In Stock –Out Of Stock - What a shamblesIn Stock – Out Of Stock

I recently had the need to get an item that you wouldn’t have thought would be too difficult to find –a Cat Flap. OK,so it was a particular Cat Flap that uses an RFID tag rather than a magnet to prevent stray or unwanted cats from entering our house,but it was listed in Argos,so shouldn’t be too much trouble.

So I went to the Argos Web Site,ordered the Cat Flap,which was listed as “In Stock” for home delivery (or in my case Office delivery) the following day. When it didn’t arrive I contacted Argos Customer Service (after pressing several option buttons) only to be told it was out of stock.

Now to cut a long story short (as there was a lot of further discussion),I can forgive a mistake in stock control,but when they went to pick the item it would have been found to be missing. They could have contacted me then rather than letting me contact them 2 days later,but worse than that,the item was still listed on their web site as being in stock and could still be ordered!

Needless to say,this led to a long search through many other on-line web sites and I was staggered just how many we not kept up to date. Lots listed it as in stock when it wasn’t and some still had warning about Postal Strikes that finished weeks ago – this simply isn’t good enough.

We pride ourselves on keeping the web site as up to date as we can and try to always identify Out Of Stock items to save our customers wasting time and the unnecessary associated stress. But if other on-line shoppers are having this experience,it affects the reputation of all on-line store owners.

So come on On-Line store owners – Do a Proper Job

• Look after your Web Site
• Look After your Systems
• Look after your stock
• Look after your customers