BevMo Accused of Bait and Switch

And you created an account just for that?! [smileyvault-ban.gif]

I heard BevMo’s attorney charged full fee for the original suit, but will litigate a second suit for only 5¢.

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Note the signature line.

Edit: the signature line has been since deleted/removed but was a link to a website that the poster seems to be trying to promote. Hmmm…

So bummed when I find out the 2017 Apothic Red I buy is actually the 2018

No the 2018 is better. I rated that 65 points and the 2017 only 63 points! [thankyou.gif]

Additionally note the failure to comply with Real Names Policy.

In my opinion, Total Wine does exactly the same thing and has done that for a long long time. it’s one of the major reasons I stopped purchasing from them. That plus they are never price competitive here in the Tampa market plus all too often I’ve driven way too far for wines that I was assured were stock only for them not to be there. Not even an apology. I believe they too give our hobby/addiction a bad name.

At the risk of thread draft, if anyone is going after BevMo, Total Wine should be added to the list.

What was your reason for bumping this old story?

That lawsuit was decided, then appealed and the appeal was denied.

Maybe six months ago.

The Court of Appeals upheld a determination that BevMo! does not engage in bait-and-switch tactics by displaying signs advertising one vintage while providing wines of a different vintage by the signs.

Why?

Because the bottles themselves are not mislabeled AND BevMo also has signs saying that the specific vintage advertised might not be available.

The specific wine in the lawsuit was some Cab and right next to it was a sign that said "The vintage indicated may not be available. Please check the bottle for vintage.”

And they also settled a separate lawsuit that claimed they didn’t charge the lowest advertised price. They paid $359,000 to resolve that lawsuit, which was brought by a group of district attorneys.

Wilfred Wong hasn’t worked at BevMo for a number of years now. I believe he’s with Wine.com. Last time I saw him was about a year ago before the COVID thing.

And finally, BevMo was bought by goPuff last November.

Maybe you don’t like BevMo but there’s no point in bitching about things that have been settled.

Best bump ever.

Costco doesn’t literally lie on their shelf talkers, but they are quite aggressive where needed to create a misleading impression of a wine’s score. If there is a 2013 Bordeaux that all the critics gave 85 points, they’ll put a shelf talker on there saying the 2011 got 93 points and the 2012 got 91 points and omit the 2013 score.

They also shop different critics to pick a high score for each vintage, like:

2010 Wine Advocate 96 points
2011 Wine Enthusiast 93 points
2012 Wine Spectator 91 points

So it’s not literally false, but it’s aggressively misleading.

This is not most of the time, because most of the wines they sell don’t have a lot of vintage variation and most of the wines that do are not the ones from significantly off vintages. But they’re aggressive in the spots where it can help them.

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Thanks Chris. Agree they use the recent history of ratings, but have never perceived it as an attempt to be deceptive or misleading in any way. I have seen several where they include the current vintage and the rating was a clear drop compared to the previous two years, or quite commonly an NR for the current vintage which I read as Not YET Rated (often true).

I won’t argue your experience, but I haven’t perceived deceptive intent.

BevMo needs a vaccination for telling the truth clearly.

My friend ordered from BevMo the other day because she could get quick delivery through Instacart. She was excited to find bottles that were 7 - 15 years old for good prices, but then incredibly disappointed when the wines she actually received were all from 2018 and 2019. I thought that the Instacart person just didn’t understand wine, but now I feel like it was due, at least in part, to intentionally misleading practices by BevMo.

She rejected them, I hope … yes?

When we initially discussed it, she said that Instacart won’t refund alcohol purchases, but will instead give credit, which she was bummed about. So, I think she did eventually complain but wasn’t going to be happy with the result. We’re in LA though, so it’s not hard to find a good wine shop nearby and she won’t be ordering from there again.