More shipping stupidity

Got a notice last night that someone shipped me wine. Everything I’ve purchased for the past month I have specifically but on notes to “hold for weather.” Don’t know who sent what as it’s going thru a third party shipper. Currently in Littlefield, AZ. Current temperature in Littlefield…98 degrees [soap.gif]

First off…where the hell is Littlefield??? (and I live in AZ).

Second, that sucks! I hope they make it right!

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NW AZ along I-15. Looks like an in-transit point, as there ain’t nothing in Littlefield.

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dont worry, its a dry heat.

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I received a shipment yesterday, even though, like you, I had placed my orders on “hold for weather”. I hate when these places just ship your wine without letting you know ahead of time. What if I was on vacation? Or, in my case, I knew that it was going to be too hot. But they just shipped it without letting me know.

I was actually just getting home from work when UPS came, so I got the box right off the truck. So it’s not it was sitting out in the hot sun. I knew I was in trouble the moment I opened the box. No outward signs of damage, but the bottles are very warm to the touch, I’d estimate at least 110 degrees, probably 120 or even higher. No ice pack in the box either. The shipment contained some old delicate wines from the 1970s and 80s, that are probably completely cooked now. In fact, all the wine is most likely ruined. I’m SO annoyed.

I contacted the company, and they did say that I could contact them if the wine was cooked. So that’s something. I’m still very irritated…

120 degrees will scald sensitive skin. Somehow I doubt your wine bottles were that hot.

Ah, I just googled the temperature of a hot bath. You’re right. The temp was probably closer to 105-110. I mean, the bottles felt like they were coming out of a hot bath. Regardless, too hot for wine!

I know what you mean by the hot bottles as that just happened to me as well. It was probably 93-95 degrees outside when the bottles were delivered and after touching the bottles, I knew I had a major problem. What was more frustrating was that this was the second time the company, de Negoce, did this in two weeks and both times the wine order sat in a UPS warehouse over the weekend when it was 98 degrees for a high. So not only was my wine exposed to the high temperature but it was exposed to it for more than 3 days.

I would have told them that the wine was cooked that’s why I called, and ask if they would accept wine delivered in that condition if they replied in the negative, ask again for them the replace/refund now. If they replied in the affirmative that would be the end of my business with them

More and more stores, etc., seem to have gone to a model of shipping without notice. I have had to stop buying from one store because of this. This is a store that had a wonderful shipping person and was extraordinarily easy to deal with for years. Then, they hired a new person, who not only shipped wines without notice but without consolidating shipments so that I had two shipments of less than full cases rather than one shipment of a full case. After over a decade of buying from this store, I am now off their mailing list and want nothing to do with them.

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Cold chain shipment arrived yesterday. Perfect timing as it has been cooler early this week. Bottles cool and everything looks great from a temp standpoint.

The beat to hell and badly taped shippers were another matter. Lucky nothing fell out!

I got to be honest, I don’t think it’s realistic to expect that every shipment is preceded with a notice or an exchange of “is it ok to ship now, are you going to be home between these and these dates, are the temperatures to your liking?”. That’s implied by the order.

As an example, on BerserkerDay I had 300 shipments that needed to get out. It takes me and my wife over two weeks just to package all of that and ship it. Imagine if we’d have to double check with every buyer if they’re going to be home, or if they’re cool with us shipping now, make sure they’re not on vacation, if there are any temperatures along any potential route that might not be ideal - we’d still be at it. Each interaction could easily take up to an hour, maybe more - that’s 300 man hours. And how would you you do it? Call? Email? Hold shipment until someone responds, even if wx is perfect? What if it ended up in spam folder? What if I never get a response? What if they didn’t give any contact details?

I of course try to as much as I can, but it’s just not realistic for every shipment of wine. Sure, if you’re shipping DRC across the country from a specialized retailer that charges accordingly for it, then they can probably take the time to do so, but regular smaller producers don’t have the luxury of spending hours and days on each shipment, or to anticipate every permeable route FedEx might take where there might be temperatures above 70 degrees. We can either make wine, or spend it on logistics.

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Perhaps they took that to mean what the general public might think of it as - hold until there is warm weather?

Thanks for posting this. A lot of producers and high volume retailers are in a similar situation. Still, I think it’s important to be careful about when wine is shipped. Anything going from the West Coast to Colorado or anywhere south of there is likely to go through some very high temperatures right now. So, if no consent is given, I would say it is not shipping season for those locations. One can have reasonable expectations about shipping conditions and still be understanding about the large amount of time it takes to do the shipping.

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Agreed. I do my best to try to find cooler temps and windows etc. But there are certain places, like Florida, where technically there are perhaps only 2 days per year where you can ship…

My philosophy is that I can accept a little warmer in SoCal region if it’s going towards a cooler Eastern region. Most of the freight goes out at night on trucks and will most likely hit the Rockies by next day, which is higher altitude and generally cooler, and by 2nd day should be well into the flatlands and heading East where temps are rarely as bad. But AZ and TX at this time of year, is a real problem. And FL is always a problem. [wink.gif]

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Might be a business plan. You could charge more and change your occupation to a Shipping Concierge! [cheers.gif]

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In my view, the best practice is for wine shops/wineries to have both:

a) Their own weather-related shipping standards, whereby they won’t ship within especially hot or cold windows unless you sign a waiver, AND
b) An option at purchase to have the wine held for some period of time, only to be shipped after the purchaser contacts the winery (charging for storage after 6 months if needed).

This way the default is that the wine shop/winery can ship when they think it is safe, but gives the consumer the option of holding.

I hear you. I live in Miami and i’m always scared when ordering that the wine will get damaged in transit because of the weather.
It hasn’t happened to me (yet) but it is always a concern. And it affects my buying decisions for sure.

[head-bang.gif]

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More diverse stupidity…
One common carrier just told me that five days for overnight service to a destination 175 miles away was OK because they removed delivery times and guarantees from their website!
To be fair, a weekend was included in the 5 days. However, it is only 175 miles!

Are you willing to pay any additional cost for such individualized service?