This past January my wife and I purchased a mixed case of EIEIO wines from the Tasting Room in Carlton. We were given a deal on the wine-we purchased 9 bottles and the staff would add three bottles of their choice. When we got home we excitedly opened one of the value pinots noirs (EIEIO Bingo) and were very disappointed to find that it tasted absolutely terrible! My Mother and step-Father, who were visiting at the time, agreed that the wine had gone bad - it tasted and smelled so bad that we couldn't even finish our first glass. We contacted the Tasting Room the next day and informed them of the bad experience and asked them how they would like to proceed. They requested that we open another bottle to make sure it wasn't an anomaly. My parents took the bottle of wine with them to a wine tasting event at a friend's house and confirmed that the Bingo they opened was also bad. We informed the Tasting Room and, despite us offering to accept a credit, they let us know that they would be happy to refund our money for the bad bottles, minus the ""free"" wine discount. In other words, they included the cost of the free wine in the total case cost and, based on the cost of the ""free"" wine, subtracted a % discount from the 7 bottles of bad wine. We objected, as this was not how the discount was presented in the store, and asked for a full refund for the 7 bad bottles. They ignored our request for a couple of weeks so we decided to drive to Carlton and take care of the refund in person. We informed them of our decision two days prior to our trip. When we arrived we were told that the winemaker changed his mind and that now we had to return all of the wine, including the ""free"" bottles, if we wanted a full refund! You can imagine our surprise and frustration after waiting for several weeks and then driving 1.5 hours to Carlton. We ended up coming back the very next day, returning all of the wine and receiving a full refund. Beware their deals-they don't back up their products!
Cons: Don't back up bad products, terrible customer service!
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