I'll start;

Buying a product from an online store with a "stock level: 10" to only get an email 5 days later saying they don't have any stock, requesting a refund and waiting two weeks for it to come through....

Really annoys me :(

... I'm not a complete idiot... Several parts are missing!

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Michael Borthwick wrote to All <=-

Buying a product from an online store with a "stock level: 10" to only
get an email 5 days later saying they don't have any stock, requesting
a refund and waiting two weeks for it to come through....

I bought a car a couple of years ago, and they made me wait while they
put a 10-day hold. On a cashier's check. I was annoyed at first, and
always suspect someone's trying to make interest off of the money when
it's sitting around like that, but the dealership doesn't charge a
markup. They'd make a lot more money by doing what everyone else is
doing.

Next time I buy from them, I'm going haggle based on financing it, drive
the car off the lot that day, then pay off the loan in 30 days.




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Re: Things that annoy you..
By: Michael Borthwick to All on Fri Apr 28 2023 01:51 pm

I'll start;

Buying a product from an online store with a "stock level: 10" to only get an email 5 days later saying they don't have any stock, requesting a refund and waiting two weeks for it to come through....

Really annoys me :(

ehh.. If they said they had 10 available and let you order one, how is it that they then have no stcok available?

That definitely would be annoying..

Nightfox
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I bought a car a couple of years ago, and they made me wait while they
put a 10-day hold. On a cashier's check. I was annoyed at first, and

I could understand a few days while the cheque cleared but 10 days is too long. I know when I bought my first new car I paid by cheque on the day I picked it up. Maybe they were too trusting :)

10 days is a pretty good time period for some day trading although if they lost the lot they would still have to hand the car over.

... Everyone has a photographic memory. Some don't have film.

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ehh.. If they said they had 10 available and let you order one, how is
it that they then have no stcok available?

It happens regularly to me (just lucky I guess) - I'd hazard a guess and suggest these online stores don't do any kind of stocktake and adjust their stock levels accordingly. It's happend 5 times in the past month to me... it can't be great for their businesses to have to write to their customers to tell them they don't have any stock.

Either that or they hope I will just choose something else from their stores.

... "No comment" is a comment.

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Hello pF!

I bought a car a couple of years ago, and they made me
wait while they put a 10-day hold. On a cashier's check.

That is totally ridiculous, 'cuz you paid a premium to have it
certified as a cashier's cheque! It would seem to me that the
the salesperson that was handling your payment didn't know how
a chashier's cheque works.

I was annoyed at first, and always suspect someone's
trying to make interest off of the money when it's sitting
around like that, [...]

OR.. yes, there is that 5-day period where they might like to
play with your money to earn a few dollars interest, perhaps.

Next time I buy from them, I'm going haggle based on
financing it, drive the car off the lot that day, then pay
off the loan in 30 days.

But be aware of any small print that mentions penalties if
paying off a payment plan too soon.



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Re: Re: Things that annoy you..
By: Michael Borthwick to Nightfox on Sat Apr 29 2023 08:30 am

ehh.. If they said they had 10 available and let you order one, how is it that they then have no stcok available?

It happens regularly to me (just lucky I guess) - I'd hazard a guess and sug nesses to have to write to their customers to tell them they don't have any

Either that or they hope I will just choose something else from their stores

... "No comment" is a comment.

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I run an hybrid e-commerce / brick 'n' mortar business so I would like to comment on this.

Even if you have tight inventory tracking coded in your system (so that your web application know how much stock do you have of every item), there still exists the possibility that the inventory has the wrong records. Typical example: a customer phones in because he wants to place a HUGE order for some items. I take the order by writing the details down on my hand and package everything in a hurry because if I don't deliver the order in 15 minutes, the delivery agency will take an extra day to deliver the package. Then I return home in order to update the inventories and find out some customer placed an order for the same item, which is now out of stock.

