Legal terms and conditions of Echelonwines

The terms and conditions below cover the public Web sites, private Web site, and private email newsletters of Echelonwines, Inc., and our ordering, shipping, and warranty policies. By using our Web sites, receiving and reading our newsletters, and doing business with Echelonwines, Inc., you accept and agree to all of these terms and conditions. If you have any questions, please contact us.

The special offers, prices, and other wine information that we publish in our private email newsletters and on our private member Web site ("Echelonwines Private Side") are not for the general public; they are strictly confidential, for our authorized members only. By managing our private membership carefully, we are able to offer exceptional customer service and fair prices. Sharing this confidential information with non-members may jeopardize our business, and is therefore against our terms of membership. We kindly but firmly require that our members keep our special offers, prices, and other wine information to themselves. If we learn that you have violated these terms—for example, by copying or forwarding our special offers to non-members—we may revoke your membership. No one wants that to happen, of course, so we thank you in advance for respecting our terms of membership!

At this time, Echelonwines does not offer membership or sell wine to members of the wine trade, including winery staff and management, distributors, retailers, or other wine industry professionals.

At this time, special offers that we publish in our private email newsletters may not be combined with special offers that we make available to members of our private Web site, Echelonwines Private Side.

Echelonwines, Inc. is a licensed distributor of wine in the State of California. We accept orders by phone, fax, and email, and fullfill all orders on a first-come, first-serve basis. We make every attempt to fill all orders within our available quantities.

Please note that all wines are sold in California, and title passes to you in California when we receive your payment. Echelonwines makes no representation as to your legal rights to ship or import wines into any other state, and you are solely responsible for shipment. By placing an order with us, you authorize us to act on your behalf to engage a common carrier to deliver your order to you.

You must be at least 21 years of age or older to purchase wine from us. By placing an order with Echelonwines, whether from our private newsletter, on our Web site, or third-party Web sites on which we have a storefront, you hereby certify that you and the recipient of the wine are at least 21 years old. Common carriers like FedEx or UPS may require package recipients to show identification proving that they are at least 21 years old. The willful misrepresentation of your age or the age of the recipient is a crime in most States, and if approached by the authorities, we will corporate fully with them to the fullest extent of the law.

If you provide a credit card number at the time of your order, or ask us to keep your credit card number on file for future orders, we will bill and charge your credit card for wines that are in stock or sold on an explicit pre-arrival basis once we confirm your order by phone, voicemail, or email. After we confirm your order, we accept cancellations and provide full refunds within 72 hours. We do not accept order cancellations, exchanges, or refunds beyond this 72-hour period, including “future” or “pre-arrival” orders, unless, of course, we make a mistake and ship you the wrong wine. In the event that you place an order but do not pay for it within 14 days, we will cancel your order automatically and without further notice.

If you prefer to pay for your order by check, we will confirm your order and email you an invoice for the full amount of your wine and shipping costs. We must receive your check within 14 days of the invoice date in order to hold your wine, and we will ship your wine or allow you to pick it up in person after our bank clears your check. Once it’s cleared, you’ll receive an email notice or phone call from us. We do not accept order cancellations, exchanges, or refunds beyond 72 hours of receiving your check, including “future” or “pre-arrival” orders, unless, of course, we make a mistake and ship you the wrong wine. In the event that you place an order but do not pay for it within 14 days, we will cancel your order automatically and without further notice.

Echelonwines offers complimentary wine storage to clients for up to five (5) months due to adverse weather conditions that may prevent shipping. If you ask us to store your wine after you have paid for it, we will keep it in our climate-controlled facility with the mutual understanding that it is your wine, temporarily held by us. If you require wine storage beyond five months, we will be happy to refer you to a dedicated wine storage company and assist you in transferring your wine to their facility.

If you do not pick up or accept delivery of your wine after five months of storage or if we cannot reach you to arrange pick-up delivery, you will incur a storage fee of $5 per month per nine-liter case. Payment of this fee will be due before we will release your wine for pick-up or delivery.

If you do not respond to our attempts to schedule pick-up or delivery of your wine within one year of your order date(s), we will liquidate your wine to recover our administrative fees and storage costs. We will, of course, make every reasonable attempt to contact you before we liquidate your wines. We will not issue any refunds nor replace any wine after it has been liquidated.

All wine prices in our private email newsletter and on our Web sites are net with no additional discount offered, and prices are subject to change without prior notice. If prices do change, prior sales will not be adjusted.

We accept VISA, MasterCard, and American Express, and require payment prior to shipping. We typically bill your credit card upon confirming your order.

We inspect every bottle carefully before packing it, and ship all wine in special boxes designed to protect glass bottles. We use UPS and FedEx for shipping all orders, and will send your wine via ground or air service per your preference. If you provide your own UPS or FedEx account number, we'll use your account instead of ours. We also allow clients to pick up their orders at our office by scheduled appointment.

We require clients to 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.

Echelonwines warranties that all wines we sell will be as described, in terms of winery name and vintage year only. We do not warranty the contents or critics' descriptions of any bottles that we sell. As wine ages and is transported from winery to warehouse, it may undergo changes that are beyond our control.

Echelonwines ("we") provides this Web site, our private email newsletter, and their respective contents to our Web site visitors and clients ("you") on an "as is" basis and makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to them. We disclaim all such representations and warranties, including, for example, warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In addition, Echelonwines does not represent or warrant that the information accessible via this site or our private email newsletter is accurate, complete, or current. Pricing and availability information are subject to change without notice.

Except as specifically stated on this site and in our private email newsletter, neither Echelonwines nor any of its directors, employees, or other representatives will be liable for damages arising out of or in connection with the use of this site or our private email newsletter. This is a comprehensive limitation of liability that applies to all damages of any kind, including (without limitation) compensatory, direct, indirect or consequential damages, loss of data, income or profit, loss of or damage to property and claims of third parties.

This site and our private email newsletter are created and controlled by Echelonwines, Inc. in the State of California, United States of America. As such, the laws of the State of California will govern these disclaimers, terms, and conditions, without giving effect to any principles of conflicts of laws. We reserve the right to make changes to our site, our private email newsletter, and these disclaimers, terms, and conditions at any time.