Item found out of stock after ready for pickup

figyfigy754

I see that there’s a lot of discussion surrounding product stock discrepancies, but I haven’t been able to find a thread about this particular issue. I put in a pickup order for a PowerSpec G760 at the Houston location (listed as in stock online of course) and got the email that it was ready for pickup.

However, at the pickup counter I was told that they couldn’t find it, and that it was listed in their system as having stock of negative 1 - they said it had likely been miscounted and sold out. I was not contacted, nor was my order status updated to reflect this. Like many others, I drove quite far (about 150 miles from Austin) to pick up my order, so this was a shame, especially because it seems like it should be in some way feasible to notify customers of errors like this as they are discovered.

I ended up going with the G728 (the closest alternative in stock), as I had already made the trip and it seemed the staff had no way of knowing when or at what price the G760 would become available again. I understand that this store is primarily a brick-and-mortar operation and that the holiday season is crazy, but I have to admit I was surprised by the limited information and flexibility staff were able to provide in this situation. 

To the credit of the staff, they were able to offer a reasonable discount and shipping on the G757 (the next step up from the G760) after a while of back-and-forth. Unfortunately, the significant increase in price of this model makes it a worse value in my view, (even with the offered discount) and they could not offer this for other models like the G728. While I don’t expect magic, what I would have found most helpful is information about restocking timelines for the G760, an assurance of honoring its current sale price, and arranging for shipping once it is restocked.