Ok, I may be lazy. I tend not to buy wine at a wine shop or liquor store. I order it in. It's convenient. It saves me having to worry about carrying it, or pushing a trolley with it (because, you guessed it, it's not a job my other half does) so I like to hop online, go click-click-click and the wine turns up neatly stacked away where I ask them to leave it within days of my order.
Well that's the theory.
This is a tale of two different wine delivery experiences. One was five-star ordered in October; the other one-star ordered in March.
Red, White and Bubbles
This is a boutique online wine shop. I actually learned about it through the pages of Motherpedia a while back, so thought I would give it a try.
I went to their website here - www.redwhiteandbubbles.com.au; had a look around; and read what they said about the different wines, which are quite varied in choice for a boutique shop, with wine sourced from overseas as well as Australia.
I placed my order one evening, and the next morning I had a call from a represenative to tell me that one of the wine choices I had made was not available, so could they replace it with a recommended wine at the same price. "No problem," I said.
The next day - the wine turned up! It was neatly stacked under the front porch just as I had requested. They had also included a 'bonus' bottle of dessert wine as a welcome gift.
The wine was well-priced, we enjoyed drinking it and there was only one selection - my own, not the replacement one - that wasn't to our taste.
I could not fault the website; the ease of ordering; the cost; the friendly, personal voice at the other end to explain about the non-availability of a selection; the speed of delivery; or the way the courier followed my delivery instructions.
Five stars.
Vintage Cellars
So with that great wrap, you're probably wondering why I chose to place my next order several months later with another online retailer? It was just one of those things. We needed more wine. I was online for another reason. I saw a Vintage Cellars advertisement in the corner of my computer screen. I clicked and bought.
Silly me.
The automated 'we have your payment and order' email came through immediately. It also said I'd receive my wine within 3-7 working days.
I must admit I thought seven days was a bit long, but I told myself I'd be happy enough if it came within five working days - in other words one week from the day of ordering.
However, it took seven working days just to get another email saying my order had been packed and was on its way. This might make you think it was a HUGE order. It wasn't; it was about the same as the previous one.
Another four days after receiving the email saying the order was on its way, the wine turned up.
In the period between ordering and the wine arriving (13 days), we ran out of wine in the house, and had two family birthdays, so I had to buy some supplies at the local shops ... the very thing I do not like doing! (As it turned out, this wasn't such a bad experience at all - see below).
To make matters worse, when the wine finally arrived early one morning, there was no knock on the door or pressing of the doorbell; the wine wasn't neatly stacked on the front porch as requested if no-one at home; it was just left outside the front gate. It was fortunate there was someone home. On most other days, we would have left the house and the wine would have been on display out the front, in the sunshine, for the entire day.
One star.
Lessons learned?
1. Go to the five-star Red, White and Bubbles next time.
2. And, in case of emergency, go to the local IGA where I have found the wine buyer to know his wine, be very helpful and also happy to point customers towards specials.
__small.png)
