Wine Enthusiast reviews and complaints

On April 4 I placed an order through Paypal. As is the procedure with Paypal, a "pending" hold was placed on my Paypal account for the amount of the purchase. In late-April when the item had not been received, I contacted the Wine Enthusiast. They informed me that the order had been lost in some way and I needed to replace the order. They said they could not remove the "pending" from the Paypal account -- it was not their problem.

I decided I did not want to do business with a company with this attitude and tried to deal directly with Paypal. However, on April 28, the Wine Enthusiast went ahead and shipped my previous order, charging my account through Paypal.

Now I have a situation where my Paypal has the original "pending" charge still showing against it, as well as the April 28 payment -- and guess what! Wine Enthusiast is again telling me there is nothing they can do about it -- the problem is all mine.

If you want to get blown off as irrelevant, deal with Wine Enthusiast. Otherwise -- go somewhere else.

I made the mistake of ordering a gift for someone from this catalog nearly 2 years ago.

The W.E. put me on a mailing list (auto add) and has bombarded me with catalogs ever since.

I have called and asked to be taken off the list, I have sent back labels, nothing works. I'm assured by phone that I've been removed from the list, and yet they still come, like locusts raining down on my head.

The catalogs come constantly, with no new reasons to be looking at them. Same crap, same inflated prices. Just more paper to junk up my mailbox.

What's amusing is that the cover of the catalog proudly states their green ethos with post-consumer recycling of its paper. GREAT, now how about not sending out the recycled paper over, and over, and over again, wasting time, money, postage, and the efforts of printers and mail carriers, to send the catalogs to people who don't want them or need them?

If I still had a cat, I'd have litter box material. Now, I just dump them by the dumpster so that local unfortunates will have paper for personal hygiene, which is of greater value to them than the catalog is to me. THAT, my friends, is very eco-friendly and takes Wine Enthusiasts' interest in post-consumer waste a few steps further.

This company claims 100% customer satisfaction but nothing is further from the truth. Their wine cellar furniture is low quality. I have reached out to them via phone and email to let them know I have one of their products that SHORTS OUT AND SPARKS WITH SMOKE. They will not reply in any way no matter how dangerous their product is. They will not recommend a solution nor will they refund any of my money. DO NOT BUY FROM THEM! They DO NOT stand by their products.

I purchased a 28 bottle cooler from the closeout store, only because it matched my other 28 bottle cooler and it was no longer being offered in the front line store. It was listed as a scratch and dent but I could live with that. When the cooler arrived it had been repacked from it's original carton so poorly that the door was knocked off of the hinges. The top hinge had been bent upwards enough to let the door come loose. The carton had been very poorly packed with shards of Styrofoam, probably from other cartons lying around. I took off the hinge and straightened it so I could put the door on. Next I was starting to put the handle on the door when I realized the screws were not in the carton. After a trip to Home Depot to buy screws, luckily I had taken one off of the door on my other cooler because they are metric threads so I was able to use their thread sizer I came home to find that the keys to the unit also were missing from the carton. When I sent an E-mail to Wine Enthusiast to let them know about my experience what did I hear from them? nothing, nada, zilch, zip. Why am I writing this review? only to vent, I'm pretty sure they don't care.

