PJ Wine - Caveat Emptor!

I placed an order for several wines at PJ Wine and received a confirmation. That was 3 weeks ago.

After several emails and phone calls to them, I finally learned they did not actually have the wines in stock, and they cannot get them, so they cannot deliver. To make matters worse, I did not receive any communication from them (they claim they sent me one, but had a “typo” in my email address) and they also did not respond to my multiple emails requesting a status update.

They are now on my “Do Not Buy” list.

Caveat Emptor!

you are talking about PJ in NYC, correct?

Yes

How big of an operation is PJ Wine?

We occasionally can’t keep up on our inventory, but we are still small enough to respond to the number of orders and emails we get.

It never ceases to amaze me how many wine retailers have websites, with an email or “contact us” link, but who never check or respond to emails sent to them.

Bruce

They are a good store in many ways with good people but one of the more disorganized that I’ve dealt with.

FWIW,

I am just a retail customer, however I have ordered from PJ at least 5 times in the last couple of years, 1-2 cases each time, and never had anything other than thoroughly professional service.

Perhaps they have some shortcomings, but I have seen no evidence of anything intentionally deceptive or otherwise outside of normal business snafus.

Was your card charged, Rick? If it was, was there any difficulty in getting an immediate refund?

Ive always had satisfactory dealings with them in the past when ordering en primeur.

Mike

They are an excellent store, with the best prices in NYC metro (including Jersey!) on many bottles. They were able to deliver 16 bottles of wine to my apartment in Manhattan on 6 hours notice for a party after another NYC vendor fell through. I strongly recommend them.

as someone who has worked there, I would only purchase wines for near term consumption as they have horrible storage conditions. They are also severely short staffed and have terrible employment practices.

Well, first of all, I want to personally thank the OP Rick for starting this thread. I know I get e-mails from them and wondered what I have ordered in the past. So I checked. I ordered a mixed case in the spring of 2012 and received it fine. Then I ordered some pre-sale '09 Bordeaux exactly a year and one day ago on 26 Aug 2012. It was supposed to arrive in late October 2012 and shipping was going to contact me. That never happened.

So I gave them a call 10 minutes ago and sure enough my alreay-paid-for six bottles are sitting with them ready for shipment. It would be a horrible understatement to say this has undermined my confidence in them as an online retailer.

Just FYI, the bottles that – according to KeonPark – have been languishing in horrible storage conditions are:

Clos de l’Oratoire St Emil 09
Haut Bergey Pessac-Leognan 09
Faugeres Saint Emilion 09
La Fleur de Bouard 09
Moulin Haut Laroque Fronsac 09
Clos Les Lunelles 09

k.

My experience with them is that it just depends on who answers the phone. Some people there are great while others tell you something and never follow thru. I finally got all of my wines from them, but it took repeated call backs. I used to buy from them more frequently, but it seems their service has gone downhill in recent years.

Am glad I found this thread. Was thinking of ordering some '09 Bordeaux. Guess I’ll look elsewhere.

I’ve had great luck with them. Interesting wines at good prices delivered as promised.

Had a weird experience with these guys. I remember that several years ago they had a very good price on the Renardat Fache Cerdon du Bugey. But they hadn’t crossed my mind in years until I got a call last week from someone who says he’s a lawyer for PJ Wines, and that PJ has a case of wine that I ordered from them for pickup in February 2006 that I’ve never picked up and they won’t vouch for quality, but I paid for it so do I want it? I ask him to send me the invoice, because I just can’t imagine ordering wine for pickup rather than delivery, let alone forgetting about a case of wine. So he does, and sure enough, it’s got several bottles of the Renardat Fache so I figure they must be right, it must be my wine.

I end up talking to the shipping guys the next day–they refuse to deliver even though the case was worth more than their delivery minimum in Manhattan since “it cost us so much to store it for you for 9 years”. Fine, whatever. Like I asked you to store it for 9 years? But hey, we’ll have a car this weekend so I say I’ll call May 1 to remind them to have it ready for me to pick up May 2. Shipping dude admits they’ve had a few issues like this recently.

Today I get a message on my mobile while I’m at the gym. “It was a different Molnar. It’s not your wine.” I’m kind of relieved, because I don’t really need another errand to run. But why hadn’t they checked the wine against the invoice before?

Note that in all these years, neither my mobile nor landline numbers has changed. Good thing they paid a lawyer to hunt me down. I guess I did order a case of wine from them in February 2006, and that it was successfully delivered. But I don’t think I’ll order from them again.

Ordered from them once. Some 2012/11 Roulot. Placed my order. Get a call that they can’t find 2 of the 11 roulot and only have 1. I say fine. So the order is for four bottles now

2 months later, I have them ship as the coming monday will be cool. I wait the week, no wine shipped. I leave multiple messages, no reply. I finally just call the wine department and they tell me it’ll ship.

It ships, it arrives… but with 3 bottles. No 2011. I check my CC balance, only charged for three bottles with no notification. Their online website still has my order as 4 bottles

Big time lack of communication there. No big deal in the end as I wasn’t over charged, but it was just a bit of a hassle