Wine Insiders

I'm a former regular customer of Wine Insiders. It USED TO BE cheaper to buy in bulk from Wine Insiders than to go to a nearby liquor store for the same type/quality of wine. It's no longer true. First, they added a "handling fee" of $3 per order that was being charged in order to help them expedite the shipping process. (Insert eye-roll here). Then they sent an email stating they were being "forced" to raise prices due to "inflation". Please! It's just greed! Nowadays, I can find the same lower-to-LOW-quality wines for much less money in my local liquor store. Don't be mistaken; the wine they sell at Wine Insiders IS INDEED low-quality; they buy excess/leftover stock from wineries who couldn't sell it. (Think of it as "Overstock.com" for wine). That's why Wine Insiders' wine *used to be* reasonably priced. Nowadays, though, you'll pay much more for the same low-level product. Now they've jacked up their prices and their "sales" and "specials" are a joke! I'd rather buy similar low-brow wines for less money while also supporting my local small business liquor store.

I have been a customer of wine insiders for many years and have never had a problem. Recently I placed an order and was never notified that delivery was attempted (which I think it never was). Long story short I never received it. Called wine insiders and they put the order through again….a week later same thing, order never received! This happened AGAIN with the third try. There is a problem between Wine insiders and Fed Ex. I am done. Customer service was not very helpful.,

You'd think when you buy a six month package on Groupon you'd get six months but apparently within their fine print, you are automatically enrolled and billed in their subscription package. My seventh month was more expensive than the previous six combined. Disingenuous marketing.

Wine Insiders has a nice selection of wines and some very nice wine special offerings. Their shipping carrier, however, is FedEx Home, a subsidiary of FedEx Ground, comprised of lazy independent contractors. I would not recommend this wine merchant if you reside in an apartment building and are without means of picking up. Wine Insiders' Customer Service is not helpful in resolving shipment issues with the carrier, but they issue a prompt refund to the customer once FedEx has returned the shipment to their warehouse.

I ordered some wine as a birthday gift for a special friend. FEDEX kept delaying the delivery. Finally when It got to my city, fedex damaged the package and broke one of the bottles and returned it to wine insiders. Instead of wine insiders replacing the bottle, they RESHIPPED THE EXACT BOX RIGHT BACK WITH THE BROKEN BOTTLE! After almost 2 weeks of delaying, I finally got the wines and gave it to my friend only to open it and find a broken bottle inside. Very disappointing! Not buying from them again!

A friend of mine didn't like the wine he received from WI, but he got reds, and I wanted whites, so I decided to give them a try. I was told that it would be shipped out in a couple of days, however AFTER they got my payment I got a message saying that it would be 2 WEEKS before they even shipped it out. I immediately called to cancel the order, no answer. I wrote their customer service dept. and all I got was a bunch of excuses why they would not cancel the order. I had to have paypal give me a refund by doing a charge back to them.

I came across the wine insiders groupon about a week ago, looked like a great deal, so I checked the reviews. Unfortunately, I couldn't find much. A couple reddit reviews complaining about wine clubs in general and the usual you tube reviews. "this is the best product in the world! You have to buy it, it's life changing! Just click my personal link below!." eye roll... I figured id give it a try and write a review for anyone else who was looking. $60 (75 originally, but groupon almost always has 20%off coupons) plus $30 shipping is only $6 per bottle... Here's how it went:

They have a special link on the Groupon that you click on, takes you right to your specific deal. Once you get there a screen pops up and asks if you want to upgrade. You can stick with you basic package or upgrade to "better" for $25 or "best" with rush processing for $45. I went ahead and I upgraded to best. It's still only $8 a bottle and the pop up made me feel like the base wines would be crap. My order was placed on dec 29th, but didn't ship until jan 2nd. I wouldn't call that rush processing, but since it was the holidays, I can let it slide.

