I had the wine I purchased from Flickingers messengered to me so I’ve never been to their location but is the issue on pick up dates more a question of not having retail style staff on site to accommodate your arrival at any possible time in the next few days? just a thought.
Glad you posted this. I too have 3 to 5 bottles there and in the past could give them a 2-3 hour heads up … not any more. I will be buying and using them much LESS - service has dropped off big time and not user friendly.
I think its pretty chancy not carrying a Visa/MC in case of an emergency. There are still too many vendors who won’t accept Amex/JCB/Discover etc. There are lots of pretty good no annual fee V/MC cards out there, so its not even like you have to pay up for that backup plan. Just put an occasional charge on the card to keep it active.
Purchase protection, or other supportive pro consumer policies, depends on exactly what the situation is.