Sonoma on the Spot

Scam. Just like others, I bought the Groupon and tried to contact the business through the email and phone numbers Groupon provided. Both numbers are not in service. The website and email don’t exist. I did a little research and the guy who runs the so called business, John Abell, comes up in an article about scamming people in Santa Rosa. Headline reads: ‘Police looking into complaint on Santa Rosa craft show that never happened’. Sonoma on the Spot is mentioned in the article. I can’t believe Groupon does business with this guy. At least they returned my money.

This is a scam. My mom purchased the tickets on the reliance of a few good reviews. We wanted to utilize our voucher for Sat (we arrived On Wed). The #‘s are disconnected & the email is returned (550 invalid recipient).
We emailed Groupon about this & now we are getting the run around w/​them. STAY AWAY FROM THIS SCAM!!! It is also disturbing Groupon has allowed this guy to advertise through Groupon.

I’m gonna go with the «SCAM» reviews. I bought (a seemingly great deal of) a Groupon for a wine-​tasting tour for two, pairings, take-​home bottle, etc. Immediately emailed them to reserve a spot for our trip next month. Nothing. Website? Doesn’t actually exist. Phone numbers (2) listed on Groupon in the instructions? Both: «We are sorry, you have reached a non-​working number.» Nice. Thank goodness I caught this right now instead of waiting til later in the summer or something, when I would have been unable to have my money refunded by Groupon (definitely did that).

Total scam… bought a Groupon for a friend and I to enjoy some much needed girls’ time. A friend of mine also went up the weekend before and was stood up, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Now I’m fighting with Groupon to get my money back.

I AM ADDING TO THIS REVIEW TO ASK ANY AND EVERYONE WHO HAS HAD/​IS HAVING THE SAME OR SIMILAR ISSUE TO PLEASE TELL GROUPON. THIS MAN HAS POSTED ANOTHER GROUPON DEAL AND I DO NOT WANT ANOTHER PERSON TO GET SCAMMED. I HAVE CONTACTED THEM AND THEY SAID THEY WILL LOOK INTO IT BUT I AM HOPING THAT IF THEY KEEP GETTING CALLS THEY WILL TAKE IT DOWN.
Stupid me for only looking at the reviews that were posted on Groupon. Maybe if I had looked on here I wouldn’t have wasted my time and money. Bought this Groupon for my in-​laws for Christmas and we were so excited about it! When they saw what it was they loved it. Both of them normally work weekends and would have to take a day off to do this so they have been calling and emailing since they got it to try and set up their reservation. Cut to a month later and I just had to call Groupon and demand a refund. This place is a scam! Although apparently the man will show up some of the time (according to Unilocal at least) it is still horrible from the reviews I read. Unfortunately I don’t have the ability to rate this little man based on their time with him or his tour. Same as 87% of the reviews, they called and number was disconnected. They emailed and there was no response! When I called Groupon they tried to get me to make a reservation through them for this. Why would anyone do that!!! If the actual tour guide doesn’t want to set it up, why would I trust that he would show up when a third party is booking it. The woman I spoke to gave me no push back at all in regards to a refund (which surprised me since I had seen on here that people had issues) which leads me to believe that they know that this man is screwing people and are still allowing him to post on their site. I am blown away that this place has any good reviews… I honestly believe that they were paid for. I am extremely embarrassed that I bought such a horrible gift and honestly hope this guy gets punched in the face one good time.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE: IF YOU SKIPPED EVERYTHING ELSE I WROTE JUST READ THIS:
DO NOT BUY THIS!!! EVEN IF HE DOES RESPOND TO YOU OR SET UP A RESERVATION IT SEEMS THAT 9 OUT OF 10 TIMES THE TOUR IS HORRIBLE! DON’T RISK IT.
UPDATE TO THIS: I found John Abell’s FB page (the man the does the tour) and I found that he has also made up a fake winery. Fogstone Wine does NOT EXIST. The number on their page is the same number on this one. This man is stealing from people any way that he can and I truly hope that karma comes to get him.

