Stock discrepancy...is it in stock or not?

briandanimal

On the website for Rockville, MD it says items are in stock.  After "reserving" for in-store pickup, I got an email that said the items were NOT in stock.  Going back into the website, it still shows several items in stock.  I called the Rockville store and despite the fact that the automated phone attendant says they are open for holiday hours until 10pm, when you press the corresponding button to speak to someone, the recording says that they are closed.  Went onto the website to try to email someone....no email option available.  Saw the instant online chat option...clicking it says "we're not online to chat right now".  Everyone's busy...I get it, but that's several levels of failure.  I just need to know if the items are in stock or if I need to go elsewhere...
ITEMS:

AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Matisse 3.6GHz 8-Core AM4 Processor

Gigabyte Aorus Elite WiFi X570 AMD AM4 ATX Motherboard

jacobxtyler

I've had a similar issue, where I drove 50 minutes to my nearest MC and was told there were no 3070's in stock, even thought it still says "in stock" 50 additional minutes later now that I'm home.... I even called and waited on hold for 20 minutes before someone confirming that they it said 1 was in stock. I was told to come back and wait in line before the store opened again tomorrow...

bjjb99

Same issue. Yesterday I saw a graphics card was listed as "1 in stock" on the website for the Fairfax MC.  Drove 20 minutes there since I couldn't find a phone number on the MC website to call.  When I got there, I was told "yeah, we don't have any, it was out of stock a while ago and there's a waiting list."  Drove back to the office.  An hour later it was still listed as "1 in stock" on the website.  Sad.

How difficult is it in this day and age to have up-to-date inventory management that ties in with a company's website?

briandanimal

Ok, so get this...
After having not been able to verify what the truth was about what was in stock, I ended up purchasing my original motherboard & CPU combo elsewhere (paying about $40 more).  I did not see a way to cancel my reservation for this order online so I guess it just expires after 3 days.  Meanwhile, I had placed a different order (different items) for pickup at the same store in Rockville.  So now I technically have two orders submitted.  When I arrived at the store to pickup my second order, they looked it up by name and brought BOTH orders to the counter.  The original order for the motherboard & CPU was in stock and had been there all along.  Ok, so I'm out $40 and they lost that particular sale (everyone looses)...that's cool, I make mistakes too.  So I fulfil the second order, pay for it, they bag the items up, and I leave the store.  I get to my car to check out my new product, and I open one of the boxes and IT'S EMPTY!!!!!  At this point, I'm rightfully angry but I decide to just be cool and go back in and discuss it.  Long story short, they were cool about it and just swapped out the empty box for a full one without issue or argument.  Needless to say, that was a relief.  I should point out that the staff at the internet orders counter were really kind and pleasant.

Here's the deal...there's a never ending list of reasons/excuses as to why the inventory online doesn't reflect real-time inventory; I get that.  But when I showed up to the store and walked the floor, I had at least 5 commission hungry sales people ask me if I needed help.  From one lens that might sound like a GOOD thing, but during my brief stay, I saw at least 4 or 5 clumps of sales people in different parts of the store standing together chatting amongst themselves.  PUT THESE PEOPLE BEHIND A PHONE!!!!  Get them in the online chat queue.  Get them organizing the shelves, flipping a sign outside, or organizing the warehouse area....SOMETHING!!!  Sometimes your customers drive a fair distance to give you their money.  Please, do us the courtesy of giving us your attention on the phones or chat...particularly when you've got unproductive staff standing around.  Call your telephone system technician and ask them to change your automated attendant's "business hours" to reflect the holiday hours so the attendant isn't telling the callers that your open until 10pm only to press a button to speak to a customer service representative and be told by the recording that you are closed without putting you through.

You knew Black Friday/Cyber Monday, etc. was coming...make a list next time.

pL86

I'm also frustrated with the inaccurate stock status at stores.  It's not even those items that sell out quickly like GPUs and CPUs - the St. David's store has had at least three Asus Crosshair VIII Hero Wifi motherboards sitting on the floor for the last two weeks and the store stock on the Microcenter website says it's sold out.  It seems to be a cruel joke that the automated voice prompt when you call the store encourages you to check the stock status on the website because "you see what we see."

