by Spa_Wines

Spa Wines Direct

Bucknall, Woodhall Spa

Wine Merchants Bucknall | Wine Merchants Woodhall Spa

Spa Wines Direct is an independent company specialising in wine tasting parties both domestically and in offices.And experience has shown that these parties are particularly attractive to the matur... show more

Address:: Pergamos Main Road,, Bucknall, Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire LN10 5DT
Contact us:: 01526 388001
Contact via email
Spa_Wines

spawinesdirect.webplus.net/
Opening hours:: The office is open from 9,00am to 9.00pm, 7 days a week, 52 weeks per year

Owner's info	Credit cards accepted: Yes
User's info	Price range: Average Give your opinion

9 reviews of Spa Wines Direct in English

RIDICK
London
1 review

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Review of Spa Wines Direct from 24 April 2013

SCAM ALERT!

WHATEVER YOU DO - DO NOT ORDER WINE OR ARRANGE A WINE TASTING EVENING FROM THIS MAN OR COMPANY!!! NOT UNLESS YOU WANT TO LOOSE YOUR SANITY OR MONEY.

APPLICATION TO THE COUNTY COURT MADE!

If only I had looked at these reviews before embarking on this dreadful journey. The reviews say it all! I booked a wine tasting evening with SAP WINES DIRECT through the website 'living Social' back in November 2012. The deal was for 8 people to come to my home and sample a number of different wines. I was also supposed to have been given a free bottle of wine (which I did not receive). My very first communication with Derek did not run smoothly, well certainly not as smoothly as making a simple booking should. I phoned him to arrange the evening and he seemed very vague over the phone, with me having to coax information out of him. Very strange behaviour! He wasn't able to confirm whether my requested date of November 30th was available (didn't really say why, something to do with sending a rep to my house) but he said he would phone me back a week later to confirm the final arrangements. A week later passed - he didn't get back to me. Additional time after that passed and I called him to see what was happening (me contacting him turns out to be a common occurrence throughout this saga) When I spoke to him, he seemed as if he couldn't be bothered to speak to me and when I mentioned the fact that he was supposed to call me back, he offered no apology and seemed as if he couldn't run a pxss up in a brewery. Anyway, I finally managed to achieve mission impossible and the night was booked. He informed me that he was sending a rep to my house called Kevin. I asked for Kevin's number incase he didn't show as I didn't have a great deal of faith in Derek, going from our brief conversations previously.

Kevin Showed up and was nice enough, although I felt his wine sample portions were quite tight, when taking into consideration other wine tasting evenings I've attended and he didn't leave me the free bottle of wine that was included in the price. However, I didn't let that bother me too much and we all had a good time. That's where it ends! My partner ordered some wine costing around £80 and my friend also bought a bottle. We told Kevin specifically that the wine was a Christmas gift. He assured us that it would be back before Christmas, so we placed the order. In fact, receiving it before Christmas was the only reason that we placed the order.

About three weeks later (19 December) I tried to phone Kevin on more than one occasion - no answer. So then I contacted Derek via e-mail enquiring about my wine and I'm still in contact with him now (24 April) doing the same thing! The man's a joke! I mean I'm not asking for and he's not having to search for the Holy Grail for me!!! The simple task of either giving me my order or refunding my money should not take 5 months! And the worst thing is he doesn't even seem embarrassed about his incompetency. I mean he should be ashamed to call himself a business man. This is not the way to do business. Any clown can see that!!!

For the last 5 months I've had every excuse under the sun. Firstly, my initial chase up contact was on the 19th December 2012 and Derek replied to it to say that the order would be delivered by that weekend. I asked what time and he did not respond. I contacted him again a few days later and he was banging on about "logistics" causing him a problem. He also gave the feeble excuse that the rep Kevin had vanished off the face of the earth and this meant that Derek couldn't see our payment transaction. This is BS as the payment was taken from my partner's account, taken by SPA WINES. Anyway this little saga has gone on and on for months with many other excuses being made. It's taken months to go by for us to get to the stage where I have told him that we no longer require the wine and want a refund. We bought the wine as a Christmas gift and as we are way past Christmas we no longer need it. We have also had to spend more money on gifts to replace the wine. He recently said (10 April 2013) that now "he's looked" he can see our payment was made and will refund the money. Why did it take so many e-mails and months on my part for him to "look"?! He should have looked after my first enquiry. Since then I've asked him when it will arrive and now there are more excuses. He's talking crap, creating all these ridiculous problems about posting the refund and my friends bottle of wine. He's saying that he's out of the Country and won't be able to post it himself yet and if he uses a courier, he can't guarantee the delivery date. I mean that last part doesn't even make sense. Every time he's said he will get back to me, he hasn't and I've had to chase him up time after time. It's been obvious that he's hoping that I will either forget this or just give up. I don't believe that anyone is that incompetent and therefore he must be creating this situation on purpose and probably never had any intention of giving us our order.

