RTX 3000 Series Micro Center Discussion & FAQ!

OFalk280

@MaxHeadroom kind of makes me irritated how dismissive they were to me. I get it you’re being asked probably 100 times a day about the cards. I’m completely new to this space, bought a prebuilt not long ago, and then took an attempt at building my own in anticipation for 30 series. Loved every bit of it, and was stoked that there was a store I could walk into, and grab everything I need. Now I’ve got a bad taste in my mouth about micro center. I get it, you guys are going to sell every single card regardless of the customer service you give people, the second they’re in stock they’ll be gone. But now I’m not going to come back for anything else after this. I work retail so I understand what they’re going through, and unfortunately it’s not an excuse...

OFalk280

@TSPhillipT I was trying to wait there at the location, and was told that the multiple drop shipments received there was not 30 series cards without so much as a stock check or even someone opening the boxes that were being carried in as I walked in

MaxHeadroom

@OFalk280 They're very dismissive. This year was my first time building my own PC. I got everything I needed from MC and the reps there were very helpful and knowledgeable in making sure I gathered the right parts. I've had a very good experience with them up until the 17th. And I'm not even blaming MC for the lack of 3080s. I know that's all on Nvidia for messing it up that bad. I'm not even blaming MC for running out so quickly. I'm more peeved about how like you said they've been very dismissive with people rather than keeping anyone informed. I don't have a problem with waiting before the store opens. But I live an hour away from the Chicago MC and I'd be so much more appreciative if they just did something along the lines of, "Hey so we're supposedly getting a unit or two on this day. I can't guarantee you one, but I'd say your best bet is try on this day 'cause that's when they're supposedly arriving." I don't know something like that. I'll wait but just freaking tell me when to wait and where instead of just telling me "Oh I don't know. Go online." I've worked in retail before too on launch days for products with hype similar to this. I know it gets frustrating to be asked everyday but you can't dismiss people and if you were more transparent about things instead of keeping everyone in the dark, there'd be a lot less justifiable anger from consumers. Before I moved to PC, my experience with smooth launches have been waiting at GameStop for a midnight release of a game. And at least at the store closest to me, they were always transparent and communicative, where if I asked is there going to be a midnight launch, they'd simply say yes or no, and if there is going to be a midnight launch, what's your guys' procedure on it, and they'll give a clear and straight answer of Oh just get before midnight or oh we're handing out numbers after the store closes. Why couldn't the MC here in Chicago deliver the same level of transparency with their customers? It's completely unnecessary and uncalled for to be this dismissive with people.

TSPhillipT

When it comes to the amount we are receiving, we do not know until we receive it and take inventory of the stock.  We are trying our best to get 3080/3090s from manufacturers and they are typically coming in as drops rather than part of our normal shipment.  They are even coming in directly from the manufacturer rather than our typical distribution system.  We cannot provide a "check this day" as we do not even know when that day is.  


When asked if we were going to have them on launch day, we advised people yes.  We did not expect people to begin lining up 14-16 hours before open the day of launch.  Here is a great post by Johnny5 who lined up 16 hours before the 3080 launch detailing how his experience went.  Keep in mind that all our stores handled it slightly different based off decisions made by managers of their store.  As for example, our Chicago location provided 3090 Vouchers early for the safety of the customers that are waiting due to protests/riots.  I highly recommend reading this post by TSMichaelB who goes into detail on our store doing different SOP when it comes to the release.  


I understand this is not the clear answers that people want but we are trying our best to get as many 3080/3090s in the hand of customers.  Since we are running on limited information ourselves, we have no way of providing concrete responses unless it is something we are completely sure of.  My best recommendation for getting s 3080/3090 is waiting at the store for a shipment of 3080/3090s to arrive and ideally being in the first of the line since it is all first come first serve.  

ksantangelo223

@MaxHeadroom I will say about the Chicago store that there were posts in this thread (including mine) that mentioned to not wait in line. We were indeed unexpectedly/suddenly sent home the night before the launch  with vouchers due to protests and policy activity. The Chicago store did their very best given the circumstances.
Its also worth noting that the stores do not know which inventory is headed their way on any particular day. They know just as much as we do (nothing).

CrimsonRelic

Does anyone have the group picture with Steve in Houston?

Keystone

DougieNotFresh said:

Keystone said:

Does anyone know if "higher end" cards will get their own release dates? looking specifically at EVGA hybrid release, Aorus Extreme release or Gaming X Trio restocks. 
EDIT: Just called CDW out of Illinois, they will not cancel backorders unless the SKU# changes on the graphics card you have purchased. No idea what restock timeframe is, but I generally asked the rep "if there were 5,000 people ahead of me" and she seemed to brush it off saying they haven't had that many backorders. I don't know if that's 10 or 500, but anyone looking to avoid the restock stress should check them out. She convinced me, so I now have a preorder for the 3080 Gaming X Trio. Will edit again if order cancellation.  

They making you pay up front for a back order?

Okay, I was wrong. I purchased on a credit card and it is actually just a hold on the card. Charge is still pending and it hasn't come out of my credit limit. Though, I just bugged them today and they said it could be November/December before restock. So, this is really just insurance against bad luck through all other avenues. Sorry, not the silver bullet I thought it was. 

