WTSO in legal battle

https://www.winesandvines.com/template.cfm?section=news&content=178738

They’re being sued, as I read it, for showing “original” price numbers that aren’t real because the wine is exclusive to them and has never been offered for sale at the price shown (or anywhere else one would presume). I buy from WTSO periodically and often find no way to confirm their “original” price, so this could be very real. Buyer Beware, of course, but all my years in retail and selling to retailers tell me the product has to have actually been offered for sale and actually sold, in actual commerce, at the quoted price.

Anybody have any conclusive evidence or ‘strong opinions’ on this?

I’ve always thought the numbers they list are dodgy at best. In the area where they list the price points, they have an asterisk next to Comparable Price which reads as this at the bottom of the page:
*“Comparable Price” means the price at which the same or a similar wine with the same primary grape varietal and appellation or sub-appellation has been offered for sale to consumers directly by a producing winery or through retailers.

So basically they’re saying that the ‘comparable price’ isn’t even necessarily for the wine that they’re selling, it can be any similar wine of that varietal and region. Seems to provide a pretty wide swath of what they can advertise as the price they want you to ‘compare’ their offering price to…

This is something that happened to kb toys store. They would mark up the original price on the sticker when they had “sales” to reflect a discount that wasn’t real as they never sold it at the original price.

Just deceptive marketing for uninformed buyers

Lots of retailers do this, and the practice is getting more attention from the torts bar.

People need to use their common sense. If someone sends an email claiming some obscure, never heard of, unrated, off vintage Cotes de Castillion is $30 regularly and is now discounted to $18 they need to realize that the above set of characteristics doesn’t describe even describe an $18 wine, but rather an $8 one.

The reviews from a potentially captive/tied affiliate seem concerning as well.

Consumers should be especially circumspect when buying wines they don’t know well from here, I think.

I never noticed that, and it would seem to violate what I’ve understood to be the law. I don’t pay much attention to the comp price when I’m deciding anyway, but it will be interested in seeing where this suit goes.

Great customer service though!

This suit was filed last March I believe. And pretty sure the “comparable price” with asterisk is relatively new. If I recall that price used to be labeled as a retail price. I’m assuming in response to the lawsuit??

And isn’t it pretty easy to find a price for comparison purposes on just about anything in about 1/2 second right? Always wise to do that before hitting that submit order button.

Looks like this guy finally followed through with his threats:

It seems like a frivolous suit to me. With the information available to consumers, one would need to be willfully ignorant to not realize that the original price is usually inflated. When there are other retailers with the same wine, WTSO’s prices are usually better and always competitive (especially when you factor in shipping).

That shows how little attention I pay to that price. I hadn’t noticed the change from “original price” to “comparable price”. Based on my email records (I don’t delete my trash often enough or thoroughly enough) it changed sometime between August and January.

It is about the same as a mattress store offering to meet or beat a price on a mattress they know is exclusive to them.

Caveat emptor. With a smartphone, it is easy to verify the claims of any merchant. Too many retailers have gone down the slippery slope that I try to verify everything before I buy.

So because it’s possible to verify means it’s okay to be misleading? I don’t get some of these comments

It’s not that it is OK to be misleading. It’s that it lacks materiality and importance. No one was mislead about the price they were paying. If people were mislead about whether a certain bottle was absolutely positively the last bottle WTSO had, WHO CARES. No material damage from the misleading statement. Let the State Attorney General go after them.

Beverages and More has the ZD Chardonnay at a special Club Bev price of $34.99, down from the “regular price” of $44.99. Sadly, it shouldn’t even be as high as the $35 sale price. I had to gently inform the wife that she did not get a good deal.

I do buy wines occasionally from WTSO. Right now they have Soos Creek Ciel du Cheval red up.

Long ago I learned to stay away from any wine with only a Johnathan Newman rating. Most of those wines are represented by Johnathan Newman, and, as I learned from reading the lawsuit complaint, many are bottled just for WTSO and not sold anywhere else. Mr. Newman either has the worst palate in the country, or lies without compunction.

Always check prices. Always get independent reviews, or buy only wines you are already familiar with.

P Hickner

I haven’t bought from them recently, but in respect to when I did, the indictment seems a bit unfair. For one thing, they sold many “name” wines (e.g. Giacosa), the price of which you could check online and which they offered for considerably less. Sometimes, with their French wines, “Serge Dore imports” (always wondered who, precisely, Serge was), they seemed to be the only ones bringing these into the country, so their discount was indeed a “discount.” Still, it was not as if they raised the price in order to loweriit, but seemed to me pretty above board even there: offering, let’s say, a 1er cru Meursault from a meh producer @100 for 3 bottles (33.33 each) and stating it would normally sell for about $60. It seemed fair and reasonably accurate, even if it did not meet the letter of law.

This happened to Sears, too, way back in the day, where they never actually sold the products for the non-“sale” price.

‘if people were mislead…WHO CARES’ - interesting.

Come on people, read the original post before you make inane statements. Sure, you should check online for comparable pricing. Oh, the suit is for wines that were “EXCLUSIVE” to WTSO. How are you guys going to check that pricing? [soap.gif]

Don’t know about inane, but great point/catch on the exclusive offers. Perhaps that is the one of the reasons to change to the wording to comparable price point wording. However the last time I thought the advertised retail price on anything was accurate, was, well, a long time ago.
Can I sue Charles Shaw for being Three Buck Chuck here in the Midwest?