I warned Derek about a month ago that if we didn't receive the refund we were going to apply to the County Court for breach of contract. Today we have made the application.

I will also be contacting living Social about this and I have had thoughts that this whole saga was a scam and now having stumbled across this site and seeing all these reviews of people who have very simular stories to tell, I am convinced this is a scam and will be alerting the Police.

Derek, I notice the only reviews you respond to are the negative ones. Don't even bother replying to this, your making a fool of yourself. I wonder if you actually believe your excuses sometimes.

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Comment 1 comment on this review

Owner's comment
Spa_Wines, 25 April 2013:
I have been trying to sort out the mess made by a self employed Rep appointed to cover South Wales late last year. I thought the matter was being resolved amicably between myself and Nicola Mardon, the complainants partrner and I have already agreed to refund the monies oaid in full and also deliver the one outstanding bottle of wine that is still required. I have told the customer that I will call and see them personally on Saturday 4th May to hopefully put an end to this chapter of woe caused by the Rep who has apparently disappeared. Let me reassure anyone reading this complaint that my operation is most definitely not a scam and I have very many satisfied customers from whom I have received numerous e-mails thanking me for the manner I have conducted the business.I will however plead guilty to appointing a rogue representative who has badly let down not only myself but several other customers in South Wales, whose problems have been or are being resolved.
I am also asking the customer to withdraw this complaint for on close analysis of all the e-mails sent between myself and Nicola Mardon there has been a friendly dialogue between us with very little delay on my part in answering the questions raised in order to sort out the problem. As far as I can determine there has been no previous communication from this complainant
and his allegations are totally unfounded as events will prove.
Derek W.Shepherd, Proprietor Spa Wines Direct.
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vshetty23
London
1 review

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Review of Spa Wines Direct from 2 March 2013

I obtained the wine tasting as an offer from dealcloud, where it said it was usually £99 reduced to £14 with a free bottle of wine.

The wine tasting session itself was fun and Derek was charming and friendly. In terms of learning about the wines, it was a disappointment as we didn't receive any knowledge about wines or how to taste wines. That could have been my fault as I should have been more specific about increasing my knowledge instead of just assuming he would show us how to taste wines. I felt the session was geared towards buying the wines. We had to guess the prices of every wine as opposed to guessing the region or anything to do with actually learning about wines.
When questioned about the price, I told my friends that the wine tasting was £100 but I had got a really good offer. At the end of the night, Derek told everyone that the cost of the wine tasting was £14 which was quite humiliating for me.

We had the wine tasting in mid September, the payment went out the day after. We were told to expect the wines within a couple of weeks, however, it took approximately 2 months to receive the 18 bottles we ordered between the six of us. There was no communication from Spa wines in the meantime. When I had to made continuous enquiries regarding delivery, Derek kept telling me about London traffic being really busy. When delivering, Derek left me a voicemail the day before, then left all the bottles of wine outside my flat. He said the cause of the delay was an obscure wine we had ordered. I still haven't received the free bottle as per the deal, although I have chased it up three times.
I think if you live near the Lincolnshire area, then delivery times may be satisfactory, however, if you live outside that area or like myself, in London, then you may have to wait a long time with no notice as to why there is such a delay.

I would recommend the wine tasting as long as you specify that you want to gain knowledge of tasting and wines, however, I wouldn't go through the process of ordering again.

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Spa_Wines
Woodhall Spa
1 review

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Owner
Review

Review of Spa Wines Direct from 27 February 2013

Verbatum this is the text of an e-mail received from Dan Putnam, Hemel Hempstead

On 23 Dec 2012, at 12:17, Dan Putnam <putters@gmail.com> wrote:

Afternoon Derek,

Just wanted to say thank you again for a great night on Thursday! Everyone really enjoyed themselves and we are all looking forward to the wine arriving so we can taste them all over again.

