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October 2024 by Paul Khazansky
Ordered three bottles at an average price of $200 per bottle. Seven days later I haven't received so much as "we got your order, shipping soon" email. Now 9 days later I have yet to get a tracking number for shipping. Just terrible customer service. Will not order here again.
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September 2024 by JYL
Purchased 7 bottles of white burgundy a couple months ago. 4 of those were either seriously corked or spoiled, to the point you can notice it by looking at the color of the wine. Reached out to the company immediately for a refund. there has been no response.
For the level of wine they treat on their website, I expected top notch wine storage facility and customer service. I guess I was wrong.
Some bottles from this place might be okay but it's like playing russian roulette with your $1,000+ purchases.
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September 2024 by Mike
Received amazing customer service. From the first phone call, an actual person answered the phone, to the emails and photos I received, including fast delivery. Thanks!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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May 2024 by Mike Fryer
UPDATE - after being told multiple times that only one of the seven bad bottles would be refunded, my friend escalated to the customer service manager who immediately offered full value store credit or full refund for all defective bottles. While ultimately Benchmark did the right thing, it's a shame that it took multiple emails and calls to make rectify their obvious mistake. However, I'm not changing the rating due to this fact and that they sold obviously bad product.
Friend purchased 7 bottles of Billecart-Salmon Rose from Benchmark to share with a group of people celebrating a couple birthdays. I was with him as he opened each bottle (less than 3 weeks after purchase) to discover that every one of those bottles was badly oxidized to the point of being undrinkable. He had 3 different wine-educated people taste with each coming to the same conclusion - oxidized. Each cork that was pulled looked deformed to the point that there was no way the bottles would have had a proper seal. When my friend contacted Benchmark, he was told that without sending back the wine from each bottle (had been discarded), there was nothing they would do to compensate him for the bad wine that they had sold him. Even with pictures of the wine (brown from oxidation), the corks, and the labels from the bottles, Benchmark refused to stand by their supposed quality/provenance guarantee, instead hiding behind the stance that without them being able to test the wine there was no way to tell if it was bad. I highly recommend avoiding purchase of wine from Benchmark as they will NOT stand behind their quality guarantee and apparently don't know what quality control is. Shame on you, Benchmark.
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February 2024 by Mo Maher
Smooth pick up. Great quality
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February 2024 by David Benglis
I have purchased wine here since 2013. I noticed over time prices increased to mid range compared to other distributors. I always accepted the increase in price because I associated Benchmark with another level of quality. They sold me a corked bottle of 95 Lafitte. I purchased it in 2021 for approximately 975.00. I opened the bottle in February 2024 and it was corked. The sommelier at the restaurant also confirmed. Benchmark quoted their policy of returns applicable only to 6 months after purchase. There was also no offer for a discount on a future purchase of wine with them. I would recommend seeking wine purchases elsewhere. I have developed relationships with other distributors/smaller operators and they stand by their quality.
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January 2024 by Andrew Weiss
I have placed many orders over the past few years and the service and communication have been fantastic. The most valuable asset they have is Zoe who handles the orders and communication.
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January 2024 by Michael Williamson
If I could give them half a star I would. Their shipping prices have become absolutely ridiculous. Many places that I purchase wine from are anywhere from $7 to $8 a bottle and when you ship larger quantities the price per bottle to ship drops down, But no, not Benchmark/Brentwood Auctions. I won 3 bottles from Brentwood Wine, the auction arm of Benchmark. They're charging me $55 to ship 3 bottles of wine. That's over $18 a bottle. That is an absolute rip-off! I'll give you an example, WineBid shipped me 13 bottles of wine for a little over $83 total. That's almost 1/3rd the cost per bottle than Benchmark. What's worse is they didn't even give me the option to schedule shipping or to mention if there was a cheaper alternative to shipping. They just went ahead and scheduled the shipment and charged my credit card without consulting me. What if I was away the week they decided to ship. I used to buy a lot of wine from Benchmark, but this is my last purchase. Beware fellow consumers.
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January 2024 by Ajdin Masic
I bought a vintage wine from 1990. I don't think this wine was properly stored. Upon removing the capsule I noticed mold build up. Upon decorking the wine it was evident something was off.For such a big price tag on most items you would expect these to be well stored. Will not be going back
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September 2023 by micah gentry
Very disappointed in Benchmark. Contacted them to make sure I could get two bottles on time before leaving the country. They assured me it was no problem and would expedite the shipping. Bottles never arrived and the shipping company said they had incomplete information from Benchmark, then said if Benchmark had told them the delivery date was urgent, it would have arrived on time. I’m working on getting a full refund but all in all very disappointed. Would not recommend.
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March 2023 by Richard R.
Terrible shipping. I paid an exorbitant fee for standard overnight shipping as this was a special gift for a birthday. It took 2 days before the label was printed at FedEx, another 6 days before FedEx received the shipment for delivery and then another 2 days before delivery is expected. What a con. Paid for overnight (optimistically expecting 2-3 days) and it has so far taken 10 days (assuming it arrives tomorrow). Won't bother using these guys again.
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February 2023 by Todd Cereghino
I'll admit I was a little hesitant to order from Benchmark Wines based on some of the reviews I read. However, I also know that there are 2 sides to every story and reviews often don't have the other side included. They had a wine I had been looking for and really wanted to buy a few bottles, so I decided to give it a shot and placed the order. I placed my order online on a Monday evening, I got an email confirmation and thought so far, so good. The next day, Tuesday, I got an email from Itzel Martinez at Benchmark saying they had received my order and advising my order was being readied for shipment. I got another email from Itzel later that same day on Tuesday advising my order was ready and would be shipped on Thursday. On Friday, I got an email from UPS with the shipping number advising the shipment would arrive the next day Saturday, and it did! The wine was in perfect condition, and exactly what I ordered. I have to say, my experience was not what I expected, and the process greatly exceeded my expectations. Thank you Itzel and thank you Benchmark! I will definitely order from you again.
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January 2023 by Mark S
I was very excited to find wine on their website that I was unable to find anywhere else, but unfortunately there was some shipping miscommunication with UPS and the package was set to return back to their warehouse. I contacted the support group and received an immediate response. Thanks to the quick actions of Stephanie, my package was rerouted back to my residence and I was able to receive the package much sooner than expected! I am very excited to try the wine and will definitely consider benchmark wine for any future purchases!
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January 2023 by Michael Martin
Terrible Customer Service. Especially Ricardo. He promised to hold 6 bottles for me for one day and then he sold the wine from under me. A real A.H. Beware do doing business with these guys. The wine always tastes off from other bottles of the same vintage I bought.
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January 2023 by ian h.
I ordered 6 bottle of Chateau Haut-Brion 2018 in June 2022. I was told to expect the shipping on a particular day in June which was the start of cool period. I paid extra for temperature controlled transportation to the east coast with the understanding that the last short leg would not be temperature controlled. The bottle were NOT sent on the day promised (it turns out the wooden box was sent on that day but not the wine). As a result my wine arrived on a searingly hot 90 degree day. I immediately took the temperature of the bottles and they were above 80 degrees. RUINED. I called the company but they provided no real help. So basically I get to spend thousands of dollars on what is now vinegar because of their sales people getting the wrong date. I apparently have no recourse. I spend about $20k a year on wine, but I will not be using Benchmark again.
