wine.com

What I like about Wine.com is their large selection and wine reviews. Their prices are never the lowest but I was able to buy certain brands and vintages that were hard to find locally. I joined their stewardship program to save on shipping costs but after a couple years of getting very slow deliveries, I dropped that program cost. I was always told that delivery was by FedEx and would arrive in 2 days. I never received a delivery in less than 7 days. In tracking the shipments (and confirming with FedEx) I learned that shipping was by truck and was often delayed by weather and the wine was shipped to large distribution centers before being delivered. So, it takes a lot longer than 2 days to deliver from California to the Midwest (MO & IL). Customer service continues to swear by their 2-day delivery policy. Unfortunately, I fell victim to their "free shipping" offer again this month and ordered some wine for a dinner party 7 days out. I got the wine on the afternoon of the 8th day. Stupid me. I am done as a customer and I want to warn prospective customers. Just search and buy local. It will save you a lot of aggravation.

So, let's start this saga from the beginning. I wanted to get my boyfriend his favorite whiskey as a gift: Angel's Envy. After seeing that wine.com had it in stock (or so I thought), I purchased it and it was delivered a couple of days later. I open the package, and its Rose Champage... I kid you not. I called customer service immediately, and the woman I spoke to was the manager of customer service. She didn't apologize for the inconvenience, and she said, "Oh they sent you the champagne because we were out of stock of the whiskey... but we do need that champagne back." First of all, I never got a notification that the whiskey was out of stock. Second of all, how the hell is champagne comparable to whiskey?! Anyway, she said she would email me with return information immediately. I wait a half hour, and no email. I call agian (each time I call I'm on hold for over 20 mins), and I speak to someone else. He setup for FedEx to come that Friday between 2PM and 5PM. I move my schedule around to make sure I'm home during that time, and of course FedEx never showed up. I call customer service yet again, and the woman said that I'd receive an email shortly as to what happened... I never received anything. FedEx ended up coming by the next day, and said that wine.com never told them a specific day or time frame to come. Anyway, they picked up the package on Saturday, it was delivered to wine.com on Tuesday, and it is now Thursday and I haven't received any type of email about my refund going through. I've sent multiple emails to customer service, and still haven't heard. I'll have to call tomorrow for the hundredth time. Overall, hopefully my story will save you from giving your money to this horribly run company. Never again.

Immediately after you order, it goes on a weather hold, so if you live anywhere in the south, then you won't get your wine until October even though you ordered it in July, because it is too hot, unless you contact them to take the order off hold, then... of course, then they want you to pay expedited overnight shipping, which is still not a guarantee. Just ignore on the site when it says "ships today if you order in 1 hour"... not true. Our gift hasn't been delivered yet, so hopefully, it will be the correct wine. To be continued

I ordered about 16 bottles from wine.com on Nov 18th before googling reviews about wine.com.
Whilst waiting for my delivery and reading the negative reviews, I was nervous if my shipment was going to come on time as I require the wines for Thanksgiving. The ETA on my shipment was listed Nov 20th about end of day. Today is Nov 20th and my wine has arrived at my door before midday.
I think my shipment came quite quickly as I did a quick search to where they are located, in Westbury NY. I live in Brooklyn NY so I assume may be that is why I had no issues with my order and that it arrived on time.
I wouldn't say wine.com is cheap however I was fortunate that I had no issues like other neg reviewers here. Was very pleased with the delivery and the selection of wines they have on offer.

Just stay away from this company. Terrible experience! ETA dates change, wine get's destroyed in shipping (bad packaging?), takes forever to get them to refund your money... they start off with store credit and actually getting your money back is a formidable task!. Just read the reviews here or check out wine.com on ResellerRating.com and see all the nice things other buyers had to say about them... not!
Just go to your local store and order from them.

I ordered a bottle of Zenato Amarone 2013 from wine.com on 11/30. I specifically ordered that bottle for a very important client as a Christmas gift. I needed that bottle and that year, which is the only reason I ordered online from this company. I received tracking that said my order would arrive on 12/6. Since the wine needs a signature, I actually waited around for my shipment that day. No wine came. I called the company last Thursday, 12/14 to get a status update. After being on hold for 29 minutes, I was told the wine would arrive that day. Again, it did not. The box arrived the following day. When I opened the box yesterday, I saw that a different wine... a cheap $14 Valpolicella was substituted for the product I had purchased. I called the company to report the mistake. I was told that the wine I ordered was out of stock. My customer assistance representative was DOUG. His response to the wrong wine sent was, Well thats unfortunate. He did not even apologize on behalf of the company. I asked to speak to a manager, PIERRE. I was told he would call me back. I did not get a call. After speaking with customer support today, I requested my money back + a new bottle sent to me with a waived fee as compensation for the product being out of stock, the wasted time waiting for the bottle to arrive, and the wasted time with customer support. This was agreed upon by the first agent (J. P.), and I was transferred to a sommelier (CHARLES) to pick out a replacement. I was then transferred back to customer assistance (CRYSTAL). This back-and-forth lasted 2 HOURS. CRYSTAL, who would not bother to read my conversation with the other reps, abruptly ended the conversation without a solution (in case that wasnt clear, she hung up on me).

