invino

This is an update to my August 2012 review. I am still buying wine from Invino. They offer items that you would not be aware of and they offer magnums that are not offered elsewhere. You always receive a confirmation and tracking information. So, you know when your package will arrive. I also enjoy the complimentary Sonoma magazine they send with every shipment.

I was once a loyal customer but when I moved to a new address and placed an order they shipped to my previous address then repeatedly blamed me for providing the wrong address. The wine was forwarded from the old address and somehow destroyed in transit. I received no wine and no refund — they finally offered to send me 2 bottles of wine for the «inconvenience» of losing 12 bottles. If they had just owned the mistake I could have forgiven but instead they compounded it and lost me as a customer. Go elsewhere!

1. I tried their InClub. I figured that they truly would have better deals and an interesting selection. The first shipment did not add up to my budget. Had I not added up each bottle they would have kept the ten or so dollars not allocated to my wine shipment.
2.For my second shipment, one of the bottles had cork rot. They credited my account but I will never be ordering from them again so I guess that’s another 15 dollars they get to keep.
3. I ordered a really expensive wine shipment. I ordered a Brunello and they sent me a 5 dollar bottle of non vintage red wine blend from California.
4. In the above shipment I ordered very nice bottle of Barolo for my girlfriend and it also appears to have cork rot.
5. The prices are not at all as advertised. I do not know where they get the original prices from, but they are grossly exaggerated.
This is the first Unilocal review I have ever written even though I have had an account for 3 years.
Order from somewhere else

I have had nothing but a pleasurable experience ordering from invino, and I live in PA. If you dont like the wine you selected, that is part of the deal w/​being into wine. They supply you with the description and you select and pay for it; however, invino has added a level of customer service you’re not used to when ordering wine over the web.
I believe they are trying to bend some rules to highlight the demand across the country for good deals in vino — Doin good, and keep it up.

I’ve been doing business with
for over a year. I used to be in the wine business in CA and NYC and have a CWE (certified wine specialist), so I feel fairly confident commenting on the quality of the wines. Generally, I’ve been happy — not wowed, but completely satisfied with the selection. The pricing is not as bad as some people have stated (compare the prices to Total Wine, BevMo, Spec’s, etc), although some are definitely better deals than others. My only issue has been with the shipping and the communication from the company.
If you want better wines, go to tastings and high end wine shops and be prepared to pay. If you have guests who have the nerve to insult your wine — don’t invite them over again until their palate is a little more educated or suggest they bring the wine. Or serve the wine in proper glasses (yes, a Riedel really does make a difference). I can’t imagine a well-​bred guest saying they were disgusted by the wine I served. (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had people complain about a selection and then, after further questioning, admit they never really drank wine because they weren’t crazy about the taste.) My goal isn’t to be snarky, but other than one corked wine (that was replaced by invino at no charge), I’ve not gotten a bad bottle. I don’t always agree with the tasting notes, but that’s what is so fun about wine! Everyone has and is allowed to have an opinion.
However, don’t expect a high level of service or dependability from the folks at invino — hence my 3* review. They never seem to ship on time, never meet estimated shipping times that are emailed to me and withhold filling shipments without communicating with me, so a shipment will arrive one or two weeks after expected. In the era of Amazon, an online fulfillment company simply can’t afford to be so unreliable and erratic. It’s a substantial flaw in the business model and their tech folks should have worked this out before GA or at least gotten it fixed in the past year. A year is plenty of time to get this resolved. I can’t work out how an online company that is a short drive from the San Francisco technology hub hasn’t gotten the kinks worked out.
I haven’t read a 1* review that seemed a true representation of the company and many of these people give nasty reviews to every business they comment on, which speaks to their reliability. Just know that it’s a decent online wine company with some wrinkles in fulfillment. If you go into it with those expectations, you shouldn’t be disappointed.

