I bought a pre-arrival six pack to try them out back in October. Unfortunately, the ETA disappears after you purchase, and there is no record of the original ETA in your receipts or on your account. I have no idea if this wine is going to arrive in two weeks or in the middle of next summer. Since they will only hold for three months, I’m not sure what they’ll charge if I need to hold for say May through November.
Long story short, take a screenshot of your ETA and/or expect to ping them to figure things out. Full experience impressions are TBD, but things could be greatly improved with even very crude estimates of wine arrivals.
Wine arrival forecasts from Europe are one of those areas where I’ve seen US retailers utterly fail. Luckily most of the wine we’re likely to buy won’t be harmed by aging an extra six months or a year. Nobody that I’ve worked with seems to have any clue about when wine will actually be coming.
I don’t really mind if they arrive immediately, but I’d like to have some idea as the guesstimate changes or becomes more solid. Also, I don’t necessarily want to order wine that will arrive at the beginning of warm weather and will end up incurring hidden expenses. I’ve not looked into what they charge to keep wines beyond three months.
timelines for importing wine to the US are always tricky. Vendors can’t always give you accurate information, and worse, if you don’t have a full shipment to send then it’s very costly, and not worth it. So you have to wait.
There is usually good reasons for it. The issue is that there are examples of failure that are out there causing uneasiness in the market, which isn’t good.
As I’ve stated above, I have no worries about Vint. Their business model is sound, and if you want to pay best prices, waiting for the wines to arrive is necessary.
I get it. And I figure retailers are in a double bind. They know they have pretty much no clue when the wine will ship. But customers want a date for delivery. So they give one, knowing full well it will probably be wrong. So I’m pretty forgiving. But there are a few grey market retailers that are so hilariously off on estimating delivery (3 months going on three years) that I have given up on buying from them.
I’m not sure which retailer you are referring to, but that seems more like “we can’t fulfill that order at the price we quoted you, so either continue to let us hold your deposit interest-free or ask for a refund.”
Anything you pre-order (aside from Bordeaux Futures) should be delivered within 365 days. I try to get all of my shipments within a few months of purchase (though some things do take a little longer), and use air freight to ship it in. That’s a business decision that I make.
If you order something and it’s taking 3 years to arrive, then I’m not sure why you would be buying from them at all.
Do they have a connection with Saratoga, Larchmont and the Wine Connection? I’ve noticed that when one has a wine, they often all do, usually in the same 6-12 bottle increments.
Same here, except I have only one 6 pack on order.
I admit to some annoyance with Vint so far, as before I ordered in early October I called and asked for a firmer estimate of the delivery window. They told me if I ordered the wine I was interested in quickly it would likely be on the next shipment in mid-Oct, meaning I’d take delivery of the wine in early December. They added that if it missed that boat, it would definitely be on the next one, meaning an early January delivery “at worst”.
When I hadn’t heard any updates by mid December, I called again and asked for an update. I was then told “oh, it looks like it will be on the boat in January, meaning a delivery in February”. When I pointed out that this was later than I’d be told, he told me that couldn’t be true because the deliveries always take this long. So I asked for a full refund, which he refused (politely) to give, and said best case scenario is a 20-25% restocking fee, which he’d have to investigate to see if that was even possible. He said he’d get back to me but I haven’t heard from Vint since.
I guess if there are no further delays and I get the bottles in February, I will be OK with that. But I don’t like this kind of this incorrect information and denial of what I was told (I’m pretty sure it was the same person I spoke to each time), it feels like they don’t know what’s going or don’t care.
I find it interesting that if you are a retail outfit, you have net 30 to pay after you’ve received the wine(s) in question but in prearrival scenarios, we as consumers still pay up front and then bear the risk.
Not sure how international puchases work, but can’t someone, somewhere improve upon this?
I understand the reasons for the lengthy time line, and it is baked into their business model, but are also up front about the timelines on the website.
I said it up above, I got an explanation of their business model, and can say that you can buy with confidence. I get the people get nervous about the time lines, but I think folks will learn over time they will come through and just have to be patient.
Anyone ever buy from this outfit? They have crazy low pricing and everything is prearrival. Their published address is a DC wine storage facility but that seems to just be a front. Curious as to whether buyers have received the wines they purchased.
