Online Wines Sales from Echelonwines Online

Legal

Purchasing

Echelonwines, Inc. sells wine to buyers in the United States, who must certify that they are at least 21 years of age. Buyers will have to certify to this on our secure online order server prior to placing an order, and further certification may be required at the time of delivery. Each buyer's billing address must match the address of his/her credit card statement, and we will ship orders to billing addresses unless otherwise noted. If you wish to ship to an address different than your billing address, please provide this information on your order form.

Shipping

We always recommend shipping to a business address where someone will be present to receive the order during business hours. All shipping carriers require an adult signature at the time of delivery. Signature releases are not accepted. If the shipment is returned to us for an improper or incomplete address we will re-charge you for re-shipment, so please make sure your address is complete, including business name, department or mail stop, if any, and suite number if going to a business complex.

By submitting an order to the Echelonwines' store on the Wine Commune Web site (located at www.winecommune.com/stores/category.cfm/storeID/209/categoryID/0.html) you are stating that you are 21 years old or older, and warrant that you are legally able to purchase and consume alcoholic beverages at your place of delivery. By submitting an order you hereby agree and understand that ALL ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES ARE SOLD IN CALIFORNIA AND TITLE PASSES TO THE BUYER IN CALIFORNIA.

We make no representation to the legal rights and ability of anyone to ship or import wines into any state outside of California or any country outside the United States. YOU, the buyer, are solely responsible for shipment of alcoholic beverage products. By placing an order for delivery in the United States, you authorize us to act on your behalf to engage a common carrier to deliver your order to you.

ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES MAY BE SOLD AND DELIVERED ONLY TO PERSONS WHO ARE AT LEAST 21 YEARS OLD AND BY PLACING YOUR ORDER, YOU REPRESENT AND WARRANT TO US THAT YOU ARE AT LEAST 21 YEARS OLD AND THAT THE PERSON TO WHOM DELIVERY WILL BE MADE IS AT LEAST 21 YEARS OLD AND CAN ACCEPT DELIVERY OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES.

When your alcoholic beverages are delivered, the person receiving delivery will be required to show identification proving that he or she is at least 21 years old. If any person under 21 years of age fraudulently orders and has wine shipped to them, the wine will not be released to them, and will be returned to us, and the cost of return shipping will be charged to the responsible party.

BY ORDERING YOU AGREE TO INDEMNIFY AND HOLD HARMLESS THE SELLER, ECHELONWINES, INC., AND OR ECHELONWINES INC. DBA ECHELONWINES ON WINECOMMUNE FOR ANY RESULTING CONSEQUENCE OF A FRAUDULENT ORDER OR ANY MISREPRESENTATION AS TO THE AGE OR LEGAL ABILITY OF ANY INTENDED RECIPIENT TO RECEIVE SHIPMENT OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES.

If you change your order after it is prepared for shipping, we reserve the right to charge for additional handling and packaging materials.

Parents or legal guardians will be held responsible for actions of their minor children. If necessary, legal action will be taken against any and all parties attempting "wire fraud." The cost of shipping to, and returning to us of any wine in any such operation will be charged to that agency. NO EXCEPTIONS.

States We Ship To

Below is a list of the states that we can ship to at the present time:

AK, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, HI, IA, ID, KS, IL, LA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NC, ND, NE, NM, NV, NY, OH, OR, SC, TX, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV, WY.

This list is subject to change without notice.

States We Don't Ship To

If you live in a state other than one listed above, we encourage you to contact your state representatives and ask them to change their laws and allow you to enjoy the same rights as wine lovers in other states.

In the meantime, we suggest that you consider contracting with a professional wine storage facility here in California or in a "legal" state to receive your wine and hold it for you.

Shipping Conditions

Echelonwines will ship your purchase according to the shipping method you select. We ship via common carrier and offer ground, 3-day, 2-day and overnight service. Orders generally leave on the Monday after you place your order, unless an item is sold on a pre-arrival or future or backordered bases.

