SCAM ALERT! WHATEVER YOU DO DO NOT ORDER WINE OR ARRANGE A WINE TASTING EVENING FROM THIS MAN OR COMPANY!!! NOT UNLESS YOU WANT TO LOOSE YOUR SANITY OR MONEY. APPLICATION TO THE COUNTY COURT MADE! If only I had looked at these reviews before embarking on this dreadful journey. The reviews say it all! I booked a wine tasting evening with SAP WINES DIRECT through the website 'living Social' back in November 2012. The deal was for 8 people to come to my home and sample a number of different wines. I was also supposed to have been given a free bottle of wine (which I did not receive). My very first communication with Derek did not run smoothly, well certainly not as smoothly as making a simple booking should. I phoned him to arrange the evening and he seemed very vague over the phone, with me having to coax information out of him. Very strange behaviour! He wasn't able to confirm whether my requested date of November 30th was available (didn't really say why, something to do with sending a rep to my house) but he said he would phone me back a week later to confirm the final arrangements. A week later passed he didn't get back to me. Additional time after that passed and I called him to see what was happening (me contacting him turns out to be a common occurrence throughout this saga) When I spoke to him, he seemed as if he couldn't be bothered to speak to me and when I mentioned the fact that he was supposed to call me back, he offered no apology and seemed as if he couldn't run a pxss up in a brewery. Anyway, I finally managed to achieve mission impossible and the night was booked. He informed me that he was sending a rep to my house called Kevin. I asked for Kevin's number incase he didn't show as I didn't have a great deal of faith in Derek, going from our brief conversations previously. Kevin Showed up and was nice enough, although I felt his wine sample portions were quite tight, when taking into consideration other wine tasting evenings I've attended and he didn't leave me the free bottle of wine that was included in the price. However, I didn't let that bother me too much and we all had a good time. That's where it ends! My partner ordered some wine costing around £80 and my friend also bought a bottle. We told Kevin specifically that the wine was a Christmas gift. He assured us that it would be back before Christmas, so we placed the order. In fact, receiving it before Christmas was the only reason that we placed the order. About three weeks later (19 December) I tried to phone Kevin on more than one occasion - no answer. So then I contacted Derek via e-mail enquiring about my wine and I'm still in contact with him now (24 April) doing the same thing! The man's a joke! I mean I'm not asking for and he's not having to search for the Holy Grail for me!!! The simple task of either giving me my order or refunding my money should not take 5 months! And the worst thing is he doesn't even seem embarrassed about his incompetency. I mean he should be ashamed to call himself a business man. This is not the way to do business. Any clown can see that!!! For the last 5 months I've had every excuse under the sun. Firstly, my initial chase up contact was on the 19th December 2012 and Derek replied to it to say that the order would be delivered by that weekend. I asked what time and he did not respond. I contacted him again a few days later and he was banging on about logistics causing him a problem. He also gave the feeble excuse that the rep Kevin had vanished off the face of the earth and this meant that Derek couldn't see our payment transaction. This is BS as the payment was taken from my partner's account, taken by SPA WINES. Anyway this little saga has gone on and on for months with many other excuses being made. It's taken months to go by for us to get to the stage where I have told him that we no longer require the wine and want a refund. We bought the wine as a Christmas gift and as we are way past Christmas we no longer need it. We have also had to spend more money on gifts to replace the wine. He recently said (10 April 2013) that now he's looked he can see our payment was made and will refund the money. Why did it take so many e-mails and months on my part for him to look?! He should have looked after my first enquiry. Since then I've asked him when it will arrive and now there are more excuses. He's talking crap, creating all these ridiculous problems about posting the refund and my friends bottle of wine. He's saying that he's out of the Country and won't be able to post it himself yet and if he uses a courier, he can't guarantee the delivery date. I mean that last part doesn't even make sense. Every time he's said he will get back to me, he hasn't and I've had to chase him up time after time. It's been obvious that he's hoping that I will either forget this or just give up. I don't believe that anyone is that incompetent and therefore he must be creating this situation on purpose and probably read more

