Happy to report my oldest order from November 3, 2011 has come in.
3b 2008 Roumier Cras
Why would you possibly start this up again? 
You are ITB and you are buying from others? Maybe you picked the wrong BTBINTO?
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That was Anthony. Chrisā OP is two and a half years old.
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Thatās ages, almost as long as my oldest order with PC!
Funny, the thread gets necroād after 2 1/2 yearsā¦and I still have the same 5 cases of wine pending from when I originally posted.
But at least I didnāt compound the problem. As a wise man once said āFool me onceā¦shame onā¦you donāt get fooled again.ā
Just think how happy you will be when it does show up! ![[drinkers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/82916bed5ad74ac8470bc04089d9758b0c80c9fa.gif "drinkers"){kind=small}
I love these threads.
Ultimately your comfort level dealing with PC is dependent on your appetite for risk.
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The 1995 Pingus ship thing is true - at that time it represented 1/3 of the production of Pingus, which is one of the reasons why the 1995 is so insanely expensive.
There are times when they are very significantly cheaper than are other stores. I limit my purchases from them and figure that if I ever lose money I am still ahead of the game because of the bargains I have gotten over the years that have been delivered.
One has to adjust their expectations to reality. I have always gotten everything I order from them. Usually, it takes a long time. I am not buying wines that need to be drunk soon from them. I am buying wines I donāt plan to drink for a long time. I donāt believe I will ever get things quickly for them and when I am wrong I am pleasantly surprised.
Agreed. I only buy from them when the deal is too tempting to pass up. I never been stiffed, so I just limit my purchases from them and donāt order anything that I want to drink right away.
There is no reason NOT to buy from PC (given the terrific customer service, cheap shipping, world-beating prices, a hard to find selection of wines for sale, and in my experience the absolutely perfect condition of the wine), unless you think there business model makes them more likely to go under than other outfits and/or you worry about where the wine has been stored before you take possession.
These concerns of insolvency are based on first principles ā they sell so cheaply, they take ages, they often given incorrect estimates of when a wine will arrive, so SOMETHING must be rotten in Emeryville ā rather than any actual evidence.
I think thereās a ocean of unsold wine out there and PC knows how to leverage this. But it takes time (and Iāve had 4-5 other retailers tell me my pre-arrival wine is expected by a given date, only to have it take 6-12 months longer) and it may require middlemen to blink first. If wine prices tank, their model still works and may even thrive.
Party at my house!
I havenāt bought from PC (for no real reason) in over a decade until this week - case of '11 Margaux mags. Posters have said itās all about your appetite for risk - but to my knowledge, nobody has lost money yet. The company still exists and their terms and conditions lay out the deal w/ pre-arrivals. Nowhere does it say anything about āour pre-arrivals will arrive when other retailerās pre-arrivals come inā.
The going concern is the solvency of the company from what Iāve read - well, if theyāre never getting wine in and theyāre still taking orders, they should be flush with cash! Iāve made the assumption that they donāt fulfill orders until they can source the wine themselves at a profit - leveraging wait time for pricing.
Iām not the most patient person on the planet, so I have imposed a $ limit on my PC purchases in the future - but I have no reason to believe Iām taking any more risk of actual loss than with any other retailer out there.
Any time you purchase a future deliverable, you are taking more risk of actual loss than if you are receiving your product in real time. The future into the future the ādeliverableā arrives, the more risk you are taking. You are correct that nobody has lost money yet. If there were a āponzi-schemeā type of thing going on (and Iām not weighing in on that issue here), you wouldnāt expect anyone to have lost money yet. The way it works is that NOBODY loses money until the whole thing collapsesā¦at which time everyone with outstanding orders has lost money.
Here is my question.
Letās say other orders for Margaux mags start filling in late 2014 early 2015. Letās say you get your order in 2017 (maybe?).
Where was your wine being stored during that time?
Ever bought at auction, Matt?
I have received more poorly treated bottles from local high end wine stores due to distributor carelessness/incompetence than I have from Premier Cru. In fact, everything Iāve received from PC has been pristine.
Nope.
I have actually had a batch of bottles from PC that I believed to have been damaged by treatment or storage at some point; twice in fact. They were kind of d*cks about it when I complained too. They gave me credit but complained about it. I buy from PC and like them because their prices are awesome and they generally deliver, but at times their customer service can suck. Theyāve tried to tell me in that past that California law forbids them from accepting flawed bottles for refund, only mistaken purchases. My quick examination of California law did not support that (admittedly not an in-depth look), and other retailers clearly have different policies.
Regardless, I will continue to do business with them where the price is right.
I find the āwhy would anyone do business with PCā stuff pretty funny. Risk is factor of a business transaction just as price is. Slight increase in risk for huge decrease in price typically makes the transaction advantageous.