You must purchase shipping insurance for all orders greater than $200.00 in value. If you decline to purchase this insurance coverage, you accept all responsibility for any damage that your order incurs in transit. Shipping insurance costs 2% of the value of your order.

Echelonwines reserves the right to hold shipment of your wine during extreme weather conditions. Echelonwines cannot be responsible for damage to wine (including leakage or damaged corks) shipped to you against our express protestations in regards to weather conditions. Please be aware of the scheduled delivery information, as the date, and location of your delivery cannot be changed once it leaves our warehouse. It is your responsibility to be present when your shipment arrives. If the weather is very hot or cold in your area, and you would like us to postpone our shipping, please advise us. Use the weather in your area as a guide, when making your choice for best shipping method. We do not advise shipping via ground during temperatures over 80*F (26*C) or under 32*F (0*C). We do not advise shipping during temperatures over 90*F (32*C). If you need your order by a specific date, please let us know and we will work with you to try to get the wine to you in time for your needs.

Echelonwines cannot be responsible for wine damaged by a shipper or inappropriate storage/handling on the part of the shipper. We reserve the right to refuse sales if we deem it to be inappropriate and/or unsafe.

We cannot ship to PO, APO, or FPO box offices. Orders to Alaska or Hawaii must only be shipped 2nd Day Air. Incorrect, insufficient or change of address will incur a $10.00 surcharge. We reserve the right to charge return shipping for refused or undelivered packages. Please allow up to 2 business days for your order to be processed.

Pricing Errors and Omissions Excepted

Occasionally, our listed prices may be incorrect or the bottle size may be incorrect. For example, a 750ml size may be incorrectly priced as a 375ml bottle. When such situations occur, Echelonwines shall be held harmless for the error. We make every effort to make sure that our product database is accurate, however mistakes do happen. We will not be responsible for typographical errors. In all cases, the customer will be contacted before any charges are made to the credit card for a decision to proceed or not proceed with the order at the correct price.

Returns

All requests for returns or cancellations must be made within 7 days of the invoice date, no exceptions. Because of the fees charged by your credit card company when we charge and subsequently credit your card, we will enforce the collection of our restocking fee if your card has already been charged. We charge your card when your order is reserved for you. If we haven't charged your credit card, you may cancel the order without being subject to our restocking fee. If we have already charged your card, the cancelled processed credit card order for all items-in-stock, pre-arrivals, futures-shipped or not, are subject to a 15% restocking fee. Please check your order receipt carefully to make sure you ordered the correct wine. We will not be responsible for any incorrect orders placed by you, the customer. Any incorrect orders that are processed and shipped will be subject to a 15% restocking fee, as well as shipping charges back to us if you want to return the item(s). The prices for wine can fluctuate greatly from day to day, because of this we do not accept returns for wines based on price changes within the marketplace.

Sales Tax

All wine is sold in the state of California and the title passes to the buyer in California. All purchases shipped to California addresses will be subject to 8.75% sales tax.

Our Guarantee

Echelonwines guarantees quality products and service. Your satisfaction is our first priority. If, for any reason, you are dissatisfied with your order, please contact us within 14 days of the date of your order for customer care assistance. For fastest results, please contact us by Web form. As is tradition in the wine trade, all bottles 10 years or older are purchased at the buyer's risk, and we cannot be responsible for "corked" bottles. BUT if you're not happy with a purchase, please contact us so we can work out an agreeable resolution.

All wine sold by us is maintained at optimum conditions. We consider wine to be out of our control once it has been handed over to the shipper and we cannot be responsible for improper storage after it has been delivered, and as such we cannot accept returns for the following:

Wines that do not coincide with personal tastes.
Wines that have been adversely affected by customer's storage.
Any other adverse condition affected while in customer's care.

Summer or Winter Storage

If you specified during the checkout process that you would like your wine held over the summer or winter, we will store your wine in our climate-controlled facility at no charge for up to five months from the date of purchase. After five months, we will contact you about shipping. Any wine held for more than five months will incur a storage fee of $5 per month per nine-liter case.