PowerSpec_MichaelB

MaxHeadroom said:

@OFalk280 They're very dismissive. This year was my first time building my own PC. I got everything I needed from MC and the reps there were very helpful and knowledgeable in making sure I gathered the right parts. I've had a very good experience with them up until the 17th. And I'm not even blaming MC for the lack of 3080s. I know that's all on Nvidia for messing it up that bad. I'm not even blaming MC for running out so quickly. I'm more peeved about how like you said they've been very dismissive with people rather than keeping anyone informed. I don't have a problem with waiting before the store opens. But I live an hour away from the Chicago MC and I'd be so much more appreciative if they just did something along the lines of, "Hey so we're supposedly getting a unit or two on this day. I can't guarantee you one, but I'd say your best bet is try on this day 'cause that's when they're supposedly arriving." I don't know something like that. I'll wait but just freaking tell me when to wait and where instead of just telling me "Oh I don't know. Go online." I've worked in retail before too on launch days for products with hype similar to this. I know it gets frustrating to be asked everyday but you can't dismiss people and if you were more transparent about things instead of keeping everyone in the dark, there'd be a lot less justifiable anger from consumers. Before I moved to PC, my experience with smooth launches have been waiting at GameStop for a midnight release of a game. And at least at the store closest to me, they were always transparent and communicative, where if I asked is there going to be a midnight launch, they'd simply say yes or no, and if there is going to be a midnight launch, what's your guys' procedure on it, and they'll give a clear and straight answer of Oh just get before midnight or oh we're handing out numbers after the store closes. Why couldn't the MC here in Chicago deliver the same level of transparency with their customers? It's completely unnecessary and uncalled for to be this dismissive with people.

This is not the opinion of Micro Center, but rather my own personal opinion.

I touched upon this earlier, but this would be a good time to remind everyone of what we are dealing with outside of this RTX 3000 launch. It's extremely important to remember that we are dealing with this launch in the middle of a pandemic, something that was practically unheard of in prior product launches of this size. The employees working in our stores are not there specifically to cater to the RTX 3000 series launch event, but are tasked with very important priorities that include ensuring customers are practicing safe social distancing and that product and equipment are sanitized on a very frequent basis. Those of you that have shopped in our stores in the past know that our associates are often very busy as-is when it comes to assisting customers with their purchasing decisions without a major product launch or global pandemic impacting the level of service they typically provide. It's made all the more difficult when you factor in these compounding events. While this is no excuse for a lapse in the level of service we strive to provide, it's something I want to remind people of in the hopes that they are more empathetic to what our hard working teams are dealing with at the moment.

I also want to clarify how inventory works. Your average sales rep doesn't really know what is coming on a truck unless their inventory coordinator took the time to provide them direct information or if a manager sent a staff-wide email out and they found time to check their email. Even if they were given that information, what the inventory coordinator sees may not be what actually arrives on the truck. Even if you see boxes labeled "EVGA" or "MSI", the rep cannot confirm if they are in fact RTX 3000 series GPU's until they've taken the time to open the package and sort through the inventory. Now I can't speak for the tone of the voice and the full context that led to that response, but the answer of "I don't know, check online" might have been as honest of an answer that the rep had at the time. We can't really provide answers that we do not have, as such a situation would lead to further frustration. The reason we advise people to check online is that our online inventory updates as product is scanned into our systems. I know it was mentioned earlier that someone saw product arrive and yet the website never updated to reflect the inventory stock. I imagine this is due to the voucher system, and that they were automatically deducting the inventory from the site similar to how our reservation system works in order to prevent people from showing up to the store with a false sense of hope.

I get that it might not seem like we are doing our best at times, but I am 100% confident that our store managers are doing the best with the hands they've been dealt. At the end of the day, they are going to prioritize keeping the customers and their staff safe while also doing what they can to provide as good of a service that they can. I also know that everyone will eventually get the GPU's they are waiting for. It's just a matter of time at this point, but trust that it will happen. Hopefully once this is all over, those of you that waited at the stores can finally get some much deserved rest and enjoy the reward of your perseverance. In the meantime, I hope the rest of you continue to share your experiences with each other so we can continue to adapt to these circumstances and better serve everyone involved. 

CrispyBudder

So when does the 3090s get restocked again?

OFalk280

@TSMichaelB yes I do understand how inventory works thank you very much. As stated above, I do work in retail myself, but I do appreciate the refresher while I am at work today. And what I also do understand, is that in my store (among any other retail store I have ever worked, along with other associates I have worked with doing the same), if they want to provide excellent customer service when a package arrives that has not been checked in yet, and a customer asks about an item that has potentially shown up on that shipment, we will either check the packing list (or the inventory manager, merchandiser whatever your term is), or physically open the box to check for the items. I thought a gathering of at least 10 people would have triggered that thought, but I suppose I have a tainted idea (too high of a standard I guess?) of customer service from retail associates considering I know what it is like and what is able to be done. Thank you for reminding me what it’s like to work retail during a pandemic as I almost forgot between normal 10 hour shifts while being short of staff and increased sales over projected of around 50% each month for the last 6.