The wine is grocery outlet assortments. Their service is terrible. As far as standing by their guarantee for the wines, they took over 2 weeks to give a credit. They have no means of follow up. You have to make several attempts to resolve any return/​exchange. I am done doing business with these thieves.

I am seeing a lot of negativity here that I do not believe is justified based on my experience. I buy a good deal of wine from these guys. Some are great deals some are not. Some have been great wines some have not.
It’s kind of like some of the wineries I belong to or going to BevMo for the $.05 cent sale or Safeway when they are having a sale. You will on occasion get a dog or pay more than somewhere else. «It’s wine baby!»
I think you have to look at the wines being offered and make an educated decision. Look the wine up. And I have bought some of the mystery boxes and most were more than worth the money.
My interaction with the office has been very good. If some people have had a problem I can understand that causing issue but it is not my experience. No problem with bad wine after buying many cases (other than a bottle or two). I am about 40 minutes from the office so I pick up my wine there and certainly that helps to make the pricing better for me. But even factoring in shipping I have seen some buys that I would have jumped on and occasionally the shipping is included on a reasonable wine.
So if you are thinking about trying these guys I would recommend it. Don’t buy the cheapest stuff they sell and expect it to be great. In my experience it will usually be OK though. Look for the 90 points and above wine and I think you will usually be pleased.
And if you can pick up at their offices in Sonoma or San Francisco this is a no brainer.

My second order from Invino and I’m done. The first order was shipped in extreme heat but luckily arrived intact. Second order (18 bottles) not so much. Shipped in 106 degree weather – not in styrofoam but in pulp. Corks pushed out, etc. Contacted Invino support on July 6 via email and received confirmation and a ticket # with a promise of a rep contact within 24 hours. Still waiting. Called today and left a message. Anyone in this business knows not to ship in heat – great way to spoil the wine. So apart from that, very disappointed in the poor customer service. Hope to get this resolved but will not order from them again.

Like the others who have written negative reviews of invino, I’ve had a couple of experiences where I fell prey to the promise of good selection and value and received neither. First: I must point out that the reason a wine consumer would use invino is to receive quality wine. Second: invino bills itself as a members-​only site that promises «up to 70% off.» Invino should be in the business of selling only good wine and developing peoples’ interest in wine. Invino doesn’t do themselves, the wine industry or their customers any good by selling plonk. Customers interested in wine should never be provided low quality wine because it fits a business model. Unfortunately, it happened to me for the last time.
My experience: they offered a «Tax Day» special of six wines with a retail of $ 120 for $ 60 including shipping. I like trying wines I haven’t had before and the 16 wines the site listed as examples available for this offer seemed interesting. Unfortunately, my box only contained 2 of those 16 possibles (both retail from other sellers or invino’s site for under $ 10), with the other 4 being bottom rung wines including a 2010 CA red table wine from King City. This one killed me because it showed utter disdain for the consumer: a wine that you’d be hard pressed to pay more than $ 3 for at Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s — the kind of wine that is cheap and would be used only to fill boxes like mine by an opportunistic online retailer. I would have been fine with a mixture of better and lesser quality bottles, but I only received low-​end wine (and ²⁄₃ of my order wasn’t anywhere near the list of wines provided with the offer).
I was so disappointed with the shipment that I contacted invino customer service with a kindly worded letter detailing the box of poor selections I received. Here’s the part that blew me away: There was no apology — just a long, sad explanation that their profit margin was very low on this offer. At the end of this story, the representative said I could return the box for a refund minus the price to ship the 18lb. box back to them. Of course, spending more than most of the wine was worth to ship was not an option. My reply explained that I understood that a business needs to make a profit, but making unhappy customers by over-​promising and under-​delivering is not a good business model.
So, I deleted my account and got myself removed from their email list. I can’t recommend the site, because if you like wine you’ll end up unhappy.

I have used them a few times for corporate gifts. VERY reliable and once I spoke to someone from Invino and they helped me choose the right gift.
The delivery was very fast (I shipped to San Fran and to Florida).
Generally I think the wines are great and service is too.

