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Bottles going out of stock before delivery

Drinks Chat
#1

Just wondering if this is common ?

Ordered back at the start of October, but delivery was delayed until this week due to one item being on back order.
Box was delivered today, however, one of the ordered wines is now out of stock due to demand exceeding supply.

Does wine not get allocated at time of order ? Seems odd to wait until after the case was actually delivered before being contacted to say it was incomplete.

First world problems and Not the end of the world as I have more wine than I need, but still frustrating when I completed the order so long ago.

Cheers

2 Likes
#2

Well. I may have had the same happen to me. Delivery was today but no sign.

Inexplicably I did get one bottle of the order delivered on Saturday. Still waiting for two cases expected today, all part of the same order.

#3

Should do, but (as I understand it) the wine is not packed until ready for delivery/collection so that if they are out of stock of a wine when they pack the case - tough

#4

Good to know for future reference :clinking_glasses:

#5

Assuming TWS have decent stock management, the wine you order should be allocated to you and not re-sold. However, if there are any discrepancies, I would imagine the last delivery will be the one that runs into trouble. If you ordered in October, you might be the unlucky one.

3 Likes
#6

Certainly seems that way. :man_shrugging:

Was the Leflaive Oncle Vincent 2017 that went astray.

Thought ordering early had secured it, but alas it wasn’t to be

#7

The thing to do in that « case », is to put your order to reserves (assuming a 12 bottle order of mixed, 6 if the standard single wine case size), and then withdraw it for delivery

2 Likes
#8

Or, if you are collecting, put a very near date on the ones in stock, then contact member services the day before (when they should have been picked) to postpone until the ones not yet in stock have been delivered. Probably a good policy in any case, as something might delay your going to the showroom. It seems easy to move the date forward, and impossible to move it to earlier.

1 Like
#9

Graham5000
Perhaps the Society is big enough now to introduce a system that the moment a wine is ordered it is allocated to that particular buyer and is deducted from the quantity still available. It seems totally unacceptable that everything depends on the wine being available on the day of packing. Please, what sort of mindset supports such a haphazard arrangement, surely it should be on a first come first served basis, if it is not, what on earth is going on?

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#10

I suspect that this system exists already. What probably happened above (and on the rare other occasions highlighted on the forum) is that the wine was reserved for everyone who bought some but then there was an issue somewhere - a dropped case perhaps - that meant that the last person or people to have their wine picked drew the short straw.

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#11

They do use such a system. I suspect this is cockup rather than conspiracy.

You can test it for yourself. Order all remaining bottles of a wine for 9th Jan delivery. You can then check back on the page and you won’t be able to order any more bottles.

The Community regularly tracks high selling wine being sold out in real time.

6 Likes
#12

No one has suggested a ‘conspiracy’, but it is a mistake which happens too often. There seem to be inadequate systems for tracking bottles against orders. The last time I had an order for pick up, I checked that all bottles were ready (a couple had been still waiting when I ordered), was assured that they were, and still found one missing. It was retrieved from the warehouse, so no great harm done, but it would have been annoying if it had been a delivery not a collection.

5 Likes
#13

It certainly happens but who knows how often (TWS do however); it has happened to me three times in the course of 2 years (pre-COVID I should add), but it’s obviously not a tragedy since I can’t remember what the wines were that I missed out on!

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#14

I have several times ordered and paid for wines to “lock them in” but then (for various reasons) set a long delivery date. So far this has always worked out for me even if the wine shows as sold out well before the delivery date. However I fully accept that this is not a guaranteed way of locking the wine in as others have come unstuck with it.

2 Likes
#15

I can’t know how many times you order in 2 years, but if it is once a week, it would be happening in 3% of orders, not too bad; if it is once a month 12%, which is getting to be what I would call ‘often’.

#16

pleading the fifth

4 Likes
#17

I won’t be ordering with a ‘long’ delay to delivery again.

No shows have happened to me twice now, within two months, so I’ll be ordering and taking delivery as soon as they can carry it to me from now on.

#18

My problem is that I have only occasional opportunities to get delivery by the TWS vans (when I’m working down south) and courier-broken bottles have (for me) a higher incidence than ordered-but-disappeared bottles. So, for more important wines, I will continue to order with long delivery dates and keep my fingers crossed!

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