Moderate shipping stupidity, Wine Access style.

Ok, controversial subject line perhaps. But how dumb is this:

Wine Access really takes the cake on shipping stupidity. When I choose a shipping date, I expect the wine to be stored somewhere cool until that shipping date, and hopefully packed with ice packs shortly before shipping. They even claim:
“Please note that your wine is traveling on a third-party temperature-controlled truck to a local hub and is scheduled for delivery on the date listed below.”

I’m going to call BS on that one.

Check this out. Bottles felt very warm to the touch. I took this picture about 15 minutes after I received them, so it had cooled down slightly.
bibi.jpg
Well, this might explain it. The wine, and I’m assuming the ice gel packs, have been sitting somewhere for 10 days.
label.jpg
But here is the best part. This is the “ice pack”. Claiming this has been in temperature controlled environment until a day or two ago is simply a lie.
icepack.jpg

I had the same last month. Wine shipped when it was 100 deg. The shipment was one day, but sat on a truck most of the day. Immediately opened the box and ice pack warm, bottles at 90+ deg.

I posted a thread on this previously that they will ship when temps are up to 95 deg.

The thing is, I can receive frozen seafood and meat at these temperatures, no problem. Those ice packs inside the styrofoam will keep cold for a few days. It takes a long time to get them up to 100 degrees. I think they were put in those boxes 10 days ago and stored somewhere in room temperature. When they were shipped, they were already 70+ degrees and thus had no effect on keeping the contents cool for the hot weather part of the delivery chain.

1 Like

Same thing happened to me last year. Bottles were at 90+ degrees when received. They replaced at least a full case, maybe 2.

I was under the impression that these third-party temp-controlled deliveries to a hub always took a week or two because they consolidate a bunch of orders to fil the truck. If that’s the case, the ice bag was always just for show. I sympathize with your situation, but I can’t understand why anybody would voluntarily choose to ship wine in August - even in the best-case scenario there’s still a day or two that the wine could be exposed to high heat when shipped from the local hub to your house.

2 Likes

There are companies that consistently ship wine without any problems even at these temperatures. When packed correctly and shipped right away, the ice packs do a great job on keeping things cool inside the styrofoam packing. When packed 10 days before delivery, well, that’s the stupidity I’m referring to and just like you say, the ice bag is just for show.

In my case, the gap between UPS receiving the wine and them delivering it to me was less than 20 hours. They claim it had been temperature controlled until that point. I don’t buy it.

Undeniable that they screwed up in a massive, inexcusable manner.
However, you said, “When I choose a shipping date, I expect the wine to be stored somewhere cool…”
Why would you select a shipping date in August? That seems to be flirting with disaster.

1 Like

Seems to be a theme.

I just got 2 SommSelect Blind6 wine club shipments from previous months that they had delayed sending because of weather. The ice packs in those shipments registered 83F. Why do they bother holding the shipments for weather if they’re going to ship them on one of the hottest weeks of the year???
[swearing.gif] [swearing.gif] [swearing.gif]

I get odd shipments sent to me throughout the year. Many companies pack appropriately and ship right after they pack. WA clearly does not do that. I did not expect them to pack the ice packs 10 days before delivery date, that is just asinine.

The ice packs do their job for 2-3 days inside the styrofoam. Not 10.

1 Like

This just blows my mind. Why pack something, and then “hold for weather” making sure the ice packs serve no purpose when the wine actually is shipped.
Common sense is not that common, it seems.

It’s really important to note that the third party shipper may not be that close to the original shipper. If so, then the wines are shipped to the third party shipper via UPS/FedEx without temp control for consolidation. Then they may sit awhile, and finally be loaded for the temp controlled leg, before local delivery in a standard truck. The ice packs will definitely not help in the final delivery. As much as we want to get wines shipped quickly, we still only ship in spring and fall, and our use of third party temperature control is mostly to get through frozen mountain areas on the way to the South during the Nov-Jan shipping window for the South.

3 Likes

Glad to hear that in general, you have had a few problems. I guess I’m just not bold enough to leave it up to chance. The winery or merchant may be conscientious, but then there is the factor of the shipping company. Too many wildcards for my taste.

If it is not direct from UPS or FedEx I am not interested. Had one problem with UPS in 20 years and zero with FedEx.

Who are all these third party shippers?

I appreciate the companies who say “we’ll hold for weather”. These guys specifically say they have a process to get wine to you without issues. Clearly that is not true.

And I haven’t even started complaining about the fact that I haven’t received a response to my email.

1 Like

I actually think I know the company that they are using, and they aren’t using UPS and FedEx to ship everywhere. Hence the long delays.

Sorry. I would say to any one the following

  1. If you are dealing with someone that won’t hold it during hot months, you probably shouldn’t give them your business.

  2. If you are dealing with someone that isn’t using FedEx or UPS to ship to your state, you probably shouldn’t give them your business.

  3. If you really need to have it shipped during the hot days, only ship it overnight, or priority overnight. Think of it as insurance more than a shipping charge.

We opened a bunch of wine today that had suspect storage, and the failure rate was through the roof. Corks crumbling, fall in, core of the cork ripping out, it was bad. None of those were good. Even some passively stored bottles that “looked good” were overcome with alcohol, and not enjoyable to drink.

1 Like

UPS did the last mile delivery, the shipper was just listed as “Wineshipping”. The only information they give beforehand is that the shipping is temperature controlled, nothing about packing it 10 days in advance. Mea culpa for trusting them.

same issue w Vinsent. Shipped on a Friday with no warning. Took over a week while over 90. They took it back and claim they’ll send other bottles in fall. Sure. Taking store credit though I may fight w cc company for refund.

You are sort of touching the biggest issue I have. I dont trust the provenance any more. Who knows how many times the replacement wines have been sent and returned.

Free business idea for someone, I’ll take 10% of profits. Someone should install temperature tags on wine bottles. If the bottle exceeds certain temperature at any point, the tag changes color and you know it was cooked at some point in its lifetime.
Go make billions, thank me later. champagne.gif

Ponsot developed that. Only it didn’t work.

Plus, a wine can be ruined at 70 degrees, and be absolutely fine after consecutive days at 90 degrees. It just depends.

1 Like