I have ordered from invino without a problem a few times, the selection is fair and introduces me to wines I havent heard of, which introduced me to one of my favorites to now visit and pick up directly called Talty, I will continue to use invino because they have great deals and decent wines, if not that surprising great wine but for a lot cheaper than at the store. I love their trio wine deals.

Owner comment: Chris, we in NO way ever sold your email address to anyone. We did what in internet marketing is called a ‘list swap’ WE sent the offer from Zacks to our customers and they did the same to their customers. This was an opt in only campaign. The only way they got your email address is if you responded to the offer.
All that being said, this was a trial and we received plenty of feedback, so we will not be doing offers with financial companies again.
—–
How exactly was it opt-​in? I didn’t opt in to you sending me spam for other companies. Given the «plenty of feedback» you received, it’s pretty clear your other customers felt the same way.

I can’t recommend Invino for a few reasons.
1. They misrepresent the quality and value of the wine they are advertising. Every email you get raves about the «jaw dropping» value you’re receiving, but in reality the price when compared to other retailers and the quality is a crapshoot. Like others have said, do your research before you buy.
2. They seem to have a high frequency of bad bottles. I’m not going to accuse them of purposefully selling bottles they know were improperly stored or compromised… wait yes that’s exactly what I’m going to accuse them of. At least when it comes to the «x bottles for x with $ 0 shipping» deals, I’m fairly certain this is the case. Out of the 9 bottles of wine I’ve received, three had refermented in the bottle and one had cork rot. Correct me if I’m wrong but that rate seems way over average.
3. ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ on slow shipping. The first time I ordered I waited over a month for my package to arrive. They claimed it was because of the laws in MD, but low and behold my second order came in about 2 weeks.
If you’re in the Baltimore area, go to Bin 604 in Harbor East and pick up their handpicked $ 99 mixed case of the month. They will look you in the eye and tell you the wines inside are good and you can hold them accountable since you know where to find them!

I’ve ordered from invino many times, mostly Sonoma wines. Generally, they are a great value. Some wines I love and some are just ok, but that’s true of wines purchased anywhere. I have found several wines that are an excellent value that I have purchased at a much higher price, either at a shop or from the winery directly. My one complaint is slow shipping. I usually pick up at their SF office, but even that tends to take a few weeks.

Invino has serious problems with their delivery service. Golden State Overnight was supposed to deliver a package to me on ²⁄₁₃ but didn’t have room on the truck so delayed it – didn’t bother to let me know until the afternoon. I rescheduled for ²⁄₁₄ in a 4 hour window from 4 – 8 — they didn’t show. I called Invino and GSO to complain. I got a call from GSO who said that the delivery would be here today, 2/​15, between 5 – 8 and they didn’t show! This is a total joke. I like Invino, but don’t see how I can justify ordering from them again. I will ask them to return this order and will go out of my way to post this problem online. BTW you can request UPS if you want to – I guess GSO saves Invino some cash, but not sure it is worth it if other customers like me will be sure and let others know of the lame customer service. Invino should have MADE SURE I got my order tonight.

I like invino for what it is — another way to introduce wines. As previously mentioned, you do have to do your homework and you also have to be open to trying new wines. It can be hit or miss, but they have a satisfaction guarantee, so you can’t go wrong. I don’t think all the prices are rock bottom by any means, but I have purchased some great wines I would have never tried before.
I admit I was disappointed with the LivingSocial deal, as I was already a member and the prices for the voucher purchases were different (higher) than members would have received. But again, I used the purchase to try new wines, and I still have a $ 10 credit.