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

Kind regards

Dan

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kg123
Birmingham
1 review

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Review of Spa Wines Direct from 24 January 2013

This company deserves no stars I have nothing but negative comments about this company. DO NOT waste your time and money dealing with them. wine is over priced, service is the worst i have EVER experienced and i am still months later waiting for a refund for the wine promised to me in November that never arrived! Unprofessional is an understatement! Not only did Derek drip wine on the carpet he also drip it on myself and a guest with no apology. he also continually cancelled delivery at a moments notice 'due to traffic' and would expect us to cancel plan to stay and wait for him because he might be able to make the delivery another time.... I have NEVER been so disappointed!

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Owner's comment
Spa_Wines, 27 February 2013:
I have seen the only customer I knew who was not happy with the replacement wines delivered and she denies emphatically ever making these adverse comments. In fact when I questioned her about the spillage on the carpet,her comment was ’ You didn’t spill anything as far as I know, in fact you were extremely careful to ensure you didn’t ’
So where these comments have come from is a complete mystery and any so-called problem has been resolved.
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neilcdavey
Bristol
1 review

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Review of Spa Wines Direct from 19 December 2012

Ordered a bottle of wine on 20th November - emphasised the importance of it arriving by 20th December. Ample time to deliver a single bottle of wine you would think Not so. A month later and despite numerous email and phone conversations to underline that the wine was a birthday gift and therefore was required by the 20th of Dec, there was still no wine. Avoid Spa Wines Direct.

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Owner's comment
Spa_Wines, 27 February 2013:
This adverse comment is extremely surprising. The customer was kept informed about the shortage of the wine he ordered. It was dispatched immediately a new supply was received and I know for a fact that the wine was received by the requested date because he phoned and thanked me for the effort I had taken in ensuring he received it on time for his father’s birthday. So why this adverse comment has not been reversed is disappointing.
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soajas
Leek
154 reviews

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Review of Spa Wines Direct from 14 December 2012

If it were possible to rate this company with no stars, I would do so. Hosted a wine evening and all seemed well - Derek was approachable and friendly, and wines were good and reasonably priced. Problems started with delivery - took 7 weeks before order was delivered and then it was 2 bottles short, which have still to be received (from a tasting in September!) Worst still, I had arranged a second evening which Derek cancelled via a voicemail ON THE DAY! I was out so did not get the message until my return, so had the embarrassment of explaining to my guests why there was no tasting and using my own wine instead! Derek said he would reschedule, but has totally failed to respond to any of my messages, will not reply to emails and has so far not delivered either the outstanding bottles from the first tasting nor given any sign of when the rescheduled event will happen. In short, totally avoid unless you enjoy embarrassment in front of your friends and losing money for events that don't happen. I am now going down the small claims court route to get my money back!

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Owner's comment
Spa_Wines, 27 February 2013:
The customer has some justification for her comments. It is true that the delivery took longer than anticipated This was due to the popularity of the wine in question that had to be continually re-ordered and also a problem that we had with a credit card for one of her friends. That consideration alone inevitably delayed the placement of the order.In terms of the cancelled appointment there was little I could do as I suffered a severe migraine attack on the day that rendered it impossible for me to drive. I did inform Jill of the problem as soon as I went down with the attack and could not have been aware that she would not pick up the message until the evening. In terms of my not answering the phone or her e-mails, this is something of an exaggeration.I did actually appoint a REP to cover her area
but she failed to show and this left me with logistical difficulties. I have now
taken the ‘missing’ bottle, delivered an additional bottle and will shortly be sending a further bottle as a gesture of good faith. Despite the fact that the Voucher Company will not allow a refund for whatever reason, I am also refunding IN FULL the price of the voucher she purchased.
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SloanM
London
1 review

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Review of Spa Wines Direct from 13 December 2012

I would tell any potential customer in London to avoid this company. I hosted a wine night -- and we purchased about £250 worth of wine. We were told we would receive it within 3 weeks. I had to continue to chase up the delivery as Derek 'was really busy' and 'London has bad traffic' (it does between 5 pm and 7 pm). I was finally told to be at my flat to wait for the delivery. I left work early to be there and was called 20 minutes beforehand with his cancellation. I was then told I would 'definitely, definitely get a call on Sunday to schedule another delivery. Three Sundays later, I hadn't heard anything. One friend moved to the States within this time (2 months) and another had already left for the holidays and I had given up on the idea of using the wine for a Christmas party. I was finally left a voice mail saying he would call back and reschedule a delivery, but then he called to say he was at my door (I was at my office out of town). I was furious and wanted to cancel because two friends couldn't use the wine anyway, but he said 'I've already processed the payment' and he left the wine with my neighbor.
The wine evening was enjoyable (although included no actual knowledge of wine) but the wine is mediocre at best if you already shop at Majestic or Waitrose. I was disgusted with the level of service.

