Calling all Virgin Wines VIRGINS! (Virgin Wines)

Member Name: Leolover

Product:	Virgin Wines
Date:	02/10/02 (132 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: well designed site, good customer service, great special offers

Disadvantages: taking a chance on the wines as they're not well known brands

I love wine, and find it's often easier and cheaper to order cases of wine online rather than lugging it all back from a supermarket. Virgin Wines is an online retailer I've used several times in the past, and I've found the website and customer support to be excellent and the wines themselves of a very good quality.

**** THE SITE

The website has been designed very well. The colours and layout are pleasing to the eye and the format is very user friendly. The site is clearly aimed at those who enjoy wine but might not be too knowledgeable about it, as there is plenty of information about the different types of wine available, and a very useful 'wine wizard' function which, if you enter some of the sorts of wines you like, will recommend certain wines for you.

You must register with the site in order to be able to order wine. This is a quick and simple process; you simply enter your name, contact details and a password and will be sent an email confirming that you are registered and can start to shop.

From the site's home page, you can choose whether to browse the 'shelves' to look for wine you like, use the wine wizard to make up a case of wine for you, take a look at the special offers and gift cases or read about wine in the online magazine. If you choose to browse, you can search different categories of wine (eg sparkling, white, red or fine wines) according to a specific price range. There are often quite a few wines with 15 - 30% off. Each wine has a short description and 'star rating', and it's comforting to know that the ratings are provided by the customers of the site. When you log back in after buying a case you will be asked to rate your wine. You don't have to, but it is useful for other buyers. The ratings tend to be pretty accurate in my experience:

***** Superb
**** Good
*** Average
** Poor
* Avoid at all costs <
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When you've decided what you want, you click on an icon to put it in your virtual basket, and when you've finished browsing you can proceed to the checkout, where you'll be asked to provide a delivery address and payment details. You can choose to send the wine as a gift and provide an alternative invoice address if you wish.

**** CHOICE OF WINES

I've been pleased with almost all the wines I've had from Virgin Wines, with the exception of a bottle of shiraz which was corked and undrinkable, and a disgusting French offering which came as part of a mixed case. The good news is, if you don't like any wine you buy from Virgin, they will refund you your money back! I complained about the corked wine and sure enough, they credited my account with the amount I paid for the bottle.

They have a decent choice of wines for every budget, but I don't personally think they have the 'hundreds' of wines available that they claim they do. There are usually about 5 - 15 wines available for each category and each budget range (eg 15 sparkling wines at less than £5, 15 sparkling wines at £5 - £10, and so on). Sometimes I'll browse for a while and there's really nothing I fancy. You won't find many of the well known brand names here either, as Virgin pride themselves on offering wines from smaller producers.

Occasionally Virgin will offer 'bin end' cases at extremely good prices, eg a case of 12 wines reduced from £100 to £50, and these often include a free bottle of champagne too! These offers are well worth a try. The wines are still very good quality despite being reduced in price.

**** SUPPORT

if you encounter problems ordering online, or with your delivery, you can either send an email or call the customer support number. This number is displayed prominently on each page of the site. A couple of times I have had problems with an order not turning up or the wr
ong bottle of wine in my case, and I have always found the support staff to be very friendly and helpful. They will chase up a lost order and make sure it's delivered ASAP, and will often give you a money off voucher as an apology, which is a really nice gesture.

Virgin guarantee that if your wine is delivered but somehow doesn't get to you, for example, if it's stolen from your porch, they will send out another identical case free of charge. I've never had to test this policy, but I think they'd be true to their word, as in all other support areas they couldn't be more accommodating.

**** DELIVERY

You can choose to have your wine delivered during the day (9am - 5pm) for £4.99, or, if you live in or around the M25, you can opt for evening delivery (after 7pm) for £6.99. If your wine is not delivered within seven days, they will refund the delivery charge to your account. This has happened to me twice, and, sure enough, the delivery charge was refunded both times.

**** SUMMARY

Excellent value for money, good customer service, delicious wines. I thoroughly recommend Virgin Wines. They don't claim to get it right every time, but they will put things right if they do go wrong.

If you're a 'Virgin Wines virgin', it's worth bearing in mind that they often offer £20 off your first ever case, which is an added incentive, and there are regular special offers throughout the year.

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