TSPhillipT

Hello everyone! 

Thank you everyone here for posting your thoughts on our stock on our website and how it is reflective of stock in store.  I apologize for all and every inconvenience and issue this has caused.  This post will address the issues you are all having with our stocking and reservation system.

Firstly, regarding the 3000 series GPUs as well as other recent hardware releases, they are very low supply and high demand items, some of the biggest discrepancies we have seen between supply and demand in a long while.  We have customers waiting outside of the store everyday before opening for hours for a chance at a possible shipment of GPUs.  Before the store is open and once the stock of the GPU is known, those at the front of the line are sometimes provided a voucher so they no longer need to wait in the line.  We are approaching this as a First Come First Serve while trying to prevent large crowds from forming.  Though most just wait in the car and purchase as soon as we open, some do come back later in the day to get their GPU.  While it may show 1 or 2 in stock online, those are likely claimed by customers that waited and received a voucher.  The best way to find stock for the 3000 series cards and other recent hardware releases would be going to your local store, just keep in mind there are people waiting every day for their chance to get one.  

@pL86

That is strange that it is not showing up on our website if there are three on the floor.  I am currently looking at the stock and I do see it listed as out of stock.  I have sent an email to the St. Davids location to see if they can investigate exactly what is happening with it.

@briandanimal

I apologize for the whole mixup with reservations and missing items and I am glad to see the issue you had was resolved.  In regards to our sales consultants in store only chatting, I do agree that there should be things to do outside of chatting if there are no customers to assist.  Just would like to mention that our stores do not have an Online Chat or Phone Lines physically inside the store.  It is all handled at our headquarters in Columbus, OH.    

BrianH

I woke up this morning, like many mornings, and refreshed a bunch of sites to see if I can get my hands on an AMD 5000 series processor.  Sure enough, it said you had 7 5950x and 20 5900x at the Tustin, CA store.  I got there at 8:30 am and there was already a line.  The store didn't open at 9, the posted opening time.  Instead it opened at 10 am.  While I was in line, a friend of mine messaged me, saying a friend of his works there and there are no 5000 series processors in stock.  Later in the day my friend told me that his friend told him that they are scalping the processors, and that the managers are well aware.  Now I have no way to know if this is true, but I sure would like it looked into.  It is absolutely irresponsible, in a pandemic, with known demand for these products, to put up faulty stock information, scalping or not and have us come to your store if there is zero need to.  Maybe you don't care, but I am guessing if you keep this up, you will lose loyal customers very quickly.  This kind of stuff needs to be fixed asap.  Also, why is there no way to pre order and just simply get into a queue?  It makes no sense to make us rub elbows all the time trying to get an item.

pL86

TSPhillipT,

Thanks for following up about the stock situation at the St. David's store.  I would be interested to know what the store tells you.  BTW, It's not just the Crosshair VIII Hero Wifi mobo  - two Crosshair Formulas have been on the shelf - right next to the Crosshair Heroes - while the Microcenter site has listed them as out of stock.  I can take a pic of all the mobos sitting on the shelf tomorrow as verification.  To be honest, this has been a longstanding problem with the store - I have learned, unfortunately, that the website cannot be trusted when it comes to low volume items and that the only way to be sure is to physically go to the store and ask an associate to look up stock in the internal system.

briandanimal

@TSPhillipT
Yeah, there's always reasons why things don't work out the way they should.  The truth is, most reasons don't have anything to do with the customer.  The customer simply goes online, looks for products, selects and pays for one.  At that point, either way you spin it, the customer should be able to trust that the deal is done.  The same is true with every customer facing function of the business.  Your automated attendant when calling in states that if you're calling to check stock on an item, what's listed on the website is the same information an associate has access to.  In other words, don't waste our time on the phones, just look it up yourself on the website and trust it's accuracy.  Except, it's not accurate and your inability to follow through on what you say leaves no reason to trust you.

