Well, looks like I may be no longer buying from Winebid. It appears that they’re shutting down their Chicagoland warehouse, so if I buy from them I’ll have to pay for shipping from Napa, assuming they will still ship to Illinois. Here’s the email I just received:
We wanted to let you know about an upcoming consolidation of our operations to begin on Monday, December 18, 2017. Wines will no longer be available for pickup or shipment at our Chicago warehouse (see below for transition details). All wines will now be stored and shipped directly from our Napa Valley warehouse. A new small office will remain in the Chicago area to receive wines for consignments only.
• Effective with the auction ending December 17, 2017, all wine will remain in our Napa warehouse for storage or shipment according to the delivery preference on your account.
• This will better allow for customized packing requests and quicker consolidation of your purchases for shipping.
• Any bottles currently in storage at our Chicago warehouse (View Unshipped Wine) can be scheduled for pickup from that location until January 12, 2018. A specific pickup date of no later than January 12, 2018 must be scheduled online in Your Account or by contacting Customer Service.
• Beginning January 15, 2018 we will route all wine back to our Napa warehouse for continued storage.
• Your account preferences will be changed to ship via Ground, weather permitting, once you request shipment online or by contacting Customer Service. If you would prefer an expedited shipping method please contact Customer Service to assist. Shipping rates and transit time for each shipping method can be found via our Shipping Calculator.
Please feel free to contact Customer Service directly if needed to discuss or confirm your account preferences in light of these changes.
We appreciate your business.
One of the reasons that I liked buying from them was that I didn’t incur shipping cost from the Napa warehouse, because they transferred the wine to the Chicagoland office at no cost to me. Now if I have to pay shipping, on top of the buyer’s premium and probably the sales tax (because of the small office for consignment pickup), their pricing will have really skyrocketed.
This sucks.