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Comment 8 comments on this review show all

soajas, 14 December 2012:
Totally agree with this review. Whether you are in London or in the Midlands, Derek appears unable to deliver wine on time or come when he says he will!
Owner's comment
Spa_Wines, 27 February 2013:
Twice I tried to deliver the wine on schedule but was thwarted once by a major accident on the M1 that left me stranded for several hours, and on the second occasion by the impossible traffic conditions in London. We are based in Lincolnshire and such conditions are foreign to us. It is not surprising that so many people apparently prefer not to drive in London !! In terms of my not communicating with her, that is simply not true. As far as I can recall I did telephone on the planned Sunday afternoon but could not get a reply. Hardly surprising as it seems she was out of the country !! And in regard to the wines suffice is to say that she and her friends tasted the wines before purcahase and must have been satisfied with the quality. WE HAVE NEVER HAD ANY PREVIOUS ADVERSE COMMENT ABOUT THE QUALITY OF THE WINE.
SloanM, 27 February 2013:
Um, I was not out of the country. I was in Oxford. A friend who was at the tasting did move out of the country in that time. I was contacted on the day the wine finally came and I was not home after already having been stood up by a delivery. Attempts to travel into/across London only at 5pm WILL indeed result in bad traffic. If it were my business and I could only deliver wine at rush hour when I’m on my way to another tasting, I would hire a courier service or a driver to make daytime deliveries so that people received their orders in a reasonably timely fashion. I didn’t complain about the quality of wine. I said it’s fine/ok, but nothing special and the tastings are not about learning anything about wine – they are about selling the products of this distributor. That’s fine, but not when the customer has to deal with the hassle of being told wine will come in 2 weeks and it comes much much later. Weeks went by without any communication. I’m not hard to find. I have a mobile, an email address and I often work from home. I stand by every comment I made. If London is such an inexplicable and horrible problem for this company – DO NOT DO BUSINESS IN LONDON.
Owner's comment
Spa_Wines, 27 February 2013:
So it seems that when I attempted to make the promised phone call, as I read the reply there was in fact no-one there.
London is not a problem particularly as I am becoming more familiar with the driving conditions and yes we are now using Couriers again having had bad experiences in the past with broken bottles.And the other reason why I took it upon myself to deliver the wine, was to ensure there was no delivery charge………and how common is that today?
All I asked for was a little understanding over the delivery that I did my utmost to fulfiil on time. I am pleased that the wine was satisfactory.
SloanM, 27 February 2013:
No Derek. I was not there on the day you finally showed up because I had no advance warning that you were coming. I can’t always answer the phone during the day when I am teaching. The day you initially promised to deliver (and when I changed plans to get home in time) you cancelled after you were already supposed to be there. After that I was told you would ‘definitely call’ to SCHEDULE a delivery. It was another month before you were in contact. And too late for some to use the wine. Simply showing up at the door eventually is not a ‘schedule’. You told us at the tasting that you worked alone and did the deliveries yourself – so the added benefit of your personal free delivery is moot. There are two possible business strategies 1) you know what? the company messed up – we’ll make it right. or the Spa Wines Direct way….2) Not my fault!! I have no idea what any of these people are talking about!!
So far you’ve blamed London, rush hour, couriers, other hired agents, and the identities and motivations of customers who have made very similar complaints. No one can make Spa Wines Direct actually care about customer service, but it might be helpful for the company to realize that customers who have received poor service take an even dimmer view when this is accompanied by a complete lack of responsibility or accountability.
Owner's comment
Spa_Wines, 27 February 2013:
It seems that nothwithstanding all the explanations I have given and all of them are genuine, this person still wishes to have the last say. Well so be it. In regard to the other complainants there too, there have been genuine reasons for the difficulties and it is a great shame that in this day and age people will not accept there will be difficulties of whatever sort for what is a relatively newly established business.
soajas, 27 February 2013:
Derek – I think the problem lies in the fact that your customer service has been appalling, but when we have tried to point this out to you, you have either failed to respond to messages or put the blame on all sorts of other people. The fact of the matter is that when you set up a business, the buck stops with you, the owner. We would not be so unhappy if you had resolved problems as they occurred, rather than blaming other people/events, etc for the difficulties. We actually don’t care about those things – we just want you to put them right immediately. I have to say you still have not refunded me for the tasting you cancelled on 19 October and to say that you cannot process a refund as it involves a 60 mile round trip to the bank is simply unacceptable in this day of internet banking. I stand by everything I wrote and would be quite willing to allow anyone who wishes to see the series of emails and texts I have sent you to judge if I am exaggerating. Unfortunately for you, people will judge you and your business on what you deliver, which at the moment is not good enough, as far as I am concerned.
Owner's comment
Spa_Wines, 27 February 2013:
I find it particularly diisappointing that you will not accept the explanations I have given as they are all genuine. And I find it even more disappointing that you are continuing to blacken my character and busiiness when I thought we were talking to one another on a more friendly basis. And why you should want to bring my banking arrangements into the equation when I freely agreed to refund the monies that I had NOT received is beyond me. I have no wish to get involved in any further disagreements with you and the sooner I receive my cheque book from my new Bankers the better, so I can put an end to the unfortunate chain of events for which yet again I apologise.
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NickWinder59
Sutton Co...
1 review

