So I took advantage of a recent AmEx offer to grab a mixed half case of some favorite producers from Wine.com. Assorted Carlisle, Bedrock, Sojourn bottlings.
Anyhow, the shipment arrived today and a Carlisle Gruner approx $32) is missing, but in its place is a far more expensive Patrick Piuze Chablis Vaulorent (approx $90 on wine.com) that I most certainly did not order.
While I’m not exactly crushed by this development, I was looking forward to the Carlisle. I’ve emailed Wine.com to let them know about error. Curious what folks think they should do in this case, and if anyone’s had a similar situation with them.
See what they say and go from there. I would expect them to offer to let you keep the more expensive bottle and/or offer to switch them out with shipping on them. If you really want the Carlisle, just tell them. It’s on them to get your order straight.
Curious what folks think they should do in this case, and if anyone’s had a similar situation with them.
Mistakes happen. I’m a fan of flexibility in solutions. It’s a big expense for them to pay to have the Chablis shipped back, so letting you keep it and leaving it at that should be fine with them. They could do the trade, if that’s what you want, but that’s probably the least attractive solution on their end. The could hold the Gruner for you and offer free shipping or some degree of credit on your next order. Anything reasonable that makes you happy.
A retailer or a winery will more than likely want to make the order ‘right’ for you. This means shipping you the missing bottle overnight and not requiring any further effort on your part to return the bottle they sent by mistake. Internally they research what caused the error and resolve to correct it so not to recur. If the customer offers that they would agreeable to keep the other bottle, offer it at half off. The merchant is already paying a lot to get a single bottle sent overnight. If they tack on a return and call tag for the other bottle they have lost any profit. Better to make the customer happy and move on.
I guess the best they can do is to ask you if you have problems with simply keeping the (more expensive) bottle.
You could have done much worse.
I once received a mixed case of auction purchases - just to find they have shipped a Burgundy Village wine instead of the Premier Cru (of the same producer). I remembered there was another lot with the Village - on which I didn´t bid.
I e-mailed them - and they answered that two lots have probably been mixed up - and the Premier Cru was most probably shipped to another client.
No chance of getting it returned.
Case solved - for them.
No apologization, no refund, nothing.
However - the Village bottle was drinking very well — (the Premier could have been better still)
Doug, while I am a big fan of positive customer service, not sure how keeping the more expensive bottle, plus having another bottle shipped overnight makes sense for a business. The difference in price between the two bottles already puts the retailer at a $58 deficit. Add on another $32 for the Carlisle, plus another ~$30.00 for overnight shipping, you’re up to about $120.00 in customer service. Sure, Wine.com can probably afford to do this, but for most independent wine shops, that would not make sense.
When you order a shirt from Banana Republic online and they send you the wrong size by accident, you don’t get to keep both shirts.
This makes zero sense to me. They made a mistake, and they’re on the hook to make that right. It doesn’t mean they need to take a blood bath to make it right. It means doing one of these few options in my mind as a bare minimum:
Asking if you want to keep the more expensive bottle and call the mistake a wash/loss for them. (Yes, it’s done. No, go to #2)
If you want the bottle you ordered (and they still have it available) then they’re on the hook to mail you the bottle you ordered, with a return shipping label for the mistake Chablis that you’re expected to return if you don’t want to be charged for the bottle they sent.
Or, they offer you to keep their mistake at cost & ship you the bottle you wanted…and they lost nothing accept the shipping of the bottle that they made a mistake on in the first place.
While it’s certainly not the worst mistake, you and wine.com agreed that they’d give you Carlisle Gruner in exchange for your money, not some random bottle of wine of their choosing. They breached that agreement and have to make it right if that’s what you want, and I don’t think you’d be in the wrong for expecting the bottle that you actually ordered.
Like I said, is this a travesty or even a really bad mistake? Not at all. But, when I enter into an agreement, large or small, I expect all parties, including myself, to act accordingly – so, I would politely request the bottle I ordered (and return the other bottle if they wanted [but they won’t ask for it]).
Wine.com has good customer service, so I’d expect you may get keep the “wrong” wine and, at least, either get a refund for the missing bottle or get it sent to you.
