WineBid

I purchased and cellared two cases of wine over the last few years from WineBid. I used their in-house shipper and received exceptional customer service and good value. The wine arrived to Atlanta without incident, but UPS then lost one case of wine and cooked the other case before delivery. The customer service and shipping teams communicated with me through the whole process and eventually refunded my entire purchase price, shipping and membership fees. No avoidance or casting blame for the issue, rather 100% accountability for a problem that was completely out of their control. The incident was unfortunate but WineBid has earned my future business and 5-star review.

Have been purchasing wine with them for a decade so have tens of thousands of dollars worth of experience. First the good news. The website is excellent and easy to use. Help desk always very helpful. Description of the bottle has always been accurate. Of the hundreds of bottles purchased I can only remember 2 being flawed. Now for the other side. Probably the most important thing is to know your prices. Not infrequently the starting price is higher than what you would pay in the store and that's before the 17% fee. Not sure why they allow sellers to do that as it diminishes the idea of an 'auction'. Before buying be sure to check your wine on wine searcher to assess value. They list reviews from wine magazines but do not include the date of the review which is important on older wines. They do not include negative reviews. Pick up at their facility works well although they changed their policy and now prohibit use of the facilities which is rough on their bushes. They previously stored wine for 6 months without charge which worked well for those of us coming from some distance but now charge $100/yr for that service. You judge the 17% buyer's fee. Certainly higher than K&L's 5% but less than Spectrum's 21%. So overall their product is very good but be sure to check for value before purchasing.

Very impressed with Jon my consultant. He has been very responsive throughout the auction process. I consigned about 1,000 bottles of wine and over 55% were sold in the first week. We are now closing out the second week auction and just sold another 15%. Thanks Jon and WineBid!