I started using this app many years ago as a way to track and learn about the wines I’ve tried, and it was a great tool for that. Over time, as I became more confident in my taste, I bought a lot of wine through the app. Literally hundreds of cases. But then they started down the road of “everything-we-can-get-away-with” marketing. They took an app that was literally designed to advertise wines to you and invite you to buy them, and started placing video ads in front of you before you could even use the app. Then they took away free shipping on larger orders. Then they started insisting that to get free shipping, you must purchase a monthly membership. And so, as many once successful companies do, they slowly abandoned the needs of the customer in favor of their own, even at the expense of the customers that made them successful in the first place. I should’ve written this review over a year ago. Out of laziness, I finally just got around to disabling the notifications I’ve been ignoring for so long. I haven’t uninstalled yet because I want to look over my ratings before I do. But I haven’t bought wine from them in well over a year. I hope their new business model works for them. It does not work for me.

Here’s my honest feedback about your app. I’ve been using it for about 6 years now. When I first started using Vivino, I loved it and would recommend it to all my wine friends and enthusiasts. Then you started putting in ads in the most annoying fashion. Your leadership and marketing team should be ashamed with your various implementation tactics. Of course, you’re going to alienate your users by taking features away and annoying them to death unless they move to the premium version. A better way would have been to entice people by the wonderful features your premium platform offers. Now I personally won’t move to your premium version just based on principle and won’t recommend your app to anyone. I just purchased a Le Cache 500 bottle wine cabinet and thought about switching to another app that I would have been happy to pay for. Instead I have adapted my usage to your free app and put up with the misguided changes you continue to make like not being able to edit the prior History notes. I don’t mind how the current ads are being done but I would never click on them to subscribe to a product via an ad. I’m disappointed that I can no longer recommend Vivino based on the poor choices of your ad implementation processes and changing features. Sad that the first review that pops up when you search the Vivino app is 2 years old because all the recent reviews are so poor. That should tell you a lot.

I would strongly caution you before, considering using this platform and company to purchase wine. I have purchased wine through them twice. The first time my order was delivered on time, and to my satisfaction. The second time, however, the order was never received, and the company has been very difficult to deal with. Reaching support people through telephone or chat is an exercise in frustration. Despite having a US office on the West Coast, I have found the company difficult to reach during normal business hours. Through chat my experiences have been equally frustrating. Everything is responded with “we will get back to you within 24 to 48 hours.” My recent order was never delivered and it’s approaching two weeks from the time I ordered it, and I still don’t have my wine. The company is refusing to take responsibility, claiming that the package was delivered, and that I should ”ask my neighbors.” FedEx says the delivery was signed for, but no one has shared any proof. No one was even at my residence the day they claim it was delivered. Sadly, I’ll likely have to work directly with my credit card company and also alert our State’s AG because of the poor / improper handling of alcohol through the mail.