DougieNotFresh

A

DougieNotFresh

Keystone said:

DougieNotFresh said:

Keystone said:

Does anyone know if "higher end" cards will get their own release dates? looking specifically at EVGA hybrid release, Aorus Extreme release or Gaming X Trio restocks. 
EDIT: Just called CDW out of Illinois, they will not cancel backorders unless the SKU# changes on the graphics card you have purchased. No idea what restock timeframe is, but I generally asked the rep "if there were 5,000 people ahead of me" and she seemed to brush it off saying they haven't had that many backorders. I don't know if that's 10 or 500, but anyone looking to avoid the restock stress should check them out. She convinced me, so I now have a preorder for the 3080 Gaming X Trio. Will edit again if order cancellation.  

They making you pay up front for a back order?

Indeed. 

I believe it’s like the PS5, they will take the money but they should give it back until the item is shipped, that’s what the CDW representative told me. 

PC_Pilot

Ok, I have not worked in retail for a long time, so take this with a grain of salt. To me, the most common sense approach would be to maintain a callback list where people have to physically come to the store to get on the list. Then when shipments arrive, call or text each person in order and give them a 2-hour time window to pick up the card with an ID check. Ya, that would be a little more labor intensive on MC's part, but that would eliminate the need for long, frustrating waits in front of the store only to come back empty-handed. And don't even bother with online sales until restocks start happening consistently. Thoughts?

DougieNotFresh

Keystone said:

DougieNotFresh said:

Keystone said:

Does anyone know if "higher end" cards will get their own release dates? looking specifically at EVGA hybrid release, Aorus Extreme release or Gaming X Trio restocks. 
EDIT: Just called CDW out of Illinois, they will not cancel backorders unless the SKU# changes on the graphics card you have purchased. No idea what restock timeframe is, but I generally asked the rep "if there were 5,000 people ahead of me" and she seemed to brush it off saying they haven't had that many backorders. I don't know if that's 10 or 500, but anyone looking to avoid the restock stress should check them out. She convinced me, so I now have a preorder for the 3080 Gaming X Trio. Will edit again if order cancellation.  

They making you pay up front for a back order?

Okay, I was wrong. I purchased on a credit card and it is actually just a hold on the card. Charge is still pending and it hasn't come out of my credit limit. Though, I just bugged them today and they said it could be November/December before restock. So, this is really just insurance against bad luck through all other avenues. Sorry, not the silver bullet I thought it was. 

yeah I talked to them today and they told me December and it was just a hold to verify funds and then released. I’m just using it as a insurance policy. Honestly I’m already in queue with EVGA for a 3090 FTW3 through their step up program because my 2080TI is 2 months old so I’m trading it for the 3090 now since EVGA made them available. So I already got that in the works, but I don’t want that card so I’m going to sell it, prolly a little below MSRP to get rid of it cause I just want the ASUS ROG STRIX OC 3080 instead. 

AntzC

Hope all of you who got their cards from microcenter keep the receipts. Jayz2cents and igor labs just released new content covering how many of the board partners cards are crashing (excluding founders) and one reason could be the cheap arrays or lack of expensive arrays used on the card.

Not even silicon lottery, the founders can get higher clocks then the evga card because the founders edition has better power quality (due to more expensive arrays on the founders card compared to the evga card and other board partners).

psingh1028

@LandShark when do you think the stock will normalize and be readily be available 

PowerSpec_MichaelB

OFalk280 said:

@TSMichaelB yes I do understand how inventory works thank you very much. As stated above, I do work in retail myself, but I do appreciate the refresher while I am at work today. And what I also do understand, is that in my store (among any other retail store I have ever worked, along with other associates I have worked with doing the same), if they want to provide excellent customer service when a package arrives that has not been checked in yet, and a customer asks about an item that has potentially shown up on that shipment, we will either check the packing list (or the inventory manager, merchandiser whatever your term is), or physically open the box to check for the items. I thought a gathering of at least 10 people would have triggered that thought, but I suppose I have a tainted idea (too high of a standard I guess?) of customer service from retail associates considering I know what it is like and what is able to be done. Thank you for reminding me what it’s like to work retail during a pandemic as I almost forgot between normal 10 hour shifts while being short of staff and increased sales over projected of around 50% each month for the last 6.

This post and opinions contained herein are my own and do not reflect Micro Center's views.

 Understand that my post was not to call into question your retail experience, nor was it to undermine your original point that the level of service we provided to you was unsatisfactory. The point of my post was to highlight that the times we are all working in are not easy. We want nothing more than to sell you the products you are looking for and it would be to our detriment to intentionally restrict your access to products or impede you at any time during your visit to our stores.

I will not attempt to presume the impact that this pandemic has had on your retail experience in general, but I can tell you that it's had a profound impact on us, both in-stores and here at our home office. There are parents that needed to alter their work schedules to take care of their children that are now schooled from home and others taking care of sick family members. Even as we continue to hire and improve our staffing, this also requires that we dedicate associates to assist with training. This is by no means the fault of our customers or anyone for that matter, but it's a realistic insight to how the industry as a whole has been impacted. This is all coupled with the aforementioned priorities of customer & associate safety. Again, this is not an excuse for our uncharacteristic lapse in the experience that was provided at our store, but I firmly believe in giving any retail worker the benefit of the doubt given the circumstances they are working in.

In regards to how we should handle inventory arrival, that's not up for me to decide. I do want to see a better way of communicating the arrival of these cards so you all can finally get some rest and still have a fair chance at getting the GPU you're looking for. I also know that people well above my paygrade are aware of the situation and are doing everything in their power to resolve this inventory issue. Ideally, we wouldn't be at the mercy of limited product manufacturing, but at this point, we have to do the best we can in spite of this setback.