I get it... I'm just someone who's upset and oh well, "you can't satisfy everyone".  Except, clearly I'm not alone.  This thread is full of others who were led to it because of it's title.  A title that at this point seems to resonate with people from coast to coast.  How many others have had similar problems but didn't care to look online and find this discussion.  How many others decided to just not waste their time?  Chances are, far more than who actually took the time.  You have inventory and management problems that appear to be systemic throughout the company.

Another thing, yes...you can get your sales people in the stores on the phones.  It's called Voice over IP (VoIP).  Configure 3 or 4 phones to register with the call center's call control server and send them to each store.  During downtime, answering phone calls not only provides your customers with a sense that their business is appreciated, but it provides continuing sales and customer service training to your staff and improves productivity.

Hand out vouchers to people in line during door buster days?  Easy!!!  Barcode the vouchers with barcodes corresponding to actual physical items in the store.  Once the vouchers are printed, remove them from your inventory immediately...you know they'll be sold even if the voucher holder doesn't return.  The voucher simply states that the guarantee is only valid until noon.  After that, the item is back up for grabs.

At the end of the day, your problems are your problems.  It's your job to iron out those problems so these things don't happen.  Explaining why the problem happened doesn't put the item in my hand.  What we need to hear is that you understand that our concerns are valid and that you can do better than the way things are happening and that your current system is due for a major overhaul.  Anything other than that only deepens the distrust, and apparent incoherence.

Bottom line....get it together.  Potential customers are dropping like flies.

iaisaac

BrianH said:

I woke up this morning, like many mornings, and refreshed a bunch of sites to see if I can get my hands on an AMD 5000 series processor.  Sure enough, it said you had 7 5950x and 20 5900x at the Tustin, CA store.  I got there at 8:30 am and there was already a line.  The store didn't open at 9, the posted opening time.  Instead it opened at 10 am.  While I was in line, a friend of mine messaged me, saying a friend of his works there and there are no 5000 series processors in stock.  Later in the day my friend told me that his friend told him that they are scalping the processors, and that the managers are well aware.  Now I have no way to know if this is true, but I sure would like it looked into.  It is absolutely irresponsible, in a pandemic, with known demand for these products, to put up faulty stock information, scalping or not and have us come to your store if there is zero need to.  Maybe you don't care, but I am guessing if you keep this up, you will lose loyal customers very quickly.  This kind of stuff needs to be fixed asap.  Also, why is there no way to pre order and just simply get into a queue?  It makes no sense to make us rub elbows all the time trying to get an item.

Marking the 9th of December,  I was in line as well amongst many customers who have the same reason as you, on the same day and location, and others who are casual shoppers. But I rated this experience as the most unprofessional, unethical, and disappointing visit I had with Mircocenter. To put details into perspective, they lacked the communication skills to directly inform us about the store's late opening as they barricaded the door, in my opinion that was disrespectful. Management was outrageously bias in three instances within this particular day: being told stay in our car before 2 hours before opening and not accounting for newly arrived customers who conveniently formed a line thus kicking us early birds out. Then whoever worked there, walked out laughing with other associates upon opening minutes late within the promised late 10am sign, and yelled out in a rude manner to the customers to "shut up, one at a time!" with those who were complaining and proceeded to retaliate by disregarding the early birds in line to people who had just arrived and let them go first. While some were trying to explain the situation, they showed inconsideration and told us to back off. On the third instance, whoever was in charge did not let anyone in who were looking for a "graphics card." That was it. A graphics card? Knowingly very well on there site they had many other models of graphics card, surely he was referring to the 3000s series without stating the specifics. About loosing loyal customers, I had others waiting next to me who weren't even looking for the new 30s 'graphics cards' but the ones they had in stock like the 5700xt. But she was physically turned away in line to go home because she was wrongly accused about looking for a 'graphics card.'
For Microcenter anticipating this situation over and over again, it seems this particular location at Tustin fails to learn from their mistakes. If such a location is going to earn recognition because of demand, surely I expect humane treatment. Just to further escalate my argument, I would think it's their associates job to inform us of stock before wasting our time in line because the Tustin Authorities(police) who went inside were told to inform us customers and came out to tell us they "had no stock." Obviously the authorities had no idea what stock they were referring to, but to blankly state no stock means they should've closed that particular day because of no stock. This is merely bad business practice especially with heightened expectations of those carrying these scarcely demanded computer components.

