Nov 2023 – Underground Cellar Review – Bankruptcy, Action Required

Underground Cellar Shut down, Underground Cellar Bankruptcy

Very sad news for all customers with inventory being held by Underground Cellar – after 10 years of operation, they ceased operations April 24, 2023 and have filed for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. We were customers for five years and suffered through their many operational issues, but were particularly shocked as things seemed to have been going smoothly on the customer side for the last year or more.

VERY IMPORTANT UPDATE – ACTION REQUIRED!!!

The short story – customers can elect to pay fees (21% of the amount you paid) plus shipping (full retail – $35/case local up to $100/case east coast) and have their wine delivered, but you must act by December 8th! LastCallCapital.shop is handling the distribution to customers – log on ASAP if you are interested!

Background –

Briefly, a lender claimed the customer-purchased inventory had been pledged as collateral, and was fighting to claim it all. Some customers formed a group and hired an attorney, and both sides decided it was better to agree to “split the baby” themselves rather than risk the bankruptcy judge ruling against them and ending up with nothing. So, yes, it is galling paying an additional 21% of what you paid (and if you pay by credit card, you pay the 3% credit card fee), and the shipping fees are full on retail, but if you have some good buys, you might want to consider it.

Bummer being in the crosswinds, but lesson learned (again), take custody of what your purchase!

(Updated March 2022)

Enjoy gaming experiences, but wondering, is Underground Cellar legit? Check out this Underground Cellar review, based on our 4 years experience. Their business model is a basic one – purchasing select inventories of close-out wines.  The “unique selling proposition?”

(I think I watch too much Shark Tank!) When you purchase more than one bottle, at least 50% of your bottles will be “upgraded” to wines with a higher retail value. At least one upgrade in the collection will be hundreds, even thousands of dollars higher!  In our 4 yeas of experience, a single bottle purchase almost always gets some upgrade. Plus, Underground Cellar will give you a $25  $50 credit on your first purchase to try them out! (Limited time offer on the $50 – usually it’s $25, which is still fun!)

TL;DR – Wondering, is Underground Cellar legit? Underground Cellar had some rocky early years, but, has progressively worked out most of the issues you’ll read about online. If you like gaming experiences, purchasing the least expensive bottles in a collection (usually $20 to $35 per bottle) can convert into big upgrades – some are even uber collectibles – on at least half of the bottles you purchase, usually more! However, you won’t know what you’re getting until you check out, and, it can take awhile to get it shipped.)  For $25  $50 off your first purchase, type in promo code jeff-sacco (and you must use the hyphen) on your first order.

Sign up for an account by visiting Underground Cellar, clicking the profile icon in the upper right and scroll down the popout to create an account.

Our Underground Cellar Review

How it works

One of the reasons we decided to write this Underground Cellar review is, the concept is fun! Every day (and sometimes multiple times during the day), Underground Cellar comes out with a package of wines they call a “collection.” The collection lists all the different wines that will be sold in that particular offering. One wine, the least expensive in the collection, will be the cost basis for your “entry” price. When you purchase more than one bottle at the entry price, most of the bottles you purchase will be upgraded to other, higher-valued wines. (The site shows if you purchase X bottles, Y will be upgraded. We’ve often purchased a single bottle – even though it says 0 will be upgraded, we’ve almost always gotten some upgrade, often a good one!)

The number of bottles in the collection is listed on the offer page (again, always including one super-premium bottle or offering, worth hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars), in real time, as the inventory is sold. It can be fun (and a little addicting!) to watch the inventories of each collection drop,. Very recently, the website has changed and real time inventory is no longer shown 🙁 They do show percentages of each wine in the collection, and you can “View all purchases” to get a sense of how quickly an offer is being purchased, but, it’s not the same…

Ta da! Here’s the Underground Cellar Review part!