I don't know if it will mean much if anything coming from a random guy in an office, but I do want to offer my apologies on behalf of the associate you worked with. I know that if given the opportunity, our team would absolutely do their best to provide better service to you going forward. Regardless, we'll always be here to help in any capacity that we can. Even if I myself don't know much about the specific situations at each store or the inventory status, I have no problem sharing what I do know. Much like everyone here, I am still a Micro Center customer despite also being employed by the company I love to shop at. Most of the decisions I make in my role involve putting myself in the shoes of a customer, which is pretty easy given the last sentence. Know that we do have people paying attention to this thread, and your concerns and suggestions are not falling on deaf ears. 

PC_Pilot said:

Ok, I have not worked in retail for a long time, so take this with a grain of salt. To me, the most common sense approach would be to maintain a callback list where people have to physically come to the store to get on the list. Then when shipments arrive, call or text each person in order and give them a 2-hour time window to pick up the card with an ID check. Ya, that would be a little more labor intensive on MC's part, but that would eliminate the need for long, frustrating waits in front of the store only to come back empty-handed. And don't even bother with online sales until restocks start happening consistently. Thoughts?

I'd love to see something like this implemented, though I am not sure if it would be feasible given the sheer volume. Even if you dedicated one or two associates to handle the calls all day, I imagine it would be a nightmare to keep up with. It would also require regional rules, as customers in California often travel several hours at a time to shop at the Tustin store, so if product arrived, there would have to be a longer grace period to hold the card for those that traveled a fair bit of distance to register in the first place. This would likely frustrate someone that arrived on-site and would be unable to order the card on-hold.

I am also concerned that the system might be easily exploitable, with people getting several friends to place reservations for a single person, then just waiting for a call back. As inconvenient as the current method is, it would require some dedicated friends to get multiple cards for a single person.

Either way, I do like the idea. Anything that results in less people sleeping out on the cold concrete at night is a win by my book. I value sleep too much to fathom what these people are going through in order to get a GPU. I personally wouldn't mind seeing a system in-place that involves people showing up to the store, placing some kind of payment authorization along with address and ID. From there, product is assigned to those that pre-authorized as it arrives, and you get a phone call asking you if you want to come pick it up, or have it shipped, etc. I imagine someone far more intelligent than I has already thought of this and there may be some cons to this that I haven't thought of, but it's definitely worth exploring any alternative options for sure.

AntzC said:

Hope all of you who got their cards from microcenter keep the receipts. Jayz2cents and igor labs just released new content covering how many of the board partners cards are crashing (excluding founders) and one reason could be the cheap arrays or lack of expensive arrays used on the card.

Not even silicon lottery, the founders can get higher clocks then the evga card because the founders edition has better power quality (due to more expensive arrays on the founders card compared to the evga card and other board partners).

Now this is interesting. I imagined that the AIB's would have handled the capacitor selection a little better, given past experience of aftermarket cards vs the reference design. Factor this in with the FE's lack of thermal pads beneath the GPU die capacitor array and you'd be left to assume that AIB's would fair better all around in this department. It's definitely odd that some AIB's chose a 6-POSCAP design as they've never really done this in the past, so it makes zero sense to do so on a 320W-350W GPU now. I wouldn't expect them to go all out on MLCC's either, but apparently ASUS did on their 3080 TUF Gaming, so I suppose it's yet another reason why it's best to wait for more first-hand reviews on products.

Either way, the capacitor selection behind the GPU wasn't too much of a big deal on prior generations. Typically as long as you had an array of 330 or 470 microfarad capacitors instead of cheaper 220's, you'd be fine. I am curious to see if the architectural design of these cards are resulting in more power delivery issues than previous generations or if it's just based on the rest of the PCB design. The real question I have when looking at the PCB and VRM design is why there are two vCore rails. Is one specifically for GPU core voltage, and the other for the tensor/RT cores? I'd love to see a deep PCB/VRM analysis video by someone more educated on the subject than myself.

WJC

Does anyone know when ASUS Strix Geforce RTX 3080 will be sold in Microcenter on 28SEP2020? I have been hearing that it will be released the week of 28SEP2020. I shop at Fairfax and Rockville Microcenter. 

Acidline

Theres a vendor on the Asus FB group showing alleged receipts that Strix 3080s will arrive at NA distributors on 10/16. Strix 3090s show up on Halloween.

ChefFN57

How do I speak to someone at a specific MC?Seems like the phone calls and text go to national call center.I need to know if the Fairfax VA store still has people camping overnight for shipments.Might be a scenario where I don't have to stay in line I can just chill in my car till they open and keep an eye out for delivery trucks.Drove 8 hours round trip on the 23rd thinking 28 hours would be plenty early to be first in line.There were already 15 people in line that had been there for 2 days!Are there still people camping overnight for shipments?Sold my 2080ti on ebay to get good money before the value dropped to much and now i'm regretting it.

Dragmire

LandShark said:

@Dragmire I haven't heard anything this morning but I'd recommend visiting the store sometime this week. 

