So I get the email touting the big Sherry-Lehmann sale, check out the web site and find a case at a great price. I buy it. I receive an email with the header “Sherry-Lehmann Order Confirmation.” The body of the email says, “Thank you for your order . . . you will receive a second email from Sherry-Lehmann once your order has been processed.” Nowhere does the email indicate “subject to adequate inventory” or “just a request, not a confirmation.”
Again, the header of the email is “Sherry-Lehmann Order Confirmation.”
A couple days later, I receive an email saying there is no wine and that it was oversold. I will get nothing.
No alternative was offered. They didn’t reduce other orders so that each person could at least get a few bottles instead of shutting out people such as myself. They simply cancelled the order.
They didn’t respond to my question–sent repeatedly via email to the S-L messenger–about why their inventory on the web is not accurate or up to date.
This customer service stinks.
Oh, confirmed w credit card company that card was charged. Forgot to mention this in OP
While I understand the disappointment, and agree SL could have done better, when I receive an email titled “order confirmation”, that is Exactly what I take it to mean – they are confirming tha they have received my order, and nothing more. When I receive the email titled “invoice”, I consider that they are committed to delivering me the wine, pending completion of payment of course.
they should be more explicit and head the email “order request confirmation” and the body of the email should note it is not confirmed. The lack of real time inventory in 2014 is a bit shameful when so many do it so well.
As I agreed, they could have done better. I just save myself the angst by expecting an explicit invoice indicating that a store is definitely confirming a sale – quantities, prices, exact wines, etc. When I don’t receive this in a timely fashion, I contact them, even if I have received an “order confirmation”.
Can they exculpate themselves? Do they even care about your business (i.e. have they offered a remedy)? Too many places selling too much great juice right now to bother going back to places like this.
Alan–I don’t like this practice either, but the “confirmation” email appears to be simply confirming that you placed the order. So if they just confirmed that you sent the order, and if they didn’t in fact charge your card, then it’s as if they are just acknowledging that they’ve received your request to buy the wine. I agree that their communications could be clearer.
I’ve gotten to the point where if there’s wine listed on a website for sale, if I think there’s a chance it will go quickly I would call the store directly and ask to speak to someone who can process the order on the phone. Then they can check their actual inventory in their computer and tell me immediately whether they can fill the order or not. I’ll then ask them to email me a confirmation of the sale.
my bad, I thought they confirmed your order, not your ‘request for an order’. They had/have an opportunity here, looks like they don’t see it that way.
I’m sure you’ve experienced this recently and that notion was certainly true on a larger scale five years ago, however I can attest that Benchmark’s inventory is absolutely real time and most of our major competitors have the same. That said, you can certainly use Wine-Searcher to find a bunch of little guys that are not real time - it takes investment in technology and/or people to show inventory in real time, so I doubt you can ever expect the mom & pop shops to have anything more than a web ‘presence’.
Now a larger, well known wine company that isn’t real time…
i think you’re being a little silly and petty - this happens all the time and to everyone. if you see a wine you want badly, you need to speak with a human being. that’s true anywhere.
they actually have amazing customer service, in the real sense of the word.
Alan… I hate to say this but… In all fairness, they only confirmed that you requested to order. They did not charge your card, or sell you the wine. It is just how their computer system works. There is this old school invention called the phone
They can do better, especially if they have charged your card! With 2 notable exceptions, I find a lot of fussing around in wine stores in NYC (where I am from and no longer live). I once found a really good deal on some Fourrier, to be told 3 weeks later (after many calls and so on), that it was no longer in stock.
it’s petty because it happens to everyone at some point. it doesn’t mean you go online and whine about it and say they have lousy service.
doesn’t matter that your card was charged, they just reverse it. doesn’t cost you anything. you’ve likely spent more time complaining about not getting the wine than you did trying to procure the wine.
you didn’t even begin the thread with a qualifier of how you just need to rant a bit - which would have been understandable. again, this has happened at some point to every single person on this board. everyone here can relate and this isn’t a unique issue.
by making such a huge stink about it - as opposed to putting it in the proper context of a typical annoyance that might warrant a little steam letting - you have acted in a petty manner.
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