TSTonyV

iaisaac said:

BrianH said:

I woke up this morning, like many mornings, and refreshed a bunch of sites to see if I can get my hands on an AMD 5000 series processor.  Sure enough, it said you had 7 5950x and 20 5900x at the Tustin, CA store.  I got there at 8:30 am and there was already a line.  The store didn't open at 9, the posted opening time.  Instead it opened at 10 am.  While I was in line, a friend of mine messaged me, saying a friend of his works there and there are no 5000 series processors in stock.  Later in the day my friend told me that his friend told him that they are scalping the processors, and that the managers are well aware.  Now I have no way to know if this is true, but I sure would like it looked into.  It is absolutely irresponsible, in a pandemic, with known demand for these products, to put up faulty stock information, scalping or not and have us come to your store if there is zero need to.  Maybe you don't care, but I am guessing if you keep this up, you will lose loyal customers very quickly.  This kind of stuff needs to be fixed asap.  Also, why is there no way to pre order and just simply get into a queue?  It makes no sense to make us rub elbows all the time trying to get an item.

Marking the 9th of December,  I was in line as well amongst many customers who have the same reason as you, on the same day and location, and others who are casual shoppers. But I rated this experience as the most unprofessional, unethical, and disappointing visit I had with Mircocenter. To put details into perspective, they lacked the communication skills to directly inform us about the store's late opening as they barricaded the door, in my opinion that was disrespectful. Management was outrageously bias in three instances within this particular day: being told stay in our car before 2 hours before opening and not accounting for newly arrived customers who conveniently formed a line thus kicking us early birds out. Then whoever worked there, walked out laughing with other associates upon opening minutes late within the promised late 10am sign, and yelled out in a rude manner to the customers to "shut up, one at a time!" with those who were complaining and proceeded to retaliate by disregarding the early birds in line to people who had just arrived and let them go first. While some were trying to explain the situation, they showed inconsideration and told us to back off. On the third instance, whoever was in charge did not let anyone in who were looking for a "graphics card." That was it. A graphics card? Knowingly very well on there site they had many other models of graphics card, surely he was referring to the 3000s series without stating the specifics. About loosing loyal customers, I had others waiting next to me who weren't even looking for the new 30s 'graphics cards' but the ones they had in stock like the 5700xt. But she was physically turned away in line to go home because she was wrongly accused about looking for a 'graphics card.'
For Microcenter anticipating this situation over and over again, it seems this particular location at Tustin fails to learn from their mistakes. If such a location is going to earn recognition because of demand, surely I expect humane treatment. Just to further escalate my argument, I would think it's their associates job to inform us of stock before wasting our time in line because the Tustin Authorities(police) who went inside were told to inform us customers and came out to tell us they "had no stock." Obviously the authorities had no idea what stock they were referring to, but to blankly state no stock means they should've closed that particular day because of no stock. This is merely bad business practice especially with heightened expectations of those carrying these scarcely demanded computer components.

Sorry we didn't respond sooner.  I wanted to quickly explain that we take your safety and the safety of our associates very seriously.  On the morning in question there were some threats of violence made and we chose to wait for senior management to arrive and open late to make sure we could safely take care of everyone.  We had no intention of opening later than posted until just before opening and the decision was made.  

I can pass your feedback along regarding the management of the lines and who is or is not being let in first or how associates are addressing potential customers so any issues on that front can be addressed. 

bun

I have never seen a more deceptive scammy company in my life. Employees were rude as Hell. It says clear as day, we have 1 card in stock, must pick up in the store on the website. This is a company that specializes in computers, but yet can not run a website.  This reminds me of the old chinese bait and switch, get peeps in the door, and they will spend. A hour wasted for nothing, website says 1 3060 TI in stock, but NO, just a LIE, a inventory error said the 3rd grader behind the desk at the 9294 Metcalf Avenue
Regency Park Shopping Center
Overland Park, KS 66212 store. I was going to drop 200 more on a case and power supply, but NEVER again will i set foot in a micro center again. Funny it still shows it as in stock, 2 hours later. PATHETIC.

reylojr