Last night I posted about a recent bad experience we had had with a local business, so I thought it only fitting to talk about a good one we recently had.
About a month ago Cassie signed us up to be wine club members at A Blooming Hill Vineyard in Forest Grove, Oregon. She liked their wines and at $35 for three wines three times a year and no membership fee, it's hard to beat. Plus the people who own the Vineyard (Holly and Jim) are really nice and easy going people who do it mostly because they enjoy it.
They also have two really sweet dogs, Gemini and Trouble, that wander the property greeting guests, being lazy and getting plenty of "rubbins". These two boys are a nice plus to the place, in my opinion.
Along with the winery, the owners also have a bunch of horses and a Christmas tree farm. The tree farm is all noble firs and they sell all their trees for a flat price of $15 for wine club members or $30 for non-members.
I've been wanting to get a tree from a farm for the last 5 years (ever since we started getting a tree every year) and this was a hard to beat opportunity. We went out there, got a ride to the farm on a flatbed trailer pulled by tractor driven by Jim, picked out our tree (as you can see here it's a pretty nice one), and Jim cut and trimmed it for us on the spot. We got it back to our car where I got a lesson on knot tying from Jim on what's called a farmer's knot (he had to show me so we could properly tie the tree to the top of the car) while Cassie went and paid.
If you are skimming this post looking for the real meat of the story, here's where things get interesting. As I mentioned before, they were charging wine club members $15 for a tree. Holly momentarily forgot about this and charged Cassie $20 for the tree. Considering that even at $20 the tree was half what it would have cost at most other tree farms, Cassie wasn't going to quibble and we didn't really mind it that much.
We got the tree home, into a stand and decorated it. Meanwhile, Holly wrote a newsletter for wine club members talking about the events they currently have and sent it out to us. Cassie read it and immediately noticed that Holly apologized in the newsletter (which as I said was sent to all of their wine club members) for overcharging a member $5 for a tree and that we should contact her for a refund.
It's one thing for Holly to realize and remember this. It's another thing entirely for her to acknowledge it in such a public fashion. Needless to say that it more than made up for any trouble the deal had caused and showed real integrity, which, quite frankly, the business world could use more of.
Because of this, we will now be wine club members of A Blooming Hill Vineyard for as long as they are in business and they are much deserving of any praise they get.
As for the $5, we told them to give it to their favorite charity.
By the way, did I mention how cute their dogs are? You can see them here. If you are ever in Forest Grove, I highly recommend giving the winery and the dogs a visit.
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