The Cambridge microcenter did not get any 3080s in on Friday, Saturday, or today. According to them, they haven't got any since the initial shipment. Is this right? And, if so, when would you expect to see more stock in that location? From what I understand, most other stores have gotten a second shipment at this point. 

Phat_Nguyen

Dragmire said:

LandShark said:

@Dragmire I haven't heard anything this morning but I'd recommend visiting the store sometime this week. 

The Cambridge microcenter did not get any 3080s in on Friday, Saturday, or today. According to them, they haven't got any since the initial shipment. Is this right? And, if so, when would you expect to see more stock in that location? From what I understand, most other stores have gotten a second shipment at this point. 

I feel like Cambridge location have been left out LOL. I tried to went there a few time but got nothing 

CrispyBudder

Any one have an idea on when they will be restocking the 3090 cards?

JS_MC

@WJC I haven't heard anything on our end about the Strix 3080 just yet. I hope we get them soon!

@Acidline That timeline would make sense to me, though I'd hope to see them sooner.

@ChefFN57 You're correct, it does ring through to our national call center. Our associates there can request that someone contact you if you have a specific issue. Right now we're at the mercy of NVIDIA and the manufacturers. We are working hard to get these cards in as quickly as possible, and are going above and beyond our normal shipping processes. This means that we're getting shipments frequently and not on a typical schedule. We're also selling out, within an hour or two when we do get new inventory. I haven't seen people still camping, but I know we do have people who arrive as the store opens to see if we've received shipments.

@Dragmire That's quite unfortunate. 😣 We are waiting on inventory from manufactures at this point. It's quite possible that they may not have received stock, but if that's the case, I would expect them to receive stock shortly. As I mentioned above, we're exceeding our normal methods to get stock to our stores as quickly as possible once we receive the new cards. Thanks for your patience!

@CrispyBudder We're still waiting on inventory as I mentioned above. I'd recommend keeping a close eye on the website, or if it's not too much an inconvenience, visiting the store to see if they have inventory available. Since we're not operating on a normal shipping schedule, I can't offer an expected delivery time, but I can say we do expect more inventory to be arriving soon.

SuR_GalaHad

until they fix theri cheap power deliveries I wouldn't purchase any RTX 3080 that is not a founders editions because they are all duds  and will cause crashing because they are using cheap power arrays that are causing BSOD and crashing. Sadly this applies ot both the 3080 and 3090.

Punisher

TSMichaelB said:

 The reason we advise people to check online is that our online inventory updates as product is scanned into our systems. I know it was mentioned earlier that someone saw product arrive and yet the website never updated to reflect the inventory stock. I imagine this is due to the voucher system, and that they were automatically deducting the inventory from the site similar to how our reservation system works in order to prevent people from showing up to the store with a false sense of hope. 

One of the reasons for a lot of people's frustrations is the lack of consistency. We get different answers based on who we ask, when we ask, the current position of the moon, etc... 
You say check inventory online, but as mentioned it's not accurate. Your answer for this is because they handed out vouchers the night before. However, you also mention that there is no way to know what the inventory is until its been processed so are people just pulling up a cot and moving into their local Microcenter 24/7 to hang out and wait for an unknown shipment to come in?
I even asked the employees when their normal truck days are and they (multiple employees) said they don't even receive normal trucks anymore and haven't for years. Things just randomly show up. 
So...
Nobody knows what is shipping to the stores (not just these cards, but all inventory apparently)
Nobody knows what they have in the store until it is fully received and processed.
You must have a huge amount of inventory discrepancies each year and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of inventory "fell off the back of the truck" since there is apparently no way to track what you should have vs what you have. Heck, I could work in receiving and just take parts home daily and never put them into the system. Based on what I have read here and what the employees have told me, there would not be any way to even know that something is missing. You don't have a way of knowing that 10 RTX 3080's shipped to store X so your inventory won't be negative if I take them all home which means free cards for me.
As someone who has been a retail manager before, I truly can't believe that this is the case. 

And from our perspective it really does sound like moving into MC is the only way to plan on getting a card other than blind luck. And moving in doesn't guarantee a timeframe either since you may not get any more for months or even years it seems (well, nobody can give us ANY sort of date so right now it could be years for all we know. (my store said they received the initial order of 3080's for launch and haven't received anymore since then.))
I think MC could do some basic things to help fix their customer service issues.
1) Somebody who works for MC must know what is being ordered and from whom (direct from the manufacturer, through a separate vendor, etc...) I'm sure nobody is randomly shipping stuff out to the warehouse or direct to the stores for free (EX: EVGA does not work like MC's apparently crappy inventory system. I'm sure they require a PO at a minimum and not "hey, let's just randomly ship some things out to random stores and see what happens. If they don't get marked into inventory oh well we won't bill anyone for them. What? no, don't bother sending the stuff with tracking, we wouldn't want anyone to know where they are at any given time"
2) Your purchasing department should be able to contact their sales rep and find out what the status is.
3) They should be able to get this info trickled down to the stores which should be freely ALLOWED to give us the truth (I bolded this because as someone who worked as a manager in retail, I also know that corporate can and does make some VERY shitty calls preventing us from giving straight answers because who cares, they aren't the ones dealing with the customers)

