Should online retailers be allowed to take orders for items they know they don't have in stock without prior notification?

[willbish]

Third time this week I've ordered items online only for the following day to receive an email saying, 'really sorry but we don't have the items you've ordered in stock. If you don't mind waiting we'll get them dispatched as soon as they are available'

 

I find this really frustrating as many of the items I've bought have shown 'in stock' on the websites.

 

Looks to me like companies are deliberately neglecting to show items 'out of stock' to keep the orders coming in whilst knowing full well they are unable to deliver. 

 

I appreciate it's a difficult time with the ports blocked up and likely to get worse not better over the coming weeks. At best this is underhand behaviour at worst it's dishonest.

 

On two out of three orders I've taken the refund and said I'll go elsewhere.

 

Locksonline.co.uk

PipeLagging.com

Thefloorheatingwarehouse.co.uk

[ProDave]

A related question, should retailers be allowed to offer a Black Friday special offer when they only have a very few at that price?  e.g log onto the website a few minutes before the offers go "live".  Keep refresihing the page every few seconds until it ticks over midnight and the offers go live, only to find them "sold out" a few seconds past midnight.

[willbish]

@ProDave at least they have the decency to update the site to show 'sold out' even if they only had 3 items at the bargain price 

 

[nod]

Screwfix have become really bad for doing this 

[markc]

Really Hacks me off! and yes Screwfix are doing it much more lately

[nod]

6 minutes ago, markc said:

Really Hacks me off! and yes Screwfix are doing it much more lately

Ordered Friday Told Tues Weds 

After I had paid 

They keep blaming Amazon for taking all the delivery slots ???

[Temp]

3 hours ago, willbish said:

Third time this week I've ordered items online only for the following day to receive an email saying, 'really sorry but we don't have the items you've ordered in stock. If you don't mind waiting we'll get them dispatched as soon as they are available'

 

I've had same problem but without the email. I'm afraid its one reason why we get so much stuff from Amazon now. Its not just their prices that attract customers. 

[ProDave]

I lump the likes of Amazon into the same category as ebay.  You are not buying from one known trusted company, rather a collection of small traders operating under the banner of the host company.  I won't trust them for a purchase of some expensive electronic consumer item where I might one day have to make a warranty claim if it goes wrong.  I will only buy that sort of stuff from a large trusted retailer.

[newhome]

1 hour ago, ProDave said:

I lump the likes of Amazon into the same category as ebay.  You are not buying from one known trusted company, rather a collection of small traders operating under the banner of the host company. 

Depends if you are buying directly from Amazon, ‘fulfilled’ by Amazon or via a 3rd party seller. 3 very different buying models. 
 

Options 1 and 2 are pretty reliable for things being in stock. Option 3 is more eBay esque. 
 

 

[ProDave]

9 minutes ago, newhome said:

Depends if you are buying directly from Amazon, ‘fulfilled’ by Amazon or via a 3rd party seller. 3 very different buying models. 
 

Options 1 and 2 are pretty reliable for things being in stock. Option 3 is more eBay esque. 
 

 

I didn't know there was a difference.  The few times I have used it, I search for something and it lists several of the item I want at different prices, I pick one (usually the cheapest) and buy it.  In the small print somewhere is who it is "from"

 

A case of it could be made more obvious?

 

But my concern is not so much will I get it, but will I be able to get a warranty issue sorted in 11months time?

[PeterW]

8 minutes ago, ProDave said:

 

 

But my concern is not so much will I get it, but will I be able to get a warranty issue sorted in 11months time?

Doesn’t matter - Amazon hold the transaction and they end up as the legal seller so your rights remain with them. 

[Gav_P]

28 minutes ago, newhome said:

Depends if you are buying directly from Amazon, ‘fulfilled’ by Amazon or via a 3rd party seller. 3 very different buying models. 
 

Options 1 and 2 are pretty reliable for things being in stock. Option 3 is more eBay esque. 
 

 

I only ever order from Amazon if it’s Prime. And to be fair they have been spot on. Sometimes delivered same day. 
 

Any time I used a 3rd party seller, they seem to be acting as intermediaries for Chinese sellers. 
 

If on eBay, i always check if they are uk based by checking if their PayPal account is uk based.

