Page 1 of W.H. Smith and their meaning of In Stock

I placed two orders via the W.H. Smith website. Both items were marked as "in stock" when I placed the order but, after my card was authorised, the status of each of the items (via the Your Orders section) was On Order. I phoned them to ask why the item is marked as on order for me, when it`s termed as in stock on the website. They told me items are marked as out of stock manually! What major website manually updates stock, it should be automatic. So, basically, if W.H. Smith state that an item is in stock, that may well be a lie because today, two days after I complained, the items are still in stock but, actually on order.

Had exactly the same problem a month or so back ordering a book for Christmas (after cancelling th order elsewhere), after waiting a while I ended up cancelling the order and getting it down Charing Cross Road.

Yep, this sort of thing is one of my biggest gripes - especially at this time of year.

Both Choices Direct and 101cd.com have recently taken my order for an `in stock` item, only for the availability to change to `on order with suppliers` or `delayed` once they take payment. But they don`t seem to bother updating the site.

I`ve had a supposedly in stock item on order with 101cd.com for 2 weeks, but the item description still shows a 48 hour dispatch.

Pull your finger out, people!

ChoicesDirect are usually really good. Ring their Customer Service line, they are dead helpful.

Nick

101cd.com are notorious for things like this, at least in my experiance. I don`t order from them if I can help it.