Your doing it again.

[daza]

Annoying the hell out if me.

Story goes like this I order a X3210 (xeon cpu LN20872) on wednesday and according to your site its been in stock since monday when I had my eye on it, so order went through delivery today I thought great.

I waited 8pm came and went last night and nothing had been dispatched so 9am this morning I get one of those emails saying my order has been delayed,yay.

Anyway I sent an email this morning to you asking when the cpu would be dispatched and jsut now got a phonecall saying the cpu had just came into stock and that it would be dispatched asap ok thats nice.

But why did it just come into stock even though its been in stock since monday am I missing something here.

And this has nothing to do with delayed deliverys Im more annoyed that it was showing in stock when I ordered only to be told that its came into stock today.

But I will commend you on your customer services twice Ive been called now for orders, doesnt happen at other places I order its usually a long wait for an email, so well done.

[Saracen]

I don't speak for Scan and can't answer your specific query, but I can suggest a plausible scenario.

Firstly, few if any online retailers have realtime stock systems. The people that have realtime info like that are the likes of stockbrokers.

Think about it. You point your browser at a retailer and get a page showing "in stock". But that data on your screen is now "cached". One second after that info is sent to you, one of the 100 other people currently browsing Scan (or whomever) orders 50 items. Well, then they said "in stock", they had 40. Now they've got -10 (40 to fulfil that last order and 10 on back order order).

So, the system then generates a mail saying out of stock. They may well have been in stock when you looked at the screen, but out of stock by the time you ordered. So you get the mail, and ask when they'll be back in stock. But meantime, yesterday, the system had detected stock levels were getting low (below a reorder trigger point) and had ordered. That order was fulfilled on the morning your email arrived, so you get a call saying they're back in stock.


I'm not trying to make excuses for what happened to you, because it would irritate me if it happened to me. But there's another side to the story.

Stock control is a huge problem for any retailer. You have to try to anticipate demand over a given period of time, and reorder in time to have new stock arrive just as you need it., The principle is called, surprisingly, "just in time" or JIT. Part of the problem is that stock-holding is expensive. Again, think about the problems. You have 10,000 product lines. To hold enough stock to be SURE you'll never run out requires a vast warehouse facility. I don't know of ANY retailer, and I mean ANY, anywhere, that has a facility that extensive.

Secondly, to get that stock you either have to buy it or take an extensive credit facility, and that can involve considerable risk or cost, or both. So if you, the customer, want costs kept down (and that, typically, is a major reason for using online retailers in the first place) you actually want them to avoid any unnecessary costs, because you'll end up paying for them in retail pricing.

So what level of stock do Scan hold on, say, a CPU. How many do they sell a day? 100? Assume it#s 100, and assume it takes 3 days to get replacement stocks. So they hold 300 (or maybe 325) in stock. Now someone like me gets an order from a major customer and orders 50 in one go. That's a third of their reserve, and half a days' worth, gone in an instant. But how do they accurately predict how many will sell in a given day, or week? Some days will be good on one product and bad on another.

And, at this time of year, sales tend to go ballistic. For instance, there are major (and I mean high street names) that will tell you they make 40-50% of their profit in the Christmas period (i.e. mid-Nov to mid-Jan). That's why, for instance, supermarket refurbishment programs stop at the start of December and don't resume until January. So if major supermarkets and department stores experience that phenomenon over Christmas, what about much smaller outfits like Scan? How do they predict what stock to hold to avoid this?

Oh, and of course, if they order in too much of any item, what do they do when the manufacturer announces new versions in January, or announces a price cut? Then, they've got stock they either can't shift short of sale pricing, or they end up losing money on every one they ordered.

I know getting mucked about over orders annoys, but believe me, it's an incredibly complex job trying to keep stock levels right at the other end. Too few and you go out of stock (and will lose some sales because people go elsewhere), but too many and you end up paying a lot in stock-holding or finance costs, and risk getting caught short by market fluctuations, and all in a market where demand levels are highly unpredictable and varying.

I hope that goes some way to explaining the kind of issues that in general, since I can't speak for Scan cause this type of issues.

[Chris P]

daza

Sorry for the problems you have experienced

Please PM me your invoice number so I can look into this for you and sort this out

Best Regards

[daza]

Yet more fun tonight another email saying its been delayed, recieved at 8.15pm, oh well hopefully It'll be here by tuesday.

[daza]

Sigh looks like were going through the same situation as last year, still no word on dispatch times and estimated delivery, Id be more than happy to pay to get this delivered asap as its holding quite a few people back now.