Vint was founded as a wine investment firm. Investors paid at least 10–15% above auction prices, and it’s unclear whether they were able to recoup their investments.
On the retail side, many of their wines were sourced only after orders were placed. Given that the company has employees and a warehouse, it’s uncertain how the business could be sustainable with such thin margins. When you see the term “future” on Wine Searcher, most of those companies follow a similar model, but at higher prices.
Interesting information. I did not know that is how they started. I have sent several last ditch emails to see if I could get a response and the last one stated I would be filing a dispute with my CC company. Fortunately, I used my Sapphire card and they have already processed my refund even after 12 months. I definitely gave this vendor ample time to catch up and ship my product. I would have preferred to receive the product, but given their customer service and obvious business challenges I am comfortable walking away and letting them deal with Chase. I will not be sourcing anything from this vendor again. Buyers beware, this is very typical although there are some success stories mixed in.
Theyre slow for sure. I sent an email later in november, heard nothing, then sent another last week and did get a response. I responded back with what i wanted, and now playing the waiting game again. They definitely make it sound like theyre flooded with emails and orders theyre working through. Not sure how many people work there but it does seem a little crazy to me that it would take multiple weeks to reply to an email. I get about 100 emails a day with my job and get to all of them every day.
Gee – I’m glad for Wine Berserkers and how it can gather info from contributors to get a clearer picture! My summary is that if you can be happy with a largely automated machine that is poorly constructed for customer interaction, then you might be happy with Vint. But if you have questions – for example about which might be the best shipping option or about bundling orders – then it seem to me from my recent experience and others’ here that you are out of luck. In my opinion they act like a part-time, understaffed, poorly designed operation even though they have now been in business for a couple of years. For them to say that they will try to do better at this point rings hollow. Talk costs nothing and is usually worth just that.
To recap:
Phone number: they don’t have one. Every other retailer and auctioneer I have dealt with has one, even a DC operation that I believe is one guy working part-time. And that guy almost always get sback to you within 24 hours.
Email: In my recent experience all you get is an automated “thanks” and a promise to get back in 1-2 business days, which turns out to be a lie. Still waiting.
Hours of operation: those are listed, but I don’t see how they are of any value other than to define what they consider “business days” – for them M-F.
Location: They show addresses in DC and in California, but my most recent shipment (and likely my last) was from Connecticut. Some of this may be related to tax and importing considerations. But still – my shipment choices may vary if I know where it is being shipped from, and nowhere that I can see on their website do they provide that info – either in general or for specific bottles. (eBay and many non-wine auction houses list where the product is located, and for most wine retailers with only one address an assumption is usually correct).
Website design for online purchases: very primitive and poorly designed for anything other than basic sales and delivery. For shipping, there isn’t an option such as “Hold to discuss shipping options”. In my experience you have to choose one specific option and pay for it in order to complete the sale. Some other retailers also have a comment box. Vint doesn’t.
Yeah, last couple of weeks haven’t had luck with email. The website is also not an automated option (for this) because I think someone has to manually invoice a tariff charge to make release an option. Only have three bottles left, but seriously considering cancelling the charge via cc - not because I think the bottles aren’t there but just because I’m not sure how much more time and effort it will take to get a response…
I’ve had a generally ok experience with them for several orders over the past couple of years, but things feel less than well oiled recently. While my remaining open orders were just delivered (after paying additional tariff fees and navigating the cumbersome shipping customer journey of the separate “Private Reserves” site), they screwed up on one of them, sending 6 bottles of the wrong vintage. It’s been a week and a half since notifying them, with follow-up emails in that time. Nothing but crickets, so I assume I’m stuck with it.
I won’t be ordering anything else from them in the future, especially with the unpredictable tariff charges added prior to shipment release.
I had an okay purchase experience with Vint over a year ago. But that was then and this is now. I’ve always liked this business adage: A man(woman) can lose their fortune many times but they can lose their reputation only once. Unless they make amends to me personally (to make up for time wasted and stress and unnecessary expense incurred trying and failing to alter some shipping), which I am almost certain they will not do, I too doubt I will deal with them again, and am glad I have no outstanding orders.
I had put a lot of faith and trust into Vint after the first couple of big orders I’ve placed with them. But most recently, cracks have been showing to me.
I was contacted by them to pay tariffs on an order that I had previously been told that I wouldn’t have to pay until I had requested release. Apparently there was an updated policy that wasn’t communicated to me as my previous point of contact had originally told me that I could hold it indefinitely. Subsequently, after receiving a few exchanges, I noticed that the support was now slow (3-4 days average response) and the emails seem to be written by ChatGPT. I was told my previous contact (Adam Lapierre) is no longer with the company so anything he had promised me may not stand anymore.
This gave me some bad juju and I immediately requested a completion to my most recent withdraw (which was previously held due to weather hold earlier this year). Subsequently, I am now considering withdrawing the rest of my orders as I am starting to feel uneasy with how the company seems to be handling things with my orders. Here’s hoping I can get the rest of my wine (10+ cases of wine, majority being Champagne) without any issues.
I recently bought a couple of bottles during their holiday sale, and they were delivered almost immediately. They were in-stock items, so I’m wondering if there’s a difference in how they handle in-stock bottles versus pre-arrival items. I was considering buying a few more, but this thread has me a bit concerned that my experience might have been an outlier rather than the norm. Does anyone have broader data or experience on whether in-stock purchases are generally reliable?
I sent a few DMs to Nick who on this thread said he worked for Vint but only crickets, no responses at all.
Also was told my purchases were shipping last week. I followed up three times for tracking numbers etc and like Nick- crickets.
Not a good sign at all.
Fwiw I was able to ship from them last week and did not have a problem. Good responsiveness
How much cheaper is Vint than other more well known retailers?
Depends, probably not that much cheaper in most cases.
Enough cheaper on some items to make them an easy choice…
…when there were no concerns about fulfillment.
I ultimately had a good outcome with my one transaction with them about a year ago. It was a pre-arrival order that took about 6 months longer to arrive than I initially anticipated. Reasonably explainable by the whipsawing tariffs. I never “invested” with them or stored wine with them.
The lack of responsiveness I’m seeing reported here now has me looking elsewhere regardless of price.
I think the roumier bonnes mares I bought was about 15% less than next low price, like very similar to European pricing given fulfillment costs.
Did your order arrive? And was it pre-arrival or in-stock bottles?
One was a pre-arrival that landed in May the other was an in-stock purchase. Followed up again today and still zero reply.
There are plenty of concerns here from lots of people, which is an issue for sure.
But as far as I can tell, everyone who has followed these instructions on this thread has gotten their wine.
Mark- the wine was all in stock by the time I asked for shipment. Pre-arrival landed in May. Already available wine was of course there. I paid for shipping after asking for shipment.
Received an email stating it was shipping on 12/18.
Requested Tracking number of 12/17- zero response
Followed up 12/18 - zero response
Followed up 12/19 - zero response
Etc etc
And as I have said direct message Nick 2x in early December and he has never responded.
I have no dog int the fight, but there are simply too many excellent options today for buying wine at good prices to deal with persistent hassles.