Garagiste being very shady and opaque with NY shipments

So I ordered a wine from Garagiste in Sept. I live in NY State. The wine arrived in October and was supposed to ship, but when I enquired about the wine, they told me that NY had sent them a stop order (along with all other out of state retail to NY). They say they are trying to figure out a 3rd party shipper but there is nothign about this on their site or on the internet. The sneakines and lack of transparency is very disturbing. I am going to paste my email thread with one of thier employees here… BTW THERE IS NOTHING ON THEIR SITE ABOUT THIS PROBLEM. They are being very very very shady here. Their suggestion… they ship to NJ and I pick up there. .are you kidding me?
First reply
Hi Jason,

Thanks for getting in touch! There were a few moments this morning in which customers accounts were not reflecting their address tabs but that has since been resolved! I do have some rather unfortunate news to share with you…We love NY! But right now NY does not love us, or other out of state retailers.

We just received a notice from the state of New York making us jump through a new hoop regarding our shipping licensing to your state. Apparently we were not alone, we learned all out of state retailers are starting to receive these…boo!

Temporarily, we will not be able to send any auto shipping packages to NY nor can we do any custom shipments. Please know this is temporary!! We are talking right now with a third party shipper to hopefully work together so that Garagiste can still ship to you! We truly hope we’ll be able to resume shipping in November!

We realize this a major drag, we’re frustrated as well! We thank you for your patience and understanding while we resolve this unexpected curve ball

Please check back with me in early November as I should have more information by that time.

Once again, THANK YOU…we know you want your wine and we want to get it to you!

Cheers,(not gonna name names)

MY reply:

When are you going to resolve this shipping issue. I can’t believe that there are no notices about this on your webisite now, and I have done research and can’t find any information relating to NY not allowing shiipping suddenly… you really need to inform your customers publicly on your site about what is going on.

Their reply
Hi Jason,

I apologize for the delayed response! It has been absolutely nuts lately. Currently working OT in a coffee shop in order to catch up on things. We are still in what we are hoping to be the “finishing conversations” with a third party shipper in order to be able to ship into NY before the holidays…That is all the information that I am privy too in regards to a third party shipper.

I realize that this is very inconvenient timing as we are in the meat of shipping season, and I empathize with how frustrating this is, being that NY is home to a HUGE portion of our customers, which myself and my 5 person customer service team have been hearing from (WITH GOOD REASON).

To be completely honest with you, I think your best bet to ensure shipment of your arrived in stock items for the holiday season would be to have them sent to a friend/relative/FedEx location in NJ and pick them up from there…
I know that this is not a convenient nor long term solution, but it is an ineffective short term solution until we have everything squared away to begin sending batched shipments to NY.

Please let me know if this is something that you may be interested in and I can have your items sent out of our warehouse this Friday, November 11th with delivery scheduled for the following Friday, November 18th! (Or can alter the departure date to arrive next Saturday if that would be easier.)

Again, I apologize for the delayed response and the lack of communication in regards to where we stand with NY and your wine. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Cheers,

WHY ISN;T ANYBODY ELSE TALKING ABOUT THIS

WHY ISN’T THIS ON THEIR WEBSITE?

Maybe so the don’t draw attention to themselves? If NY has ordered a stop to shipments, in whose interest is it to say publicly “hey we have a workaround!”?

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this topic has/is being discussed.

Your personal information suggests that you are spread b/w NY/DC/SF. Why not either take delivery in CA and ship to yourself (if that is in fact legal) or ship to DC? It seems as if they are really trying to find a workaround.

The problem is pretty recent as the thread Thomas linked showed. I suspect they spent some time investigating the problem and have been looking for a workaround (likely including consulting with counsel). I can’t tell what the time line is for the thread you posted, but it doesn’t appear to me they have been delinquent, and certainly not “shady.”

This is an inconvenient situation for you, but a potential tragedy for them. NY must represent a sizable portion of their sales each year, and they may well be about to lose that. They also have customers like you who may end up getting refunds for wine bought and sold under the expectation that shipping would not be a problem. I am certain they are working hard to find a solution, and am not surprised it has taken a couple of weeks to come to rest on the new status quo.

I wonder to what extent these retailers can set up independent entities in NY. I think that is what Wine.com does, separate entities in each state. While not feasible in every state, NY likely represents a big enough market to make it worthwhile. If they were smart about it the could probably find a way to sell to themselves or direct import to themselves in NY and work it that way.

I can’t add much to what posters above have mentioned, but I would observe that there never has been much of substance at their website, and that situations such as shipping problems which involve individual customers such as yourself are I think reasonably handled with more private communication anyhow.

Shoot, ready, aim.

hey, at least they have and you will get the wine!

Very shady? Opaque?

My suggestion is to send a consumer complaint to the New York State Liquor Authority. Be sure to copy Fedex and UPS.

Jason - Victor is joking.

True. I actually meant to say that he should CC Southern Wines, especially as Fedex and UPS will be too busy to answer during the holiday shipping season. The NYSLA website has a dedicated section for supporting wholesalers.

Just ship them to me in CA.

THAT is not a joke.

I make no promises to ship them to NY (making sure I’m not being opaque about this)

Jason, I read your first post a couple of times, and I see absolutely nothing “shady” or opaque about what Garagiste is doing. This is an inconvenience for you, but it’s a terrible situation for them, and they’re trying to figure out a way to get you your wine. It’s quite understandable that they haven’t figured out a way yet. Your rant and obvious anger are completely misplaced. I can’t even figure out why you’d be upset other than some weird sense of entitlement and not thinking logically about the situation. I guess Victor said it a lot more succinctly.

Garagiste seems not in control of the situation, not withholding information, and not benefiting from the shipping restrictions. Other than these consideration, the original poster should continue his theme, if only to elucidate for us his charitable, understanding, enlightened nature.

Full disclosure: I am not affiliated or a customer, as I ride the bus rather than drive a car.

Indeed, the original poster himself is perhaps somewhat opaque about himself. Would he extrapolate that as also being shady?