Forum - View topicSellers Without Product On Hand: A New Trend?
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PetrifiedJello
Posts: 3782 |
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I've noticed a growing trend recently, and it seems to be applicable to both small and larger retailers (usually store-fronts at sites like Amazon) to which products are being sold without being on hand.
It all started with the "pre-order", and now includes things like "We'll get it for you", "Special order", or "Pre-sale", just to name a few. I'm aware trying to maintain this stuff in inventory can be a bitch, but as a customer, the growing number of "We're sorry, but we're out of stock of this item." is becoming problematic. Since October of last year, I've received 7 of these emails. With product demand already an issue, the last thing I want to see is a website offering something to which their outdated inventory system can not keep track. Is this a tactic to draw in customers to buy other products? Is it really "not that big a problem" for retailers? DVDs rarely see this issue, but for other anime related merchandise, it's a dog-eat-dog world now complex with outdated inventory display. As a side note: I don't pre-order too often as it ties up funds from my account because they're tied to actual orders. Pre-orders are now months ahead, and it's ridiculous retailers think we should have our funds tied up this long. I'm very thankful local retailers do try their best to provide us great customer service, but something changed and it's not as it used to be. I'm sure there's more going on than my casual observation, so why not let customers know this so they're informed? I wouldn't be half as upset if there were a disclaimer reading "This product is difficult to maintain in inventory and is subject to cancellation if ordered." Fans, do you see this as a growing issue or do you not care? How many cancellation notices have you received in the last 6 months? Do you pre-order? |
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egoist
 Posts: 7762 |
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The most annoying is "More Arriving Soon". I have these three figures "On Order From Manufacturer". I only realized they were out of stock when I checked my order status. I believe Rightstuf should have been in the figure game for long enough to realize that once they're gone, they are gone with a few exceptions. So rather than have a "More Arriving Soon" notice, they should just say it's out of stock and advertise it back if they miraculously receive more.
I have already found alternatives for most of them, but I'm waiting to see what Rightstuf will do with my order, as it would be cheaper with them. |
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FaytLein
 Posts: 1260 Location: Williamsburg, VA |
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I try to refrain from the dreaded "lost sale" as I call it by keeping to my usual retailer, namely RACS. That being said, both Borders and Rightstuf are in the doghouse with me for this very reason. Two different orders, one placed before X-mas and one after. While Borders has forgotten about me, I still get weekly emails from TRSI telling me that certain things still aren't in yet. Actually every single thing that comes from TRSI is by default two weeks late because it out of stock. Which might work for one or two items, but for everything? Heck no.
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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Heck, I've found that even when I preorder stuff, it doesn't really do any good. For instance, I preordered the 4th FMP novel from Rightstuf which was released 2 weeks ago, but all it says on my order form is "More Arriving Soon".
I'd think that Rightstuf would of at least known how many pre-orders there were for the novel, right? EDIT: Ah, and now it looks like the Genshiken 2 litebox I preordered back in September which was released today has "More Arriving Soon!" listed under product availability. Rather irksome. Last edited by Megiddo on Tue Feb 15, 2011 12:36 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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FaytLein
Posts: 1260 Location: Williamsburg, VA |
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I try to refrain from the dreaded "lost sale" as I call it by keeping to my usual retailer, namely RACS. That being said, both Borders and Rightstuf are in the doghouse with me for this very reason. Two different orders, one placed before X-mas and one after. While Borders has forgotten about me, I still get weekly emails from TRSI telling me that certain things still aren't in yet. Actually every single thing that comes from TRSI is by default two weeks late because it out of stock. Which might work for one or two items, but for everything? Heck no.
(Somehow my smartphone is deciding to post for me. Apologies around.) Last edited by FaytLein on Tue Feb 15, 2011 8:38 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Sheleigha
 Posts: 1674 |
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I don't mind too much when TRSI does it, because I know the stuff I'll be, I'll get it eventually (and not too anxious to get it right away. Besides, I like spacing out my purchauses on my credit card).
MY problem is when the ONLY place you can find something, is on shady looking sites. Boxsets that are either hard to find, or you KNOW are OOP and are taking a chance... I recently tried a site called Enterplayment (which reminds me of sites like DiscountDVD, which doesn't exactly have a good rep either). When I tried DDVD, I DID end up getting my product... eventually, but I like had to remind them, and then they shipped it out right away. With Enterplayment, they "said" they had the Rozen Maiden Traumend boxsets. "Ok, I'll take my chances". It was a good price too! It wasn't until I went to check out that it got listed as "Backordered". Now, it's OOP, so I was hoping they were trying to get it from a Warehouse THEY had and not Funi. Why else would it be listed, right? Well, 4 weeks went by, I emailed, and they couldn't get it and cancelled the order... THAT is what makes ME mad!! |
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John Casey
 Posts: 1853 Location: In My Angry Center |
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Lol, I'm guessing this has something to do with MvC3?
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xLucix
Posts: 4 |
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I work @ a Barnes & Noble, and we try to bring in anime on a regular basis. I have that same problem bringing stuff into the store as a lot of people do having things shipped to them. It'll say that we have four or five in the warehouse, but as soon as I order them, they'll come back with, "This item is not in our database."
Um, yeah, it was. How else did I place an order for it? *headdesk* All I want is to actually have Fist of the North Star (series) in the store. Is that so much to ask?! ~Luci |
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Kruszer
 Posts: 7995 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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I find it pretty annoying anytime something is out of stock and declines to give you an estimate on when it will arrive. Especially when you get stuff like "More Arriving Soon" or "We'll Get it For You" where you're never sure how long you'll have to wait or even if they have it. I'd just as soon pay more to someplace that actually has it in stock instead.
