I call bullshit on all the BA guys who are claiming they will never get any beer from CCB again. I don’t buy it.
Joey has always been amazingly gracious to me. I have come by on days when they are supposed to be closed and he has been willing to share a few beers, fill some growlers and chat despite how insanely busy he is. And in the end I couldn’t really give a crap what happened to this rude email guy. Sorry I really just don’t care. I care about two things, if Joey has been cool to me and if CCB makes good beer. To both those questions the answer is yes so this means nothing to me. IMO it makes beer advocate look bad though. Who posts personal emails in a forum to start a debate? Thats just tactless. The forums here seem more pragmatic and (largely) more civil.
I think that a lot of folks on both sites are taking this too personally. I’ve met Joey and he was very approachable and provided excellent customer service when I visited the brewpub. He’s also answered many private messages and filled me in with helpful info in a friendly tone a number of times. That being said I think he handled the situation poorly. As others have said, he could have directed the OP on BA to the blog and not have sent such a nasty reply, saying that he didn’t want his business. As the representative of a business he needs to suck it up and let the customer vent. If he felt to respond he should respond in a professional matter.
I’m also friends with said OP and he clearly provoked Joey with his comments. There was no need to take on the harsh tone and be so snide and criticizing. I find that both parties are at fault and that the situation could have been easily avoided.
There are a lot of folks who are passionate defenders of CCB and have used their personal relationships with Joey and the CCB staff as a basis as defense for his actions. They must realize that what he did as a business owner, regardless of their personal experience, is completely unprofessional and uncalled for. On the other side there are CCB haters who are sick of hype and their perceived "homerism" who make ridiculous claims that they won’t give CCB their business anymore and excuse the OP of any wrong doing. Both parties were in the wrong and it’s a shame that this had to be dragged out publicly. Hopefully there will be a resolution in private and everyone can move on.
Dennis was being a douchebag the second time around. If you read between the lines his message is condescending, and has a tone of "I’m better than you, this is why, and this is why you should listen to my bullshit."
If I were joey I would piss in a keg and hook this guy up his own tap called "GFY"
I was an insufferable dick. I know that. And the fact that I took immense pleasure in writing my opus of dickish customer service replies doesn’t assuage the fact that I shouldn’t have done it. And I did take pleasure in it, wrong as it was. Because I am not the zen master of tranquility I wish I was. I lose my shit sometimes and revel in exploring new ways to be a sarcastic douchewad. But I am not mean or a sociopath so I do feel bad when I go too far. I went too far and I should really stop answering random brewery emails until I can get a grip because no reply, while less satisfying viscerally, would have been better than the text based jackassery I responded with.
As far as it being unprofessional......pointing that out is like pointing out that professional wrestling is fake. Anyone can tell it was unprofessional. The question is can a business do well and be unprofessional or even be jerks? Sure they can. Rude is what Falling Rock prides themselves on. The staff wears shirts celebrating their more dickish replies to customers. And I love that about them.....but it is not who I am as a rule and its not what I strive to be professionally so I need to follow my own advice and chill the heck out. And I suspect I will.....sometimes.
anyway.