I haven't gotten the wine yet, I will update this as soon as I do. I do have some concerns though. The upgrade package said the premium wines will be worth close to $20 each. The wines that showed up in my tasting notes ranged from 10.99 to only one at 19.99, most 15.99. There were also only 8 bottles in the tasting notes. I'm hoping they aren't sending duplicates... Wine will be here saturday Jan 5th. To be continued...

Unfortunately, they were duplicates. Pics below are the wines along with price.

Im not an experienced wine drinker by any means, but I can give you the basics... I tried the Boabrisa tonight, it was decent. Passed the swirl test and was fairly smooth. Definitely worth the $8 paid, but hardly premium as advertised. I'll update as I go though the rest.

I did email the company to let them know I wasn't happy about the duplicates and price point, we will see how they respond.

I was able to try the rest of the wine over the weekend. It was all ok, but not worth taking the time to write an individual review for each. None were bad, but none were great or even unique, oddly enough, the bottles were all very similar in taste and depth. Picture yourself walking into your local grocery store and grabbing a $10-$15 bottle that's one sale for the week. That's pretty much what you are getting here.

Here's where they lose my business. The customer service rep emailed me back stating that the upgrades said "up to $20" for best and "up to $15" for better. Sneaky sneaky... He also said that there was a link to see the wine you would be getting in each package. I did see these while ordering, but assumed they would just be some of what you are getting since they were only eight. Nope, those are the only bottles you will be getting. The images are v very similar to the ones below, except they conveniently leave off the prices. After a quick search on the site, it seems like the value of all the wine are basically the same. Looks like it's was just a $45 marketing scam...

So the big question: is it worth it? If you just want a bunch of cheap wine for yourself or a party, yes. The wine is decent and at $5 per bottle, it's hard to go wrong. (i wouldn't pay for the upgrade if i ordered again). If you care about quality over quantity or are a more experienced wine drinker, no, this isn't for you. Would i order again? No. The deceptive marketing left a bad taste in my mouth and there are many other companies left to try.

Originally ordered wine on 4/24. This was after the company revoked my original order calling it a 'glitch'. I agree with other reviewers that this felt very much like a bait and switch gimmick to get addition customers. I've emailed the company asking for some sort of ETA on my reorder but to this date I've not received any information. They have promised tracking numbers on at least two occasions but never delivered on these promises. The company has been responsive to emails but not really given any tangible resolutions. Fairly disappointing experience.

Out of about 10 of ordered 21 Bordeaux-es 4 were so far, as the French would say: orrible, almost non-drinkable. Disappointed! But cheap wines...

My first order was a groupon which went fine; the wine quality was actually not bad for the price. I then ordered a number of bottles off the website that were on sale. I received an email confirming what I had ordered. When the shipment arrived, all the wines were different. I had ordered mostly white wine and what arrived was red. When I called, the agent told me my selections had been substituted because what I ordered was not in stock. He said I would not be able to get the wines I actually ordered, even though when I ordered them they showed as "in stock" and I even received a confirmation email and shipping email with the wines I had selected. He said I could send back the entire case of red wine for a full refund or keep the wines they sent me and he would credit be back $25. I took the credit, although I am still annoyed I didn't receive any of the wines I ordered and I wish someone had told me all my wines were being substituted so I could have canceled the order altogether. With so many other wine company options available this was the last order I will place with Wine Insiders.

How could I have signed up for some "subscription " that I was unaware of without deceptive advertising or tricky fine print? Why was I sent 2 corkscrew promotion kits? The wine is ok.

Don't expect a responsive customer service team from this site. I wanted to redeem a Groupon and I had a question about the sales tax I was being charged. My question was ignored. I probably never will order from this company again, but I will reserve my decision until I see what they ship me. From some of the other reviews, it could be real low quality and not what was expected (red vs white).

Tried to change delivery date immediately after ordering and was told it cant be done... seriously? If it hasnt even shipped out, why the problem? Bad customer service... dont care attitude!

