SAVE YOUR MONEY

[Russ K]

I am in touch with ryan. fingers crossed.
here is an example...5 of the bottles were similar to this.

[Russ K]

So Ryan has offered to ship new bottles and for me to ship the poor bottles back to him, with all shipping (from him and from me) at my cost. Anyone else think thats a good solution? So I get crap bottles and I get the honor of another 50 bucks out of pocket?



This has been a disappointing experience to say the least.

[Andy Velebil]

Personally I think he should pay the costs of shipping the bottles back and of sending you new ones, if that occurs. They were clearly not all as described, as evident by more than one person with the same complaint and that would be the right thing to do. I would try that and if not satisfied, and if you paid by credit card, you can dispute the purchase with your credit card company. Just my

[Roy Hersh]

I have personally called Ryan a few moments ago, and asked for him to come here and read the complaints, which he has agreed to do. He has committed to making this right for anyone who feels that they have been wronged. He will also be making a statement here in this thread.

When Ryan spent lots of his time over a two month period telling me about his 1977 collection and showing me photos of perfect bottles and cases, I had no reason to doubt that claim. Ryan explained what has transpired and will do so here too within the next 24 hours. Please give him that opportunity before jumping to any conclusions of malfeasance.

[Russ K]

I certainly look forward to it, I do not need to get into a fight here, just want to be treated fairly, and I think its responsible to let others know what happened to me and for others to check their shipments if they were involved. I filed a complaint with paypal as well to protect my investment here. As I said a most were in good condition, the grahams look good and almost all the fonsecas look very good as well, but I don't think I should be out money being shipped poor product. All the taylors have at minimum raised corks but I am willing to gamble on those with no signs of leakage. I think I am being more than fair here.

2 minor leakers and 4 major leakers. I will eat the costs on the one bottle I opened obviously, that was at my risk, but verified my concerns that these bottles are likely leaking for quite some time...

[Ryan L]

Hello everybody,

Before I get into any details I'd like to make a few things clear:

First, please leave Roy out of this. He has been extremely helpful and has at every turn spoken with the benefit of those on this forum in mind. If anyone is not satisfied with the way things have turned out, please direct your attention to me via email. Roy has nothing to do with any of this.

Second, I have every intention of doing what I can to make sure everyone involved is happy with his purchase. I’m not in this to make a killing at another’s expense. These ports were given to me by my father, out of love. I want them to be appreciated and enjoyed. That was part of the appeal of selling to members of FTLOP.

Onto the issue at hand...The picture that Russ posted of a bottle in terrible shape was not like that when it shipped. I guarantee/promise that all bottles that shipped were in a condition identical to what is seen in this picture:



The white spots on the bottom of the bottles are the result of having been stored in original containers for 30+ years. There is and was absolutely no evidence of any leakage or problem with any cork. I stand by that. In retrospect I should have taken a picture of each shipment before it went out. Likewise, buyers should have requested one. Lesson learned (for me).

So how to explain the shape of the bottle that Russ received? The only explanation that I can think of is that the port froze and thawed during shipping last week. Slightly raised corks can result from freezing and thawing, as can leakage. It was cold last week. The port shipped from Montana to Colorado, Illinois, and Virginia among other places. Freezing levels were well below road elevations.

Assuming that the degradation occurred during shipping, who is to blame? Me? I offered in my add to split and in some cases pay fully for ground shipping only. Nevertheless, for each buyer I took the time to research the price for overnight shipping and presented that as an option. Every single person chose to ship by land. I also discussed and agreed upon shipping dates via email with every buyer individually. In further retrospect we should have agreed to ship in mid to late September as opposed to mid/late October. Another lesson learned (for me)

From my perspective, it feels like a gesture of good will on my part to offer to replace any damaged (or apparently damaged) port at not additional cost except for that of shipping. I’m willing to eat the damaged port, and to go through the hassle of arranging another shipment despite there being nothing for me to gain from doing so. 6 bottles of '77 port costs roughly $800; shipping costs roughly $100.

I’m sure there are other possible ways to resolve whatever concerns unhappy buyers may have. I am open to listening. By email, though, not in a public forum.

Best,
ryan

[Russ K]

Ryan has agreed to accept my bottles back, now just working on price. I was charged full price for 6 bottles (I ordered 18 bottles), but all six leakers were lower price bottles...I am happy to apply the full price only to two of the six, to split this cost.

For clarification, it is convenient that the picture is of all the front labels (front labels were for the most part clean on my poor bottles as well...). There was no leakage in the boxes or packaging, it was completely dry. All major stains were on the back labels. Which if the white paint is facing up as it should, thats where the leakage would run.
Also almost all my bottles also had no visible Celo, they did not fall off in the box, so these bottles in the picture are not the same bottles that were shipped to me. Every other bottle in acceptable condition has its Celo. I would of probably been happy with that collection of bottles shown...

This was not a result of staining during shipping, 11 of the shipped bottles are good to great condition and show no sign of freezing or leakage of any kind. The bottles and stains were dried on Port, sitting there for years and dusty, I had to wipe down the bottles so I could touch them without my hand sticking to them.

The wine will be in the mail this weekend, and thank you for returning my money, even though incredibly I still have to pay to ship back to you.
Russ

[Glenn E.]

Picked my case up today and the bottles are all in great shape. The three Taylors do have slightly pushed corks like what you can see in the picture that Ryan posted, but don't appear to have ever leaked so that could be a bottling issue. The other nine bottles are all pristine.

This case goes a long way toward balancing my cellar - I was in desperate need of some older Ports. Thanks Roy and Ryan for putting this together for us!

[Bryan H.]

I got my shipment about 2 weeks ago or so. All of my bottles looked to be in good shape as well.

[Eric Ifune]

Got mine a couple of weeks ago as well. The Taylors were as Glenn described them. The Fonseca, Smith Woodhouse, and Gould Campbell were all pristine. Ryan accidently sent me three extra bottles of the Fonseca, I offered to keep them and pay full price, but Ryan gave them to me for a discount. I'm happy with the purchase and will open a bottle or two (or three) sometime soon.