Boy, did I feel stupid after paying for the Groupon and waiting for hours for John the Scam Artist to show up. I got an email the morning of our scheduled your date explaining that his tour guide was «sick» and that he would text me when he figured out the plan. No text, no email, no nothing. I saw the same story repeated about an email confirmation and a disconnected phone number. Groupon refunded my purchase, but my day was shot. Even if this guy isn’t a scammer, he is a terrible business man. It’s a shame that so many people have experienced the same situation and that no one has pulled the plug. I will be contacting the Better Business Bureau.

This guy John is a scam! We found this deal on groupon. He had us show up at 3 at city hall and never called us back and never showed up…
There were two other couples there waiting and luckily he texted ONE OF US. After all of us had tried contacting him. He texted us to show up to 3 wineries and told us he would send us a bottle of wine.
When we showed up to the first and second wineries they said we were the 4^th group of the day to be scammed like that!
The best thing we got out of this situation was meeting other wonderful people who were unfortunate enough to be scammed in the same way as us.
Please don’t buy this groupon and make your credit card info vulnerable! Don’t send him your address for «the bottle of wine» HELLO IDENTITY THEFT!

I would give this place zero stars as well if I could. I have NO idea where these 5 star reviews are coming from. I have a feeling they are fake and these people were paid to put them up. Even if this place seemed to actually exist, they would get 1 star reviews at best JUST for their incredibly poor customer service.
I bought the Groupon VIP Tasting Experience for Two for my boyfriend and I to use for my upcoming birthday weekend, and I regret that decision with every fiber of my being. I am ashamed of myself for not checking previous reviews before jumping the gun and purchasing the Groupon, but time was ticking down on the offer on Groupon and I wanted to snatch the deal before it went away. I guess I learned my lesson.
I initially attempted to get a refund directly from Groupon because I didn’t want to bother contacting the company based on the other reviews, and Groupon said they can’t refund based on other customer’s experiences. Understandable. So I went ahead to prove myself right that this place was a scam and attempted to contact the company to make a «reservation.»
Their voucher says to email for «quickest response» which seems weird, since phone calls are typically the quickest response, but I listened and emailed… waited 4 days and received no response. I called the first number listed on the voucher (which is also the one listed on this Unilocal page) and it was conveniently disconnected and out of service. The second phone number listed had nobody pick up each time or call back. SO, now I have proof that this place is either a scam, or the WORST run company I have EVER come across. Hoping and crossing my fingers that Groupon will refund me this time.
Also, the address listed shows up on Google Maps between a high school and middle school. Seems like an odd place to have wine tours at. Just saying.

Well
Would give no stars if I could. Like others I had a confirmed 12 noon confirmed by email reservation with «Sonoma on the Spot» Purchased by my wife’s co-​workers for our 30^th wedding anniversary. Have the email confirming we had an appointment and please be on time as walking tour could not wait to get going. Good news is I had read Unilocal reviews that John ha had a very bad record of not showing up so was not greatly surprised when we got stood up… Guess what No John or the host who was to do the tour. I waited patiently with my wife on on 30^th anniversary of our wedding and nobody shows up. I texted John and then called the number John left me in the email confirming and waited until 12:30 pm and nothing.
Really bad form here… no email me to explain he could not accommodate us or had a problem with staff which would allow us to have other plans but just hang us out as he has with many others, Shame on you and all who work for John. By the way Johns number is 707−694−7404… to be changed soon I as he can since I got no return call or text.
I will call Groupon and see what recourse we may have but trip is ruined and John and «Sonoma on the Spot» is to blame.
Will post outcome from Groupon when I have completed my complaint

My daughter gave us the VIP package for two for our 26^th wedding anniversary. We scheduled a reservation with John for Oct 11,2014 at noon. He never showed. So, we knew that he also was suppose to have a 3pm tour so we had lunch and waited around until 3:30. He still didn’t show up. He never answered the cell number he gave nor did he respond to the email. There were 2 other couples there as well for the 3pm tour with the same VIP groupon deal. This is very bad business for him as well as groupon advertising. For him to stress being on time is a bunch of BULL. We were on time and actually the only ones there! We drove almost 2hrs to get there and for this to be a no show is really sad and disgusting. Thanks for nothing!

