Awards and citations:


1997: Le Prix du Champagne Lanson Noble Cuvée Award for investigations into Champagne for the Millennium investment scams

2001: Le Prix Champagne Lanson Ivory Award for investdrinks.org

2011: Vindic d'Or MMXI – 'Meilleur blog anti-1855'

2011: Robert M. Parker, Jnr: ‘This blogger...’:

2012: Born Digital Wine Awards: No Pay No Jay – best investigative wine story

2012: International Wine Challenge – Personality of the Year Award




Saturday 11 June 2011

ex-Oddbins employee not amused by wine offer from Simon Baile

Dear Jim,
 
I am the ex-manager of Oddbins Westminster.
I have just got this email from Simon, which I consider an ultimate insult from the person that is responsible for the demise of our company.
I have not found back a job in the wine industry yet, and the market doesn’t look very good for ex-oddbins employees. I hold him personally responsible for the financial difficulty I am in (and I really am…) and cannot believe the cheek of it.
 
Anyway, I thought you might want to publish this, if you do, feel free to include my name.
 
Yours sincerely,
Gwenole Quiel
From: Simon Baile [mailto:simon@excellar.co.uk]
Sent: 10 June 2011 18:55
To: gwenquiel@
Subject: Ex Cellar 35% Off Wine Voucher



































"In quick time they were at the wine-pipe; for a moment the new hands seemed at a loss for the means of getting the wine to their mouths; but the "wide-a-awake" boy sliped (sic) off one of his shoes in a twin­kling, dipped it into the cask and drank.

"Drink, you devils, drink!" he said; "its all one how much you drink, only don't get drunk!" And again he filled his shoe, and again he drank. The previous debauch in con­nexion with the new, soon tum­bled him on the ground; and he lay there gradu­ally sinking into stupidity; but, as he took his leave of conscious­ness, he admon­ished the others to take care of themselves; to take as much as they could rightly carry; but not to get drunk, saying, as he sunk lower and lower him­self, "Fill your boots, boys-fill your boots! Give me one small drop in a shoe to make me well again, for I'm- I'm-."

Alas, poor hu­manity! There lay in the deep­est degradation, as good a fight­ing soldier, and, when he could not get drink, as cleanly and ac­tive a fellow as ever the English army pos­sessed."























* Terms and conditions apply: purchases must be made by people over 18 - offer is subject to availability - a valid email address is required - offer only applies to wine - no further discounts - other discounts & deals do not apply



Interesting discussion on Tom Cannavan's Wine Pages' Wine Forum over whether the sending of these emails has contravened the Data Protection Act.
 

10 comments:

Rod Smith said...

HI Jim

Afraid that doesn't display (Safari, IE7 or Chrome anyway). Just a collection of not visible image frames. Thought you might like to know.

Cheers

Rod

Luc Charlier said...

Same remark. Would love to read the letters, though !

wedwardes said...

Did Ex Cellar buy (and pay for) the Oddbins mailing list? I suggest an enquiry to the administrators.

Jim's Loire said...

Hope that it is now possible to see the offer. Please let me know if it remains invisible. Thanks Jim

Anonymous said...

The pics are displayed, thanks Jim. Just to add that a few days ago, Bail had an interview for Harpers, this quote shocked me:

- While accepting ultimate responsibility over the Oddbins collapse, Baile said: “Oddbins was made up of more than 600 people. I wasn’t the only one and I can say with hand on heart that we did our best.” -

This is also an insult, as an ex employee and one of those 600, I certainly was not responsible for the millions of pounds of debt to the tax man nor involved in the lies to the wine producers and other creditors. All I did was work really hard.

How does throwing good money into all the wrong areas of business and evading the invoices / bills landing on your desk constitute as "Doing our best"?

Luc Charlier said...

ONE: All perfectly visible now, Jim., thank you.
But I do NOT see the connection. Doesn’t matter.
TWO: Who am I anyway, but I would dismiss EVERY post sent anonymously, however pertinent (as the one above indeed is). Why on earth do people do that? Of course, you know whom it came from, and may be that matters.

Anonymous said...

Until the staff who used to work for Oddbins have obtained other jobs they are vulnerable to potential adverse influence put upon them by the Oddbin's management. The conduct of the management for example to threaten to discipline managers for failure to meet sales targets irrespective of local circumstances was illegal. It also demonstrated a disrespect for staff who had many years of service.

With this background who would wish to put their name to a post faced with a former employer with such disregard for the law.

Anonymous said...

Simon Faile is a failure...
no respect for this guy whatsoever.and the reality is.... ex cellar owned by the same guy will go DOWN.... I HOPE , by the same way.... 35%... pooor supliers....
only 6 cent to the cva
wait and see

Gewn i support you on every bit!

Anonymous said...

all the anonymous posts i reckopn were sent to people involved in doing their best for the RIP Oddbins

Anonymous said...

i hope x-cellar goes down!!!!Big time!¬!!