Lay & Wheeler Avis 

Great customer support. Arrived in good time. Nicely packaged, giving a feeling of quality

Client experience was exceptional as was the service. I was introduced a year or so ago and haven’t looked back.

Great client support and exclusive wines. Competitive wine storage solution and really fun tasting events and private dinners with some of the top wine houses globally.

Lay and Wheeler's excellent selection of high quality wine coupled with speedy home delivery made my dinner party a huge success. My friends loved the wine and the evening was a huge success.....thanks to L&W!

Logistics seem totally broken. Called off c.£10K of wine and requested - verbally and in writing - a single pallet delivery. Got 2 deliveries with the first via courtier and cases opened and repackaged bottles. The second was a pallet - no warning as to delivery date, had to chase to be told “tomorrow”. First I knew of time was driver at my door. Pallet left on pavement and took quite some effort for it to be moved to my front door. Incomplete delivery note so impossible to check the order. More full cases split and repackaged, a Beaucastel case where the bottom fell off on lifting etc. These things can happen but the inability of L&W to resolve the problems is, for me, unforgivable. Seems to be an organisation in total disarray and very far from the premium wine merchant it purports to be. I’ve waited over 2 weeks from delivery to write this review but patience only stretches so far. I’ve closed my account as a consequence.

I worked for this company.
I worked 05:45 till 17:00 only had one break a day was always the first of my team in I also worked one handed because of a fractured arm I came in at weekends and did everything I was asked to do without question.
They then sacked me for having a chest infection.
This is a company that is ungrateful to it's staff and treats them like dirt.
Don't use this company.

I have been a loyal customer of Lay & Wheeler since 2002 and have seen many changes.
However after recent experiences I now regard the company to be incompetent and untrustworthy.

Lay & Wheeler have recently moved to using their own warehouse after using London City Bond (LCB) for many years. They continue to tell customers there is no difference in service between LCB and their own new warehouse.

This is a deliberate lie. Lay & Wheeler have not been clear that their new warehouse is not a full customs warehouse, it is only an excise bonded one.
This means that anyone who imports wine from abroad outside of the EU, has to pay Duty and VAT before the wine can be accepted and entered into customers reserves - this greatly de-values investment grade wine.

I fail to understand why Lay & Wheeler proceeded with their warehouse move before ensuring the new warehouse was fully bonded.

Lost bottles, wrong items delivered, endless warehouse logistics problems and a no responses from reserves/warehouse team.
I would advise people to be cautious about using L&W until it has resolved its extensive logistics issues.
I have a lot of sympathy for the very friendly customer service team who also seem to not be able to get answers from the logistics side of the business.

Great selection and website... with TERRIBLE customer service.

A bit galling to be charged £15 for delivery when ordering 100's pounds worth of wine but ok, delivery was quick so no massive problem.

However 1 of the wines sent was the wrong one (same producer but wrong colour), no big deal and must happen sometimes. I informed them of the mix up and was met with a response that they needed to look into this with their goods out team and would get back to me. Had to chase a week later, and was met with more pushback and then notified that a replacement wouldn't be dispatched for another 10 days at least.

Still had to send more emails to repeatedly confirm that I wanted the bottle I had already paid for (despite them suggesting a refund instead).

The customer service team were also completely unapologetic about the mix up or the subsequent delay, and seemed much more concerned with collecting the bottle they sent in error (heaven forbid they comp a £20 bottle to make up for the mistake!).

In the end it took 3+ weeks and 6 emails to get a simple mix up remedied with them sending 2 separate drivers - 1 to collect the bottle sent in error and another to deliver the one that I had ordered. Not great and a real shame as I would have definitely been a repeat customer.

Great selection of excellent wines and a good price. Website was easy to use and order from. Delivery was prompt (via DHL). My only gripe is that after spending several hundreds of £s on wine I get hit with a £15 delivery charge. Other than that 1st Class experience & I will be using them again.

2019 Bordeaux vintage and orders still not completed . Much as I like them offering by single btls but if they cant fulfil their obligations of delivering it's better to buy 6 from some other merchants. A pity I placed orders for the 2020 vintage too without knowing that I would have such problems with my 2019. So never again

Complete shambles. I requested all my wines to be moved to an agent for sale to be told ( by the agent I may add, not L&W) that two cases are missing. Bearing in mind that these Bordeaux cases are expensive, they are not taking this very seriously. Very shoddy customer service. Avoid.

Going to have to move away, as soon as they can find all my missing wine, which has been missing for the whole year. On top of the disastrous warehouse move, transferring wine in has become more expensive.

Customer Care Desk fallen off a cliff again

I requested my wines to be released to my agent 2 weeks ago but as of today the status of my wines are unknown.

My agent and I tried to communicate with the Customer Care Desk but
regrettably, our efforts have been met with silence—a complete lack of response or acknowledgement.

L&W are currently transferring customer reserves from LCB Vinotheque (Burton on Trent) to their new bonded warehouse in Suffolk. Regardless of the logistics customer service has fallen off a cliff. I can understand that under 7.1.3 under their T&C's which states the wines will be delivered within 7 working days, this maybe a stretch with booking in and additional paperwork.
I paid duty & tax on 15th March, put in a call to customer service on 24th March asking when the wines will be delivered no response back. A further call on 4th April again no response back with an update.
Either the customer service team have no clue what's going on either or they just can't be bothered to provide an update assuming they have one, absolute shambles.

I have just received my first consignment since L&W transferred their storage facility in-house. I must say I am delighted with the care and attention spent packing the order so carefully using high class packaging to ensure the bottles arrived in first class condition. Full marks must go to Hannah for taking the time in meticulously handling my order. Even the tape on the boxes was applied with precision. It makes a nice change to receive service of this level when so many other notable companies are falling behind. The carrier, DHL kept me informed of the delivery status together with an estimated time slot. Well done L&W.

The customer service team at Lay & Wheeler are excellent, they always solve any problem, answer any question, sort out any order. I had an order that was still showing as ‘Pending’ two days after I’d placed it. I rang customer services. They swiftly found that their computer had allocated the same bottle of a wine to send to me and also to store in my reserves. Slight logic problem there! 20 minutes later, all solved and the wine is coming to me and a different bottle is being stored. Brilliant customer service experience.

Clear, consistent communication and proactive engagement through their Fine Wine Discovery Club. I cannot speak highly enough of the way Tarka has kept me engaged with their service, delivering a personal element that goes above all expectations considering all of the shopping is through a computer.
When Tarka saw that I would benefit by joining the Cellar Circle plan (as I was meeting the criteria without some cost-saving benefits) she reached out to me and made me aware. Actions like this mean a lot, and it is clear that L&W not only understand their customers, but also look after them.

I have never felt any pressure or expectation to spend more money, purely an opportunity to enjoy and explore wine within the limits of my own means. An exemplary company. Thank you.

I've been a customer for over 40 years and can highly recommend Lay & Wheeler for their excellent service in providing advice on wines for drinking and for longer term investment.

In recent years, L&W has transformed itself. So it still delivers access to the greatest wines of the world, but reaches out far and wide to new pastures such as South Africa and the Loire or deeper into classic areas like Bordeaux , Rhone and Burgundy unearthing less heralded but neverthless great wine makers with the greatest of futures. Tip top service. Very responsive.