Disappointed
When I initially invested with Viticult in 2022 I was more than happy, very professional and had a great working relationship with my broker, who understood & appreciated my circumstances, from which we were both in agreement.
My problems started when I asked for a cask valuation on February 27th 2024. I received no response to an email or text message. I resent these messages the following week, again no response which I found bizarre as I had no such previous experience.
A while after this I received a call from Viticult, the individual was rude, was not prepared to listen, constantly talking over me, ignored my request. I thought it was a crank call because he was chatting & laughing with others as I took the call. He did answer one question, to which he advised me that my previous broker "had long left the company for pastures new"
Earlier in February, a Manager had called to see how things were with my broker to which I replied I was happy, because I was but there was no mention of him leaving the company.
I was not impressed that I had not been informed of this earlier.
So the rude guy announced he was my new broker to which I was even less impressed, especially when he sent me stuff that I specifically had said I did not want or was even interested in.
I then emailed him for a cask valuation, gave it a short period of time & resent it again after not receiving a reply, and after still not receiving a reply decided to ring the company on 15th April to ask for a cask valuation. .
I left a voice message but nobody got back to me, so I rang again later that day to be put through to a very helpful person who said he would deal with my query & understood my current circumstances & would get back to me ASAP.
On April 16th, I received a communication from somebody responding to my left voice message, but informed him someone was dealing with it.
Friday 19th, I have still not received a cask valuation from 27th February, the customer service I have received has been very poor, and raises concerns regarding the actual selling of my investment when that time comes.
I have investments with a different company also, they have given me a valuation on my cask, even though they didn't broker the deal within two hours. With Viticult it has been nearly two months, and they have still not given me a valuation.
Communication is a shambles, there have been other issues too, which on reflection add weight to my dissatisfaction despite the initial service I received which has swayed me to give this company two stars on this review. I do feel I have been generous in light of the issues I have had, especially these last two months.
UPDATED 25/04/2024
On Monday 22nd April, I received several emails to which I replied. I was disappointed that initially Viticult were more interested in my actual review rather than dealing with my request. Especially when I was asked if I would edit my review if they did what I had requested...surely this should have been the other way round?
I didn't feel as though they were grasping my poor customer service experience.
I did speak to someone, who gave me a lot of information, a lot of which I was already aware of, but was repeatedly ignored when I mentioned it.
The good thing though was the information was very well explained, and also reassuring that it confirmed what has been said previously by Viticult in relation to my research before making this investment, and other dealings with another company, the one who did provide a valuation.
Things haven't been completely resolved satisfactorily but I am able to draw a line under it, and it has given me a vision of how I will proceed.
However, as with previous experiences, the keys to successful customer service have been overlooked. I could have been more scathing but I haven't and my review is reflective of the service I have received. The route cause of that needs to be looked at and dealt with, because it has happened several times.
This is one bad experience, with other reviews being positive but that doesn't mean to say my experience didn't happen.
Like I have said, there have been good points, but they have been overshadowed and although I initially said my rating was generous, I am happy to leave it at 2 Stars even though my views remained unaltered
Date of experience: 27 February 2024
