In reply to dirtbag1:
> This company could be one of the few I've come across where they advertise stock they don't actually have.
> They wait for an order to come in, contact the distributor and order the product, when it arrives it's finally shipped on to the customer.
And this could mean, just to clarify, that the "ash cloud" excuse means that they have had huge delays getting the stock in, in the first place.
So the "ash cloud" excuse could be genuine, but they seem to be selling stock that they don't actually have, which is not ideal, and they are then lying about claiming that people's goods have been despatched, which is just poor.
Not this company, but work ordered a mini computer from a supplier, which was a new model, and we did pre-order it, aware that it had to come from the manufacturer in China, and wouldn't be ready for a few weeks anyway. Then the ash cloud came up, and there was a huge backlog in items getting shipped out from China to Hong Kong, and then another backlog for items destined for Europe. Took about a month extra to arrive at the UK distributor.
BTW I'm not excusing this Map and Compass company, just trying to shed some light on what may be the basis of their "ash cloud" excuse.
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