Bright Cellars

I took the wine pairing quiz and ordered wine from Bright Cellars at the beginning of February. I was charged the amount they said I would be (roughly $40). A few days later I noticed an additional charge of $96.23. I received an email where they claimed my order was damaged during the shipping process and they would be resending my bottles for no additional cost. On the 1st of March I received a charge of $114.80! $114 for a supposed four bottles of wine?! I NEVER RECEIVED MY FIRST BOX and today I was charged another $93.44. In total, I am now out $345.26. I have not received a refund and my account is unable to be canceled. Extremely unhappy and at a big loss of money for what was supposed to be four $10 bottles of wine.

I ordered a delivery of wine through a promotion. Needless to say, the delivery did NOT get shipped out in the mentioned time window. The customer service team promised me an extra bottle of wine for it not getting shipped out and for them not giving me the best available promotion. The order shipped out four days later, without the extra bottle of wine. When I reached out to customer service they said they couldn't add the wine to this order because it was already shipped, which was false. They say they will give me an extra one with the next order, but there will be no next order because I do not trust them. Scam

They automatically sign you up for it monthly and you have no other option, which usually is not a big deal so you go through with it but that's when you find out there's no easy way to cancel. They keep your card number you cannot remove it it's there forever. You can't easily click cancel anywhere they make you email them manually and the only responses you get back are about upselling or finding some sort of compromise to keep you paying. They ignore your requests to cancel over and over and just come up with other ideas to get you to not cancel. After a while i was able to get on the phone with them and after repeatedly saying no please just cancel they finally did it - but i hate that they still have my card info that i can't delete. AVOIDDDDDD.

If they weren't so scummy about payments and trying to keep you involuntarily paying it would have been a great company.

On top of being no help when they entered my address wrong on their packaging (which I was triple sure my address was correct) they charged me after I canceled my order. I even received confirmation that it was canceled and then I was charged even more next month.

If the wines being sent to you were even remotely interesting it would be worth it. If the customer service was great, it would be worth it. If the wines were actually quality, it would be worth it. Instead, you get terrible customer service making it impossible to cancel, and you get wines that basically are Apothic Red/White and have absolutely no flavor to them. All you are paying for is the convenience of having the wine shipped to you, which honestly, I'd rather peruse the shelves of a liquor store than waste money on a sub-par rebranded wine that is barely drinkable. Maybe the sweet wines are good, but I don't drink sweet wine. All of the dry wines are entirely unremarkable and not worth the price in any way.

I love the idea of Bright Cellars - wines curated to your individual preferences (who doesn't love an online survey), shipped monthly in beautiful packaging, with the ability to improve your selections by rating wines you've received. The first month is a huge bargain with 50% off, but after that the cost is about $15/bottle (give or take depending on shipping and state taxes). For those of us on a budget, this is a bit steep, especially considering the wines are not available to buy outside of Bright Cellars, so it's hard to know whether you are truly saving. My first 5 bottles were fine, but nothing outstanding and maybe not worth $15/bottle - that being said, maybe with some fine-tuning of my preferences that could change, but I'm not a gambling woman. Cancelling my membership was a breeze (must cancel by phone) and, given that this is an awesome startup with stellar customer service, I'm going to keep an eye on Bright Cellars and reconsider my membership if they expand their selection to include larger and more accessible wineries.
Bottom line: give Bright Cellars a chance - try your first month for less than $10/bottle, then go from there - can't lose!

