An abysmal experience from start to finish. Dealing with the staff and owners for my 10-person fire pit reservation was absurdly unprofessional and frustrating.
My reservation was supposed to be 10 chairs around two fires. After calling back multiple times when no one would follow up with me, I finally got it booked. The main stipulation I had was that we would not be split into two circles.
When we arrived, there were only two people working and they seemed very frazzled and out of sorts. Despite being the first customers in the building, we waited around for several minutes before one of them finally acknowledged us. I said we had a reservation for ten chairs around two fire pits. She said, "Oh...Jason set it up as 5 chairs around one fire each." I said, "Oh! Well that is definitely not what we reserved." She said, "Well, Jason didn't know that." I said, "Alright...I don't know who Jason is, but that's not what I discussed with the woman I talked to, and that's not what I paid for." Only then did she begrudgingly say she would go move the chairs.
It was incredibly cold that day so we watched her from inside for a second, but upon realizing how much she was struggling we all went out to help her. The snow was covered in a layer of ice, so all the chairs and pits were stuck in place and moving them was very difficult, but we all started in on it, and we asked the woman for a shovel. She brought us the shovel, and then promptly left(!!!), so one of my friends shoveled all of the snow out of our circle by himself while the rest of us wrestled with the chairs and pits. Furthermore, the chairs were all covered in a layer of ice that we couldn't get off, making them slippery to handle. We asked for help with that too, to no avail, so we all just had to sit in ice.
Which brings me to the fires and the kits we were supposed to be provided; None of the lighters they gave us worked, so the staff eventually brought out one from inside, and, after almost an HOUR of shoveling, moving chairs, and trying to light wet wood, we finally got the fires lit and sat down. However, we were still sitting on ice, and to our surprise, when the second worker brought out our "s'mores kits and blankets" we found out that we were expected to share one blanket between every two people. Most of us were not couples, and I was never told that each person would not have our own blanket. How would you even share one of those blankets between two of the large ice-covered Adirondack chairs without sitting in someone's lap? She finally brought out only two more, which obviously still was not enough.
It was so cold that day that we also asked if it would be possible to be moved inside, to which the first worker condescendingly replied, "Hah! Not on a SATURDAY!" despite the inside area being sparsely occupied. I'm not super upset about that part, because our reservation was for outside and it's a pandemic. However, I will never understand why the staff didn't just put us at the long rectangular fire pit that was on the patio. There would have at least been no shoveling required, and it didn't appear that those chairs were covered in ice. At no point was the staff helpful to us in any way.
After a couple of my friends complained about the experience (we also had to wait an hour for an order of French fries and the wine was not great), the first worker then offered me a free bottle of wine for the trouble...One free bottle of wine...To split between 10 people...who each paid $26 (for a total of $264) just to be in some iced over chairs, in the snow we had to shovel away by ourselves, around two fires we had to struggle to light ourselves, with half as many blankets as we needed. And when I checked out I didn't even get the bottle.
So, the experience of my entire group here was ridiculously unsatisfactory, and THEY REFUSE TO REFUND MY RESERVATION PRICE. They keep offering us a complimentary experience at their sister winery, but we want nothing else to do with them and they still will not give us a refund. Stay away from this...
   Read moreI planned on just sending my concerns to the email address on the website but didn't receive a reply or even an acknowledgement of my concerns, so I decided to leave my review instead. I went to the Watermelon festival in August after looking at the website and seeing what to kind of expect. I was very disappointed by the time I left there. It was a last minute decision to go. I was given the plastic cup with the coupon. Once I entered and decided which winery to use the tasting at started the decline. I was basically told just the names of the wines but no info about the wine. It was a “here you go” type of vibe. The other tent (Bogati) was even worse at customer service. I paid in cash for a glass and they didn’t even have change (as in coins). I waited while they supposedly got some but after a while just left because obviously not worth my time. As I did enjoy the glass, I bought a bottle to enjoy for the rest of my time there. Asked about ice bucket as it was white wine and was told quite briskly that had to go to the bar for one. Went inside and was told there were none and someone would look around outside to try to find one. I saw none myself but after a bit someone brought one in and I grabbed it. Asked for some ice and had to wait. After waiting it was finally filled and since I was going to be sitting inside with the bottle, I asked for an actual glass instead of using a plastic cup. Was told no and if I wanted a glass, I would have to buy one. Excuse me???? I bought a ticket to your event and then a bottle of wine and could not be given an actual glass to enjoy my wine with. That was inexcusable. Even the supposed games were non existent. I guess there was only watermelon rolling but didn’t really see much of that.
I was so disappointed and feel like my afternoon was wasted. I work at a winery so I know what is poor service and BS and what isn’t. Needless to say I will not be attending anything at James Charles or even go there for a visit. I will also not be recommending it to anyone and everyone. The only positive of that afternoon was the watermelon slushy.
I was polite and went along with everything as I am not a “Karen” but believe me that I wanted to ask for a...
   Read moreGood wine, disappointing service. The grounds and building are nice, but nothing extravagant as far as views go compared to some other vineyards in the area. It was our first time here as we were recommended to come after visiting their sister winery Veramar Vineyard.
The issues here started with ordering the wine. They nicely described each wine they offer and then we asked to just sample two wines to decide which bottle we wished to purchase. All we needed was a splash to be able to taste it and this is exactly what we did at Veramar so we figured it wouldn’t be an issue here. However, they charged us $15 to taste the two wines!! We had no idea this would be the case until checkout came. We were told a tasting (which we didn’t want to do) was $15 and you could taste every wine on the menu. We tasted TWO just to figure out which bottle we wanted and still got charged $15! What??
The other major issue was the open garage door on an almost 90 degree day. I understand the open air concept and it really would be nice on a more moderate day, but it was far too hot to have the door open. It should have been closed to allow the AC to stay inside. We asked if there was an area with AC and we were just given blank stares and told there might be some shade outside. Ummm ok then…you can’t close the big garage door? The outside patio is nice and if people wanted to sit in the heat it was a perfect spot to be. Why not have that option OR the AC inside instead of hot everywhere? We literally had 1/4 of a glass of wine and just left
Also, not affecting this review, but you really should have the front door fixed so it doesn’t slam shut extremely hard and send a pounding through the building.
If the owners care to reach out and resolve the issues, specifically being charged $15 for two little samples, I will update...
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