This is the first for me. I went on to the Cellarraders website because I wanted to try some wines they had. I bought the following bottles:
2001 Sine Qua Non Mr K
1999 Alban Seymour
2010 Saxum Broken Stones.
The cost of the bottles was $303 dollars.
When I put in the order I was told that shipping will be arranged by the company. Within a day they had already sent out a notice they were shipping the wine UPS which I didn’t want and they charged me without authorization. I had to call them and pay extra to have it shipped with a different carrier because the address I gave them was from FedEx as it’s easy to pick up near me.
During the holiday season I ordered many wines. Some in California, some in other states. I always had people tell me that I should not send out wine if it was cold where they were sending the wine, in fact I have a couple on hold until spring. But Cellarraders seem to have no issue sending out wine at any temperatures.
So I open the package today to find both the Saxum and Alban wines with pulled out corks and broken wax capsules. I call the company and they said to send an email with pictures which I did. I receive the following reply from Ben the company spokesperson:
“I don’t know what to tell you. All 3 of these bottles went out of here perfect. The cork expansions are a result of temperature variance I would guess. I would think they will all drink okay, but I probably would not cellar them too long. They are all ready to drink in any case, so I would consume them shortly.”
What do people think about this. Does the company have a responsibility to let the consumer know that our wines purchased will be in jeopardy if their temps are not appropriate for wine shipments.
Having to drink them quickly seems like a bad answer. And how does wine that has frozen or expanded taste after this.
Would like some help on this as I’m pretty upset with this company.
Ron
IMO, until the wine reaches you unharmed, it’s on the shipper or the shipping company (dropping/losing packages). In CA, the shipping laws are similar, I believe. In this case, the weather is presumably the issue as the bottles were in “perfect” condition when shipped. My first reaction was “why would anyone ship anywhere but from/to West Coast right now?” It’s on them.
Charging you for the order “without authorization” doesn’t seem like a legitimate complaint, though. You give them authorization when you ordered.
I’m curious what the smarter people on the board think, though. These threads are always interesting to me.
This happened to me when I received a delivery from Justin last December. After contacting them about the issue and sending photos, they re shipped the entire order without any issues. I wonder why they asked you to send them photos if they never intended to do anything about it.
I agree that I was surprised on their response as they acted like they wanted to at least give me an answer why they sent the wine out. In the case of one wine the 99 Alban yes I was going to open it up sooner than later so I can see why he said drink it up soon. But the Saxum was 2010 so that had no reason to be opened up. I guess I’ve learned a lesson that you need to do your own weather investigating when ordering wine. We in CA never need to really worry about this so this is all new to me.
Ron Kline
Any decent retailer would ship you new wine or ask you to send back the damaged stuff. I would push back unless you left the wine on your porch in an overnight freeze.
Ron. . . is this Cellaraiders operated by Ben Wallace in Connecticut? I did a search on “Cellarraders” and didn’t come up with anything. If it’s Ben, he’s a real reasonable guy and I’d be surprised if he didn’t make it right. I’ve done a few transactions with Ben and everything went smoothly.
That’s surprising, Ben has seemed very reasonable and cognizant of the weather in the past, even suggesting to hold bottles. While I’ve never had an issue, my concerns buying from them have always been with provenance and not shipping mishaps. I haven’t dealt with them too much but they have all been good experiences. However if in your situation I’d expect Cellarraiders to take the damaged goods back for a refund.
+1 That’s concerning that their customer service would behave in a manner like this. Thank you for sharing…I’ve been looking at some things on their page in the past.
I am a regular customer of Cellaraiders, have been for several years. Never had an issue with Ben; and I fly my wines in to Manila. Then, again, I never order from Cellaraiders (or anywhere else) during times when weather/temperature could be an issue.
Hope this works out well for you. Fortunately it was not a huge order. Regardless of the merits either way here, I think your last point is the critical one going forward. We spend way too much money on this hobby, and you seem to go after some premium wines, to not do our own due diligence both on the retailers we choose and when/how they ship. Temperature is just way too critical for wine - and that pertains to the weather when shipped, the temperature when stored and the temperature at which the wine is consumed.
Same here; long time customer of Cellaraiders. Ben has always been in communication about the national weather on both buy and sell transactions with him.
I’m not saying that the retailer should be indemnified of responsibility, but I once had an order shipped in the winter during a cold snap and had one bottle in a case with a protruding cork presumably due to freezing. It was opened within a year and showed exactly as expected, so it’s possible your bottles might show just fine.
I bought a half dozen bottles of an arneis from K&L last weekend and specified ground. I did not really consider the fact that the entire world would freeze over this week.
Apparently K&L did not consider that either, as the wine shipped on Monday.
I’ve only had good experiences with Ben/Cellaraiders, but shipping has always been rather local to me (one day ground)
Obviously stores should be cognizant of weather elsewhere. I don’t think until last 2 days temps in NY (he moved from CT) have been problematic. Obviously however things going coast to coast ground need to consider the Midwest. But I do make sure that EVERY order that I place with a West Coast retailer has instructions to wait on approval for shipping, and I check the national map, and week forecast for a place or two in the middle.
It’s unclear when you ordered, when it shipped, when it arrived. Unsure if change in shippers made a difference. But do think if you didn’t give a waiver re weather retailer should take some responsibility. That said, I think to avoid hassles one should always be proactive re shipping and check weather yourself.
I ground shipped all the wine I bought from a recent trip to Nor Cal. It shipped out of Sunnyvale on the 31st, and should arrive today (7-8 days in transit during a cold spell in parts of the country). Should I be worried? It’s been in NC for 2 days with the temp around freezing.
As a retailer, this is my $.02. You paid for three bottles to arrive at your door in the same shape they left the retailer. It did not. It’s up to the retailer to make good. Pretty simple in my opinion.
If they won’t/don’t make good, you could always contest the charge with your cc company. I would only do this as a last resort.
I’m in the same boat. I ordered a six bottles of Champagne on the 1st from a retailer in Colorado. It is en route and supposed to arrive tomorrow. We shall see, indeed.