I called at noon today and ask if I could pick up two bottles at 5pm for which I received a purchase acknowledgment. I was told that I need to alert them 24 hours ahead of time.
I said that I want to give 24 hours notice and would pick them up sometime later this week. The lady I spoke with said that that won’t work. They want to know the day ahead of time. Given the size of the pick up, I got a little irritated.
It’s not like I’m requesting three cases. I doubt I will be dealing with them in the future.
A number of stores with which I deal have off-site storage and require prior notice for a pick-up. Especially if we are talking about only two bottles, I could imagine them wanting substantial prior notice. I am not sure I see the issue here, but maybe I don’t understand.
Flickinger is the best, have dealt with them at retail and consignment level for several years. Can’t think of another outfit that provides better service.
My guess the issue here is customers in the past have made requests several days in advance and then not shown up, causing Flickinger to spend time pulling and then returning the wines. They have a low overhead model and there isn’t fluff in there for unapplied labor. Or perhaps they simply don’t have a large staging area to hold wine for pickup. Thus the 24 hour window to limit quantity in the pickup area.
Flickinger has gotten a little weird lately. From being very competitive, the daily offer prices the wines around 1.5-3 times current market, and since the wines are usually readily available elsewhere, I fail to understand the business model. Also they don’t take Amex, and I have been trying to cull CCs, and gave up my Visas/MCs, so I too probably will not be buying from them in future. Which is sad, because Alastair is like me, a cricket nut, and one of the few people I can talk to about this important subject.
It’s amazing to me how little it takes to make people stop dealing with a merchant. This seems like just a little bit of extra work to get exactly what you want. Briefly irritating, but little more.
Off the subject, Mark - you might want to reconsider. Many, many merchants in Europe don’t take or charge a large fee for Amex.
I think you assessment is correct.
I cancelled the order and received an e-mail that they charged me a cancellation fee o 15%. Now that is customer service!
Most of my purchases in Europe are wire transfers, as they also charge for Visa and MCs although less than they do for Amex. If I start seeing a need I will get another Visa, but I really like the protection Amex gives me.
I buy a lot of wine from them, because they have a good selection, especially of Burgs and Rhone wines, are in-state and can ship to me with no problem. Since they ship, I’ve never picked up wine, but have noted their policy prior.
As I recall from when I inquired about storage, they do not allow direct customer access to the storage area, but require advance notice to pick up wines. That was a deal killer for me. Other than that, I’ve had nothing but good experiences with them, although their website doesn’t seem to work properly with any of my browsers.
Somehow I feel like we’re not getting the full story. I have transacted with Flickinger countless times and the few occasions in which they’ve made a mistake, they’ve fully done right by me.
+1. Not doubting the story portion but Flickinger has been solid with shipping. And I’m one of those
PIA customers that wants a picture of every bottle against a white background under bright light before I purchase.
I actually understand that they couldn’t accommodate my pick up on the same day. I don’t have a problem with that. What irritated me was that I wanted them to have ready “two bottles” for pick up later in the week. I was told that that wouldn’t work for them and that I would have to make another call, presumably 24 hour in advance of the day of the pick up. I think that’s jerking a customer around.
I’ve dealt with a lot of wine sellers including HDH, TCWC and WineBid. All require advanced notice of a pick up. But once I called and said I’d be there sometime in the next week, they said OK and had the wines ready. Flickingers obviously doesn’t think that’s reasonable to store “two bottles” and that I should call again.
It’s also interesting that they applied a cancellation fee of 15% to my canceled order. I’ve seen other sellers apply a “restocking fee” which I understand. But they didn’t need to restock my wines because they were not ready for pick up. All they had to do is press a bottom on a computer. It didn’t require hiring a temporary accountant or other special efforts, it’s simply another punitive policy aimed at jerking customers around.
I really like Alastair as well, and have overall had a very positive experience with them for many years.
That said, they do have some weird rules. For instance, no order can be < $100. I once bought a bottle or two, adding up to maybe $95, and Alastair tried to explain this policy to me, but I just cancelled the order.
At many of these retailers I find it very dependent on the individual with whom you communicate. For years I found Zachys to have the worst fulfillment, so I stopped buying from them. Then somehow I was introduced to Peter Messa, who is just terrific.