I signed up for their cheese membership at the 50% off to try. The cheeses I received were terrible! They were tasteless and we ended up throwing them out after trying them. Not only that but the ice packs were barely cold when it arrived and my cheeses were almost warm. It's 110 degrees here in the summer... not gonna work for me. I used their contact the concierge link to cancel my membership stating both of the complains above about a week or two after I received my cheeses. Then I received notification today that they sent another shipment out at full price. I immediately called and let the girl know I cancelled. She can't find the email with my email. I gave her a second email to try... no luck. Then I remembered I used their link on the website and that it was my default email that it was sent from so I gave that email. Still can't find it. Unfortunately since it's sent thru their link it doesn't show up in my sent file. She informs me she can cancel but that I have to keep this months cheeses because they have a 24 hour cancellation policy. Which is BS since I cancelled at least 2 weeks ago. Now I'm gonna be stuck with $60 worth of crappy cheeses that I don't want in the first place all because I can't refuse it. Convenient for them. I am almost tempted to refuse the charge with my Credit card company. If my cheeses arrive warm gain since they are shipping over a weekend I will definitely be refusing the charge and letting them know!

I am actually in the process of having my account cancelled and the reason I am doing so is because the subscription just isn't worth it. As someone who has not really explored the different types of wines, it was nice to try new things, but I could do that by going and picking out new wines myself. I did not find their selections for me to be that great, I honestly think they just send out whatever they have and say you were matched for it. And one of the bottles I got cost $7 at Specs and with this subscription I was paying $15 per bottle. And you can tell that many of the wines they send are cheap wines. So not that it is the most awful thing I have ever tried, but it is definitely not worth the cost when there are better wine subscription companies out there. The only things I really liked were the fun stickers and packaging on the bottles, the cool labels on some of the bottles, and the customer service was great for me as well. Now lets see if it is still great when I try to cancel...

Mediocre wine from a small set of winemakers that you can't find any info on. I rated one wine undrinkable and they sent another bottle from same winery. You can do better buying $20 bottle locally.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am not currently a member of Bright Cellars, although I was for a little more than a year. My decision not to continue receiving monthly shipments was based on a change in my personal situation and had nothing to do with anything Bright Cellars did or didnt do.

That being said, as I former member, I still get notified of specials of which I routinely take advantage. My customer service experiences have always been positive. The company notifies you of every step of your order. Orders are promptly filled and shipped out immediately and you are provided with tracking information. I have received all my shipments in less than a week after ordering.

On to the wine itself. When I was a member, I enjoyed the variety I received and the opportunity to expand my palate. You can rate the wines and get more selections based on your ratings or just let Bright Cellar send you a random selection. Ive only had one wine I didnt like, but that was a white and Im not partial to whites. It was still a good experience to try something new.

Some reviewers have mentioned the cost. Is it expensive? I guess that depends. You can get a decent bottle of wine basically anywhere for $10 - $15. But with Bright Cellars, you are paying for more than just the wine. You receive wine notes and pairing suggestions, personalized selections, exposure to wines not found just anywhere, and fantastic customer service.

Bottom line, give it a try and get some good wines.

I would love to use this service, EXCEPT I don't want an auto renew-I want to order when I want! The wine is just average wine, but I would still do it IF (like I said), I could make orders when I wanted. They also don't offer an easy option to cancel which I wasn't fond of.

Seriously, make this service available to people who maybe don't drink that much wine and just want to try something fun and different occasionally and not spend money every month on an autoship.

I was happy with the service until I had to make a change to order--I tried to cancel or hold the December shipment since I would be out of town at the delivery time. Despite the website seeming to think I had successfully placed the hold the order shipped and was a huge hassle dealing with the package when there was no one home to sign for it. I called to talk to customer service about the error and they said there was nothing they could do. At that point, I canceled my subscription and thought the issue was at an end. Then today, mid-June, I received an email saying my order was out for delivery! Apparently, they had just placed a five-month hold on the account. So now I have wine I didn't select, another delivery to figure out, and a charge on my credit card. When I contacted customer service I was told the representative was "very limited on what [he] can do in terms of this order" and offered no options to return or otherwise resolve the issue nor remuneration. I don't think they deserve the one star required to be able to post a review. Avoid ordering from this company as it's not worth the major hassle when you need to edit or want to cancel your order or stop using the company.