I obtained the wine tasting as an offer from dealcloud, where it said it was usually £99 reduced to £14 with a free bottle of wine. The wine tasting session itself was fun and Derek was charming and friendly. In terms of learning about the wines, it was a disappointment as we didn't receive any knowledge about wines or how to taste wines. That could have been my fault as I should have been more specific about increasing my knowledge instead of just assuming he would show us how to taste wines. I felt the session was geared towards buying the wines. We had to guess the prices of every wine as opposed to guessing the region or anything to do with actually learning about wines. When questioned about the price, I told my friends that the wine tasting was £100 but I had got a really good offer. At the end of the night, Derek told everyone that the cost of the wine tasting was £14 which was quite humiliating for me. We had the wine tasting in mid September, the payment went out the day after. We were told to expect the wines within a couple of weeks, however, it took approximately 2 months to receive the 18 bottles we ordered between the six of us. There was no communication from Spa wines in the meantime. When I had to made continuous enquiries regarding delivery, Derek kept telling me about London traffic being really busy. When delivering, Derek left me a voicemail the day before, then left all the bottles of wine outside my flat. He said the cause of the delay was an obscure wine we had ordered. I still haven't received the free bottle as per the deal, although I have chased it up three times. I think if you live near the Lincolnshire area, then delivery times may be satisfactory, however, if you live outside that area or like myself, in London, then you may have to wait a long time with no notice as to why there is such a delay. I would recommend the wine tasting as long as you specify that you want to gain knowledge of tasting and wines, however, I wouldn't go through the process of ordering again. read more

When we called up to book the wine tasting, Derek asked if we were actual wine drinkers since he wasted a day driving down to London for the last tasting and no one bought any wine. This made us feel pressured to buy wine on the day to make it worth his while even though we were expecting the tasting to be an informative, fun event, not a marketing session! I was very disappointed with the tasting I was expecting to learn about the art of wine tasting and appreciating flavours but instead we were told where the wine was from and what type it was, something I could do myself from looking at the bottle. We were asked to rate the wine and guess the price, which was the only entertaining part of the event (due to the witty banter of my friends, not Derek's commentary). The amount of wine we were given for each sample was laughable I'd estimate it was about 15ml, just enough for one small sip. I've been to several different wine tastings and I don't expect to get half a glass but I do expect to get enough wine to be able to get a proper taste! As if the wine tasting wasn't disappointing enough, it's now been nearly 2 months and we're still waiting on our wine to be delivered!! We've been given all the same excuses as the other reviewerss have mentioned (London traffic, ill health, wine out of stock, etc) and considering these have been the same excuses from November 2012 I'm starting to think this is all a scam. In the last correspondence from Derek he said he was unwell and therefore unable to deliver the wine himself so he would look into arranging a courier. We said we prefered a courier anyway but we haven't heard anything back regarding this. It's been over a week so I can only guess that he is trying to shirk his legal responsibility to deliver goods paid for. I would advise anyone thinking about booking a wine tasting to avoid this one since you 1.) won't learn anything about wine 2.) won't be given an adequate sample to properly taste the wine 3.) won't receive the goods you've paid for. read more

I would tell any potential customer in London to avoid this company. I hosted a wine night and we purchased about £250 worth of wine. We were told we would receive it within 3 weeks. I had to continue to chase up the delivery as Derek 'was really busy' and 'London has bad traffic' (it does between 5 pm and 7 pm). I was finally told to be at my flat to wait for the delivery. I left work early to be there and was called 20 minutes beforehand with his cancellation. I was then told I would 'definitely, definitely get a call on Sunday to schedule another delivery. Three Sundays later, I hadn't heard anything. One friend moved to the States within this time (2 months) and another had already left for the holidays and I had given up on the idea of using the wine for a Christmas party. I was finally left a voice mail saying he would call back and reschedule a delivery, but then he called to say he was at my door (I was at my office out of town). I was furious and wanted to cancel because two friends couldn't use the wine anyway, but he said 'I've already processed the payment' and he left the wine with my neighbor. The wine evening was enjoyable (although included no actual knowledge of wine) but the wine is mediocre at best if you already shop at Majestic or Waitrose. I was disgusted with the level of service. read more

