Vendors lie about products being 'in stock'

I'm sure this will come as no surprise to many shoppers.

I'm interested in picking up a 1.8" PATA ZIF drive. MyDigitalDiscount claimed to have the 60gb version in stock. That's a blatant lie.

"In stock" does not mean in someone else's warehouse. It means physically in your company's inventory, ready to be shipped out.

Adding euphemisms like "lead time" or "3-5 days to process order" do not justify making the false claim that something is "in stock".

Customers try to make informed decisions when purchasing products. Lying to them does not make for good customer service. It leads to customers taking their business elsewhere and putting their energies into warning others not to do business with misleading merchants.

So do yourselves a favor and confirm that products are actually on-hand. Pickup the phone and call to confirm stock and readiness to ship. If they choose to lie over the phone then it starts wandering into interstate wire fraud territory...

Meanwhile if you're considering MDD, it might be advisable to find a more honest merchant.

 

SuperBiiz has the EWS720-based SuperTalent ZT2 in stock:

Code:

32GB / $79.99 / Free Shipping 	
64GB / $139.99 Free Shipping 	
128GB / $239.99 Free Shipping 	
256GB / $499.99 Free Shipping 

plus have another $5 off coupon.

It's the least expensive EWS720-based ZIF SSD around. Note that you do not get a ZIF USB enclosure with the SuperTalent ZT2. The Renice K3VLAR-E does provide one. They can be purchased off ebay for less than $10-delivered.

 

Vendors lie? I'm shocked!!!

 

We should sue them! Where's my pitchfork???

Mr. Mysterious

 

The OP is right though, and instead of making fun of him, you could recognize the fact that he's trying to do a service to the online community by informing us of this. So many people are duped by this very thing, and while it's the fault of those that are gullible for not doing the research, I am glad there are those that are willing to tell others about it.

 

Roger, I'm not making fun of the OP - but the fact is all vendors lie, one way or another.

After all, 'Buyer Beware' is not a cliche for no reason.

 

Caveat emptor certainly applies. Made all the more difficult when a vendor consciously chooses to present misleading, if not outright false information. I'm certainly not naive enough to believe otherwise. Just presenting a reminder and a warning about online purchases and one merchant in particular.

 

Update: a week later and they STILL haven't shipped it. Idiots.

 

The way that a lot of places work most of their "stock" exists in some wholesaler/distributor somewhere else and it gets drop shipped. No surprises when their stock isn't accurate. Unless you know the retailer or can see a real-time stock status with quantity on hand, it's always a major gamble. I've waited days for hard to find components to ship only to have to contact the place to get the bad news and even longer for the payment to be reversed. Of course you can avoid all this if you can get someone on the phone ahead of time to confirm actual stock.

 

Unless, of course, they lie. Two have done just that recently.

 

welcome to the other wall st. you invest. we collect interest. or we collect your weight while you wait.

 

This is Matt Dawson owner of MyDigitalDiscount and MyDigitalSSD. I am sorry to hear about your disappointment in the terminology we use on our web site. We find that giving out customers a lead time on products that we may not have to ship that day is a good way to let people know that if they do order the item it will not be falling into some black hole. Items on our site that are In Stock and can ship same day are labeled In Stock. If it has a lead time and is not in stock in our warehouse but is in stock at our distro or in your case in china at Renice and it will have a lead time under it.

We try our best to keep those here ready to ship but sometimes we get so many orders for those that it is imposable to keep up.

I hope you will be 100% satisfied with the product and that it will be worth the wait.

Thank You,

MyDigitalDiscount Team

 

Just got this e-mail:

Meanwhile their website STILL LIES about it.

Two things,

1) start using a web browser that spell checks. Like Firefox.

2) Don't make excuses like "terminology". In no ones dictionary does "in stock" mean "not actually here, but still being shipping from the factory". False advertising is more like it.

 

Many if not ALL major retailers have in stock items that ship from other companies warehouses and post a 24-48 hour lead time. This is not abnormal.

At MDD it is how we let people know that it is available to ship but it may not ship today. Also we are not lying about anything and never intended to misrepresent the lead time for that item we cannot control Chinese customs. We now have 2 shipments that will be here shortly from Renice. We will also have some stock here in the warehouse to ship. Many Renice items will be going up as In Stock with no lead time once they arrive.

FYI, I put a request into the web design guys to see if we can create a new stock status called "Available". We will see what they come back with.

Matt

 

This would appear to be a marvelous opportunity to take the moral high ground, and stand out from the sea of "other companies". If it's en route from the supplier (or stuck in customs), just say "In Transit". I would suggest you don't even put an ETA. And if your supplier claims to have stock, I don't think you should pass along any such claims at all. They may just as well be pulling similar stunts.

For comparison, I recently ordered the Intel 310 80GB from a local store, which advertised on their site that the order was due to arrive May 25 (I ordered it May 23). Well, the order didn't arrive at the store's own warehouse until June 6. Just what value was added by advertising an ETA of May 25?

 

See the shovel in your hands, put it down and stop digging. You're only making the hole deeper. When you have product on-hand, in the facility, only THEN is it actually "in stock".

Your company's reputation is being called into question. I'd say it's worth a bit more than a 'request' that the web guys solve the glaring errors.

 

I agree 100% but this is an item that is actually sitting in a warehouse ready to ship. Normally it take between 2-5 days for us to turn it around when it is in a Chinese warehouse. In this case there has been added delays due to this customs clearance issue. This is the 1st time this has happened with Renice.

There are about 50 items in total in the shipment and the problem turns out to be silly. They are being held because the invoices say 128GB, 64GB, and 32GB while the packaging says 120GB, 60GB, and 30GB.

I am blaming all of you guys for complaining about posting the usable size of the SSD on the box and descriptions. ; ) Just playing I think is was a good idea to do that.

Matt

wkearney, the most popular eCommerce web sites do this exact thing. Amazon for example gives a lead times on shipping items for many different variations of in stock items. Buy.com, BestBuy, Tiger Direct, Sears and many other major retailers orders ship from Ingram Micro almost 90% of the time. I could go on and on. It is your opinion that this is a glaring error. You are the 1st person to call it into question since we put the new site up about 2 months ago. I will see what I can do from this end. I personally think most people appreciate the way we are posting the lead times. I also agree with you though and am looking into a way to find a middle ground.

Matt

 

I seem to recall seeing a number of complaints online regarding MDD. Perhaps they're correct.

I was a manufacturer's rep for more than a decade, I know how shipping works. Claiming something is "in stock" is a blatant lie. Even more so with these particular drives. It's not as if you were getting them from Ingram Micro. No, you know you don't have any in stock. They're all tied up in customs/shipping. Yet you still persist in calling that "in stock" when it clearly IS NOT.

Again, see the shovel? Stop digging.

 

A lot of online retailers work that way, in conjunction with some of the distributors. In a perfect world their systems are linked and so "stock" should be accurate. However, that's relying on a couple of systems working together, which they don't always.