Available / Not available....

[Alwin]

I wasn't sure if this was website related or customer service, so I just picked one.

As I was just browsing through the toys department, I found a rather disturbing feature. Looking at some of the plushes, I saw a few I liked, and to find out what the total would come down to including shipping, I added them to my cart. Or tried to, since as soon as I hit the 'Add to cart' button the page reloaded and the status of the item was 'Currently unavailable'. Now that is the sort of info I would like to have before I try to buy them. I find it rather annoying when it looks like something is available, only to find out that it isn't.

In other words, keeping the stock information updated would be much appreciated.

[Vic Wertz]

The inventories on items in our own warehouse are updated on-the-fly whenever anything changes them. The items available at our primary distributor are updated at least weekly, and items are rechecked whenever anybody adds one to their cart.

The situation you're describing indicates that the items were in stock the last time we got an inventory update from our distributor (probably last Friday), but went out of stock in their warehouse between then and when you attempted to purchase them. This situation is unavoidable, but should be fairly rare.

-Vic.
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[Alwin]

Hmmmm.

I won't say the answer makes me happy, but being in a service providing job, I also know you sometimes just have to say 'No' to your customers, especially when it comes down to dealing with your suppliers. The fact that this should be a rare occurence (and that I just got lucky twice :op) is good to know. Also, knowing how the system works helps.

As my boss tends to say: 'Keep 'em informed'.

[Vic Wertz]

Actually, upon further review, what happened is that our distributor changed the product codes for a bunch of Toy Vault items between last Friday and this, so when our system went to check their inventories, the products weren't there.

We should be able to fix it up on Monday, and odds are good that the products you wanted will be available then.

-Vic.
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