Its a scam. Emailed to make reservation twice, no response. Called the first number on Groupon voucher, disconnected. Called five times the other number shown, no response. No response. Groupon credited my account. I requested Groupon to drop this business from their inventory because of lack of response.
It messed up our plans to visit Sonoma for that day.

This is a scam! This place doesn’t exist! I cannot believe I came all the way over here from San Mateo to find it doesn’t exist. I am beyond disappointed!

I found this opportunity through Groupon and for first-​timers, we found the opportunity to be great! We visited three wineries and they were all great, especially Roche. A lot of red wines but the white wines were the best for us.

Great tour! I was verrrrry skeptical because of the bad Unilocal reviews but it was fine. We visited 3 distinct tasting rooms and john was very helpful. He told us that we weren’t getting a cheese or chocolate pairing because of some thing going on with the city but instead gave us an extra bottle of wine at the end. We got the groupon and was definitely worth our money. I really enjoyed the first and second winery the best. The third was fine but we weren’t given enough of each wine to taste. I went with 5 other girls and we are not big wine people and know next to nothing about wine but we had a blast and it was really fun to try a bunch of different wines.

This place was a total rip off. Bought it for myself and some friends on our visit to the area and we waited for an hour but they never showed up. Also, the address on the groupon is wrong, we asked every stop in Sonoma on the square and they had never heard of the business and after an hour of unanswered phone calls we gave up. Consider yourself warned, this is totally bogus.

Unfortunately, John has too many irons in the fire and isn’t controlling any of them. He spent a few minutes at the first tasting where he left us with a woman that didn’t do a great job of promoting the wines or even getting the pours done on schedule. We walked to the second room where John was working. He poured several wines (some were his own), one wine that was so bad John told us to dump it. He then told us to go to our third room. We got there and it was closed a half hour earlier.
John did not educate. We had 4 (of 6 in our group) that were 20 something and in need of learning wine tasting. He did not give any kind of VIP experience.
We spent a week in Napa/​Sonoma and this was the weak part of our trip.

Horrible experience. We bought a Groupon VIP wine tasting for 4. John arrived 15 minutes late. The Groupon indicated we’d go to 3 tasting rooms of our choice. We didn’t, John chose them without input from us. At the first tasting room it seemed like John was employed there. He spent the majority of the time pouring wine for other people. On our walk to the 2^nd winery John received a phone call indicating an urgent need for him to go to the winery where he worked to resolve a problem. We made a quick stop at the 3^rd tasting room and John let them know we’d be coming there without him as he had a work emergency. He dropped us off at the 2^nd tasting room and left.

Do not purchase the groupon it’s a scam. My boyfriend and some friends purchased the groupon thinking we’re going to have a great time wine tasting but instead we spent an hour and 10mins driving and searching for the place. So the address on Unilocal and on Facebook is an address to a house that is boarded up. The address on the website leads you to a parking lot. Although it took us time to realize that wine tasting isn’t going to happen with this place we decided to explore Sonoma on our own. Groupon was also very helpful they decided to give us a refund.

No one picks up the phone nor responds to messages. Phone or emails. Nothing. It’s like nobody works there.

This review is so long overdue, but I couldn’t let it pass unfinished!
I’m so glad that I found this on Groupon! My boyfriend and I wanted to do a wine tasting for Valentines and we were lucky enough to have been able to join a group for Saturday, February 15. Since we had looked into doing something along the lines of wine tasting last minute, I was glad that not only were we able to get into contact with someone but that he was able to open up another tour to accommodate the number of requests for that day.
We visited 3 tasting rooms and although the groupon description stated 5 wines in each room, we tasted more than 5! John, our tour guide, was very knowledgeable on all things wine and wine country. It was great to pick his mind about random wine questions that would pop into my head. Not only did we get to try all the wines in the tasting menu at each room, we were able to revisit any that we liked. We also got a complimentary wine bottle at the end of the tour and couldn’t resist buying another that we absolutely loved.
It was a great experience to try different wines that aren’t normally commercially available and to learn about the process of producing such delicious wines.