Wines for Humanity — Local services in Naperville

We are extremely disappointed with Lori Lynn Mesko from Wines for Humanity. She is extremely unorganized and made scheduling our tasting and ordering our wine a terrible experience. During our process we had a number of questions she couldn't answer, didn't follow up on or gave us the wrong advice or no advice. Throughout the entire process she kept asking us to text her our personal credit card number for a $22 shipping fee. Mind you, we already paid for this tasting, we don't text or give our personal credit card number to stangers. We offered to pay her venmo, zelle, check or cash at the event, all of which she said no to and keep pressing us.

When we purchased this event at a charity gala auction, it was supposed to come with a wine basket, when I asked Lori about that, she said there was nothing she could do about it (even though we paid for it).

It got worse from there....

She sent us THREE different wine lists after we had picked out our wine, each time stating "opps, here is the updated one." She gave us a deadline for our order to be in by, which we met, however, she started texting us the next day at 10PM, stating we picked premium wine that she couldn't order because it wasn't in our package (first time we heard this) we told her we wanted it anyway and we would pay the up charge but she said she couldn't order it. She asked us to send her a different bottle in place of the premium bottle and since my husband and I were already in bed, we told her we would do so the next day.

Well at 5:50 AM the next day she started texting us again waking us up on vacation harassing us for the substitute. I let her know we don't do business at 10 PM or before 6 AM especially for a wine tasting and to order whatever was available, since we met the deadline and she was the one who decided to wait until 10pm the following day to review it and place the order then started threatening us that our wine wouldn't be delivered on time.

She then said she was a single mom working 3 jobs asking for our sympathy to dismiss her unorganization and inappropriate behavior and texts - which again was totally inappropriate.

I was then told I had to order the premium wines through a link myself immediately, which cost me $88 on top of the wine tasting we already paid for and purchased which was supposed to come with 6 bottles of wine.

We get home from vacation to find a box of wine left on our porch, not shipped, hand delivered and the box wasn't even closed.

There was only 7 bottles of wine. There was supposed to be 8, 6 that came with the tasting and the 2 extras we ordered. So waking us up at 10 PM and before 6 AM to get our wine substitute was for nothing because she didn't even order it!!

At this point, we texted her to cancel the event and asked for her managers information and we never heard back from her.

This was THE WORST experience, do not book through them! Now we have 20 people coming to our home on Thursday, not enough wine after paying $100's to purchase this event and no wine hostess, this place is...

As a food and beverage professional, I have served multiple wines at special dinners for the membership of the private club I work for seasonally. I knew how much our patrons enjoyed it, but had never really had the chance to enjoy it myself until Lee B. asked me to host a sampling in MY home, relaxing with my friends. She provided me with a variety of choices for foods I could pair with the wines she would bring. The fun my friends and I had that night is hard to put into a few words. The red Solo cups that are a staple at our usual parties were replaced by elegant crystal glasses brought to our door. Every course in the flight of wines treated both my friends, and my girlfriend and I to a scrumptious pairing. Not only were the combinations fabulous, the wines themselves are unique. Anyone in the wine business knows the ratings provided by major publications have skewed towards the same wines with different labels. The wines brought to my home are some I would never have tried on my own. It opened my eyes to the fact that the world of wine is much deeper than what a tag at a wine superstore would have us believe. And I knew I wanted to show others the joy of discovering that you don't need a flashy name like Parker, or Tanzer to "tell" you which wine to like. Just a glass with a taste and friends to enjoy it with. Unlike the hair club guy, I didn't buy the company, but I decided to join the family of Wine Advisors now conducting samplings in fourteen states, while raising funds to prevent homelessness. It is that much fun. Something to feel good about. I'm glad I took Lee up...

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!!!!! What a nightmare. My sister bought a groupon as a gift for me. That gift turned into a nightmare. 20 phone calls to figure out and upsell me on the wines that I didn't want. I was told I would only get a half a glass of wine out of a 10 bottle wine tasting. "Who wants to come to my wine tasting? Not me either!!!"

This is a scam and nightmare to have to deal with. Below was the final straw with my wine coordinator.

As a reminded please have glasses, pens, and a roll of paper towels out, refrigerate the whites and sparkling, and gratuity, as stated, is not included with tastings (average ranges between $125 and $175 depending how you feel the service was at the tasting).

RUN RUN RUN. I am going to pay a guy $125-$175 to explain to me how a $20 bottle of wine is good. I'm no math genius, but something doesn't add up. Thanks, but no thanks WINES...