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Review of Spa Wines Direct from 26 November 2012

Whilst the evening was good and everyone had a good time, we are now 2 months on from when the event was and we STILL haven't received the wine order that was placed on the night.

Communication from Spa Wines Direct has been non existent and we have had to chase for updates as to when the wine is going to be delivered.

The money was taken the day after I might add!

Would not recommend them to be used as they are unreliable.

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Comment 3 comments on this review show all

soajas, 14 December 2012:
Same here!
Owner's comment
Spa_Wines, 27 February 2013:
Very surprised at this comment. Customer was aware there was a problem with a credit card and once this had been resolved the order was placed.
As far as I can recall the Customer was informed about the delay but and it is interesting to note that since the wine was delivered there has not been the semblance of a complaint.
Owner's comment
Spa_Wines, 27 February 2013:
A further comment from myself is that no comment wahatsoever has been made of the fact that I did not charge extra for the tasting despite the fact that numbers increased from the specified 9 to around 20.
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katalyamo...
Birmingham
1 review

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Review of Spa Wines Direct from 4 August 2012

What a fab evening!

Derek was friendly and professional and got involved in the conversation going on! We really enjoyed the evening, and found it was something different from the usual at home parties!

Wine was lovely and plenty of choice, prices reasonable for what your getting! Was fun to mark the wines out of ten and enjoyed the banter or guessing the prices!

Would book again, actually cant wait for when my friend has her party!

All the best, Kally and friends x

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derekshep...
Lincoln
1 review

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Review of Spa Wines Direct from 16 May 2012

HI Derek,

Once again many thanks for hosting a brilliant evening.Kate was thrilled with the birthday treat.

I was quite impressed with the quality of the wines especially as I suffer with acid reflux and yet had no issues whatsoever and no hanging over either,most impressive considering everybody else was decanting the ones they didn't like as much into my glass!

Thanks again Derek

Kind regards,

Martyn (Holliday)

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Comment 2 comments on this review

soajas, 14 December 2012:
You seem to have posted a review yourself about your own company, unless I am wrong? Not surprising, as you are unlikely to get many positive comments from real customers due to your terrible service!
Owner's comment
Spa_Wines, 27 February 2013:
I despair at these comments. These two individuals clearly feel they have an axe to grind. The one testimonial that allegedly was from myself was in fact the text ‘verbatum’ of an e-mail received from the Customer. I was asked to send this by QYPE when this review site was set-up. The comment from the
individual in Wales is ridiculous as I have never even met the guy. He knows full well of the difficulty I had with the Self Employed Rep who visited him and I would respectively suggest he gets his facts right before making such derogatory comments. And if he reads these comments perhaps he might consider contacting me as I have requested rather than try to blacken the image of both myself and my Company.
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