Joined the Geoffrey Zakarian $14.99 shipping only special.
Was not expecting top flight but the three wines sent were extremely underwhelming.
Surprising considering I was expecting a good selection to entice me to join.

Stagnant and repetitive listings of wines
Need more French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and South American REDS

I used to order alot from wine insiders. Then covid 19 came. The jacked up their prices 50%. Other company's also were short on inventory, but maintained their prices. I won't order from a company that took advantage of dire cirizens.

I have bought some of the best wine I've ever drank from this site for the bast price ever. I'm sorry but I haven't shopped for wine locally in a long time.

I ordered 6 bottles of wine. They sent 4 I ordered and substituted 2 without asking or even telling me. Then offered a $15 credit. I can't replace these bottles with $15 and I either have to pay shipping or buy 4 more bottles for free shipping. They sent a Prosecco and a merlot, had they asked, substitution of anything else would have been fine. I despise merlot and Prosecco. That is why I ordered what I wanted, to get what I wanted. I will not be ordering again.
Robin walker

I bought 12 bottles of wines from Wine Insiders which were a mix of Red, White and Rose. Me and my wife have consumed 6 bottles so far.

The 3 bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon were the WORST Sauvignon we have ever tasted in our life. It gave us such a bad hangover every time we drank this wine. I and my wife both woke up with heavy heads after drinking these wines. So, I must say my experience was really bad with Bold Cabs Trio. I will definitely prefer to buy a costly wine from other places like BEVMO, rather than buying a trio from Wine Insiders.

The other 3 wines were okay - Villa Rosa Vinho Rosé, Due Mari Bianco, Villa Amoroso Moscato Vino Dolce I. G. T.

I have 6 more bottles from Wine Insiders. I don't know shall I even open those wines or not. I have organized a party of few people (all are wine lovers) at my home and I am NOT very confident about the wines from Wine Insiders. Seems like I need to go to some local shops like Lucky, Safeway or BevMo to get some better wines.

I must say my experience with Wine Insiders was not that pleasant which I was expecting.

I placed an order on 4/11 and was told to expect somewhat of a delay in shipping which I totally understand due to the current covid-19 situation. The site states that in Pennsylvania orders will be shipped 6 days after the transaction. It is now 4/24 and I have not recieved my order. I've sent multiple emails and recieve generic responses back from the site. During this time of waiting I used another service (winc which highly recommend) I had my order in 4 days. If you do not mind waiting almost a month for your shipments maybe this is the site for you. I will not be recommending wine insiders nor will I order from them again.

I have not received my order and I placed my order Nov18. Not happy with service so far! Would be willing to order again from here if this matter was resolved.

It's deceptive to have a photo of a corkscrew kit and written in bold font: "corkscrew kit in a lovely wood box" on the sign-up page, when it's not a sign-up gift. I opened the first bottle of wine today and it's not good - it's sour and bitter, not something I would buy again. I'll open more bottles later on and give more feedbacks.

RECENTLY I WAS EMAILED A SALE ON THEIR WINES. AND SPENT HOURS PLACING AN ORDER FOR 15 BOTTLES AND IT WAS ACCEPTED SHOWING THE TOTAL AFTER THE DISCOUNT BUT WHEN I TRIED TO PLACE THE ORDER IT WOULD NOT GO THRU. I THEN EMAILED THEM OF THIS AND WAS TOLD THEY HAD SOLD OUT BUT AGAIN OFFERED ME TO PLACE AN OTHER ORDER FOR THE SAME PRICE PER BOTTLE AND AGAIN I SPENT HOURS PICKING MY SELECTION AND AGAIN IT WOULD NOT GO THRU EVEN THO IT SHOWED THE BOTTLES AVAILABLE AFTER SEVERAL TRYS I GAVE UP AND WILL PICK ANOTHER COMPETITOR TO ORDER FROM. I DOIN'T HAVE TIME TO SPEND ORDERING PRODUCTS THAT FALSLY ADVERTISED AS AVAILABLE