Raise it before you confirm delivery
Confirming delivery frees the seller's payout, and the in-app dispute process closes with it. So the order of operations matters: open the box, check the wine against the listing and the photographs, and only then confirm.
- 1Photograph the problem, with the bottle and the packaging as it arrived.
- 2Message the seller on the order. Most of this is a misunderstanding and settles in a reply.
- 3If it does not settle, raise a dispute on the order. The seller's payout stays held back while it runs.
What counts as not as described
- A different wine, vintage, format or quantity from the one listed.
- A fill level or condition materially worse than the grade given.
- Damage that was not declared and is not visible in the photographs.
- A bottle that arrived broken or leaking.
Bottle variation in mature wine is not a fault. A forty-year-old bottle that was graded honestly and turns out tired is the risk of buying old wine, and it is why the fill level and the photographs are worth the time before bidding.
What Encave can and cannot do
The seller's payout is held back until the handover is confirmed, we can see the whole order thread, and we can decide a dispute while that hold is still on. We cannot inspect the bottle — it never comes near us — and we cannot reopen the in-app process once the seller has been paid. Your rights in that situation are set out in the Terms.