[epsilonGreedy]

19 minutes ago, ProDave said:

A case of it could be made more obvious?

 

 

It is fairly clear once you get to know the site, look under the pair of orange buy-now or add to basket buttons. I usually only buy supplied by and fulfilled by Amazon unless it is a fringe cheap product in which case I just look for fulfilled by Amazon.

 

You are correct in thinking that if Amazon neither supplies or fulfills then their site is acting as an umbrella retail web site.  

[newhome]

Here you go. 
 

Option 1 sold by and fulfilled by Amazon 

 

Option 2 sold by a different seller but fulfilled by Amazon

 

 

Option 3 sold by and fulfilled by a third party

 

[Temp]

+1 to Amazon Prime and fulfilled by Amazon. Always found them good. I recently got sent wrong item and their returns system is about as good as it gets. Free return postage and the money refunded as soon as package was scanned at post office.

 

Sometimes Amazon Prime prices are a bit more than ebay so i do use both but Amazon always first choice.

[MJNewton]

11 hours ago, epsilonGreedy said:

You are correct in thinking that if Amazon neither supplies or fulfills then their site is acting as an umbrella retail web site.  

 

...although this is being tested through the Californian courts as we speak which may lead to them carrying/sharing liability across all channels. 

[Roger440]

We took the decision not to enable purchase of anything thats not out of stock. 

 

If you want to order something not in stock, you can only do it by phone or email.

 

If its for something thats a stock item (prob about 95% of orders) we dont take payment until its physically in our warehouse and ready to ship.

 

With all the current delays, whilst there may be some grumblings, nobody is out of pocket. Avoids all the upset, aggravation etc.

 

Plus i can sleep at night as i dont have a stack of other peoples money for suff i cant ship. 

 

 

[willbish]

8 hours ago, Roger440 said:

We took the decision not to enable purchase of anything thats not out of stock. 

 

If you want to order something not in stock, you can only do it by phone or email.

 

If its for something thats a stock item (prob about 95% of orders) we dont take payment until its physically in our warehouse and ready to ship.

 

With all the current delays, whilst there may be some grumblings, nobody is out of pocket. Avoids all the upset, aggravation etc.

 

Plus i can sleep at night as i dont have a stack of other peoples money for suff i cant ship. 

 

 

 

Good on you ? Wish more retailers would do the same.

 

Also you don't have the extra admin burden of issuing refunds.

[newhome]

6 hours ago, willbish said:

 

Good on you ? Wish more retailers would do the same.

 

Also you don't have the extra admin burden of issuing refunds.

For products fulfilled by Amazon it’s the same, plus sometimes when something’s on offer you can order it at that price when it’s out of stock and it arrives once it’s available if you don’t mind waiting. I quite often do that. You can always cancel before the item is dispatched anyway. The item quite often arrives before the estimated date IME. 

 

 

[willbish]

I think it should be a requirement for retailers to notify before the transaction is complete that items are not in stock and not available for dispatch.

 

[Ferdinand]

If acceptable to the customer, yes -  if it is clearly communicated.

 

No one forces orders to be placed.

[newhome]

37 minutes ago, willbish said:

I think it should be a requirement for retailers to notify before the transaction is complete that items are not in stock and not available for dispatch.

 

Sometimes it’s because their stock system isn’t 100% correct though, or they find that some items are damaged when they go to fulfill the order so it’s not possible for it to be 100% correct all the time before the transaction is complete. 

[epsilonGreedy]

2 hours ago, willbish said:

I think it should be a requirement for retailers to notify before the transaction is complete that items are not in stock and not available for dispatch.

 

 

Global scale IT systems do not work like regular systems with a single definitive database that knows everything. Data is scattered around different systems and synchronized over time, its technical term is "eventual consistency".

[newhome]

I do admit that it’s irritating when popular websites aren’t updated quickly. Add an item to the basket, then it says that it’s out of stock when you go to complete the purchase, and is still on the website hours later (and still out of stock). 
 

 

[epsilonGreedy]

7 minutes ago, newhome said:

I do admit that it’s irritating when popular websites aren’t updated quickly. Add an item to the basket, then it says that it’s out of stock when you go to complete the purchase, and is still on the website hours later (and still out of stock). 
 

 

You live in an ACID systems world where the database is perfectly Atomic Consistent Independent & Durable.