This company deserves no stars I have nothing but negative comments about this company. DO NOT waste your time and money dealing with them. wine is over priced, service is the worst i have EVER experienced and i am still months later waiting for a refund for the wine promised to me in November that never arrived! Unprofessional is an understatement! Not only did Derek drip wine on the carpet he also drip it on myself and a guest with no apology. he also continually cancelled delivery at a moments notice 'due to traffic' and would expect us to cancel plan to stay and wait for him because he might be able to make the delivery another time. I have NEVER been so disappointed! read more

If I could give 0 stars I wouldIt doesn't even deserve one! We had a wine tasting on 28 April, 6 weeks later we still have no wine or even an idea of when it will be delivered. Derek has stopped answering our emails/calls, when he has answered it is always an excuse of why our wine is not ready for delivery. I would not recommend this company or this tasting in any way, it feels like nothing more than a SCAM! The evening wasn't even that good, pours were small and we learned nothing about the actual wine! read more

What a fab evening! Derek was friendly and professional and got involved in the conversation going on! We really enjoyed the evening, and found it was something different from the usual at home parties! Wine was lovely and plenty of choice, prices reasonable for what your getting! Was fun to mark the wines out of ten and enjoyed the banter or guessing the prices! Would book again, actually cant wait for when my friend has her party! All the best, Kally and friends x read more

Whilst the evening was good and everyone had a good time, we are now 2 months on from when the event was and we STILL haven't received the wine order that was placed on the night. Communication from Spa Wines Direct has been non existent and we have had to chase for updates as to when the wine is going to be delivered. The money was taken the day after I might add! Would not recommend them to be used as they are unreliable. read more

Great wine tasting evening followed by a customer service nightmare: - delivery later than promised and no communication about any delay. I had to chase. - wine ordered replaced without checking if this was ok or any communication at all I had to request clarification. When a return / refund was requested my friends were belittled. I am still waiting for refund 7 weeks on. no communication, no customer service = AVOID read more

HI Derek,Once again many thanks for hosting a brilliant evening.Kate was thrilled with the birthday treat.I was quite impressed with the quality of the wines especially as I suffer with acid reflux and yet had no issues whatsoever and no hanging over either,most impressive considering everybody else was decanting the ones they didn't like as much into my glass!Thanks again DerekKind regards,Martyn (Holliday) read more

Ordered and promised 2 weeks delivery . 2 MONTHS later we finally got our delivery but not before many ignored e mails and county court threats!! AVOID !! Derek. I am not interested in your reply and will not even read it .. if you spent as much time in sorting your customer service out as you did in trying to defend your totally disgraceful attitude to your customers you'd have a thriving business!!!! read more

Ordered a bottle of wine on 20th November emphasised the importance of it arriving by 20th December. Ample time to deliver a single bottle of wine you would think Not so. A month later and despite numerous email and phone conversations to underline that the wine was a birthday gift and therefore was required by the 20th of Dec, there was still no wine. Avoid Spa Wines Direct. read more

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. Derek Shepherd did a wine tasting back in May and has yet to deliver the wines ordered despite taking full payment and promising delivery within 2-3 weeks. He has lied, cheated and stolen and we are looking to pursue him and this company through the small claims court. read more

Don't use this company ! We had a wine tasting evening in June , Derek took are money for the wine we ordered, and still no Wine ! All you get from him when he bothers to answer his messages are excuses. We have contacted watchdog and are now going to pursue him through the small claims court. read more