Laithwaites

I ordered 2 cases on a preorder - when the wine came in I opened a bottle and did not like it - called to return it and was told it could not be returned since it was a preorder.
We will never order from them again
They never even sent me an invoice or receipt for the wine - it just showed up on my credit card

My dad became a member of Laithwaites & was extremely excited, particularly about the Spanish and Portuguese wines they provide. Unfortunately, the positives stop there. Yes, the wine is great, but the service could not be worse. Out of the 7 cases he has ordered, 5 have involved significant problems from delivering to the wrong place, damage, delays, etc. They have involved endless interactions with customer service and most of the time, they were not able to resolve the issue at all. Several times, there was a commitment made by a customer service rep for a manager to call and follow up. This NEVER happened.

A couple of example:
- He sent me a house warming gift that arrived a month late! By the time he sent it to me where I live, I was home visiting him for Christmas. He called the support line countless times and none were able to solve the issues. One rep promised a refund. The next had no idea what the previous rep was talking about and said she could not issue a refund. This happened multiple times. The issue was escalated and he never received a response.
- His next order was sent to my address instead of his. He called immediately to cancel the order & to have it sent it to himself instead. The first support rep insisted that the issue was resolved and that the order would NOT be sent to me. The NEXT support rep he talked to said the address could NOT be change. A few weeks later, he found this not to be true! The order was STILL sent to me. The support reps are not on the same page at all.
- The FOLLOWING order was ALSO sent to me. This was after he had removed my address from the system completely. Apparently, one side of the business doesn't look at that part of the website for updated shipping addresses (what?!?!?!?!)? Instead, they used an old address that was on file somewhere else!?!? Instead of profusely apologizing and sending new wine, they said I would need to print a Fedex slip, drive the shipment back to Fedex (once it arrives), and send it back. They sent my dad a return shipping label, but I don't have a printer! So I have to get to Fedex when there are 2-4 feet of snow coming down in Colorado this weekend. If I don't do this, my dad would be charged the FULL $200 plus dollars for THEIR mistake. What kind of customer service is this?!

I am INSANELY appalled that this place is still in business. Yes, they have great wines, but everything else about them could not be worse. A different issue seems to arise every time he places an order. The worse part is, instead of owning up to it, they make excuse after excuse. They don't value your customers and so you shouldn't value them.

I ordered 12 bottle of wines and you can see the pictures of second bottle i opened! Disgusting...

I started with Laithwaites just before Xmas 2020. Father in law's been using them for years. Love 90%+ of the wines I've tried but they're not for novices.
Had a poor champagne bought for wife's Xmas and called to mention it was tasteless. Money was refunded without question so I have to say I've had excellent service with them so far and f-i-l has always been pleased.

I thought that partnering with National Geographic would be a match made in heaven. The wines were great and the note cards were like going on a mini vacation. Sadly, the story goes downhill fairly rapidly. Customer service is simply not helpful or responsive. I sent a very lengthy email on the plethora of problems I experienced entitled " why I have to break up with you". Customer service simple gave a form letter just wanting to confirm I was cancelling my membership. I hope that my letter gets to Tony Laithwaite, after all, his name is on the advertisements. I'm glad I never gave a credit card, but I had checks sent back telling me I already paid. Unfortunately, they still have a check somewhere in there possession but I can stop payment. It's too bad, like I said, the wine was good for my tastebuds, but the hassle was too much for my liking. I wish them good luck! I will continue to enjoy National Geographic!

I have never had any problems buying wine at the Theale shop. All the staff are knowledgeable and pleasant and on the very rare occasion I have had a wine that was not up to standard, it was replaced immediately. I have been going there for many years and genuinely can't fault it.
And... unlike some other shops, they make allowances for me being deaf and are very patient and accommodating

Laithwaites is a wine delivery service.

Over the past year, Laithwaites has been conducting fraudulent business practices including: (1) Taking deposits months in advance on items, but actually does not ship the products at the promised time - in my case, they didn't ship it at all). It took over 6 weeks (started 12/1 ended 1/14/21) to get the deposit back after they failed to deliver and I spent hours on the phone with their incompetent staff. (2) Laithwaites shipped damaged products and refused to replace them - I had to dispute the charge to get refunded. (3) failed to uphold its product quality guarantee. We received a wine that smelled like a portapotty and tasted like mildew/mold. When we reported it to them, they refused to uphold their guarantee. And (4) Twice this year, I ordered two wines that our patrons enjoy; but, Laithwaites substituted them with alternates of their choice without discussing the replacement with us first. The replacements were NOT the same wine style and instead were cheap replacements that we had already rated as "poor"/"did not like" in the past.

It is clear this business is on its way out. I highly recommend alternate businesses.

Some of the wine we got was great, some just okay... but the customer service was consistently bad. I contacted them because they missed a shipment (the special holiday one), and didn't get a response, so after waiting a week or so, tried again, and again, and again. I wound up getting "help" which consisted of a rep telling me that I just had to wait. Gee, thanks. (The holiday case never came. I did however get the next regular shipment.) That was a year ago. This year, the same thing happened: holiday case showed up as pending on my credit card, then the pending charge disappeared and the case never arrived. I again emailed, again twice. First I got an email saying that things were delayed. Then I got one saying that they couldn't fill all my requests (there were no requests; I was getting whatever they wanted to put in the case!). In the meantime, a charge reappeared on my credit card, but a case didn't appear at my home. I wrote again. Finally got a case, but not the holiday one, but the usual January one. Long story short, I just canceled my membership. I'm sick of dealing with them, and the wine isn't good enough to warrant the hassle.

