Annoyed - 2

[phoenix198]

Similar to oclocker in an earlier thread I too placed an order for a well priced graphics card on 16/9 and my credit card was charged around £93 on that night.

A day later I receive the e-mails notifying me that the invoice has reached stage 1 and stage 2 of ordering process, but I was slightly perturbed to note that the item's status on the website had changed from in stock to pre-order.

On 18/9 I receive a delayed order notification informing of a temporary shortage in stock and advising me of an estimated lead date of 25/9/07. The implication being that more stock was expected but that I may have to wait a week or so before my order might be dispatched.

On 19/9 (maybe am 20/9), aware that the item I had ordered was not a recent make and model, I used the order query system to ask whether the estimated lead date was sound and whether there would definitely be further stocks of the item coming. Scan's (very prompt) response on 20/9 was that the item had been discontinued and that I could either choose an alternative or cancel the order and request a refund. As I had wanted the specific item that I had ordered, I cancelled the order.

My point is:

Scan accepted the order and charged my credit card on 16/9 - at the date and time of the order.

Their delayed order notification was both innacurate and misleading - it told me that there was a temporary stock shortage when in fact the item had been discontinued, and stated an estimated lead date which implied that if I waited (long enough) my order might be fulfilled.

If I hadn't queried Scan on the status of the lead date, how long would it have been before they told me that the item was discontinued? At the estimated lead date? Before? After?

I accept that there are some online retailers who charge credit cards at the date/time of order, and others who do so at the date/time of dispatch of the order (Amazon spring to mind). However for a retailer who does the former to not have a live stock system that automatically recognises nil stock at the time of order and advises the customer of that fact before charging a credit card is, in my opinion, unsatisfactory. And to compound this by then misinforming the customer of the expected stock status during business hours is even more so.

[IAmATeaf]

Scan always charge at the time of order placement, I too queried this ages ago as I ordered a mobo which was in stock when the order was placed but then got a out of stock on the day it was due to ship but the payment had been taken 5 or so days before.

I think the emails are automated, so if item can't/doesn't ship you get an automated email.

There have been various mentions of improvements to the stock situation but the bottom line is that's the way Scan operates.

[Chris P]

phoenix198

We can only apologies for this, when the order was placed the 512Mb XFX 7900GTX, PCI-E (x16), Mem 1600 MHz, GPU 650 MHz, 24 Pipes, Dual DVI-I/HDTV had not been marked as End Of Life by the manufacturer. Unfortunately on the 20/09/07 the manufacturer made us aware the card was now EOL and thus removed from the web site.

I can assure you when the order was processed and the automated e-mail sent to confirm the shortage of stock, we were not aware the card was in fact EOL and the order was taken in good faith.

I can see the order has bow been canceled but hope we can look forward to your custom in the future

Best Regards

[phoenix198]

phoenix198

We can only apologies for this, when the order was placed the 512Mb XFX 7900GTX, PCI-E (x16), Mem 1600 MHz, GPU 650 MHz, 24 Pipes, Dual DVI-I/HDTV had not been marked as End Of Life by the manufacturer. Unfortunately on the 20/09/07 the manufacturer made us aware the card was now EOL and thus removed from the web site.

I can assure you when the order was processed and the automated e-mail sent to confirm the shortage of stock, we were not aware the card was in fact EOL and the order was taken in good faith.

I can see the order has bow been canceled but hope we can look forward to your custom in the future

Best Regards

Thanks for your response, and aplogy accepted.

I understand how the error happened (we're all human) and accept that all your communications were made in good faith. I was just rather frustrated at the time and needed to blow off steam but I've calmed down now (a bit).

I still avidly scan (no pun intended) the Today Only offers so its quite likely you'll see me order again ...

[danroyle]

could be worse i ordered from overclockers clearance once and after 4 days got no despatch email nothing except the order processed email, phoned them up to find item was out of stock and EOL. if i hadnt phoned them i'd probably still be waiting now (2yrs on) for my card to be despatched

scan do try there best to keep us informed as soon as they know stuff