Minor Rant: Website Inventories

[rmbittner]

This isn't a big deal, but it does rankle me a little: Three times in the last month, I've run into situations where an Internet pipe/tobacco retailer shows stock on an item, allows you to place an order. . . and then an hour -- or three days! -- later I get a phone call telling me they didn't actually have it in stock in the first place.
This happened first with Connecticut Valley Tobacconist, who showed stock on Stonehaven when no one else had it. After ordering, though, I was skeptical, so I called them up. Nope. No stock after all. Then I tried ordering Black House from PipesandCigars.com, which showed stock, only to get a call within several hours telling me that the site had been wrong. Then this past Sunday, I ordered six tins of a blend from Iwan Ries. Three days later, they called me to say that the site had been wrong. (For the record, I have never had this happen with SmokingPipes.com.)
Why is it so hard for these Web sites to show accurate stock? I've never had an out-of-stock follow-up call from Amazon when I've ordered from them. (And we order from Amazon at least once a week.) In fact, if stock is low on an item, Amazon tells you exactly how many remain before you even place your order. (SmokingPipes does this too, but only after you've ordered more than they have on hand.) But no matter why these online tobacconists can't get this right, the fact that they can't doesn't inspire confidence or trust on my part.

 

[spartan]

Most of these small companies don't have the software to keep track of things like this.
It's relatively simple as far as operating it, you just need to get your webmaster or hire someone to implement it into your website.
Post something up that you have 100 of, and it'll subtract every time an order comes in for it. And it doesn't have to show how many are left, but it can just say out of stock when they are all ordered. There's tons of cool shit that site owners can do with their site but you gotta pony up the money to have it implemented smoothly. It's not cheap.
It's a little more work too... when you have a few hundred blends to update every time you get a shipment in. An employee could knock it out in an hour or two if the interface to update the stock was super easy to operate.

 

[lumberjakpipester]

Maybe smaller e-taillers keep track of stock "manually" insteed of having a good program to do it. Just a hypothesis tho, I really don't know, but have had the same thing happen to me too.
edit: Spartan beat me to it!

 

[spartan]

And then you also have to imagine that they operate a physical store too right? So when they sell a bunch of stuff in the store then they would have to go update the website to reflect the product they just sold that is also available on the website.
That would also have to have some sort of mechanism in place that when it's ordered at the register, which hopefully is some sort of computer and not an old-timey register, that the item numbers of the products get recorded and automatically subtracted from the stock and updated on the site ASAP.
So there's a good amount of work to do and some upkeep to get this all in place. Any programmers that could make things like this possible should send all of the online retailers who don't have an updated stock mechanism on their sites should be e-mailing people like crazy to set up some work lol.

 

[rmbittner]

Thanks for the explanation of what's happening (or not happening) behind the scenes.
What I can't quite get my head around, though, is why these retailers seem to think that frustrating/annoying customers is an acceptable price to pay for not maintaining accurate Web sites. Given the fact that we have so many online options these days, wouldn't you think they wouldn't want to give us any reason to head to a competitor?
It would even go a long way if these vendors responded by e-mail within 24 hours of the original order if something isn't actually in stock. Why are they telephoning when I've placed an online order? And why should it take three days to get that call?

 

[spartan]

The company I work for doesn't have the fancy 'in stock' or 'out of stock' option on the website, but we do call, and e-mail, customers back within a few hours if the item is out of stock. So I feel your pain on the three days thing. Sounds like they just don't have enough people to quickly process orders and call people until days after the order lol.

Why are they telephoning when I've placed an online order?

Do you have a problem with someone giving you a quick phone call to fix a problem or update you on a situation? Or did I read the tone incorrectly?

 

[jpberg]

What I can't quite get my head around, though, is why these retailers seem to think that frustrating/annoying customers is an acceptable price to pay for not maintaining accurate Web sites. Given the fact that we have so many online options these days, wouldn't you think they wouldn't want to give us any reason to head to a competitor?

The next time you see a tough to get tobacco at one of these places, I bet you'll try and order it, regardless of your luck the last time. And, if you don't, someone else will.
Such is life chasing the hard to get tobaccos.

 

[matchstickman]

Having worked in retail for quite a long time, I understand your pain on this one.
A lot of larger corporations and companies work off of something called a POS system (and no, that doesn't mean what you think it means. Or maybe it does, as Ill explain in a minute).
POS stands for Point Of Sale, and the way that it should work, ideally at least, is that whenever you receive inventory of any kind, it is scanned into a computer system to show how many of a particular item you have in stock at all times. When an item is, say, scanned in for sale at a register or ordered in an online order, the system should automatically deduct the number of units sold in order to accurately reflect current inventory. Larger corporations can have the system tied in to their registers in store and also connect with an internet database to reflect online sales, but there are a lot of problems with a system like this. 1. It is expensive. Very expensive. Which is why a lot of smaller online retailers will probably never see a system like this. 2. Even though the counts are supposed to be as accurate as possible, there are many things the system doesn't account for, such as items that are shoplifted or items that are scanned through the system as sold but dont reflect on inventory when an item is returned. 3. You have to staff and train a lot of people that know how to use the system, and then you have to trust them to maintain it and keep it updated accurately. Am I saying these are valid excuses for why inventory isnt accurately reflected? Not at all. The companies should do their best to keep up with what they have and what they don't have, especially when it comes to hard to find tobaccos like those. But in any setting, with almost any inventory system, it is almost impossible for everything to be 100% perfect all the time. Still, that really sucks, and I feel for you on that one.

 

[dochudson]

I worked for a large hospital group.. with floors of servers and mainframes. trying to keep an accurate inventory is huge. before that I worked for one of the largest women retailers in the country with a lot of money sunk into POS you could get accurate information on what was sold but what was left was anyone's guess. stuff not rung up correctly. stuff walking out the front and back door.

 

[swhipple]

Like many other aspects of this hobby, ordering online requires patience. :lol:

 

[uberam3rica]

POS stands for Point Of Sale,

So that's what it means. For those who don't know, I work at Mcdonalds, and the registers say that at the top of the screen in small print. I always wondered what it meant

 

[jpberg]

FWIW, earlier in the week The Briary had pounds of Penzance. Skip called and said "hey need any Penzance?"

They don't have a good inventory system, but they have a good people system.

Computers are wonderful, but they will never hold a candle to personal relationships.

In some cases, the phone is mightier than the interwebs.