This company has horrendous service. Terrible tracking system and support. I have been trying to get a refund for a case of wine that they did not even know did not get shipped since November. I have spoken to service countless times and promised a refund but still no refund for a case of wine i never received. I have been promised a call from management both through customer service call center and email and never a call.
I have tried to resolve no less than 10x with calls and emails. THEY JUST DONT CARE. Need new leadership

I would never buy from this company. They are mess and do not care one bit about the customer. I would give a zero if possible.

Avoid Laithwaites at all costs!

Ordered a case of wine on 3rd December - money deducted 3/12. Now 18/12 - NO WINE! Tracking number states item was 'Your parcel has been picked up by one of our couriers' - that was on 11/12 - no one now knows where the wine is, when it will be delivered - if in fact it ever will! Called Laithwaites - no help! Called Aramex - don't leave a message as there's no one there - sent an email - no response!

Do beware if you deal with this very disreputable company - they will take your money & give you absolutely nothing! Pity I didn't read their poor reviews before I parted with my money!

Laithwaites & Aramex totally suit themselves - they are both useful & don't offer any customer service whatsoever!.

I placed an order - with a wine 'adviser' (for that read salesman) - for a large quantity of Pillastro Primitivo 2018 for my son's wedding this year and I paid for that. When Covid 19 struck, I got in touch to say the wedding had been postponed until next year and could they store the wine for me in the meantime or not. They said they could - normally only for 3 months but this 'adviser' said he would just keep an eye on it and roll the order over every 3 months. NOTHING was ever said about them selling my wine on to other customers because they couldn't store it. I have now just discovered, quite by chance, that this is what they have done & the 2018 is now not available. My issue is that this was not their decision to make & should have given me the option to decide whether to cancel or ask someone else to store the 2018 wine in the meantime. They are, so far, not taking any steps to accept their rather deceitful handling of this. I have been a customer for many years & feel pretty fed up. Laithwates have got too big, so terrible disinterested customer service as a result.

I've been a member for three years until today, when I quit. The customer flexibility and control promised in the marketing of this wine club is absolutely not supported by whomever is in charge of the customer support operation. I actually feel sorry for the representatives on the other end of the line who have to try work with what has proved time and time again to be a defective system. More than once, a simple request has turned into a chain of errors and failed responses, involving multiple emails and phone calls attempting to resolve. Coordination between the marketing and service teams doesn't appear to be a thing, and within the support network itself, accurate tracking seems to be non-existent. It would have taken so little for me to be a happy customer!

I was a LaithWaites Wine Member for two years and finally left, because their billing management is terrible. There website does not allow you to clearly see when your next case delivers or how frequently they will deliver. They send you the case and then provide the bill after, so if you didn't want that shipment you are stuck with it. After sending me two cases in the same month, I tried to clearly understand what my bill was, but you can't see it on your online account, and certainly can't pay it online. They operate like a business in the 1990's by mailing you an invoice asking to mail a return envelope with a check or credit card info or paying by phone. I mailed a check to the address they had provided and received a return to sender twice. Laithwaite's Wine began sending me nasty grams that they were going to forward my delinquent bill to collections if I didn't pay, despite their mailing address returning my check. When I called customer service they informed me that their mailing address had changed, though they had not updated it. I had a week old letter in my hand that was still using the old address! I paid over the phone and requested a receipt by email, the customer service rep said she couldn't provide one and that I would need to email customer service asking for one (seriously!?!? Isn't that you?). When I emailed customer service, they informed me since the payment was still being processed that they couldn't provide a receipt yet and that I should call customer service asking for one. This company operates like a shell game, they send you on run arounds and don't clearly present information, so you're never quite sure whats going on, so they can get more money out of you. I was certain I had already paid my bill, but was told it was for a separate shipment. They never provide receipts, so its hard to know for certain. They don't allow their members to have a holistic view of their subscription, which allows them to keep sending you cases without you being able to plan for what you need and don't need. Customer service is terrible and not helpful. Use any other wine club!

I am writing this review to warn other wine drinkers not to use Laithwaites service under any circumstance. My experience with them has become a nightmare and I'm now considering legal action if my issue isn't resolved immediately. It all started when we ordered a single case of wine months ago, probably June of 2020. Laithwaites sent 6 cases and billed our credit card on file for all 6 cases. We communicated their error with them and they ensured us they'd send return labels within 5 days. After 5 days we received 1 label. Once again we contacted them and said we needed 5 labels not one. After 5 or so days we again received 1 label. This exact scenario went on for several months: we'd ask for 5 labels they'd send 1 which would expire within 2 days.We have called and explained our situation to them multiple times and they are sorry and ensure us they will correct the situation immediately which they don't. We finally returned their wine via fedex on a refused delivery return. We called them and let them know they now had their wine and we needed a refund. No response was received from them. Today we once again called them to ask where our refund was and their response ws we'll give you a $277 refund. Unfortunately that's over $800 short of what they charged on their error. We have no wine and we are out over $1,000 dollars. I feel like they will never return our money unless we file suit. We have spent hours and hours dealing with this company just to be ignored. We are not vindictive people. All we want is our money. They have both their wine and our money.