I’ll also add that I received a bottle 2017 Almaviva from Wine.com on Thursday. I asked and they agreed to ship it with ice because of the heat. However, the bottle arrived with no ice pack and was warm to the touch after traveling in 85 - 90 degree weather for a few days. I went on their live chat, politely described the problem to the representative and ask to exchange the warm bottle for a more prudently shipped one. They no longer had the bottle in stock, but told me they’d get it and send it to me within a week and I don’t need to return the first bottle. I consider it a wonderful resolution and it was incredibly easy to have my issue addressed. They impressed me with this really great customer service and I’ll happily continue to shop there.
A truly bizarre phenomenon of this board: a retailer has likely made a packing error and now, for a few, it’s “them” and “us.” The retailer has “breached” the agreement (oh, please) followed by some self-congratulating pats on the back. The customer should keep the expensive bottle likely sent in error and be sent the correct bottle, overnight. Hell, why stop with a simple $75-$100 bath for the retailer?
Mike, Kirk, Blaine, Phillip, Wes, Ethan and Paul, I commend you for seeing this as the “we” situation that it is, and for your thoughtful and fair recommendations for resolution.
while I totally get this, I will add that ive dealt with similar issues quite a few times (I may have the worlds worst luck when it comes to shipping wine, but thats another thread). almost every time what has happened is that the retailer has sent me the correct wine and have told me to keep the incorrect or incorrectly shipped one. is it over the top customer service? absolutely. but its also expensive and risky to ship single bottles of wine, especially as we move further into spring. ive never requested to keep the incorrect bottle, but the way I see this particular situation break down is the incorrect bottle cost them what? $40-45 (I see it on W-S for $65)? the shipping will cost them… $20? so they’re either saving themselves $25 by getting it back, or writing it off, keeping an AmEx customer that orders 6 bottles of relatively expensive wine at a time, and who will hopefully spread the word about their good customer service (the fact that I’m sure he’ll update this thread that already has a dozen posters in it with how great they treated him is even better than what they expect id guess.
Im not saying thats what they have to do, but if I was wine.com that would definitely be my choice.
Like I said, I would wait to see what they say, and how they say it, then move forward. It’s not a biggie or tragedy.
That said, picking it apart…much is in the “it depends” category.
If I have zero interest in the wrong bottle of Chablis -no matter how expensive- I would expect either the Carlisle or a refund for the Carlisle. What they want to do with the Chablis is up to them.
If the Chablis is something I do like, then it changes my response.
If I really, really want the Carlisle, keeping the Chablis may be OK, but they are not really creating a satisfied customer here, much less an outright happy one. Without discussing contractual obligations and such, let’s face it, ordered one thing I wanted, got another thing, isn’t happy time.
The smart play would be to ship him (no need to overnight) the Carlisle and tell him to enjoy the Chablis. Loyal customers are created that way.
Definitely contact the retailer about the error. They’ll propose something. I agree that it is on them to fix it, even if that means sending you the correct bottle and you returning the incorrect bottle.
I have a couple of experiences. I recently received an incorrect bottle of Cabot Zin in a Zin 6 pack. I emailed John and he offered to send me the bottle. Instead, I decided to buy a Syrah 6 pack but sub in the missing Zin for one of the Syrahs. We agreed to a lower price on the Syrah 6 pack. It was more money out for me, but I was happy to have the Zin and very happy to have 5 more Syrahs.
Another time, Liquid Farm mistakenly double-shipped my 1 case wine club allocation. It was early in their wine club days. I contacted Jeff and it turned out mine was the only error. Liquid Farm offered me an extra 5% discount. Unfortunately, I did not have the funds to buy another case, so they sent me a shipping label and I sent it back. (Sad trombone.)
this happened once with flickinger. i ordered some prum GKA for a great price. the bottles came and they weren’t goldkapsel, just the regular auslese. i called them and explained, and tom actually answered the phone. when he looked at the order, he said the bottles should have originally been loaded into the website as 375ml, and i received 750ml so i should be happy with the price, and said there was nothing they would do. was honestly the last time i ever bought from flickinger. i wasn’t upset about the price, but i was truly surprised by the flippant response.
Only time something similar happened to me (I obviously been lucky) I got the shipped the wrong case of 1er Cru Burgundy from FRW in London. Upon me pointing this out they immediately sent me the correct case and told me to keep the first one. This presumably cost them somewhere around £500 for the case and £50-80 for the shipping (Uk to Sweden) equivallent of about $660-700 in total. Not even a word about returning anything. Made me a very happy customer. (I do have a quite long relationship with them though and in the end I’m sure they have made up the loss)
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