Hi all. Thanks Mike for posting the notice we sent by email to our customers who were impacted by the overly rushed subsidization reduction.
As you all can see, we are going to continue to subsidize your shipping to yourself til the end of the year. We expect FedEx will be raising rates at the beginning of the year, so we’ll be updating our shipping policies and whatever the best rates we can negotiate then, as well as unfortunately having to retire the subsidization. Between that and the new wine tariffs, I guess now is a great time to be stocking up on wines and shipping them to yourself!
Ironically this comes at a difficult moment- some of you may know that we and most of Napa valley are being impacted by the suddenly announced PG&E power outage. Thus, no shipping will be occurring for the next few days. As soon as temps and logistics permit, most likely starting early next week, we will help facilitate all shipping requests immediately. Our first concerns are for the whole Napa and Bay area community, especially first responders, everyone in the wine production, hospitality business and their families, and our own Napa-based team and their families.
We appreciate your support while we work through the current situation and the changes at the end of the year. Our small team is passionate and committed to you to providing fine, vintage and unique wines and great customer service at the lowest buyers premium and at the best rates we can negotiate on your behalf with third party providers. As always, feel free to ping me directly via private message or email, or call or email our very responsive customer service team.
Hi Russ,
Classy response.
Does the change in title mean that you will be charging sales tax on purchases, and will that include now wines that have already been paid for and not shipped?
Russ is doing a hell of a great job interacting with his customers, and not just on this one issue. Big hat tip to him, and I’m rooting for his business to continue to do well going forward.
Hi Mark, thanks for the question. The passage of title changes and related sales tax changes were the ones we implemented earlier this year. This is when we had to start charging CA sales tax on sales to clients where we do not have retail licenses. That’s been in effect and was discussed on other Berserker threads before I joined and started participating. I think we did a better job on that one giving everyone 30 days+ heads-up. Tax is charged at time of purchase, not shipment, so there should be no new changes there unless Fed/State laws change, and we will try and give everyone heads-up. I hope that answers your question! -Russ
Thanks everyone for all your support and comments. I hate to use Berserkers as a public customer service forum, don’t want to be too “commercial.” Of course, if folks ask, I will answer. Always happy to discuss anything here or maybe better if you can ping me privately or call customer service (and by the way, 2 of the 3 of them sit right outside my door, so I hear a lot of the conversations and questions!).
We’re looking forward to introducing some new innovations soon and a variety of things to improve your buying or consigning experience, including trying to provide additional shipping options.
Happy tasting and sharing through your holiday season and thanks so much. -Russ
for several years I used to try to pickup mostly a special Burgundy at a great price,
only to find that almost every bottle was damaged…
so I just stopped buying from W.B.
I would think only of the name on the label, vintage, and believe what it should be.
and I had to learn my lesson over and over, that at these auctions, you just do not know the provenance.
So I stopped.
Has anyone noticed significantly fewer listings for US wine on Winebid lately? At least for my usual searches - Santa Barbara, Walla Walla, Willamette - regions where I usually see 100+ bottles now have 20-30. Seems to have been a downward trend over the last month or two. I haven’t used the site long enough to recognize if this is a seasonal thing and their volume will tick back up at some point.
Hi all, I’m actually on my honeymoon in Spain but thought to check in briefly to Berserkers!
I hope we fixed the shipping issue overall for everyone and can close this thread out, and if you have any questions, please contact customer service directly and they will take care of each one of you personally and individually. We care about each and every one of your questions and you are all as unique in your shipping and storage situations as your tastes in wine. There is no “one size fits all” answer that I can post here.
Beyond that, looks like this thread is starting to drift quite a bit so maybe we can it this out. For everyone, but especially the non-shipping related comments and questions, I will try and reach out to each of you privately when I get back next week. As noted before, I’d personally prefer to let you all use WineBerserkers for great tasting and sharing notes and other commentary, and not as a public customer service forum on WineBid, but you can always PM me here. Always willing to answer questions directly and privately.
Thanks for your continued support and enthusiasm. Happy tasting and sharing! - Russ
Jeez, I’m pretty p.o’ed right now. Winebid worked out the shipping charges issue, and the weather in Napa finally cooled down enough to schedule my shipping. That was supposed to be today. Then I get this email:
You have a wine shipment scheduled for today, Monday 10/28, however the Napa area is currently under power outages due to extreme wildfire risks in the area. For the safety of our staff and customers, our facilities are closed until further notice.
A new shipment date can be scheduled online, or you are welcome to reply to this email for assistance with scheduling a new shipment date.
We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding.
I hope the warehouse has a generator so the wine isn’t getting cooked. How long is this craziness going to go?
It’s also pretty cool at present. Which is good, because it would need a lot of generators to keep a large warehouse cool if it was hot. At whom are you p.o.'ed?
Count me as one that has been very satisfied with the bottles I’ve purchased from Winebid, and their customer service. The content on this thread has only solidified those impressions.
Hi all, I am back from my personal trip any now in NYC for business. Any Berserkers in NYC, please ping me privately and maybe we can meet in person. As for the new comments: it has been a challenging month for us! The shipping revisions were our own making and we addressed that, but the fires and power outages certainly are not. As you can see in the news, Northern California is currently under siege by fire, it is a state wide emergency, and power has been out intermittently in various regions. Several wineries have already burnt down and several people have died. On our Napa WineBid team, a couple of folks had to evacuate their homes and many have been without power for days. At last check, the warehouse and wines are currently safe, although power continues to come and go. This has been an issue for the entire wine and hospitality industry in Napa and Sonoma, including our shipping partners as well. For the time being, our warehouse is closed, but being monitored by our personnel, to maximize the safety of our staff and your wines. We appreciate everyone’s patience and support during this time. Our primary concerns and prayers are with staff and neighbors and friends in the wine industry who are in harm’s way, and our first responders in the region doing a valiant job. I can’t personally address every issue here, but we absolutely care about each and every one of you and the purchases you have made and your ongoing business. If you have any concerns at all about your wines, please email service@winebid.com or call our support number (888) 638-8968 (pacific time hours) and our small team in Seattle will be glad to respond to every issue or question individually.
The state of California, for creating the environment that fuels these fires. But that’s all I’ll say, because then it will get political.
That said, storing and shipping wine out of Napa significantly reduces the number of months in the year that Winebid can ship lots to customers. That’s a business decision Winebid should be rethinking.
![[swearing.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/8a0d3f3461d40641d294442fc2be78039bf94d19.gif "[swearing.gif]"){kind=small}