Play.com "Awaiting stock" scam

This is the second time I'm experiencing this. Previously, my order was "awaiting stock" for over 3 months, although it was still "on sale". I finally cancelled my order.

I'll now wait & see just how long my order "awaits stock" this time around.

Given they don't take any money until the unit has been dispatched, where's the scam?

I agree it's annoying, but either they send it out after a couple of weeks and you get it at a presumably good price, or you do as you've done previously and just cancel the order and look elsewhere.

Not that I particularly like play.com, their customer service is generally quite shocking and I don't use them any more as a result, but the word scam seems a bit unfair here.

Oh yes, "scam" is a bit OTT, but at least that got some attention 

Even though play doesn't take money off your card until dispatch, surely this is not ethical? They should mention on the product page that they're awaiting stock, & not give false dispatch estimates. No wonder play got sold & Amazon continues to go strong.

Bigboss.

I may be wrong, but I thought PLay.com got sold because of the impending change in taxation law on goods imported from the Channel Islands which is where Play is based, whereas Amazon is mainland based and just uses Idigo starfish for imports from the Channel Islands.

Using the word scam is certainly OTT. You seeme to be faced with the option of waiting till Play get some in stock and you get them at a very low price or paying more elsewhere that actually has some in stock. At least when ordering something from Amazon you can instantly see if something is in stock

I had a problem with Play before when I ordered a USB turntable for my niece last year, the picture and product discription did not match what I actually received. After an email ping pong with their customer service I let it be as my niece said she was happy with the turntable. Since then I have not ordered anything from Play and don't intend to in future.

Of course, this is an assumption. Play never officially confirmed the reason for the sale. A company with an annual turnover of £500 million got sold for just £25 million. Play has remained secretive about its profits. Patrick O'Brien of Verdict Research says that this points to a likelihood that play.com is not very profitable. The VAT loophole will have an impact on its sales, but I don't think that is the sole reason for it to be sold so cheap.

I has a CD on order for almost 18 months, the whole time saying delivery in 5 to 8 days or similar. I cancelled it in the end.

But is it?  Surely it could be interpreted as a form of false advertising, the stated delivery is part of the terms and conditions at the time of purchase which the consumer is expecting. If you knew the part was not in stock it you probably would not purchase. 

Yes. A scam is a dishonest attempt to swindle you i.e. fraudulently take your money. No money is taken by play.com until an item is dispatched, so this can't be classified as a scam.

The stated delivery is not contractual, it's an estimated delivery time to help you decide on whether you want to order, but there's no guarantee with it (read the Ts and Cs to see that). Certainly if this is being done purposely, then it's dishonest, but it's not false advertising and it's certainly not a scam.

However, I suspect it's much more likely that this is not at all something being done on purpose. It's probable that something else is at play (excuse the pun) here e.g. products are not fulfilled by play.com's own suppliers and these orders are then just left in limbo as there's no proper clear up process to tidy these things up and they just get lost in the system. It shows a bad system is in place (and backs up my own experience of play.com's pretty shoddy customer service), but I'd be amazed if this is being done on purpose - it just doesn't make any good business sense.

Ta for the input professor 

It read in an earlier post as if it was deliberate to gain your order which they knew they could not fulfill.

HMV have done something similar to me.

I placed an order on the 4th of this month, though at the time it did say out of stock. I checked the item around 7 days ago, and it now says dispatched in 3 - 6 days, so I waited 6 days, and checked my order status; still not dispatched. I've since emailed HMV twice, and they tell me that the item is still out of stock at the supplier.

So why did they change the stock information from out of stock, to dispatched in 3 - 6 days, if the item is still out of stock?

It's not a scam, true, but they're not be very honest with potential customers either.

If they are doing it on purpose, it's a scam. They are drawing people in with cheap prices and short delivery dates, when they may have elected to shop from elsewhere if the truth was available

But it could just be poor customer service.

As I've already pointed out twice now, even if they are doing this on purpose (and I really can't see why any sane business would do this on purpose), it's still not a scam - they are not taking your money fraudulently. Dishonest yes, scam no.

This could be the fact that most large e-commerce sites products are inputted by automation usually taken from a database provided by the suppliers of a particular product. Therefore they wouldn't neccesarily know that this product is not available immediately unless a large number has been ordered and someone hasn't bothered to update the estimated delivery times.