A Man Places a $10,000 Order He Never Intended to Pick Up After Total Wine Refuses to Sell Him a Bottle He Drove 60 Miles For

Imagine braving a raging storm and a 60-mile drive for that perfect holiday wine, only to get carded at checkout like you were smuggling contraband. The reason? A random stranger happened to enter the store at the same time.

That was the absurd nightmare one Redditor turned into a legendary tale of retail rebellion on r/pettyrevenge.

Fuming after Total Wine staff refused her sale under a bizarre “group” policy, she hit back with a $10,000 mobile order of bulky bottles she never picked up.

The move forced a refund and sparked a meltdown from management. Reddit is cheering like it is New Year’s Eve, but the question remains: was this sweet justice or a storm in a wine glass?

Let’s uncork this corker – Here’s original post:

 

The Story

The Redditor described herself as a loyal customer who had driven an hour through miserable weather for a rare wine. After happily browsing for over an hour, her day came crashing down at the register.

The cashier asked for ID, which she presented without issue. But then came the curveball: the cashier insisted a man who walked in at the same time also needed to show ID.

Problem was, that “companion” wasn’t a companion at all. He had left half an hour earlier, yet management claimed the cameras showed them entering together. The logic was bizarre. She was alone, yet the store branded her as part of a phantom “group.”

Instead of empathy, the manager laughed and told her she “looked young.” A follow-up call to the store boss only rubbed salt in the wound.

According to her post, the boss smugly doubled down, insisting that “all parties” entering together count as a group purchase, whether or not they actually shopped together.

The shopper left humiliated and furious. But she did not let the matter end there.

She placed a massive $10,000 order online for heavy, high-value bottles, cases of Tito’s, rare wines, and items locked behind glass, that staff would have to haul out for curbside pickup.

And then she never showed. After 10 days, the unclaimed order was canceled, leaving staff with sore backs and a refund to process.

Expert Opinion

Retail run-ins can feel like a bad blind date: full of promise, ending in disappointment. This tale is a textbook example of customer service gone sour.

Total Wine’s stated policy is that anyone appearing under 30 must show ID, and “all members of a group may be carded.” On paper, that prevents underage sales.

In practice, stretching the rule to cover random strangers is absurd.

A 2023 National Retail Federation study found that 40 percent of shoppers abandon stores after a single negative interaction, especially when policies are applied in a heavy-handed way.

The real failure here was timing. If management believed she was part of a group, they could have addressed it mid-shop.

Letting her wander the aisles for over an hour, then rejecting her at checkout, was a guaranteed recipe for resentment.

Even more telling, her local branch had never carded her under such circumstances. The inconsistency made it clear: this was less about policy and more about power.

On the flip side, liquor chains face enormous fines for underage sales. Some states impose penalties of $10,000 per violation.

It is possible staff had recently been disciplined or warned, making them overzealous. Still, treating customers like suspects rather than guests destroys loyalty.

Retail consultant Paco Underhill, author of Why We Buy, puts it bluntly:

“Policies protect profits, but pettiness poisons loyalty. Customers remember the sting, not the statute.”

This shopper’s revenge order drove that point home with painful clarity.

The Bigger Picture

Total Wine is not alone in facing backlash. The Better Business Bureau lists dozens of complaints from customers citing rude refusals, inconsistent enforcement, and humiliating carding experiences.

Social media is full of TikToks and posts from shoppers over 30 and even over 60, venting about being treated like teenagers.

At its core, this story is about the balance between compliance and courtesy. Alcohol sales demand responsibility, but empathy and respect should not vanish at the register. Customers want to feel valued, not policed.

Here’s how people reacted to the post:

Many commenters shared similar frustrations, with some noting ID policies are common in college towns, but most agreed the store went overboard and made the OP feel unfairly singled out.

Users piled on with stories of overzealous policies and rude treatment at Total Wine, from demanding IDs of random bystanders to managers grabbing carts.

Others swapped tales of absurd liquor store ID policies, from clerks demanding proof from random strangers to staff photocopying IDs for years.

This Redditor’s wine-store showdown shows how quickly one rude refusal can ferment into a major fallout. She drove through storms for a bottle of joy, only to be turned away by a technicality.

Her revenge order popped the cork on Total Wine’s rigid policies, exposing how customer frustration can spiral into full-blown rebellion.

Was her $10,000 stunt a perfect pour of justice or an over-aged grudge that soured into pettiness? Would you have ghosted the order, escalated to corporate, or shrugged and taken your business elsewhere

? In the end, the story proves one truth: in retail, respect is the rarest vintage of all.