“How to start a poor review? I am a real estate investor in the US with better things to do than write a review. But in fairness to the other unwitting buyers out there, I think it’s important for me to describe my unbelievably poor experience. On October 24, 2022 I ordered 5 bottles of very expensive white port wine at a cost of $448 plus $79 for shipping. My goal was to have them as gifts for the Holidays. When in late November and December with no delivery I began inquiring as to the whereabouts of my order, the lack of customer service was striking. Days and sometimes a week would go by with no responses. When a particular person who’d handled my case would respond, they would say that “it got lost in Madrid”. Since I can buy good Port wine in the US, I suggested that the order be cancelled and a credit be issued to me. This person said that that couldn’t happen until and if it got returned to them. Since no one had any idea where the shipment was, and if it was to ever make it to me, this could take months if at all. I checked in no less that 10 times with always the same response taking no responsibility whatsoever. Remember that the shipper was hired by them at my cost ($79). Finally, in late January 2023, I inquire again only to hear “it went to your address but you rejected the delivery”. Please note that never was I told that it would arrive, when and if a signature was required. Since I was traveling at the time there was no way it was “rejected”. No notice of attempted delivery was left on my door. I only heard about the “attempt” when I checked in with the company. The next time a different service rep. Said that it finally returned to them. This occurred the week of February 7, 2023, 4 months after originally placing the order. Everyone has problems. What differentiates good and very bad companies is how they handle those issues and their level of communication. In case you’re wondering if I’d ever go near these guys again, the answer is obvious. Order from them at your own peril.”
“I spent over $100 dollars on wine. Most of the cost was for the shipping yet the items never arrived. At first a representative checked in often but then 3 month later stopped completely. I asked for a refund and they said that if they receive the returned items they would refund and took no responsibility for items lost in the mail. This is consistent with a scam.”
“Terrible experience. I live in Porto (shop is in Porto) and not only did it take a week to ship, I still haven’t received from shippers. I have been still waiting a week for delivery. Don’t order if you need or want your wine delivered in expected time frame. You will be disappointed and frustrated.”
“The company is a con beware.
Ordered wine, took 21 days to arrive.
I live in the west coast of the usa, to save money it was shipped to the east coast and trucked across the country.
Awful customer service, well there isn’t any and no responsibility from them. Freight was a rip off
They are a rip off
Buy Portuguese wines elsewhere , these are not the guys to do it from.”
“You have switched courier to TNT. This has resulted in 5 cases gone missing, 6 or more bottles of Port broken, non standard replacing by TNT to cover up. All in all a disaster on a 100+ bottle order. I have many questions and none answered so far by PV or TNT.”
“Beware!!!
Love the wines but now the custom and duty taxes have hit with DHL they have become too expensive and a poor company to deal with!!
Total extra charges from DHL were £96.69 which was more than 100% of the bill from Portugal Vineyards. The original invoice was for only 104.42 euros (around £93)!!! I contacted PV to see if they could help with the charges but they were not prepared to. When I requested a refund, they informed me that they would have to bring the wine back and charge me for this - plus any customs or duty costs that they would incur while importing back into Portugal would be passed to me... Therefore I was forced into paying the ridiculous custom and duty charges…🤬🤬🤬
My friends and I were regular customers but have decided to look elsewhere for our wines as PV gave us no warning that this would happen. We feel cheated by PV and warn any potential customers to be prepared to pay more than double that of your original invoice!!! 😔🙈”
“BEWARE 100% CUSTOMS DUTY NOW PAYABLE ON ARRIVAL IN THE UK
Have been buying wine from Portugal Vineyards and spent over GBP1,000 recently. My previous order arrived a couple of weeks ago this month with no problems.
I immediately placed my next order for Euro140.
A week or so later, I received an email from DHL that i needed to pay £103 for customs duty etc. due to Brexit rules.
P Vineyards did not make this known at the time of ordering and is now my last order with them”
“BEWARE - if you are ordering from the UK
I ordered a case of wine from here on 25/05/21 which arrived a few days later.
The Total cost for the wine including shipping to the UK was £100.54
I have today 18/06/21 received an Invoice from DHL
for Customs Duty / VAT Invoice for £96.32 for this order. This almost Doubles the price.
Which breaks down to
Duty £1.47
VAT £30.29
Other Levy £53.56
Extra Charges £11.00
Total £96.32
I have queried this with Portugal Vineyards who gave me a link to their small print in their Terms and Conditions.
If I had known about this I wouldn't have ordered from them.
BEWARE”
“Do not use if you are in the UK. The price doubles when customs intercept the parcel so its not nearly as cheap as it seems.... in fact 20% dearer than sainsburys or majestic”
“This company is a joke! No response for emails! No order update. More than 7 days from the order date and they are unable to provide tracking! Avoid!”
“Two failed deliveries to London of Ginja - the first time it wasn't their fault, the goods arrived in London and the courier lost them. The second time, I placed the order, nothing happened for 10 days and when I finally got through to them, they admitted that they had no inventory and still hadn't received any. At least they admitted their error quickly and cancelled the orders, but from a customer's perspective, they're completely dysfunctional.”
“I just LOVE LOVE LOVE Portuguese wines, especially Noval Porto Tawny and Douro wines. I think that they are really very underrated and not well known.
However, the service of the Portugalvineyards is not acceptable. I never received any customer service and the box of wine I ordered took more than 1 month (!!!) to arrive from Portugal to Switzerland - so not at all to the other part of the world - by DHL (that should be a fast carrier??). Nobody ever explained to me the reason of the delay and according to tracking info, the box remained at Valencia customs for about 13 days. Never came to know why.
I love Porto wines, but I am not going to buy from this company evermore.”
“DO NOT ORDER FROM THEM
I placed my order on October 24th and on December 12th it has not been delivered! When I ordered they mentioned a delivery within maximum 15 working days or 3 weeks! The customer service is the worst that you could imagine. Instead to fix the issue they argue. I strongly believe that it is not a mistake based on the reviews already posted. This company intend to mislead customer. For a full understanding the shipping cost was more expensive than the two bottle ordered so not cheap.”
“Avoid them.
Extremely long delivery time
Sent wrong vintage and did not even want to refund the difference in price
Very poor customer service
They do not pick up the phone”
“Avoid this company!
They are scammers. You are told that delivery will take 1-2 days.
As a matter of fact, it's been more than a week now and still didn't hear anything from them. Your phone calls will be never answered, as well as any communication by email.”
“I don't know if the wine's drinkable as they were quite open about the fact they didn't bother sending it and won't refund the money. AVOID AT ALL COSTS”
