Let's for the sake of argument, say that I was in the market for a specific widget. The widget I want is the new, pretty popular widget that most widgers are widging with these days.
I go to my favorite online retailers. I have a pretty extensive list of places I know I can get good prices and good service from. On about two thirds of my list of retailers, they have a lot of widgets, just not the special widget I want. They make no mention of it, like it doesn't exist. The other third say that they have this widget. They charge a spectrum of prices, between half again what I exoected to pay for it, up to about three times. The big box places, like Amazon have the widget I'm after at a good price too.
About half of the places that say they have it only have an "add to wishlist" button, or a "notify me when it's back in stock" button. The other half have "add to cart", but when I click it, I get a popup notification saying they're out of stock.
This seems acceptable to me. None of these places will sell me a widget they don't have.
Then I go to Widgetech. They have a clone of my widget for a little more than half what I expected to spend in the first place. The reviews on WF (widget forums) say that the clone widges pretty much as well as the original, but that the fit isnt quite as precise.
I click "add to cart" and one item is added to my cart. Happily, I check out. "OK" I think "Ive got to wait for it to ship from China, but heck, at that price - that's a good trade!".
Then, my widget doesnt ship. For a week I hear nothing. About halfway through the second week, I finally see a "Ready to ship" update, and I'm livid!
How dare they sell me something they don't have?!
Now, if I go check the online retailers, they're still out of stock. The only way I would get my widget from any of them faster is because of postal and customs delays shipping from China. When I ordered my widget, I was happy to accept that. The fact that they didn't warn me ahead of time that they don't actually have it in hand to ship to me today is the only thing that set me off, but now I'm royally cheesed at them because it's been 10 days and only now is my order ready to ship.
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It seems to me that fasttech is providing a service no other retailer provides. If they don't have it in stock, but know and trust that their supply chain will deliver it on a specific date in the future, they'll still let you buy it. Any other retailer, you have to take your chances that you'll be able to go online and order one during the next window of opportunity when they get them back in stock. Buying it while supply is catching up is faster, because they already have your order when it comes in, so they can immediately get to shipping it, rather than waiting for their customers to notice something is back in stock, then place their orders.
Alas, this sort of thing is backwards from what most westerners have come to expect from retail, and so many of us see it as dishonest, or at the least underhanded. To make matters much, much worse, we tend to be an unforgiving lot, and when a retailer does something like this, we are then very much inclined to be angry at them over the shipping time from China to our overseas location.
I go to my favorite online retailers. I have a pretty extensive list of places I know I can get good prices and good service from. On about two thirds of my list of retailers, they have a lot of widgets, just not the special widget I want. They make no mention of it, like it doesn't exist. The other third say that they have this widget. They charge a spectrum of prices, between half again what I exoected to pay for it, up to about three times. The big box places, like Amazon have the widget I'm after at a good price too.
About half of the places that say they have it only have an "add to wishlist" button, or a "notify me when it's back in stock" button. The other half have "add to cart", but when I click it, I get a popup notification saying they're out of stock.
This seems acceptable to me. None of these places will sell me a widget they don't have.
Then I go to Widgetech. They have a clone of my widget for a little more than half what I expected to spend in the first place. The reviews on WF (widget forums) say that the clone widges pretty much as well as the original, but that the fit isnt quite as precise.
I click "add to cart" and one item is added to my cart. Happily, I check out. "OK" I think "Ive got to wait for it to ship from China, but heck, at that price - that's a good trade!".
Then, my widget doesnt ship. For a week I hear nothing. About halfway through the second week, I finally see a "Ready to ship" update, and I'm livid!
How dare they sell me something they don't have?!
Now, if I go check the online retailers, they're still out of stock. The only way I would get my widget from any of them faster is because of postal and customs delays shipping from China. When I ordered my widget, I was happy to accept that. The fact that they didn't warn me ahead of time that they don't actually have it in hand to ship to me today is the only thing that set me off, but now I'm royally cheesed at them because it's been 10 days and only now is my order ready to ship.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It seems to me that fasttech is providing a service no other retailer provides. If they don't have it in stock, but know and trust that their supply chain will deliver it on a specific date in the future, they'll still let you buy it. Any other retailer, you have to take your chances that you'll be able to go online and order one during the next window of opportunity when they get them back in stock. Buying it while supply is catching up is faster, because they already have your order when it comes in, so they can immediately get to shipping it, rather than waiting for their customers to notice something is back in stock, then place their orders.
Alas, this sort of thing is backwards from what most westerners have come to expect from retail, and so many of us see it as dishonest, or at the least underhanded. To make matters much, much worse, we tend to be an unforgiving lot, and when a retailer does something like this, we are then very much inclined to be angry at them over the shipping time from China to our overseas location.
