caskcartel.com

CaskCartel.com Review

On December 8, 2020, I placed two orders with CaskCartel.com, each one with a value of about $100. I ordered two different bottles of bourbon to be delivered to two local friends for a Christmas bourbon exchange.

Upon placing the orders online at CaskCartel.com, I received immediate email order confirmations that advised the following, “ your order has been accepted by a local licensed authorized retailer partner for processing & fulfillment.” The notification advised that I would receive a shipping notice email when each bottle of bourbon was shipped by the local merchant. I emailed CaskCartel.com on 12/11/20, 3 days later, indicating that I had not received any shipping notices yet. I received a canned response the same day that said, “Due to Covid-19 and the holidays, an order typically takes 5-10 business days to be shipped. This order has currently been sent to the retailer for fulfillment and is processing. Once processed, you will receive an email with your tracking information in which the shipping carrier will provide and estimated delivery date.“

Two weeks passed with no notifications from CaskCartel, so I emailed them on 12/22/20 to ask for a status update, indicating that 10 business days had passed. My email said, “ It has now been 10 business days since I placed my (two) orders with Cask Cartel and I don’t have any shipping information yet. My other order number is xxxxxx. Can you please contact the retailer and obtain a status on my behalf for each of my two orders?

Christmas came and went and I did not receive a response back until December 28th, which said, “This email is a courtesy to notify you that the retailer fulfilling your order unfortunately does not have the Black Saddle 12 year old Straight Bourbon Whisky. We have reached out to another one of our retailers and they have this item in stock, however, they are charging $10 more for the bottle. Would you be willing to pay the additional charges to have this item sent to you? If not, we can move forwarding to cancelling out that portion of the order.”

This is horrible customer service and unacceptable for several reasons as follows:
I placed two orders on 12/8/20. Both orders were immediately “accepted” by a local retailer. What does that mean? Does that mean the bottles I ordered are in stock w/ the local retailer and will be shipped soon? Apparently, that notice is automatic and means NOTHING more than “we got your order”, it’s just a handshake.
When I emailed customer service on 12/11 to ask about shipping status, I receive a canned response with no specific updates about my order. Apparently the person from CaskCartel who responded did not reach out to the local retailer(s) to determine updates on my order, or else CaskCartel would have known that one of my two bottles of bourbon was not in stock and could not possibly be shipped “within 5-10 business days”.
When I emailed CaskCartel on 12/22, this was 3 business days before Christmas, plenty of time for CaskCartel to research my orders, determine specific status and notify me that the orders would (or would not be) shipped before Christmas. I receieved NO response prior to Christmas. There was no response from CaskCartel until the evening of 12/28, which (see above) stated that one of my two orders could not be shipped because the local retailer does not have the bottle. I was also asked to pay $10 more to have the bottle shipped from another retailer. In addition, the email message from CaskCartel on 12/28 provided no status on my second order, which was placed on 12/8/20 and has not received ANY updates, no shipping status, no details on the order, nothing.
At this point, I have no idea whether either of my two bourbon orders will be honored, fulfilled and/or shipped by CaskCartel.com, or any of its local retailers. I will never again do business with CaskCartel.com and I do not recommend that anyone who reads this trust this company with your money. CaskCartel.com seems to have a broken fulfillment system, horrible customer service, are perhaps understaffed and are blaming their lack of communication/status updates on COVID. I am very fortunate to be able to work from home and I know plenty of friends who work in local retail and customer service. I have also worked in retail and in customer service. COVID or no COVID, there is no excuse for not following up on customer orders and communications, and treating your customers as valuable resources for future business. CaskCartel has failed miserably on all levels.

When I had come across Cask Cartel in search for a place to order Sugarlands Moonshine I was originally happy about their service and fair pricing. Now I notice that they are charging an exorbitant price for the 750ml jars. A 250% mark up. $70 dollars pre-shipping for a $20-25 product is absurd AND it is listed as a SALE item. A check of other retailers show that moonshine price itself hasn't gone up, just CaskCartel pricing. Now I must be on a search again for somewhere that can deliver to my state. Sad business choice.