In February I ordered some vintage wine from Winememories.co.uk as a 30th birthday present for my brother. I did not received the wine and emailed the company in March to inquire about it. A few days later someone called Robert said he would re-send the wine. Again, I did not receive it.
I contacted the company in April to inquire about my wine, and again in May and June – and again Robert either replied to say he would issue a refund, or I didn’t get a response. For months the company has ignored my requests to either send me the wine or return my money. Consumer reviews online suggest my case is not an isolated incident. What is going on? AB, Sheffield
Winememories specialises in selling wine to people looking for birthday presents – a wine from the year of the person’s birth. The only problem is that it appears to have more than a few problems meeting demand. A look at the Review Centre website shows lots of rather unhappy customers who, like you, have not received their wine. There are also a number of postings from happy customers, all written, to our eye, in a rather similar way. The company doesn’t have a phone line, so you can only email.
We asked it about your case and initially got very similar treatment to you – a promised refund of the £45 you spent, which yet again failed to materialise.
Robert, via email, told us that many of the negative comments the firm had received have been from American customers.
“Over the past four months we have sent approximately 40 bottles of wine to America. Unfortunately, 60% of these were held by customs due to strict alcohol importation rules in certain states.
“This is something we did not appreciate and this has caused our small business issues in both managing the returns and fully comprehending if the wine has reached the customer in the end. We are now working with a registered US distributor.”
Given that you are in Sheffield we didn’t really see how these issues affected you, and no reason for your problems was offered by Robert, who finally paid your £45 into your bank account this week.
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