On 8/9/08 I purchased a Capri Wine Cellar Item D. 232 72 26 via phone with a representative who was very pleasant and eager to work with my husband and I. She had stated someone would call and set up a time for delivery. I unfortunately was lulled into a false sense of security that this company would be interested in the satisfaction of its customers. We received notification via phone message on Thursday the 14th at 1630 that our cellar would be delivered the next day between 1430 and 1630. Of course, with such a short notice and the fact that both my husband and I work in medical settings we were not able to be present for delivery. I call the delivery company, Plycon Transportation Group and spoke with Leo to reschedule, I informed him that I was available all day on Mondays, but otherwise I worked from 0730 to 1930 the remainder of the week. Leo scheduled the appointment for Monday August 18th from [protected]. I called Leo on Monday at 1100 to see if the window was going to be closer to 1300 or 1500 and he informed me that they had to go to Cleveland and were not going to be delivering. No call to my home phone or voice mail was ever completed. I would have been at home waiting and wasting my time as I had scheduled several other appointments around the delivery of the cellar. Leo asked for my availability on Tuesday. I reiterated again, that I worked from 0730 to 1930 at least. Leo stated that he would accommodate me and make the delivery on Tuesday August 19th after 1900. I left work early without completing my day's work and arrived home in time for the delivery. At home, I had received a message at around 1730 stating they would not be delivering the product again. Again I called Leo, who again asked for my availability on Wednesday August 20th. At this point, I reiterated that I worked from 0730 to 1930 and that I would NOT be at home if they could not guarantee that the delivery would happen on that date. Leo promised that they would be there. At this point, I feeling quite frustrated and feeling as if my time was being abused called the customer care line. The time was 1800 EST. I looked the number up from the catalog that I had received in the mail that day or the day prior.

Inside of cover:

"IMPECCABLE CUSTOMER CARE
Your Satisfaction Is Guranteed. If you're not 100% happy with your purchase, call us any time, 24/7. We'll make it right. We're not satisfied until you're satisfied."
The heading stated on page 22:
"CUSTOMER SERVICE
We are not satisfied until you're satisfied. If you or your gift recipient are not 100% happy with an item, call 800.648.6058 or email us at custserv@wineenthusiast.net. Our Customer Care Team is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to assist you. For help on technical matters related to your wine storage units, call between the hours of 9 A.M. and 6 P.M., Monday through Friday, ET, and ask to speak to a product expert."

I called the Customer Care line and received a recorded message stating they were closed. I called back and spoke with a sales representative who told me that the Customer Care Team was only available 9-6. I informed her of the statement directly from the catalog and she said that meant was only for sales. I asked her to take a message which from my end of the phone sounded like she typed into a computer system. She stated someone would call the next day. I did NOT receive a phone call. I called the next day during a meeting time while at work to make sure I talked to a Customer Care Team member who stated that she had NOT received any message nor had any idea where to look for a message. I retold my story to which she said, "The comply has 2 weeks to deliver and is in the time period" " They are supposed to deliver it tonight" or "Ma'am I do not know what you want me to do" instead of offering any solutions. I certainly did not feel heard or nothing was done to make me feel whole. I finally stated that I needed to speak with someone in a position to assist me and could she have the person call me. Again, she asked I don't know what we can do for you or what you want. I finally just stated, I have paid 465 dollars for shipping and delivery up 6 stairs and I do not feel like paying for this poor service, my time is valuable. I gave my cell phone as well as home phone number information. Again, NO phone call the next day from the manager.

I did receive delivery of my cellar on Wednesday August 20. They said they would be there at 1930, and I was there at 1855 and they were there early at 1857. The company that delivered did gently complain that they had to wait in Cincinnati from 1300 and I told the deliverymen, yes I understood, but it was not my fault but the dispatch who put us both in a bad position. The company did deliver the cellar with ease, with care for our home and cleaned up all excess.

Recommended Remediation:

1) The relationship with the shipping company should be explored as you do not want this to happen to any of your other customers.
2) I would like to be reimbursed for my time/breach of contracted delivery time.
3) The Customer Care Team information needs to be correct in your catalog as it is absolutely false and misleading to customers.

If the shipping issue was in isolation, I may have purchased products from you again, but with the poor customer service I am not as willing nor will I recommend this company to my or my husband's colleagues who enjoy wine.

They sent me coupon cards for money off buying things from them... ha!

I am surprised, been shoping with them for years and every time I have a problem it fixed ASAP.

Agree -- having issues with extremely poor customer service for a different Eurocave unit purchased 5 weeks ago.