Another example is items that rotate so quickñly that it is not worth it to track the inventory numbers. Items I rotate quickly, I tend to have loads of in storage. Whether you have 200 or 205 units of something does not matter much. Those usually get a dummy entry in the web-tracked inventory (such as 9999 or Infinity) because I am guaranteed to have mor than enough to fulfill typical orders.

Finally, items that don't rotate much but have reliable providers backing them may also get a dummy inventory number. This applies to, say, high-end healthcare material. I have a small number of orthesic items in store. If somebody wants to buy three therapeutic wrist supports and the website has only one in store, he will go elsewhere to buy them. If I have a dummy number he will place the order. Since the provider is reliable, I can phone the manufacturer and tell them to deliver some extra wrist supports to me and I will get them in 12 hours. Since typical e-commerce deadlines for delivery are 48 hours for premium delivery, that allows me to fulfill the order on time even if I don't have stocks myself.

Now, let me tell you, that if there is a problem with an order and you phone the customer ASAP and tell him outright what the problems are and what the solutions are, they tend to take it very well. I have found that people who pays for a premium delivery agency is usually not as bothered by delivery delays as they are about lack of transparency. If somebody orders stuff you can't serve in the advertised timeframe, you can always phone in and tell the customer: "Ok, we messed up with the inventory, so we have two options. You can let me send you a substitute item that does the same thing or you can wait three extra days and get what you ordered, plus we will give you back the delivery fee due to the delay." This way, I still get the sale, the customer is usually very happy anyway, but I would not have made the sale if the website advertised the item is out of stock.


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Michael Borthwick wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

I bought a car a couple of years ago, and they made me wait while they
put a 10-day hold. On a cashier's check. I was annoyed at first, and

I could understand a few days while the cheque cleared but 10 days is
too long. I know when I bought my first new car I paid by cheque on the day I picked it up. Maybe they were too trusting :)

Yeah, 10 days is an appropriate time to wait for a personal check in the
1990s.





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Hello Arelor!

** On Saturday 29.04.23 - 04:57, Arelor wrote to Michael Borthwick:

I run an hybrid e-commerce / brick 'n' mortar business so I would like to comment on this.

Even if you have tight inventory tracking coded in your
system (so that your web application know how much stock do
you have of every item), there still exists the possibility
that the inventory has the wrong records.

[...]

Sounds to me that you have a good system.

Finally, items that don't rotate much but have reliable providers backing them may also get a dummy inventory number.

As long as the dummy is a number and not a person, you'll be
fine! :D

[...] If somebody orders stuff you can't serve in the
advertised timeframe, you can always phone in and tell the
customer: "Ok, we messed up with the inventory, so we have
two options. You can let me send you a substitute item that
does the same thing or you can wait three extra days and
get what you ordered, plus we will give you back the
delivery fee due to the delay." This way, I still get the
sale, the customer is usually very happy anyway, but I
would not have made the sale if the website advertised the
item is out of stock.

3 days is not a long time to wait. "out of stock" is not so
great in your case. The "dummy number" system seems to be a
good approach.

As long as you can keep up with those out of stock situtations
and not let them go beyond a 3-day promise, you'll be fine.

Many online places seem to implement the same system. They
indicate "in stock" or "available in [insert time frame]" ..but
when you place the order there is a much longer delay.

I had a similar situation just yesterday. Someone called me
yesterday (Monday) to find out if I could get a particular
title by Thursday. Fortunately, there is one distributor that
ships and promises delivery within 24hrs. Their online system
indicated that 9 copies were in stock. That was at 12:30p.
Inorder to get my shipment next day, the order had to be in by
1p. But when I called, at bit after 1p cuz often there is a
window around that cutoff) to place the order (they take the
orders over the phone) ..they said they were out of the title
anyway.

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Re: Things that annoy you..
By: Ogg to Arelor on Tue May 02 2023 08:59 am

3 days is not a long time to wait. "out of stock" is not so
great in your case. The "dummy number" system seems to be a
good approach.

3 days it not a lot of time to wait, but if you advertise 48h deadlines it is a bit of
a failure XD

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