I would say that while it would be great to be able to give us exact info (X amount of cards are arriving on this day in this time window), even basic info, including whats NOT happening would be helpful..
IE:
1)We checked with our vendors and the earliest they are projecting for cards to be in hand at various stores is 3 weeks from now.
2) We have some tracking info and it says that some cards are due between 10/2-10/7. We don't know how many, but that is the next shipping info we have.
Or something along those lines.
Right now we are being given conflicting info all over the place. Some of my answers have seemed like canned responses, while others have seemed like the person really just didn't want to be bothered about it. Yes, you may be getting bombarded with these questions, but hey, not for nothing, but that's your job.
Oh, and you mention about all the cleaning and precautions that you need to do and that the employees are focused on, well no surprise during my many visits there have seen employees walk around with their mask under their nose and the closest I've seen to cleaning is the person at the door who sprays our hand's whether we want them to or not (which I'm a bit surprised that you do the way I have seen. Just some random unmarked spray bottle with something in it. I wouldn't be surprised if this was a homebrew thing because it has not felt the same way twice yet. Que the inevitable lawsuit when someone has an allergic reaction to whatever you put in those) and the only other cleaning I saw was at the repair center where they were cleaning the desks/keyboards on their side of the counter. 
Anyway, I didn't mean for this to be this long, I just couldn't stop adding to it.
TLDR: 
I truly feel that MC could be handling the dissemination of information MUCH better to its customers. I guarantee that a lot of this info is out there and available, but my perception is that the higher-ups in MC don't really care, especially since as others have mentioned, the cards are gonna sell out either way so why do more than the bare minimum of work.
I'm not gonna lie and say this has soured me to the point where I won't be shopping there anymore, It's just another straw under the mountain I have gathered over the years that HAS led me to shop there less and recommending the place less to my clients.

MaxHeadroom

@Punisher I gave up with MC now. Honestly, the only thing keeping here is the fact I have a warranty for a dead gpu that I was holding on to and hoping to use the credit for towards a 3080, instead of just buying a new one at the time it stopped working, long before the 3080 released. At this point I’m just waiting for inventory to stabilize So I can use the warranty, get a 3080, and take my business elsewhere. This has been a completely tiresome and jarring experience, compounded by the fact that now we have to deal with reports the 3080s might have major faults in them. I’m not even as upset anymore about not having a 3080. I mean I wish I could have one, but that’s not what’s bothering me anymore. What’s bothering me now is MC’s customer service.

I genuinely feel like there’s info we’re not being told at all and I try to be understanding by telling myself maybe the reps had a long day, or maybe it’s not their fault they can’t say anything but rather it’s management. But whatever the case, it’s become exhausting as hell for me. I sometimes feel like information is sometimes being deliberately withheld from customers. I was told the same at the Chicago store when I visited about three days ago, that their shipments just randomly arrive whenever, with absolutely nobody having any clue how or when or where. I was told by a rep I’d be in for a long wait at the store if I wanted to get a 3080. I lost my patience when I was told this because before saying that to me, when I walked into the store after opening and asked about the 3080s when I didn’t see them, the rep pointed at a piece of paper on the wall, all matter of factly, and said in the most deadpan monotone voice, “All 3080s and 90s are sold out,” like he’s just been regurgitating this line all week, which he probably has, but damn dude I’ve never seen you before and that was literally the second time I visited MC looking for a 3080, the first time being on launch day when I was 14th in line.

So I lost my patience with the rep when he said I’d have to wait at the store for if another shipment shows up. I told him I’m not gonna freakin wait at MC all day for another FedEx truck to arrive. I have other things going on in my life that I can’t and won’t dedicate my entire day to waiting at MC for something I don’t even know if it will arrive.

Whatever. I can’t help but feel like a lot more could be done, at least in terms of communicating with their customers. I get Nvidia won’t tell them anything but I find it hard to believe they have ZERO idea when something might or might not arrive to the store, and that fedex trucks just arrive at random moments throughout the day and week. And to tell us to go to the stores and check, which is what I did only to walk away empty handed, both in gpu and information, or to go online and check to see the same sold out info on 3080s with seemingly random skus appearing and disappearing, and reps and admins and managers all telling us different stories but the one common trait is not a single person working at MC has any idea what is going on, it feels extremely insulting. Even more so when I mention, that in my failed attempt, I tried not asking when the next shipment will arrive, but when was the last time a shipment arrived. And my answer was a very clearly automated boilerplate response that includes visiting the forums.

I just want use my warranty to replace my gpu to get a 3080 and just call it a day with MC and take my business elsewhere. It seems like MC mostly favors those who will dedicate entire days of their lives to camp out in front of a store, while those like myself who also enjoy gaming as a major pastime but have other life commitments like family, significant others, pets, and jobs, don’t get a chance at all to enjoy this part of life. I love video games. 30+ hours a week. But I also love my girlfriend, my family, my dog, and my job. My whole life isn’t video games and MC.

PowerSpec_MichaelB

Punisher said:

TSMichaelB said:

 The reason we advise people to check online is that our online inventory updates as product is scanned into our systems. I know it was mentioned earlier that someone saw product arrive and yet the website never updated to reflect the inventory stock. I imagine this is due to the voucher system, and that they were automatically deducting the inventory from the site similar to how our reservation system works in order to prevent people from showing up to the store with a false sense of hope. 

