Bestwinesonline.com

Review: I purchased a case of wine from this company and the shipment arrived damaged. I was told that bestwinesonline.com is not responsible and I am just out of luck. This is the worst example of customer service. I frequently order wine from California and on the rare occasion something has been happened. The winery or wine seller has always done something to help the customer. I do not recommend using this vendor and will never use them again.Desired Settlement: Replace the 4 bottles that were damaged in transit.

Review: I placed an order on the companys website for a case of wine that was in high demand. I received an order confirmation and invoice via email that morning. However, at the end of the day more than 10 hours later my order was canceled by the merchant. By the time I received the notification the wine was sold out on across the nation and is no long available at a reasonable price. Im disappointed that the merchant didn't honor the order or make an attempt to locate the wine for me. Its a shame that an order can just be canceled by a merchant well after the fact.Desired Settlement: I would like to merchant to locate the wine and honor the pricing on my invoice.

Business

Response:

Hi [redacted],

Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

The Customer was attempting to purchase a wine that was no longer available at the time of purchase.

As we stated in a letter to the Customer, e-mailed the same day as the Customer's order, the Customer was one of a number of individuals who were hoping that a particular wine, in this case the 2004 Cune Imperial Gran Reserva Rioja, was going to be awarded the Wine Spectator Wine of the Year Award.

The Customer, along with a number of other customers, had previously put the wine on their 'save for later' option under their account on our website, hoping to purchase some bottles after the award had been announced.

We had actually sold out of the wine the day before as other speculators had already purchased all the bottles prior to the announcement as, worst case scenario, they were purchasing one of the top Rioja wines of the vintage at a fantastic price.

Thus, the morning the wine was announced Wine of the Year it was already sold out and had already been actively removed as a listing from our site the evening prior.

However, through a previously unnoticed glitch in the programming on the back end of our site, the Customer, as well as a host of other customers who had put the wine on their 'save for later' tabs as well, were still able to order the wine even though it had been sold out the day before.

The 'save for later' feature on our site, as on most if not all e-commerce sites, is not a guarantee of purchase, it is there only as a reminder for the customer so they can go back and purchase the wine later if it is actually available. It was designed for a 'sold out' prompt to appear if a customer attempted to put the wine in their cart after saving it but, to be honest, this was the first time in our first year of business where more than one customer had put the same wine in their 'save for later' cart and then simultaneously all tried purchasing it within a five minute span.

Accordingly, we had no knowledge of the glitch because the situation had simply never come up.

The wine was ordered at 8:00am. We arrived at the office at 9:30am. We spent two hours in the morning meeting figuring out a damage control plan, then immediately began voiding the orders so these new, first-time customers would not be charged. We then spent an hour or two drafting an apology letter explaining the situation and sent it out with an e-mail and phone number to respond to with questions, comments, etc.

On that letter we also included a coupon code for free shipping on their next order as an apology. In the wine business this is an expensive code, as a case of wine shipping to the east coast can be upwards of $35 our cost.

I understand and sympathize with the customer's frustration at not getting the product. I am a consumer too! But please understand there was nothing sneaky or dishonest or misleading behind this non-transaction. We did not have the wine nor did we represent that we did at that point and time. The Customer was never charged for the product and we have never sold that particular wine since because it is unavailable. Wine is finite and when it is depleted, there is no going back unless you move on to the next vintage.

Thanks to this situation taking place, the glitch has been found and fixed and customers can no longer purchase sold out wines from their 'save it for later' option.

We love nothing more than selling wine and there would be no other reason why we would not honor this sale other than the fact it was sold out and has become completely unattainable.

Any questions, please feel free to e-mial or call...

Best,

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID 9819065, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

The account of the day outlined by the business is not accurate. The business states that I had been to their website prior to the day and had put the wine in the "save for later" area of their website. However, I had never visited their website prior to that day and in fact was a new customer. The proof of this is my new account email which I received just prior to ordering the wine. The fact is that the wine was listed for sale on their website and in stock, that day. My disappointment was the delay in their canceling my order. If they knew this was a problem when they arrived at work that morning, why did it take until the night to cancel my order. If I would have know that the wine was in fact not available I could have searched or another source. However, by the time I was notified I could not fine the wine at a reasonable price.

I would like the business to source the case of wine I ordered and charge me the rate at which I ordered the wine.

The business clearly didn't investigate my situation otherwise they would have realized that I was not an existing customer who was "saving the wine for later".

Regards,