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zawa113
 Posts: 7360 |
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Man, sometimes I feel like people who buy almost exclusively anime are just whining about TRSI, because except for new releases of popular manga, like FMA or Naruto, they don't seem to have any manga in stock seemingly ever! I ordered about 30 volumes from them during the Viz sale and I believe only 3 of those volumes were already in stock. It took 2 weeks for 11 volumes to arrive then another week for 19 more to arrive and in the fourth week the final volume arrived.
So now, note to self, if I want a manga right this instant, I need to try out Borders or something, but if I don't mind waiting, then TRSI is the way to go because at least I know that they'll actually get everything in at some point and not charge me before they ship it, so it could be worse, right? Speaking of which, my recent hunt for Firefighter Daigo volume 20 was hell! A friend found a bunch of potential websites for me, like the websites for little comic book stores states away. They all listed the item as "backlogged" or didn't even list the condition at all so all I could do was email them to ask them if they really had the item in stock right now. Of course not a single one did and I'd done enough research to not believe that any supplier could get that particular book in for them because no distributor on the face of the planet can get something that OOP in, I'd only believe it if I heard it from the distributors themselves. At least TRSI just doesn't list the volume because they know they really can't get it! Also did all sorts of internet book finders, all the places that were cheap were unreliable and had terrible customer reviews, and any reliable places didn't actually have it in stock. I had to take a bit of a risk from an eBay seller, but they didn't blindly list every volume either, and it seems that they have shipping me something, here's hoping! Speaking of pre-ordering, I've only ever pre-ordered a few manga, that 30 volume order? Yep, but I only pre-ordered books that were coming out through mid-January (and this order was placed in late December). I could see how that would be handy to mass pre-order manga during a sale, and not pre-ordering volumes 6-10 of Twin Spica is just killing me! For me, I'd only want to pre-order close to the release date (like less than a month) or during company sales since with manga there are certain series that I can plan to buy very far ahead in the future. I've just never done it before is all, but it's holding up like $10 for a manga vs $40 for an anime. I also remembered making a final order before I headed back to the dorm during the Funi sale, I mostly wanted to get the rest of FMA and I needed to add only stuff that was currently in stock when it came to free shipping or I risked not having it at my house before I had to head back to the dorm. And I gotta admit, finding stuff in stock for anime was just ridiculously easy, I don't see what everyone's complaining about on here when just about everything I looked at was in stock and only a few specialty DVDs that I thought wouldn't be in stock was what wasn't in stock. Granted, the stuff that I ordered weren't new releases so maybe that had something to do with it too? I'll bet part of it is that manga is a paper product, moisture in the air can damage paper so I could see them not wanting to keep too much on hand forever, lest it get damaged, but anime is all shrinkwrapped, it's pretty well protected. And having a massive manga and a decent anime collection, I can sure tell you that manga takes up way more room than you think. So yeah, for manga, it's very annoying, but for newer stuff I do have alternatives (namely Borders, and Amazon tends to always have stuff in stock too, so both on and offline). Since I have options to get it faster, I'm fairly well covered as a consumer, the problem I think then falls to the sellers, if TRSI wants me to order manga from them, they should definitely keep more of it in stock or hope that I don't care if I get it right this instant vs in three weeks. In that way, I don't think that it's a trend that can last for very long, maybe a rarely ordered series would be fine to not have in stock, but FMA manga sells like hotcakes, they should always keep certain things in stock. Or maybe TRSI sells so much anime that it outweighs anything that not having manga in stock could hurt them on, who knows? |
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SeigiNoSenshi
Posts: 166 |
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I e-mailed around 25 retail websites for Galaxy Angel A (paying extreme detail to avoid bootlegs), and ordered from about 8, ultimately being cancelled and refunded every time (At least half of the 25 still have it listed), ended up mailing one of those horrid price-gougers and offering 2x MSRP (and got it) so being compared to the pain of finding OOP, I'm always okay with Rightstuf having a little delay here and there. Waiting 2 weeks for a Back-ordered item to ship my order, and then shipping it without and then the item comes and ships seperately in the next 1-2 days annoys me like you wouldn't believe though.
As far as pre-orders go, I usually order 2-3 months out, so I haven't really had issues with that. |
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murph76
 Posts: 3291 Location: Akron, OH |
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I'm testing this right now. I ordered Project A-ko Love and Robots (OVAs 2, 3 and 4) from RightStuf, which lists the title as "We'll get it for you." Given it's an older title from a company no longer in business, we'll see if they can deliver. Amazon only had one used copy listed on Marketplace, and I didn't find a listing for it at my other online retail haunts. I'm curious how this will turn out.
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HyugaHinata
 Posts: 3505 |
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Shawne from TRSI has mentioned this on a recent ANNCast.
They have an excellent policy of canceling manga they can't get in 3 or 4 purchase orders.
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Kruszer
Posts: 7995 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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Yeah, it looks like the Remote manga is well on it's way down that road fast. I still need, 3, 7, and 10 from somewhere at a decent price. Hopefully, Rightstuf will at least deliver on 3.
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PetrifiedJello
Posts: 3782 |
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I noticed this too, and that's a bit of a shame. However, if the majority of shopping is only done through this retailer, I can understand the gripes. My issue wasn't targeted at any specific retailer, but I will say I prompted this thread after receiving an email from an Amazon store front telling me they don't have the item in order to take pictures of the product I was interested in. That's when I started realizing this trend is growing. The biggest issue I see is this terminology called the "pre-sale", which I read as a price point before a sale. Not so. It's the indicator they've no product on hand. Regardless, it was a lost sale. I wrote back the person and stated such, so it's their loss. I'm getting the feeling since people don't seem to care, their "loss" is subjective when it's really my loss. Trying something new, so stay tuned.
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