One of the reasons for a lot of people's frustrations is the lack of consistency. We get different answers based on who we ask, when we ask, the current position of the moon, etc... 
You say check inventory online, but as mentioned it's not accurate. Your answer for this is because they handed out vouchers the night before. However, you also mention that there is no way to know what the inventory is until its been processed so are people just pulling up a cot and moving into their local Microcenter 24/7 to hang out and wait for an unknown shipment to come in?
I even asked the employees when their normal truck days are and they (multiple employees) said they don't even receive normal trucks anymore and haven't for years. Things just randomly show up. 
So...
Nobody knows what is shipping to the stores (not just these cards, but all inventory apparently)
Nobody knows what they have in the store until it is fully received and processed.
You must have a huge amount of inventory discrepancies each year and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of inventory "fell off the back of the truck" since there is apparently no way to track what you should have vs what you have. Heck, I could work in receiving and just take parts home daily and never put them into the system. Based on what I have read here and what the employees have told me, there would not be any way to even know that something is missing. You don't have a way of knowing that 10 RTX 3080's shipped to store X so your inventory won't be negative if I take them all home which means free cards for me.
As someone who has been a retail manager before, I truly can't believe that this is the case. 

And from our perspective it really does sound like moving into MC is the only way to plan on getting a card other than blind luck. And moving in doesn't guarantee a timeframe either since you may not get any more for months or even years it seems (well, nobody can give us ANY sort of date so right now it could be years for all we know. (my store said they received the initial order of 3080's for launch and haven't received anymore since then.))
I think MC could do some basic things to help fix their customer service issues.
1) Somebody who works for MC must know what is being ordered and from whom (direct from the manufacturer, through a separate vendor, etc...) I'm sure nobody is randomly shipping stuff out to the warehouse or direct to the stores for free (EX: EVGA does not work like MC's apparently crappy inventory system. I'm sure they require a PO at a minimum and not "hey, let's just randomly ship some things out to random stores and see what happens. If they don't get marked into inventory oh well we won't bill anyone for them. What? no, don't bother sending the stuff with tracking, we wouldn't want anyone to know where they are at any given time"
2) Your purchasing department should be able to contact their sales rep and find out what the status is.
3) They should be able to get this info trickled down to the stores which should be freely ALLOWED to give us the truth (I bolded this because as someone who worked as a manager in retail, I also know that corporate can and does make some VERY shitty calls preventing us from giving straight answers because who cares, they aren't the ones dealing with the customers)

I would say that while it would be great to be able to give us exact info (X amount of cards are arriving on this day in this time window), even basic info, including whats NOT happening would be helpful..
IE:
1)We checked with our vendors and the earliest they are projecting for cards to be in hand at various stores is 3 weeks from now.
2) We have some tracking info and it says that some cards are due between 10/2-10/7. We don't know how many, but that is the next shipping info we have.
Or something along those lines.
Right now we are being given conflicting info all over the place. Some of my answers have seemed like canned responses, while others have seemed like the person really just didn't want to be bothered about it. Yes, you may be getting bombarded with these questions, but hey, not for nothing, but that's your job.
Oh, and you mention about all the cleaning and precautions that you need to do and that the employees are focused on, well no surprise during my many visits there have seen employees walk around with their mask under their nose and the closest I've seen to cleaning is the person at the door who sprays our hand's whether we want them to or not (which I'm a bit surprised that you do the way I have seen. Just some random unmarked spray bottle with something in it. I wouldn't be surprised if this was a homebrew thing because it has not felt the same way twice yet. Que the inevitable lawsuit when someone has an allergic reaction to whatever you put in those) and the only other cleaning I saw was at the repair center where they were cleaning the desks/keyboards on their side of the counter. 
Anyway, I didn't mean for this to be this long, I just couldn't stop adding to it.
TLDR: 
I truly feel that MC could be handling the dissemination of information MUCH better to its customers. I guarantee that a lot of this info is out there and available, but my perception is that the higher-ups in MC don't really care, especially since as others have mentioned, the cards are gonna sell out either way so why do more than the bare minimum of work.
I'm not gonna lie and say this has soured me to the point where I won't be shopping there anymore, It's just another straw under the mountain I have gathered over the years that HAS led me to shop there less and recommending the place less to my clients.

Once again, this is not the opinion or views of Micro Center, but rather my own:

I won't speak for what others have said, but I've been giving my best efforts to remain consistent with explaining what I personally understand on this subject. With that said, it's also important to understand that I do not work on the sales floor or in the retail stores for that matter, so it's entirely possible that I do not understand the entire scope of this issue.

TSMichaelB said:

This is not the opinion of Micro Center, but rather my own personal opinion.
I also want to clarify how inventory works. Your average sales rep doesn't really know what is coming on a truck unless their inventory coordinator took the time to provide them direct information or if a manager sent a staff-wide email out and they found time to check their email. Even if they were given that information, what the inventory coordinator sees may not be what actually arrives on the truck. Even if you see boxes labeled "EVGA" or "MSI", the rep cannot confirm if they are in fact RTX 3000 series GPU's until they've taken the time to open the package and sort through the inventory. Now I can't speak for the tone of the voice and the full context that led to that response, but the answer of "I don't know, check online" might have been as honest of an answer that the rep had at the time. We can't really provide answers that we do not have, as such a situation would lead to further frustration. The reason we advise people to check online is that our online inventory updates as product is scanned into our systems. I know it was mentioned earlier that someone saw product arrive and yet the website never updated to reflect the inventory stock. I imagine this is due to the voucher system, and that they were automatically deducting the inventory from the site similar to how our reservation system works in order to prevent people from showing up to the store with a false sense of hope. 

