Order reneged: getwineonline

Order acknowledged Sep 5. Noted that credit card not charged till shipped. Today they reneged, more than 2 weeks later. Cross this store off the wine-searcher list.

this seems like one of those stores that lists wines that are listed from their vendors without having them in stock. so they order it when they receive and order (i see lots of “case only”). this is hardly an excuse as it’s a generally awful experience and they should be delisted from wine-searcher, but an order is merely a request.

If a retailer is going to do business in this uncertain way, they shouldn’t take two weeks to find out if the wholesaler has the wine.

In! (before the hordes come to tell you that somehow this is your fault for trying to get an unrealistically good deal and you should have known better.) newhere

Really annoying! I hate when that happens. I will not us this retailer.

There was nothing that told me this was special order. Here’s their response to my complaint, promise to post on this site, and request that they source it:

Hello Alan,

I apologize that you are disappointed, but it’s not uncommon practice for special orders to be out of stock and we won’t/don’t know until the vendor gets back to us. Do what you must, but I can assure you it is not our intention not to fulfill placed orders and or disappoint our customers, so I hope you will reconsider.

Thank you kindly,

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As of now, still listed by them as available.

This place has the same wine, case only, and does a better job at disclosing that this is a sourced wine, and it might not be in stock. Maybe try again with them Doc? [wink.gif]

https://shop.corxwines.com/vsku2132181_DOMAINE-RAMONET-CHASSAGNE-MONTRACHET-LES-CAILLERETS-750ML-2014

saw that, Mr. Enabler. Thanks.

Probably a blessing in disguise. Of course, when you see sites like “cheapwinescheap”, you kinda know what to expect!

Not sure their business model, but we used to have some internet customers like this that wanted our catalog in Excel and pricing.

They would post every wine, and “take orders”, it came to a head when they charged a customer for a full container of Penfold’s 389 and then asked if we had 1300 cases in our warehouse and had to figure out a way to credit the customers card for a few hundred thousand dollars.

It serves you right for trying to order Burgundy from an online retailer that is only a few miles from my house without asking me, neener with no on-street presence and located in a building on a street that does not really exist and which building once had the largest leaky roof on the East Coast this side of the Hartford Civic Center (whose roof collapsed entirely). I know this, by the way, because it was the first major case I had to litigate after law school because the partners of the firm were too lazy to do all the heavy document work themselves in the days before PCs.

Why do you think you have the right to publicly trash a retailer just because they suck? However, for a small fee, I will drive by the place over the weekend and scare the crap out of them by politely handing them what is known in the trade as a Summons and Complaint. My trade, that is. But only if you have a confirmation. Unfortunately, the law in New York is, as Mr. Barseleh states, that until they accept your offer to purchase by some overt act, a binding contract has not yet been formed. If you find a really good piece of prime Waygu that is mismarked as tofurkey and bring it to the checkout counter, putting it on the conveyor belt is only an offer to purchase it. It is not until they ring it up and ask you for the money that a contract to sell and to buy is created. I don’t think they need to charge your credit card, but they do need to give some evidence of their acceptance of your offer to purchase.

Now that you have my free legal advice, I agree that you should publicize your bad experience as much as you want because those guys are bad hombres. I once tried to stop into their store to buy something that I saw on wine searcher and I couldn’t even find them. I ended up going into ShopRite, which appears to occupy almost all of the building. I don’t know that these guys have any wine inventory at all, but just source as and when it is ordered. That is not a horrible business plan if they disclose it, but if they don’t, that is another story.

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There must be an epidemic of selling Fancy Schmansy white Burgundy in Westchester. These guys are even closer to me than that other place and I have been in this store a couple of times. One of our Berserkers used to work there. If you are serious, I could easily stop by. It is barely a mile from my house and is a legit retail store, although I know nothing about their wine searcher or Internet sales.

At least on their website it says they need 5 days to source. Doesn’t a case seem optimistic? Maybe the threat of Jay popping in will have them digging deep for you [rofl.gif]

They posted this warning, which I think is fair:

This product is available from one of our suppliers, and from time to time we discover that items that were once available become out of stock when we try to order them. To be on the safe side, we prefer to confirm availability of these special order products within a timeframe we can control. If by chance we discover they are out of stock, please accept our apologies.

Alan,
You have been searching for 2014 Ramonet for months, if not years.

Did you really think that some random place had a case at thirty percent below market value?

you’ve sold me some great wines at even better prices—even some Ramonet Batard. And I’ve scored at other places. I expected to be told no, not to be told yes and then reneged more than 2 weeks later.

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nice to know they are fanatical about customer service. Not fanatical enough to have wine they say they have, not fanatical enough to inform the customer timely . . .

Interesting. And weird. Why isn’t the store’s placement of the product on the shelf (presumably with a label identifying the product, as well as the price) construed as an Offer to sell that is deemed accepted when the buyer presents said item to the store in an attempt to purchase? Does it have something to do with the fact that when a buyer is unable to perform in these circumstances the store has no recourse against the prospective buyer, and the product merely goes back on the shelf? This weird NY law seems to codify/enable Bait-and-Switching.

The simple answer to “why?” is “because.” That’s just the rule. The rule could have gone the other way, but it didn’t. I believe the reason for the rule is that the law does not like mistakes and thus is designed to correct the mistake before it matures into a mistake that causes damage. In addition, if you think about it, if the store’s placement of a product on the shelf is deemed to be an offer to sell, when does the buyer accept the offer, creating a binding contract? The buyer doesn’t want a binding contract to be created until actually paying for the product. Otherwise, you can get to the checkout counter, discover that you don’t have enough money, and be in breach of the contract. Since the offer can always be withdrawn until accepted, then even if you look at the placement of the product on the shelf as an offer, the store can still withdraw the offer even after you put the product on the conveyor belt but have not yet paid for it. Any other rule could have catastrophic consequences to a prospective unsophisticated buyer (a term obviously including Mr. Weinberg) who unknowingly makes a contract to purchase something he or she cannot afford.

Now that we have completed our lecture from Contracts 101, day two, we will return to our regularly-scheduled programming.

Boy, the Jets really suck this year, even worse that in past years. I’m going to need a new team, but I can’t find one that I don’t hate.

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