What we love:

• We enjoy experiencing new wines, so for us, it’s fun and generally provides a decent value! So far, I think there’s only been one wine which has notably disappointed us.
• Shipping is free on a case of 12 bottles or a 6 pack of magnums
• They will cellar your wine until you’re ready for delivery – you can purchase a bottle or two (or more) here or there, and have them held until you’ve accumulated a case and can get it shipped for free
• They’re relatively generous with promotional credits for customers, which have been showing up almost every month, most offering discounts of $7 to $10 per bottle (for multiple bottle purchases).
• They have a great referral program – the referrer AND the new customer each get a $25 $50 credit, (very cool, right? The bump to $50 is limited time only, we do not know when they’ll revert back to $25) – however, their referral links (such as the link we shared for Last Bottle in our review) might not work, and, it’s not apparent how you sign up for an account! (When you visit Underground Cellar, there’s a profile icon in the upper right for signin/signup, and then you have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the popout to create a new account. )

Use promo code jeff-sacco (make sure to use the hyphen) for $50 off your first order!

What’s not so hot:

• The retail values they use for comparison are often not a good reflection of what you can purchase the bottles for elsewhere. We always check the prices online – for both the base bottle and likely upgrades, – to make sure we’re comfortable it’s a deal we’ll be happy with.
• This program is only for the adventurous – you have no control over which bottles in the collection will be added to your account. All you know is, the retail value of any bottle you purchase will be at least the entry price for the collection, and that the retail value of other bottles you purchased (in a multiple bottle purchase) will higher (maybe much higher!)
• Customer service is only available by email, and can take a couple of business days. They have been reasonable about making things right for us, but if you have a question as you’re contemplating a purchase, you’re stuck. Note: if you’ve check them out at BBB.org, you’ll see they have numerous complaints, mostly about shipping, through spring of 2020.  During this period, their inventory and shipping systems were totally dysfunctional.  However, for the past year plus, we have not had any shipping issues – when we’ve requested a shipment, it has taken only 2 to 3 days to pack and ship.
  
• Availability of purchases for shipment are a problem. Some bottles purchased might take weeks, in some cases months, to show up as being “ready for shipment.” However, they do provide detail as to which wines are ready to ship and which wines are not at their warehouse (they call it “third party” custody). We’ve always been successful asking them to swap out anything that’s not available with something that is on hand.  That’s been a satisfactory resolution for us, but, we do not like that part of the business model.
• If you’re new to shipping wine, educate yourself about your state requirements and shipping in extreme weather. Although Underground Cellar commits to “making it right,” if they don’t ship to your state, if there are other fees involved, if there’s a delivery problem, if there are weather issues, etc., etc., etc., your dissatisfaction might fall on deaf ears.

FREE MONEY TO PLAY WITH!

If you’re interested in going ahead and trying them out after reading our Underground Cellar review, we want you to start your experience with that $25 $50 credit (limited time only) for new customers!

To sign up for an account, visit Underground Cellar. There’s a profile icon in the upper right for signin/signup (you have to scroll to the bottom of the popout to sign up with email).  Use this  “old school” promo code, by checking the box for promo codes, and typing in:

jeff-sacco   (you HAVE TO use the hyphen or it won’t work),

hit “apply” and, you’ll get $25 $50 off  (EVEN if it’s just a 1 bottle order) – that’s a free bottle, and, you can build your collection as quickly or as slowly as you like! (Again, limited time on the $50 credit, don’t know when it will revert back)

Wrap-up

I’ll conclude this Underground Cellar review with a  “thumbs up” rating – we do love the thrill of an upgrade!  We’ve enjoyed the wines we’ve received, and have learned how to adapt to the issue of wines not being available for shipping, by simply asking to swap for similar bottles on-hand.  However,  we do hope they sometime consider a “real time” customer service option.

If this Underground Cellar review whets your appetite for great wines at discount prices, you should check out our review of Last Bottle Wines – one of the best “end lot”/flash sale inventory merchants, (and a $10 credit for you on your first order with our referral code!)! We also review our favorite site for wine and spirit gifts – Wine.com offers good and sometimes great prices, and a $59 unlimited free shipping program. Check out our review and don’t forget to use our referral code for $30 off your first order!