In summary, I strongly recommend against using wine.com, on the following grounds:

1. The company failed to send the product on time (order date 11/30, expected delivery date 12/6)
2. The company failed to give the customer new tracking information after the original shipping date was missed (customer had to call customer service to receive shipping information, 29 minute hold)
3. The company failed to send the correct product to the customer, after 2 shipping dates were missed (Zenato Valpolicella Superior 2014 ($14) was substituted for Zenato Amarone 2013 ($60)
4. The company failed to correct the mistake by sending the customer the right product (Zenato Amarone 2013 was out of stock on 12/20)
5. The manager of customer service failed to call the customer back to handle a customer complaint (customer requested to speak to manager Pierre on 2 occasions. The manager did not call)
6. The company failed to handle the situation with one single customer service agent who knew the specific situation (customer was shuffled between JP, Charles, and Crystal) over 2 hours
7. The customer service representative Crystal did not agree to a reasonable solution (refund + new bottle and shipping waived), even though another agent (J. P.) agreed to honor the request.
8. The customer service representative failed to handle the complaint in an appropriate manner when she abruptly ending the conversation (hanging up the online chat), with no agreed upon resolution

Again, the agents who I spoke to were DOUG, J. P., and CRYSTAL. The manager who did not call me back was PIERRE.

I will start by mentioning that I have a graduate degree in the Philosophy of Ethics from the University of Illinois. This review is posted by a person who is literally an ethicist.

I am appalled by wine.com's customer service. After spending quite a while on the site, first chatting with an adept representative while choosing wines, and then (frustratingly) trying to figure out why their promos weren't working, I was connected with a supervisor. From here, please note that I assume pseudonyms are used for chat... if not, I recommend that wine.com employees adopt that practice.

While trying to solve the promo-rejection issue, "Sebastien" suggested that I add a few more bottles to my order just to see if there was a glitch on the site. When I did so I lost the chat and was unable to retrieve it, so I called their number, but they were closed for the night.

Luckily, I was able to get back to Sebastien in regular email, and he offered the $20 promo discount that had been rejected by the website. This was an admirable attempt at resolution, but I told him I had changed my order to reflect his suggestion of adding bottles -- they were a bit more expensive. I asked him if it would be acceptable to change my discount to $28 instead of $20, and told him if he would do so, I would continue to purchase from wine.com and recommend the site to others. I noted that if he refused, I would not buy from wine.com ever again, and recommend that others avoid the site. Admittedly, by that time I had spent about 2 hours with this company, and my mild bargaining request was due to patience that had worn thin, but my tone nevertheless remained respectful.

Sebastien would not make that $8 concession. That kind of miserly business attitude must result, sooner than later, in the collapse of the business. Consumers have the power to close sub-par companies; all it takes is posting our discontented reviews until they recognize the importance of setting a praiseworthy precedent of providing exemplary customer service. Seriously. This customer was willing to accept a $4/hr discount for her hours spent working with the vendor, and was refused. Foul!

As a wine lover, it breaks my heart to build delicious expectations after carefully choosing 12 bottles, and then lose the product due to awful customer service. Sebastien, if your hands are tied by your employer, I'm sorry that you choose to continue working for wine.com. "Nikki"--the associate who chatted with me during the first part of my visit--you're too capable to stay with a company that may cause your name to arise in a review titled: "I should have checked these ratings before shopping."

Now I will continue to post on vendor-rating sites until wine.com corrects their poor business practices. If as an accomplished academician (and some years ago, a business owner) I can stomach the idea of offering $4/hr to wine.com as compensation for my efforts to purchase a product from them--and receive null results--I can freely endeavor to make sure the time of fellow wine lovers, from oenophiles to connoisseurs, is not wasted on astoundingly poor customer service.

Let's work together to inspire better business. On to the next rating site, yes?

Very poor online service not to mention that fact that this business a classic "bait and switch" scheme and should be investigated by a government agency. For example, I ordered a particular wine which Wine.Com indicated was available. When the package arrived I found a "substitute" bottle that Wine.Com indicated was an "equivalent." Also, BEWARE of this scam: whatever wine, regardless of how rare or unavailable it may be, Wine.Com will advertise its availability and then send you the "substitute bottles" or try to persuade to buy "equivalent wines," which they are pushing at inflated prices. Finally, do not under any circumstances believe Wine.Com when it guarantees "free shipping": an expensive shipping will be added to your order regardless. These guys are definitely scammers.

Ordered 2 cases of wine; some not available; got an email saying a refund was processed to my card. That did not happen. Then only one box showed up when there was supposed to be two. Wine.com says they will refund if I refuse shipment. Unfortunately the FedEx number is bogus; Fed Ex does not have a shipment with that number and wine.com doesn't know where the wine is. So, I am supposed to refund an imaginary box to get my $400 back? Staff not helpful but that was because they had no information, no clue. Sent it to American Express for dispute

I thought it would be nice to have good wines for Thanksgiving -- so I ordered two cases of wine to be delivered to my sister-in-law's house in Wisconsin. I ordered them on 11/16 and paid for second day UPS delivery. Imagine my surprise when I arrived today and discovered they would not be delivered until Friday, not useful for Thanksgiving consumption. I was offered the lame excuse that Superstorm Sandy had damaged Wine.com's NJ warehouse. While I am sympathetic -- I living in New York - Wine.com should not be accepting orders they can fulfill, particularly around the holidays. What did Wine.com offer as compensation? A $20 gift certificate. The should print it out and use it to start a fire under their Yule Log in December. Shame on Wine.com