Are you finding too many wines on Wine Searcher unavailable? Wine searcher responds

WINE TALK
21

I just contacted Wine Searcher, and copied this thread.

22

I ordered a bottle of 2000 Giscours from Raeder’s today that winesearcher showed they had for $89. The order was cancelled because the wine was not in inventory. First and last time doing business with Raeder’s.

23

Perfect. I hope they reply and it would be great to have it placed herein. Thanks for doing this Mark.

24

Happens all the time. I am going to start blocking retailers who I think are repeat offenders. I wish I could exclude an entire state from my results (like those that don’t ship - Mass, Utah, etc.).

25

FIFY [snort.gif]

26

Wine Searcher sent this response.


Hi Mark,

Thanks for sending us the link, it’s good to know that people use and like Wine-Searcher :slight_smile:

I will explain you how Wine-Searcher works.

Our website https://www.wine-searcher.com/ is updated daily. The update is made overnight NZT.

We daily collect price list for sponsor.

We collect price list every 3 days for merchant when we collect from their website. If we collect from a google doc or datafeed, we daily collect.

We collect every 13 days for winery.

Some sponsor/merchant send us their price list via an excel doc so the update is done when we receive their price list.

If sponsor/merchant do not update price list, it will not change on Wine-Searcher even if we update our website daily.

If a price list has not been updated for some time, we will send a reminder asking them to update their price list otherwise it will be removed from Wine-Searcher. We do not list out of stock items but it’s not easy to control all price list displayed on Wine-Searcher.

When we receive a complaint from a user telling us that a sponsor/merchant are out of stock or product has a different price on Wine-Searcher and on their website, we ask the user if it can provide proof (phone call, send the correspondence) if it’s not obvious. Then we contact the sponsor/merchant. Product is removed if it’s out of stock.

If you have noticed that some merchant do not carry the wine they advertise or at a different price, you can contact us and tell us the name of the merchant. If you have called the merchant, just let us know. If you have exchanged emails with the merchant, you can send us the correspondence. We will contact the merchant.

Do be worries with your searches, you still have 5800 searches left.

Thanks Mark, and I can be of any further assistance please let me know.

Kindest regards,

27

Not a very inspiring response. Clearly, they are a-okay with how things are currently running.

28

Definitely notice Arlequin in SF continually popping up on wines they don’t have in stock.

29

Though what they (perhaps understandably) NOT saying, is what happens to repeat offending merchants. My understanding is that some have been excluded.

30

I am wondering whether it would make sense to post a new thread helping Wine Searcher weed out all these deadbeats. For instance, Hinton’s Wine Store in Atlanta has listed Dujac Bonnes Mares 2006 at $299.99 a bottle for at least 6 months, and probably a lot longer (I remember calling on it when I first saw the price, they did not have it but the listing is still there).

Rather than allowing merchants to post non-wines let’s call them out, at the same time reporting to Wine Searcher. Or is that a little drastic?

31

They recently sold a lot of their retail inventory at auction, I’m guessing that they just haven’t sent the updates yet. I’ve always found them a very reliable retailer (going back nearly 20 years for me).

32

Why not use this one Mark, especially if they are aware of it. That way any email can simply be re-sent with the same words / link.

33

I don’t think the problem is just with deadbeats. I’m now encountering it with Benchmark and B-21 and other reputable retailers. It almost seems like there’s been some sort of software change to Winesearcher that is causing problems with the updates.

34

Maybe everyone on Berserkers should call every day and try to order the wine from them. [wow.gif]

35

Wow, you guys are tough. If I blacklisted every wine shop that said or thought they had something they didn’t, or said they would order something that didn’t come in, I’d have nowhere left to shop. Of course, serial offenders or the stores with “virtual” inventories are another kettle of fish.

36

The best online retailers have their sites set up to show real time inventories. You can tell because if you order a quantity that exceeds what they have, it adjusts accordingly. Conversely, if you order a 144 of something that you know that they probably have a fraction of that, if any at all, and it reflects all 144 being available, then you know that there is no certainty what the actual invetory is.

In regard to the 2000 Giscours mentioned above, I was willing to have the $89 bottle shipped 2 day at an expense of over $50 to be able to include it in a vertical next week. Too many people selling wine these days to put up with this kind of aggravation.

37

I just went in on winesearcher and it still reflects Raeder’s having the 2000 Giscours for $89.99. Go figure.

38

I understand the frustration, especially regarding placed orders that have to be canceled. However it’s been my experience in life that you’re significantly increasing the likelihood of a negative outcome by using/ordering from the lowest cost provider, be it wine or service related. It’s also worth a phone call to the retailer to verify they actually have something in stock. I know the internet makes things easy but it’s not that difficult to make a phone call.

39

Hey Max - sorry to hear that you’ve run across wines that Benchmark is listing on W-S after they have sold-out. Given that we primarily work with limited quantities, I’ve done what I can to maximize the system. We make an inventory list available for W-S to download, which is updated every 12 hours with up-to-the-minute inventory. W-S pulls the list once a day and updates their listings. As far as I’m aware, they don’t offer more frequent updates - which means a product listing from Benchmark could be up to 36 hours old. That time frame obviously gives plenty of opportunity for the most popular wines to sell before listings are refreshed.

I’m not aware of any changes to the W-S system, but I will inquire.

40

NP - as I hope was clear, I’m in no way impugning Benchmark (had only top-shelf service from you guys), and I’ve never come across this issue with your inventory before. The interesting thing is that at least some of the “ghost” listings are persisting for well beyond a 12-24 hour refresh period. That’s why I’m wondering if something changed on the W-S end of things.