Out of stock here out of stock there grrrr too late now!!

dobbie82

soo many orders ive done online in the past 6 weeks have been delivered and things missing because they are out of stock, why let me order them if they arent there!!

this has been with studio cards, ebay sellers, play.com, amazon market place sellers and lots more

:-(


ordered xmas decorations online about 3 weeks ago, just received a letter saying they are out of stock, and my credit card will be refunded please place an order again soon as more stock will be arriving... bit bl**dy late now!!

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

eyelinerprincess

Ever tried your lovely local town? It's this new fangled invention where you go into a shop! And then you SEE the things you want to buy BEFORE you buy them! And you can get them all the same day without waiting on the postman!

I've used it for most of my presents and I would highly recommend it!

dobbie82

yeah, tried it with 2 kids and was a nightmare! did quite a lot of it in local shops (the very few that are pushchair friendly) but my nearest argos etc are an hours drive away

Codswallop

Shopping in town however has other associated costs.

For those living just outside Central London, we have:
parking/meter costs
the congestion charge £8-10
petrol costs

PLUS companies are offering excellent 20% discounts + Free Delivery that they simply aren't offering in their shops. No wonder internet shopping is at a record level this Christmas!

MissEyre

Well, each has it's advantages and disadvantages-if you can put up with the hassle of high street shopping, you know exactly what is available. If you go for the convenience of internet shopping, the flipside of it is massively overloaded websites and distribution centres, which can lead to rubbish availability. I do sympathise with the OP, as you shouldn't have been allowed to order stuff that wasn't there, but, as a certain money saving expert :money: has been known to point out, Christmas is not a surprise to anyone-it's on the same date every year, so maybe internet shoppers would do better to buy things a bit earlier than December? That way you are far more likely to get exactly what you want, and don't have the stress and expense of trying to come up with a last minute present for someone you thought was sorted.

david69_2

I've had the same problem with a company called usc they sell clothes,I ordered 2 items to cover the p+p amount of £4.50 the total order came to £60 but they sent me an email saying that 1 of the items was out of stock but they had dispatched the 1 item and charged my cc .
I'm not happy about it because i ordered 2 items to justify the p+p charges and when i asked them when will they send the missing item they said it wont be coming back in stock but they didnt give me the option of cancelling the order .

IvanOpinion

This is getting more and more common due to 'Just in Time' stocking practices. Due to reduced profit margins many companies hold very little stock because firstly it is expensive to purchase it in the hope of selling it and secondly the warehouse space to hold such stock is also expensive. Therefore many companies work on 'promises' that a particular level of stock can be supplied at some point of time. This was a big problem with printed catalogues which had to be prepared many months in advance ... and in between times a supplier may have gone bankrupt etc.

One would have thought that internet sellers would be able to handle this better but that is only possible if they have an integrated stock and ordering system .. some don't (I know of one big company that used to take the orders in via a website, printed them out and then keyed them into their order system.

some companies will take on more orders than stock (in the hope they can get additional stock), sometimes their suppliers let them down and can not meet the demand, on other occasions stock that is meant to be in the warehouse has disappeared or been damaged. there are many many reasons for this and we have to accept that this is little more than an inconvenience related to 21st century living.

ivan

Timmne

eyelinerprincess wrote: »

Ever tried your lovely local town? It's this new fangled invention where you go into a shop! And then you SEE the things you want to buy BEFORE you buy them! And you can get them all the same day without waiting on the postman!

I've used it for most of my presents and I would highly recommend it!

For Christ's sake! What is it with people on this board???

It seems to be a competition these days with who can post the most unhelpful, thoughtless and rude reply to a VENT (a quick reminder that venting does not necessarily require any replies with advice)!

If someone vents about something and you don't like it, don't waste your time thinking up a crappy reply - it's not witty or clever; just a little frustrating to have to read.

Markyt

IvanOpinion wrote: »

One would have thought that internet sellers would be able to handle this better but that is only possible if they have an integrated stock and ordering system ..

Most internet sellers don't hold any stock, and just work as agents or middlemen for the manufacturer.

IvanOpinion

Markyt wrote: »

Most internet sellers don't hold any stock, and just work as agents or middlemen for the manufacturer.

:beer: I was trying to be generic and cover both the large and small organisations. You are correct that many of the smaller one person outfits rely totally on promises from other suppliers ... one that comes to mind ere the people advertising George Best £5 notes on eBay before they were even issued and NOBoDy was guaranteed them (and some idiots even paid more than £5 for them ). I also know of one person who saw a fantastic bargain and advertised and sold 4 on eBay at significantly more .. he then went to buy them but they had sold out.

Last night my brother was telling me that he was so desperate to get some toy for one of his kids for Christmas that he travelled a 200 mile round trip only to find they were out of stock (despite them saying by phone they would keep him one) .. he then paid (at least) £20 over the RRP to secure one on eBay.


Ivan

smcaul

IvanOpinion wrote: »

(I know of one big company that used to take the orders in via a website, printed them out and then keyed them into their order system.
ivan

I know/knew of 3 different IT retailers who used to have the exact same system, used to make me laugh, people thought it was some hi tec company using a wonderfully designed website and in fact all the order process did was generate an email of all the details which was sent to someone sat there inputting it all as if they had phoned. Orders used to back up if they were on lunch or had a day off :rotfl: