ThePortForum.com

Hello folks.

Any of you have experience with buying from www.biwine.com ? As I am intending to do a fairly decent size order and they only will accept bank transfer I am doing my due diligence.

Thank you for any assistance in this matter.

Thomas

Thomas wrote:Hello folks.

Any of you have experience with buying from www.biwine.com ? As I am intending to do a fairly decent size order and they only will accept bank transfer I am doing my due diligence.

Thank you for any assistance in this matter.

Thomas

Never heard of them. They appear to stock almost everything, a major red flag. No listed physical address I could find on their website, major red flag. Won’t take a credit card, major red flag. Appear to ship everywhere, a major red flag.

I would be very worried of any online place that only took bank transfer. There is zero recourse, short of court action, if something goes wrong.

I would suggest googling it to see if any hits come up about negative service issues.

Given above, unless I could find lots of positive reviews that seem legit I would avoid buying from them.


EDIT: I’ve just noticed that when I typed in the web address it automatically redirects me to Wine.com, where the above info came from, weird. No clue if this is a US affiliate. Took me a bit to actually get it to go to biwine.com, based in U.K. (I assume this is the correct one?). If so I’ll leave advice from the proper folks over that side of pond.

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This is the business that was previously known as Bordeaux Index. They've been around a long time - based on Hatton Garden in London, or at least they used to be. Attended a tasting at their place in 2014 and bought some wine from them in 2016. They do accept cards, or at least they did, so not sure that you absolutely MUST make a bank transfer?

flash_uk wrote: ↑19:12 Sun 24 Mar 2019 This is the business that was previously known as Bordeaux Index. They've been around a long time - based on Hatton Garden in London, or at least they used to be. Attended a tasting at their place in 2014 and bought some wine from them in 2016. They do accept cards, or at least they did, so not sure that you absolutely MUST make a bank transfer?

So they are credible and you wouldn't object to me going ahead with my purchase?

I made a purchase from BI a few months back, which involved the wines being sent to me on the Continent. The entire experience was of the first order and, whilst I have not had cause to purchase anything since, the firm's marketing emails are (in contrast to all the other crap of this nature which I receive) not infrequently worth a look.

I bought some port from them earlier this year and had the same problem - in the end I sent them a cheque as I was overseas and my bank's online banking is not that great. The port arrived once the cheque had been received.

I believe (but this is only my supposition) that this may be due to an EU rule that retailers cannot charge customers extra for credit card purchases - BI's solution appears to be not to take EU issued credit cards.

This has occurred with another wine merchant this year as well.

I placed a number of orders with what was then Bordeaux Wine Index back in 2013 (stocking up on 2011s) and never had a problem- indeed they were very personable. Looking back, I do note that they asked that I paid by cheque or bank transfer for my first order (I did the latter). Subsequently I believe I paid by debit card but no issues and perfectly satisfied.

I got my 2 cases of 12. Pied with debit card on their site.

The bottles themselves are in mint condition. However 11 of the 24 had lost the front label (They were with the shipment, but dislodged). Quite disappointing. The cases cost £480 each. What compensation would you feel was in order to correct this issue. Those 11 bottles are far less worth than what I paid.

Thomas wrote: ↑21:28 Wed 10 Apr 2019 I got my 2 cases of 12. Pied with debit card on their site.

The bottles themselves are in mint condition. However 11 of the 24 had lost the front label (They were with the shipment, but dislodged). Quite disappointing. The cases cost £480 each. What compensation would you feel was in order to correct this issue. Those 11 bottles are far less worth than what I paid.

Grab some glue and stick them back on. Job done.

Thomas wrote: ↑21:28 Wed 10 Apr 2019 I got my 2 cases of 12. Pied with debit card on their site.

The bottles themselves are in mint condition. However 11 of the 24 had lost the front label (They were with the shipment, but dislodged). Quite disappointing. The cases cost £480 each. What compensation would you feel was in order to correct this issue. Those 11 bottles are far less worth than what I paid.

Did you ask for a condition report and pictures before purchasing? If not, I doubt very much that they will consider any sort of compensation for loose labels. If you are planning to drink them does it really make any difference?

Thomas - I also have the view that there is not really any compensation that you are due. However, if you feel very strongly I suggest you contact BI and explain the issue. They may be willing to take the wines back and refund you your cost but unless you were relying on a description which stated that the labels were on the bottles and in good condition, I suspect that you might be relying on the goodwill of BI (so don't upset them when you call them!)

Or just stick the labels back on. I find a stick of glue works well.

Thomas wrote: ↑21:28 Wed 10 Apr 2019What compensation would you feel was in order to correct this issue.

None.

Thomas wrote: ↑21:28 Wed 10 Apr 2019Those 11 bottles are far less worth than what I paid.

They are worth a mite less, or perhaps just the same.


I’d tell BI that they should have told you, and then drop it.