Purchased wine from Cru World Wine (BEWARE and need some help with terrible customer service)

[thedreamed]

Basically, I bought a few cases in bond, 36 bottles in total.

Then asked them if I could pay the taxes upfront, but only arrange for delivery in January 2023, and place them in the warehouse in the meantime, they agreed and asked me to wait for updates.

After a few days of no updates, I contacted them again and received the following reply on whether I can pay the taxes.

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Hi XXX,
Apologies as XXX is no longer available at the price you have purchased it.

The case has been bought instantly when our finance cancelled your order to reprocess with duty paid.

The $XXX are in your Cru account and I can ask our finance to refund to your credit card or bank account.

------------------------------------------

I mean what the hell? After liaising with them and telling them that they cancelled it and not me, they told me "Oh a buyer in Hong Kong bought it, we can't do anything now".

Their solution? Offering me some random cases that was not similar to the ones I purchase, (Mostly left bank Medoc Bordeaux). I mean, would you even buy again knowing it MIGHT get cancelled?

[DavidG]

No, I would not buy from an establishment that took my money and then canceled the purchase because they sold to someone else. They may have decided it was easier for them to do a quick sale to another buyer rather than deal with your request about taxes, but that’s no excuse. I’d have no desire to give them my business. Not worth the aggravation of arguing with them either. I’d ask for the refund.

There’s always another wine and another vendor, and the frustration of a desired purchase slipping away will fade.

[thedreamed]

Agreed.

Think I will call the bank and ask for a chargeback to be safe. The company does seem quite big, with a couple warehouses across the globe, didn’t think they’d pull something like this.

Ha, your last point really hit bullseye. I don’t care if it was a car, electronics, but wine?! Come on now..

[Musigny 151]

Amazing. If there is a relevant liquor authority, you should certainly report them.

[thedreamed]

Update: I've spoke to them a couple times today, I have not heard of a single admission of mistake yet.

They gave me a call, and account manager actually seemed annoyed with me! Which includes trying to sell me more wines of lower caliber at least 3 times! Funny because they would earn commission again.

[DavidG]

I would not waste one more second of my time with them. Don’t need the aggravation.
I’d ask the bank for a chargeback and get on with my life.

[AKR]

It seems like there is more to this story than what OP has related.

[Blanquito]

Threads like these make me so glad my wine buying/cellar building days are (essentially) behind me.*

*for those who have heard this before from me and legions of other wine nuts, here are the net change in bottle count numbers for my cellar for the last 5 years:
2018: -18
2019: -120
2020: -157
2021: +102 (my trip to visit Ian really messed with the trend!)
2022: -309

Way more wine going out than coming in (though I still have far too much wine).

[JoelD]

Threads like these make me so glad my wine buying/cellar building days are (essentially) behind me.*

*for those who have heard this before from me and legions of other wine nuts, here are the net change in bottle count numbers for my cellar for the last 5 years:
2018: -18
2019: -120
2020: -157
2021: +102 (my trip to visit Ian really messed with the trend!)
2022: -309

Way more wine going out than coming in (though I still have far too much wine).

This is seriously impressive. I don't even want to contemplate doing my math for the last couple years. How many total bottles of wine did you drink vs buy vs sold so far in 2022? I wish I could even get under -100 for a year.