Asian Snake Wine- The NON-Review

This should be the point in a review that I am all giddy from exposing people to something they have never had before.

This should be the point of the review with pictures and comments from everyone how impressed (or not) they are of a product.

This should be (in this case) the part where people are mugging with the bottle, because Asian Snake Wine is not something you find every day in the US.

It’s not.  Why?  Because I didn’t get my shipment.

You see, awhile back, I put a link on the Website (HERE) and eventually purchased a bottle.  My order was received (payment accepted and acknowledged) on the 20th of Dec.  The day I made the order, the website stated (at the very top in bold letters) that I would receive my shipment by Christmas if shipped express, they have since moved that offer to HERE. 

Here is the text of the Email I received on the 20th of Dec.-

If you want a second snake or scorpion bottle you can send 39e more and then get your 2 bottles within 5 days because they will also be sent by express mail with internet tracking number and insurance.

If you are interested you can pay 39 euros only on this page:
http://www.snake-wine-cobra.com/buy-snake-wine/order-one-more-snake-wine-or-scorpion-wine-bottle-for-39-euros-only.html

Also we want to tell you that your parcel might take few more days to arrive than usual as we have two days holiday here.

Please add our email asiansnakewine@gmail.com to your contacts list to receive all our future messages concerning your order.

Best regards,
http://www.asiansnakewine.com

As you can see, at the worste I should be expecting this is the 27th…and for 39 Euro more, I could have another bottle. 

To be fair, I opted out of the second bottle.

What followed is a series of Emails of me inquiring into the missing shipment. 

I won’t bore you with the details of the emails (finally, someone with worse spelling than me), but I will share some highlights-

• It took 9 days to get a tracking number out of this vendor (I doubt it is insured).
• There was a two day delay from receipt of payment before it was shipped (Granted they did warn of a Holiday, but later they also blame US Holidays….I say you cannot have both).
• It appears (from Email context) that express shipping is only how fast THEY take it to the Post Office, not how fast you receive it.
• “how can you consider us responsible for the delay when everybody knows that goods imported from abroad are subject to special customs clearance delay? Of course you can be lucky sometimes and some of your parcels might not be checked at all, but this is not the rule, and the rule is that even when you pay for Express delivery, it doesn't include customs clearance delay.”
• It’s all due to the “Worldwide Problem” of ordering at Christmas
• “Then, you must agree that anyone buying online during Christmas time knows in advance that he might not receive it as fast as possible, and this is a worldwide problem.”
• (anyone that knows us, knows that Debi and I do about 90% of our shopping online……no other package was missing our late, except this).
• That in December the US changed shipping regs and anything shipped over 1 pound cannot be sent via passenger aircraft into the US anymore.  This they state after – “searching online it could be a reason of this special delay.” (FYI, this went into effect as far back as October in Thailand, so this SHOULD be known to the vendor).

Throughout this process, I have been promised a bonus bottle cheaper (with no details how cheap), a “special offer” AFTER I received my item or a second bottle (the email states again “by Christmas”)  if I fork over a little more cash.

Since I don’t have the liquor to review, I guess I will base my review on dealing with the company….and in a word.  It sucked.  I would not recommend dealing with Asiansnakewine.com under any circumstances.  Communication was poor (and always prompted by me) and they have now gone quiet, not even responding to my last email of 4 days ago.  Considering ordering online is based on trust….I don’t care if they offered me 10 bottles for 10 euro, I wouldn’t give my card information to them again.  They do use Paypal, and my next course of action is to make a fraudulent claim….but still it’s a hassle for me.  Hopefully there is some recourse there, but in the meantime…I wanted to share this experience in case anyone else out there was considering a purchase.  This company (I can’t rate the product, since I haven’t gotten it) gets two BIG THUMBS DOWN.

Cheers.

E-