Circling back to my previous post, I stated that your average sales rep does not know what is coming on the trucks, only the inventory coordinators do. Even then, what they see as "ordered" might not be what they actually get. I can order X number of product from a vendor, but if they cannot facilitate the entire order, I may only receive Y number of product. This is normally not a problem with your average product as their manufacturing yields are typically fine and it's easy to special order to accommodate for any changes in demand or any shipping mistakes from the vendors. When we are dealing with product that is experiencing a global shortage, there is little we can do short of trying to order anything and everything that is currently available and hoping that what we requested is delivered.

Our inventory showing 0 despite cards arriving to the store also doesn't automatically mean the website's reflection of 0 is inaccurate. If those cards were promised to customers via vouchers, and customers are there to receive them (which we all currently know to be the case, given the context of the conversations in this thread) then they will not be in stock by the time someone sees that information online. Even if the website reflected say, 2-3 cards in-stock, they do not get removed from the website until after they are adjusted in the POS, so customers with the cards in their shopping cart walking around the store may already have the card you are looking for. I personally cannot think of a feasible way to accurately report website inventory when these two scenarios are factored in, mostly because we cannot inspect the cart of every customer to determine what items are in their carts. For the items that are locked behind cases and escorted to the front, those customers are still subjected to the same long lines that everyone else is currently dealing with, so it could be several minutes or more before the website is updated to accurately reflect the inventory after they've checked out. That doesn't sound like a lot of time, but for product launches like this, it only takes minutes for product to completely sell out. As for product going missing, I won't touch upon this subject too much, but I am confident that with your experience as a retail manager you understand the industry wide practices and procedures in-place to help deter theft and loss.

As for there being somebody that must know the number of product being ordered, I believe that there is. However, somebody knowing the quantity of product ordered is not the underlying issue. The problem is figuring out how to convey that information in a way that doesn't result in misinformation or potentially frustrating someone with inaccurate information. Let's say that the person or team responsible for ordering graphics cards knows the exact number they requested and the exact numbers that they were able to procure from the various vendors. They have to then determine where those cards are actually going between the 25 stores. Now I admittedly do not know what goes on with determining how many cards each store gets, but I assume a lot of it has to do with population density and market analytics well beyond my comprehension of the subject. Lastly, they have to factor in the cards reaching their final destination unharmed. While not too likely given the much improved product packaging, damage can still occur, and people do not want to be disappointed after waiting hours/days on the street for a product only to be told "Sorry, the number was off a little". It's for this reason alone that I prefer to under-promise and over-deliver.

I also understand that people want the purchasing team to give frequent updates on the inventory order status, but that would be a full time job in and of itself if you factor in the 25 different stores sales teams contacting the same few people responsible for ordering product. Those same people are responsible for ordering a lot of other products in our stores, and devoting their time to providing real-time updates just doesn't seem feasible to me, not without neglecting other products and aspects of their jobs.

As for the comments on cleaning and store precautions, that is feedback that we certainly value. I know the Columbus store that I personally shop at is at the top of their game when it comes to keeping things clean and ensuring social distancing, but I have almost no experience with shopping at any of our stores outside of Ohio. To give you an idea of what you should be seeing, take a look at the page here: https://www.microcenter.com/site/customer-support/coronavirus-response.aspx. If you are seeing a different level of effort, I recommend using the contact methods provided on that page (or reach out to any of us here on the community forum) and let us know.

At the end of the day, I do agree that there is room to improve on how we are navigating through this product launch. It would be naïve to assume otherwise. The one thing I hope everyone is taking away from this is that we are not trying to make this difficult on anyone. It would make no sense for us to do so, and our entire team from the sales floor all the way up want nothing more than for everyone to get the cards they need. I personally don't want people sleeping out on the streets for a GPU, I am concerned about the lack of sleep and the tension that may build from it. I also want our sales associates to earn their commissions from these sales as they've been working hard throughout this situation. 

Lastly, I know that my responses sound like canned responses at times. I also know people are tired of hearing the same old apologies and excuses, but those of you that have shopped with us before know that we're capable of excellent service and do our best to live up to that expectation in spite of any trials currently presented before us. I only ask that those of you doubting this, give us the opportunity to prove it to you in the future. 

cucuchu

Going forward, in cirumstances where your store gets EXTREMELY limited quantities of something like these cards, I would almost say its better to just go with a raffle system like they do in Japan for a lot of these sorts of releases. Have people register to be notified when shipments come in. They can submit for the raffle during the period of a day and winners gets chosen that evening.

Once stock starts to reasonably meet demand, go back to online orders and pickups. I feel like something like this would save your store a lot of headaches. 

NickRH199

So, what's the consensus on buying an RTX 3080? Visit the store everyday? Move in to the store? Wait several months for all this to die down? I'm a grad student and work... I live 15 minutes away from an MC store... I don't have time to visit the store at a random time everyday. I also don't have time to camp/ live at the store. Does this mean I'm fresh out of luck? 

I'm a decently patient person, but I wouldn't mind getting a card sooner rather than later.