The Auswine Forum

Hi people,

I've been purchasing wine online for the past few years and everything went well so far. Last Thursday i'd ordered a box and it show up today!(sunday) but it is from a man few street away , he is nice enough to drove me back my order but hear comes the bad part, the wine has been on the sun for days, was sitting on the rock steps outside his home until today, when i carry the box it is still hot, not warm. i need some advice on what to do and how should i take care of the wine for the time been, i have emailed the online place and waiting for a reply.

do you guys think the wine would still be ok to cellar?

Firstly, was the address you supplied the retailer correct? If not then it would be your fault and you'll just have to live with it. Otherwise I'd be asking for my money back and the retailer would have to follow it up with their shipping company.

hi rens,

The address on the docket is the correct address and it is the only address i provided to the online retailer, i didn't blame on the online retailer, it is the couriers fault that dropped off my order to the wrong place. I was lucky enough to have it back because of this nice man delivered back to me

There is a very good chance some if not much of the wine is heat affected and there is nothing you can do to undo it, the damage is permanent. The interest/flavour goes out of it, if not worse - eg. bacterial or fungal/brettanomyces bloom. If it is a good wine you paid hard earned for you would kick yourself for years every time you opened a bottle and were less than impressed with the result.

What rens said still applies. It is up to the retailer to replace it under insurance and sort it out with the shipping company. You should absolutely call the retailer and ensure they replace the wine. Do not stand for anything less.

no issue over here in nz.
no sun you see

hi odyssey,

i'm still waiting for a reply from the retailer, they do have a return policy if customers are not happy with the purchase or received the incorrect wine.

hi craig,

i do prefer the sun with a bottle of opened wine, but not like this.

retailer replied and wasn't too happy with it either, but i need to send those wine back to get replacements, anyone here have experience shipping wine ?not sure if austpost will allow me to post items with alcohol in it.

Haven't used them for sending, but AusPost have a specialist wine delivery concept going on, so shouldn't be a problem as long as they are well packed.

Anyone can post wine via Australia Post. It's not necessarily cheap. Could be $20-30 for a case. I've posted cases from Sydney to Perth before and that cost me about $50 per case. Posting locally is obviously much cheaper.

Pity the next poor sod who is sent the restocked sunbaked wines...

hi odyssey,

i hope that wouldn't happen, because that could probably be anyone in here too! i better not give out the name of this retailer..

Any online retailer worth their salt should be arranging for the same courier to pick up and replace the case, at their own expense. I wouldn't accept them asking you to post it back yourself. You paid for wine to be delivered to a specific address. They failed to do so (either due to their error, or due to the error of the courier company which they hired). It is their mess to sort out.

I've returned wine that was bad before, and the company (which will remain nameless) picked it up and replaced the case at their expense. The online wine retailing market is too competitive to have shitty follow up service like that.

hi lawrenceM,

Yesterday I did ask the retailer to organise a pickup if possible, i'm still waiting for a reply. i didn't call up any courier for a quote yet hopefully the retailer would do it for me, im just hoping they won't send the same bottle of wine back to me again.

I do agree there are better deals online too, but i still like to travel up to the winary during holidays and buy a few cases after tasting.

update

The same courier company came and pickup the wine yesterday afternoon,i thought they would give me the replacement at the same time to save some $$, but they didn't. still waiting for my replacement wine.

Ddavew wrote:update
The same courier company came and pickup the wine yesterday afternoon,i thought they would give me the replacement at the same time to save some $$, but they didn't. still waiting for my replacement wine.

Its quite normal for companies to wait for confirmation that the stock has been picked up / returned to the warehouse etc before shipping out replacements. I'm sure you could appreciate that it is also in the interest of the retailer to make sure the product hasn't just gone walk about and that it is all just a "story".

Hope your wine arrives safe and sound eventually.

By the way if the courier they use is a rather large company driving orange trucks and has 3 letters in their name do not be surprised if they stuff up again or break it, they are bloody hopeless.

Pok

hi pokolbinguy,

I don't mind it at all , i do know if those wine i returned are really damaged by the heat during the 2 days outside the door, they lose $$$ on it too, everything went very well between the online retailer and me, i ordered on a thursday and they already packed and deliveried by friday, if it didn't deliver to the wrong house i will be so happy about it.

its not the orange truck with 3 letters,its a white van with no names on it, only a sticker on the box with the couriers name.

finally got a reply from the retailer, dont know why it took so long but need to change some of the wine , its out of stock. hopefully i can receive the new wine soon!