As above – placed web order items showing as ‘in stock’, received email saying the items were not in stock and can I wait for them to come back in to stock. I told them no and checked website to see if they had updated the stock levels…Which they hadn’t.

Despite this they have debited my account and the same items I ordered are STILL showing as ‘in stock’.

Tried calling but no answer and haven’t replied to my email requests for refund.

Clearly sales baiting and fraudulent (obtaining money by deception).

AVOID.

PayPal?

It’s not uncommon for suppliers to show as in-stock. It’s a relative term.

They seem to have a fairly active facebook page,, just sayin 🙂

Debit card – rockhopper

relative to what exactly – weeksy? It’s either in stock or it isn’t.

cheers bigh – never thought to check that, will do so later!

relative to what exactly – weeksy? It’s either in stock or it isn’t.

Relative with regards to where that stock is.  It may be in the distributor’s warehouse, not sitting on a shelf at the reseller.

Why did you use them – price, availability or just pure chance?

There are a couple of online stores I have used in the past that I have ordered from knowing that despite the in-stock icon it was probably not actually on a shelf, but rather in stock at the distributers, but went with them anyway as it was either a hard to find item or the price was so good I was prepared to wait. If it’s a item that is relatively ubiquitous and I must have it as soon possible I go elsewhere to one of the big online firms.

I’ve always avoided them after I went into one of their shops looking for a new mech hanger for my Synapse. No-one in the shop knew what one was, why I would would one, or why I thought they might want or be able to help me (they are allegedly a Cannondale dealer!)

No-one in the shop knew what one was, why I would would one, or why I thought they might want or be able to help me

Competing with Halfords are they?

IIRC Its illegal to take payment for something you cannot supply unless the buyer agrees.  Definitely shoddy behaviour.

No-one is saying they cannot supply it, just that they cannot supply it immediately.

So how far can the ‘in stock’ status be taken with you lot i wonder… hot of the press at the printers in Taiwan perhaps?

Imagine walking in to the shop, they tell you something is in stock, you hand over payment, they then say nothing until you ask for your stuff and they say “oh, not in stock here but somewhere, come back next week maybe”, you’d be happy with this yes?

Their email said they would be back in stock from the 9th, so even their own terminology has been contradicted. They also said it was down to a technical issue and would be investigated.

Why did you use them – price, availability or just pure chance? Availabilty, price was same as everywhere else that had the decency to show them as out of stock.

This amused me – top of their “Bestselling” list –

Lezyne Hecto XL / Micro XL Replacement Spare Bung
£3.00

Things must be going well!

It is annoying but it’s a common thing now, most online retailers are basically just store fronts for distributors, they don’t hold any stock themselves (Wiggle etc. do as they’re big enough to have their own warehouses). So basically as long as you had reseller agreements in place you could launch a web-site tomorrow with thousands of product lines on offer, linked to the distributor’s systems showing whether it’s in stock or not (although this might not be very dynamic).

I guess it must be legal but I generally take any small online retailer’s stock listing with a pinch of salt these days, especially if it’s an in-demand or new item the big retailers are out of stock of. If I want to make sure I’ll call them – that said if I did take the chance and was then told it was actually out of stock I’d want them to process a refund quickly.

So how far can the ‘in stock’ status be taken with you lot i wonder… hot of the press at the printers in Taiwan perhaps?

Imagine walking in to the shop, they tell you something is in stock, you hand over payment, they then say nothing until you ask for your stuff and they say “oh, not in stock here but somewhere, come back next week maybe”, you’d be happy with this yes?

Their email said they would be back in stock from the 9th, so even their own terminology has been contradicted. They also said it was down to a technical issue and would be investigated.

Why did you use them – price, availability or just pure chance? Availabilty, price was same as everywhere else that had the decency to show them as out of stock.

Whilst it has clearly annoyed you at least they have actually ordered it in for you. I would hazard a guess that those other retailers who showed the item as out of stock had no facility online for you to order it anyway and generate a stock request from the distributer. To my mind that is equally annoying. The best system for consumers is when the retailer uses three status – in stock for immediate deliver (translation – it is sittting on their shelf), in stock to be delivered in 5-7 days (translation – it is sitting on the shelf at the distributors) and out of stock (translation – the distributors have run out too).

Whilst it has clearly annoyed you at least they have actually ordered it in for you. – True it annoyed me, i don’t take kindly to being BS’d and my my money being taken by deception. False in that they ordered it for me, stock was available form the 9th. Which makes you wonder, available where exactly.

This confirms that although knew full well they stuff wasn’t in stock they still kept the stock notification as in stock, to bait for sales.

Just checked again and the ‘technical issue’ remains it seems as still showing in stock.

It is annoying but it’s a common thing now – not in my experience to be honest but then i’m not surprised whilst it seems there are a few people who accept it as the norm…