The Auswine Forum

I have been a subscriber for about 20 years and usually do not have any major complaints. Yes they misplaced some wine I purchased and it did eventually turn up 6 months after payment.

The story behind this post is I sent of a list of Penfolds wines for the upcoming Penfolds exclusive auction, trying to maximize my return of some lovingly collected and carefully cellared Penfolds wines. I was originally going to drink these wines but I have had to part with them for personal reasons.
I asked Langtons, via e-mail and prior to sending, for these to be allocated inclusion in the Penfolds sale and sent a detailed list along with photos of all the wines. Two of 25 were ullaged mid shoulder but I asked for an assessment of the photos as I was unsure as to send the ums bottles or not. I got the OK to send and the promise to inform Melbourne Staff of the allocation of the Penfolds wines to the Penfolds auction. The 2 ums bottles were subsequently rejected and are being returned ( 4/7/07).

I hear you say "what is wrong with that". Well nothing really wrong with the service so far, in fact quite OK.

Well, what a surprise. I log in on 7/7/07 to Langtons to look at the latest auction and what do I find. I find all my wines that I asked for inclusion in the Penfolds exclusive Auction listed in the current auction, even though I had assurances that the wines would be held over until the Penfolds Auction.

Now I hear you say once again "That's a bit of bad luck but what is wrong with that".

I thought I had some fairly special bottles (as everybody thinks they do), as these had come from "ex winery holdback stocks". Wines for Show purposes and event tastings.

I will let you make up your own mind.

as you can see from the picture this bottle of 60A it has a typed Penfolds label. It is not the commercially released label.





and this is the description in the current sale

PENFOLDS, Vintage 1962
Bin 60A Cabernet Shiraz, Coonawarra-Barossa Valley
1 Bottle - High Shoulder, Slightly Damaged Capsule


somebody is going to get a nice surprise


Based on this description and the level of service this time, I am so glad I did not send these





1955 half bottle.




unknown experimental wines


I am normally happy with the service and do appreciate that a huge amount of wine must pass through their hands, and every vendor thinks they have "something special" and they deserve special treatment. This may be just one of those occasions where everything went wrong. I know the phrase "caveat emptor" is not right here, maybe "shit happens" is appropriate.

Sad that you had to sell I guess. Couldnt you like sell your children, family hierlooms, pets, friends cars, computers from work, and things before it got that desperate??

Have you contacted Langtons?

There is not much point in complaining here unless you contacted them and the declined to fix the situation, and I'd be quite surprised if that was the case.

Actually, doesn't surprise me one little bit. The 'service' leaves quite a lot to be desired at times.

A close friend of mine had wine lost, put in the wrong auction and a number of other problems. You can understand the occasional mistake, it does happen but the main problem was Langton's inability to take any responsibility or even return phone calls and emails. To top it all off they ended up calling him a liar and being exceptionally rude, despite him also having photos, lists, dates, etc. Needless to say he no longer subscribes.

All that was required was an apology and a promise to get on top of the problem and they'd still have a happy customer. It's really not that hard.

Good luck.

I agree that Langtons can be slow with deliveries, but they have been working to fix this. Part of the problem seems to be with how lumpy their transactions are - big pulses of payments with everyone wanting their deliveries dispatched as soon as payments are made. I've grumbled about Langtons before, but try to do so directly to them. To give them credit (without suggesting things are now all rosy), the last time I had an issue with a delivery I got a phone call at work from Stewart pretty much straight away, a good explanation of what was causing the problem, and what Langtons were doing to fix it.

Well, that sounds like a huge and immediate improvement so I hope they continue to work in that manner.

I've rarely had any issues with Langtons in general, and usually have received responses from them quickly and with minimal fuss.

My pet gripe however is the minor issue of commissions. As an Australian who recently moved up to Singapore, looking to restock his new cellar with some aged Aus reds, the overall cost of purchasing through auction, shipping and duty makes me seriously consider giving up on wine altogether. I will admit that I'm probably underestimating the manpower required to operate the business, however to receive 15% in and out on every bottle of wine under the hammer seems excessive. Some auction houses in the US only charge one way, ie. sellers not buyers, and certainly don't approach 15%.

I requested a discount on a BULK purchase order that I am planning to make in the upcoming auction, however received a flat and unconditional "no" when I asked if some sort of size discount could be offered on the buyers commission. Not sure if others agree?

Scoob

Scoobinski wrote:I requested a discount on a BULK purchase order that I am planning to make in the upcoming auction, however received a flat and unconditional "no" when I asked if some sort of size discount could be offered on the buyers commission. Not sure if others agree?

Scoob

They do not give discount of the commission on purchase but they do reduce the commission for the seller by 4% to 5% (11% commission).

The delivery from Melbourne to Sydney is still very bad. I have stop buying from Melbourne auction.

Alan

Alan Foo wrote:The delivery from Melbourne to Sydney is still very bad. I have stop buying from Melbourne auction.Alan

Me too.
When I first joined (1997), Langtons buyer's commission was 5%, on top of which was the state government excise duty of 7½%, I think (or was it 10%?). But then the high Court struck down the state liquor taxes, so for just a couple of auctions - these were the 'live auction' days - the buyers paid 5%. Then it went to 10%, and now it's 15% including GST. And wines were a heck of a lot cheaper back then too.

I reckon they must be really cleaning up these days...
cheers,
Graeme