no world means $3,750.

 

[NetWareHead]

It might not have been, but even if it was, her giving a very ambiguous answer is moronic at best. If I ask how much something costs, she should answer in a manner that is understandable. "Thirty seven fifty" in no world means $3,750.

And that I can agree with. The waitress shares some culpability in this mess. But I dont think she is 100% at fault when the prices are posted each each dinner guest's menu. The restaurant was gracious to lower the price to acknowledge this screwup on the waitress' part but I dont think they should be off the hook entirely. Especially when the dinner guest readily admits he didnt have his glasses available, he was distracted with dinner conversation and later on approved the bottle again when sommelier presented it to the table.

 

[purbeast0]

From the article:

"I asked the waitress if she could recommend something decent because I don't have experience with wine," Lentini said. "She pointed to a bottle on the menu. I didn't have my glasses. I asked how much and she said, 'Thirty-seven fifty.'"

Tells me right there the wine ordered was on the menu and I'm going to bet with high confidence the price was right there.

okay well yeah, that settles that!

still think it's 100% on the waitress. she flat out lied.

 

[Mai72]

LOL

 

[Blackjack200]

they were lead to believe it was "thirty seven fifty" ... since, you know, the waitress who works for the restaurant told them that. are we supposed to assume waitresses are lying to us now whenever we go to a restaurant? and keep in mind this isn't apple bee's, this is a high end restaurant, where part of the high price you are paying for items is in the experience. these are the places you should have to do the least amount of effort and have the best possible service.

and we have no clue if they had a wine menu on the table or not, since they didn't consult it but rather asked the waitress to recommend something.

The restaurant's argument:

"As the leading culinary destination in this region, we consistently serve as many, if not more high-end wine and spirits without incident," executive vice president Joseph Lupo said. "In this isolated case, both the server and sommelier verified the bottle requested with the patron."

1. As many, if not more than what, what the hell does that mean?

2. The bottle was not requested by the patron, it was suggested by the server.

Lupo said that fact was confirmed surveillance footage. We asked Borgata to share the footage, which does not have audio, but it said it could not.

lol

Lupo said the host of the dinner confirmed the price of the bottle before the bill was presented, yet he chose not to "say anything to management"

Yeah, because the wine had already been consumed.

I agree, I would not have paid any more than $37.50