Cambridge Wine Merchants — Restaurant in Cambridge

This used to be my go to tipple in Cambridge, but is now focused more on profits than their customers. I purchased a gift voucher for a friend who lives in a couple of hours away during COVID as a birthday present. They could not use it by the expiry date and called Cambridge Wine Merchants who said due to the pandemic not to worry about the expiry date and come in when they could. When we tried to use the voucher, we were told that it was too late and they wouldn't honour it. The waiter was rude and dismissive and I had "no proof" that the voucher was extended. Silly me for actually taking someone's word and not getting it in writing. When I emailed to complain, got a horrible response belittling my experience and upset. This is all for a mere £50 - very happy to take your money but not honour the voucher. Absolutely appalling!

Edit for clarification: The response is telling in its lack of care for customers.

The voucher was purchased in 2020, so was less than three years ago (as opposed to being 'three years expired'), so I was asking for less than a year extension. And those three years were mostly through a global pandemic! Not sure how the company can justify taking money in the form of vouchers and strictly enforcing expiry dates when they have promised flexibility. I note that Scotland have laws requiring all vouchers to have a minimum of five years expiry dates for this exact reason.

And of course the employee denies being rude - but I have a table of four people who can vouch otherwise, including one person from out of town who could not understand why I had (previously) spoken so highly...

Overall I like Cambridge Wine Merchants. I made a large purchase last year for Christmas and they were very helpful in helping me choose a wide selection of wines. They have a good selection, nice staff (mostly) and decent prices - great for moving away from supermarket wines. I go back every now and then as I'm no longer a local.

I'm taking a star off for today's interaction where I was made to feel bad/awkward for wanting to pay with my AMEX card. The cashier begrudgingly accepted my card and complained that they have to pay more fees for AMEX transactions and that all those "lovely benefits and air miles" we get are at their expense. This may be the case but I shouldn't be made to feel bad for making a purchase from their shop for this fact. If they have something against AMEX's fee policy, then they just shouldn't accept AMEX, full stop. Don't take it out on...

We paid for our wine, did not order any food, and we were bullied to pay the gratuitous fee which I find absolutely unacceptable. Loved the ambience, until we were shamed and bullied by a male server who called another server and telling us off out loud when we said we wanted to opt out of the 12% gratuitous fee, which was optional as written on the receipt. Mind you we bought two bottles, and cork price of £12 was also applied on each bottle we bought to keep the place running. While the servers were quite friendly, we did not receive over the top service when choosing the wine, to which we did not mind at all. My only complaint is that if the gratuitous fee is mandatory, please just include it on the bill and do not add “optional” to avoid misunderstandings and...