In August I purchased the Living Social deal for Invino for A. Red, White, and WOW! Package plus $ 10
Gift Card: One Bottle Each of ’09 Burnside Road, Westwood Pinot Noir, and Max Wagner Riesling.
I received by code instantly, with no further details to wait to use the code. I went to the site to purchase my wines, following the LivingSocial instructions. I tried the site multiple times, following these steps exactly from the email, using the link provided and the site would not visibly apply my voucher.
Since I had to pay extra for S&H, I plugged in my credit card number anyway, and was charged for the entire amount. I quickly sent an email expressing my concern and asking the voucher be applied.
I received an automated response: Shana Longo, Aug 24 08:27 am (PDT): Dear Member, Your request — Please apply my voucher or cancel my order. has been received. Your Ticket number is 1833.
Thank you for reaching out to us. Your comments, questions, and concerns are incredibly valuable to us, so we’re passing this message along to an invino Member Services agent to address your email as soon as possible. Expect an answer from us within 24 hours or less (excluding Saturday and Sunday); until then, feel free to check out what’s going on Inside now —
Invino is located in CA and I am on the east coast, so I waited until noon my time to call. I spoke to Molly, who told me she saw the voucher number and would apply it manually for me, but it would take up to 5 days to refund my card. Ten days later, I still hadn’t heard back from them.
I sent another email: «Shana Longo, Sep 07 08:39 am (PDT): Hello, I called to follow up with this and was told that it would be taken care of and I would be refunded the $ 45 sum of my voucher. Two weeks later I have not seen the refund. The voucher number is below:»
and this time received «I don’t know where you sent your original email, but this is the first we have received from you. Normally we would require that you replace your order to apply the credit, but in this singular instance I will issue the credit to your card.»
«I don’t know where you sent you original email» Um, excuse me? Check your automated response bank! I have a response from you so I know if got there. You cannot pull that «This is the first I’ve heard» crap.
Second, «in this singular instance» besides that fact that I’m never ordering from you again, you BETTER APPLY MY CREDIT because it was not my fault your site didn’t cooperate. The customer is ALWAYS RIGHT. Get that straight and maybe you wouldn’t have to rely on daily deal sites to trick new customers into signing up.
Needless to say, I will not even bother using my $ 10 credit. Its not worth it.

My first two bottles purchased were raved about in their promo emails, but the bottles arrived showing signs of being poorly stored and when opened the cork broke twice and crumbled, and the wine was absolute crap. Vinegar. I was also bummed when I saw lower prices for the same vintage online (Sadly, I checked after buying). Wouldn’t recommend buying older vintages.
As an add-​on comment — they replied to an email within 24 hours and issued a «one time only» credit for the price of the bad wine. Even though my experience was negative, they tried to make it right and I give them credit for that.

DO NOT GET FOOLED! INVINO IS A TOTAL RIPOFF!
I bought 3 bottles of wine that Invino claimed had a retail price of $ 60.00 a bottle and were on sale for $ 20.00. I had saved the bottles for a special gathering of friends who happen to be wine connoisseur. About 2 weeks later I bought another 3 bottles of wine that also retailed for about $ 60.00 a bottle and again were on sale for about $ 20.00 a bottle. I had not tasted any of the wines until my special gathering. When I finally served these supposedly superb, highly discounted bottles of wine, I was very embarrassed by my guests’ reaction. When I asked for their honest opinions, they simply said that they were totally disgusted by the taste and quality. My guests were even more horrified when I told them about the retail price and what I paid. They all said that these wines were cheap and not even worth $ 7.00 each.
I contacted Invino about my concern about 2 weeks ago and they have yet to respond.

I initially signed up for Invino when they had a smoking deal on a mixed case of a Spanish Tempranillo, Santa Barbara County Chard, and 2006 Napa Valley Meritage, four bottles of each for $ 99 shipped and they were all terrific wines!
Since this I’ve purchased several others and all have been good wines and good values, BUT you have to know what your buying and/​or do a little homework, as they’re not all give me deals, and yes you can find better deals online on some if you shop around.
So again, a little knowledge will go a long way when buying wine (anywhere, Costco included), but for the most part these guys do a good job, and from time to time you can pick up some hard to find, older vintages of wine for a good price.