Reserved item not there!

Sazere

Advice please:-

Reserved a couple of items for collection from my local store between Christmas and New Year. Some were in stock and were reserved for immediate collection. One was reserved but for collection from Wed 2nd Jan (presumably not in stock so would come from warehouse to store).

I received a confirmation e-mail with two reservation numbers.

Upon trying to collect the item on Wed 2nd Jan I was told in store that the reservation number did not exist. Furthermore the item had been out of stock since beginning of November.

I have a confirmation e-mail and text with the reservation number but the item is not in store? What happens now? The store personnel said the item is out of stock and there is nothing they can do about it, they will not be getting anymore in!

jonny1rfc

Argos worker here.

Was the item you were trying to order in an Argos Extra catalogue number? (Any number beginning with 0).

If so, around Christmas time there was a problem with the system which was saying that the OUT OF STOCK EXTRA ITEMS could be ordered in for WEDNESDAY. But this was a glitch and in-store we were told at the tills we could inform the customer of the mistake. Online reservations were the ones which could not be informed that there was actually no stock or scheduled deliverys for the argos extra items. The fact that yours was scheduled for a Wednesday assumes this was the case.

Silly and mis-leading info from the 'Gos.

Hope this helps

LuciferTDark

I phoned my local Argos to reserve something from the normal catalogue last month & when I arrived the next day to pay for it, it had been sold. Unhappy would be an understatement.

Sazere

Thanks jonny1rfc but no it was 832/5354 (nothing exciting just a child toilet seat).

It was just a pain going to collect and finding the item not there. Argos is not local to us and we had travelled purposely to get this item.

jonny1rfc

Sazere wrote: »

Thanks jonny1rfc but no it was 832/5354 (nothing exciting just a child toilet seat)..

Ahh, I know what it could have been. Ok this may be hard to explain. Stock comes from different warehouses.

For my store:
Argos Extra comes from Corby, England
Mainline stock (Wloverhampton and Mossend)

In November, all the stock Wolverhampton supplied to stores was now going to be supplied by the Corby Warehouse.

Your bathroom item would have been supplied by Wolverhampton originally but now it comes to stores via the Corby Warehouse. During the transition some problems did occur. i.e. stock showing up that is not actually available!

Not many people would be able to tell you this in-store, its just I do work with the stock and stock systems.


About travelling a long distance to the store. On the in-side back of your catalogue you will find your nearest store number. You could always give them a fone to check the stock is now in-stock. They call also amend your reservation for up to 2 weeks if you can not make it to the store in time.

Call about 30mins before the store opens. A member of managment will always answer the phone at this time. During normal trading - the phones do't get answered much. Due to under-staffing!

Sazere

Thanks I didn't know you could extend a reservation - useful info for the future. Yes we have tried phoning before but not often anyone answers, now I know to phone earlier.

nilrs

i had this problem last year with argos, reserved a wii nunchuck ( when they were very hard to get) and turned up at our local store to be told that the reservation had been cancelled, after husband had a real moan to the person in charge, he told us that it had been cancelled as his manager wanted it :mad: , but he did give it to us in the end. probably did not mean to tell us that but he had put his foot in it.

i am now more cautious when reserving from argos, but have never had a problem with them since.

nilrs

Derek_Duval

I did a 200 mile round trip for a wii, when I got there it took them about 15 mins for them to find it, can't help but suspect a member of staff had hid it to keep it for themselves.

jonny1rfc

hmmm not always....

depending on when deliveries arrive at a store there may be a delivery ongoing when you purchased your wii. Generally at xmas there is about 1000 items delivered in every day. About 25 cages full of toys and your wii may be at the bottom of a cage. Therefore needs locating. 15mins is near an average waiting time at peak. If indeed you were in at a peak time, off-peak I would say thats suspisiouly loooonnnnnnng.

ClarkeEJ

I've had the same problems with Argos on several occasions in the past. On items which are bargain priced or hard to get hold of... I have been told reservation number does not exist, items have been stolen from front of the shop etc... but I had the feeling the staff had bought them themselves.... its annoying when you have to travel to collect and this happens.....

jonny1rfc

That is strange to hear...

They can look at the movements on your item to see if it was originally reserved.

If it was reserved then they can check at the computer terminals if it has a) been sold b) expired or c) cancelled.

If your reservation was confirmed then they should be able to give you a valid reason for it now saying that it does not exist.

As for the stock supposed to be on the shop floor, the items which are put out on the shop floor is counted once a week. This count usually highlights about 40 errors. Therefore, stock going walkies. This prevents people from being able to buy items which are missing.

Although if someone has stole the item before we come along to count it, then theres not much we can do about that.


As for staff taking the best deals, it is against company policy and would result in a disiplinary. If you reserve an item and a member of staff cancels it, then they should be reported to management.

When you make a reservation...online, phone etc. We are produced with a ticket to say the stock has been reserved. We then check the stock to see if it is 'physically there', if it is not there or not the right quantity for many reasons (usually delivery errors) then the reservation needs to be cancelled first and the stock is amended out of the system.

There is no way of alerting the customer before they come instore if they have reserved online. But if a phone number is left when reserving over the phone or in-store then I would almost garuntee that someone will phone you to let you know what has happened.

About 80% of reservations are over the internet, so if there are any problems we have no way of contacting the customer.