Winebid Shipping

One of the cases that I had with Winebid indicates it shipped from Palmetto Florida. Is that normal? It was in transit all day yesterday in high 80 degree weather and it’s coming to DC all the way from Florida. The weather is less than optimal to ship from there right now. However, prior to shipping it indicated was that it was coming from NY. I would not have shipped any of that wine if I knew it shipped from FLORIDA.

My other case shipped from NY which was what I was expecting and got here just fine. They sent me a notice that both cases where shipped last week. The first case from NY got here yesterday, the other just left Palmetto yesterday.

I thought all Winebid wines were shipped from their warehouse in Napa??

Winebid ships on temperature controlled trucks to a regional distribution center and then ships common carrier from there. I’m surprised that your regional distribution center for DC was Florida. Like your other case, when I’ve had wine shipped from Winebid to Domaine DC, it goes from Napa to Albany on temperature controlled trucks then Albany to DC with UPS.

Your wine from Florida is /probably/ fine in that it probably started its journey at ~55 degrees from the refrigerated truck, and if it’s a full case, there’s some thermal mass there which should help it from ever getting too warm on just a couple day’s trip. Even in most parts of FL/GA, it’s getting down to the 40’s and 50’s at night which also helps. Still, I’d be a little peeved.

Editing to add: This is when you select “temperature controlled ground shipping” from them. If you select traditional overnight/2-day air shipping via common carrier, it will come from Napa. They do not use FedEx Cold Chain for their temp controlled ground. I have no idea if this method is cheaper or not, but I definitely prefer FedEx’s option as it goes overnight air from a temperature controlled distro center (so if a flight is canceled, for instance, it stays temp controlled) and then goes out for overnight AM delivery to me. With WineBid’s service, once a package is tendered to UPS Ground, they lose all control of temperature control — and in this case, like you say, it can end up going ground through Florida.

What did Winebid say when you asked them ?

Was this winebid.com or wine.com? I’ve never know winebid to ship from Florida, or NY for that matter…

Brian

Retailers should be checking temps along the route, particularly the ground route. I would reach out to ask about it. Russ Mann is quite responsive and also sometimes posts here.

This was winebid. I asked for temperature controlled. The last shipment and other shipments come from NY. They said that one of the boxes got septated.

I’m peeved because these are older bottles and it’s been running around FL in the middle of day with 80+ degrees (per the shipping info). I’m not sure if those bottles are in temp control wine going around FL, because temp control is only to the HUB.

It kinda sucks that as a consumer your have to deal with this… But also, if they did everything they could… What recourse is there… that’s fair?

Sounds like that’s a UPS screw up that it somehow got separated, went to the wrong hub and so forth. So, it went with the mass of packages it was wrongly massed with to a region of Florida for local delivery. Presumably, it was still temperature protected along with all the other temperature stuff it was grouped with all the way to the wrong local distribution center. That’s where the should discover or be able to address the mistake, which would be sending it back to the FL hub still temperature protected, then to Albany and then you. Wine isn’t the only (or most) temperature sensitive product that gets shipped. Mistakes happen. Best case is this only cost time and stress. I think that’s most likely.

I communicated the issue and so far the customer service representative has been great. It’s good to know that dinner companies still care.

I live in FL, no way would I have shipped right now. Still too warm. Did you ask for it to be shipped now?

Winebid customer service is absolutley top-notch. No doubt they’ll work with you to get everything figured out.

Robert, I asked for two cases to be shipped to DC/MD area from California temperature controlled. The weather at both locations has been great. The first case got here nice and cold from the NY HUB. The other for some reason for sent to the FL HUB, which is not normal. We will wait and see how the wines arrive. They themselves are trying to figure out what in the world happened. They were very helpful in what I need to do to help them file a claim on my behalf of the wines are cooked.

My understanding is Winebid uses Vingo for temperature controlled ground shipping. Something must have happened between Vingo and UPS. Hard to imagine them using a FL hub when the destination is DC. Hopefully they get to the bottom of this. I also have something being shipped temperature controlled from them to NY. Fingers crossed it doesn’t go to FL.

Hi all, sorry I am late to the thread, we’ve actually been busy launching a new shipping functionality on our site that gives you more control and more options than ever. J. Migone, appreciate your kind comments on our customer service team and your patience, I know they are working hard on your issue. Thanks everyone else for your comments, especially HoosJustin, Brian, Wes and Rich for the good explanations.

To sum up:

  • We only ship wines from our warehouse in Napa. We have no other warehouses.
  • We use a variety of carriers including FedEx, VinGo and others, to help you arrange shipping to yourself. As a reminder and as stated in our T&C, you are legally shipping to yourself, and WineBid is simply helping you arrange it. We attempt to negotiate the best rates and offer the most options (ground, 2day, temp controlled, etc) on your behalf. Shipping is certainly not a moneymaker for us! If you have your own accounts or preferred carriers, customer service will gladly help you arrange for pickups at our warehouse by your preferred carrier on your account directly.
  • We do our best to monitor the temperature in Napa (the new functionality has an alert and will not let you ship if it’s too hot, or you have to manually override). You are responsible for monitoring the temperature at your destination. Unfortunately, we do not have any control over how any of the carriers route their trucks across the country, and some carriers/groups go from private carrier to common carrier at certain stops along the way or last mile delivery. Not all routes are temperature controlled the entire way. If you have any questions, please call/email/chat customer service.
  • The smaller/local players do not have the tracking systems that FedEx and UPS do, and even FedEx and UPS have issues. Believe me, the WineBid customer service team deals with all of them all the time, and feels your pain. Our team really truly cares about you and your wines, and gets as frustrated as you do (or more) when they can’t get answers.

I’m really sorry the carriers we work with let you down, and the team will do their best to sort it out and make it right. Our customer service team is available 8-5 PST M-F by phone, email or the chat button on our site and in the mobile app, and they try and pick up the phone very quickly.

We invite everyone to check out the new WineBid shipping and storage functionality and let us know what you think. Some of the highlights include:

  • Sort and select any wines to ship by price, date purchased, free storage expiration, etc.
  • See/sort/search all your purchase and shipment history.
  • Schedule the day and time you’d like to get curbside pickup at our warehouse, or the day you’d like your wines to go out, and method, with weather permitting/regardless of weather settings.
  • Maintain an address book and select and schedule mixed packages for each address.
  • Edit/cancel any scheduled shipment that has not yet departed the warehouse.
  • Check your free and paid storage projections for which wines have free storage expiring.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

  • It’s a little warm in Napa right now (90s+) so the system may not let you ship for the next few days and you may want to double check it yourself.
  • We really can’t control for “user error,” or if you select/schedule something and regret it later. We are of course logging all the selections and inputs made, but if you make a mistake and the wines go out, that’s really hard for us to fix. Customer service is always happy to take a phone call/email/chat to help set it up for you, but we hope this gives you even more control and flexibility in shipping your wines to yourself.

This is version 1, we’ll be working to improve it with more features and control going forward. Feel free to email me at rmann@winebid.com or service@winebid.com with thoughts and suggestions.

Happy bidding, tasting and sharing, and everyone stay safe out there. Cheers!

This is fantastic and I’ve used it already—saves me the trouble of having to email CS. Win-win!

I almost commented about just this last night. You are taking a lot of chances shipping wine right now. The service of the shipper in question has nothing to do with it. Once it leaves their hands many things can happen. Best to reduce the chance for problems by shipping when weather is favorable at all points along the route. Especially if going across the country.


I recently was on a road trip and did an in person pickup at WineBid to skip some shipping. I was able to schedule time of day on either Tues or Fri. The guy out front servicing pickups was eager to help and got me my wine even though I was early without me having to ask. All contactless. Great service.

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While regular ground shipping may not be safe, I would think temperature controlled shipping to the north east should be safe. If wines are transported in a refrigerated vehicle all the way to NY, which I believe was supposed to be in this case, no reason not to ship.

Winebid is pretty terrific with their customer service.

The response from Winebid was great. Good company to deal with.

RMann, I am :100: happy with the way that the customer service team handled this. They went above and beyond. It’s nice to to know that companies still care. This was by no way your guys fault, but the team handled it amazing. Great communication all around.