Sitting here at home having taken a day off work to take delivery of the 10 components to make my new PC...... except it won't be happening; at 20:30 last night I received an email stating at least a one week delay, due to one item being out of stock. Very disappointed as the "out of stock" item was:
- chosen over a different item, at significant price premium, due to the other one being "out of stock", and this one being "in stock" at the time of the order (Tuesday night)
- it was "in stock" when I got my Stage 1 (order confirmation) email 12 hours later (Wednesday)
- it was "in stock" when I got my Stage 2 (payment auth) email, sometime later
- it remained "in-stock" for at least the rest of that working day (I know - I was checking the whole order regularly - sad, I know - but I do need this stuff).
Mainly disappointed, because I had previously read about another customer's similar experience in a thread back in June -
http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=78367 - in which "ChrisP" (Retail Sales Manager) assured that the stock tracking would improve. (Also concerned that that response seemed to imply that customers visiting the "reception" immediately take preference over stock that should have been ear-marked for previously accepted internet orders....??).
Anyway, back to practicalities - advice sought:
1/ If I pull the out-of-stock item from the order today, could shipping of the other 9 items be guaranteed to be today? (And I guess in that case, I would also have to pay the difference to Saturday delivery?).
2/ The current out-of-stock item is an Intel E6700 - originally chosen over an E6600, which was already out-of-stock Tuesday night. Last night's delay email suggested the "lead date" on the E6700 being 2-11-2006.
- Is 2-11-2006 the guaranteed delivery of new stock, or the new picking/shipping date for my order (e.g the stock actually arriving earlier)?
- If "new stock" day, would my order therefore be picked/fulfilled that day (for delivery on Friday 3rd), or would it more likely be the next day, which would then take it over the weekend to the following Monday for delivery..??
3/ As it's been out of stock longer, is the E6600 expected sooner? And if it is, is it possible to swap the one item in the order, retaining any existing "reservations" for the other components of the order?
Just trying to understand my options.....
Still concerned as to whether there are in fact "reservations" on "in-stock" stock at the time of an internet order being placed/accepted - if not, then for a large single order of different items, (and I didn't consider my order of 10 different items particularly "large"), how can the delivery of the order ever be guaranteed, as it will still actually be pot-luck as to when all items are in stock at one time...?? - and that likelihood gets less, the larger the number of different components?
Disappointed - but trying not to be angry. At least I have a day off work to look forward to...
thanks,