My “in stock” Kindle won’t ship for another week

What a disappointment.

I ordered a Kindle today on Amazon and the site clearly said “in stock.” So I asked for over night shipping so I could play with it over the holiday.

But wait.

Tonight, however, Amazon’s tracking service says the Kindle won’t ship until next week. Clearly the device is out of stock. In addition to the fact that I feel like this is a bait and switch in terms of availability, I’m disappointed that Amazon won’t let me change the shipping at this time.

The Amazon site informs me: “We are preparing these items for shipment and this portion of your order cannot be canceled or changed.” Yeah, right. If it was shipping tomorrow I might buy this. But next week? It’s more likely the device is still to be manufactured. “We” aren’t preparing the device. The manufacturer is.

Yeah, I’m bummed out.

Update: I emailed Amazon. I’m none too happy.

According to this thread on Amazon the Kindle sold out in 5-1/2 hours. Who knows if we’re talking about 200 units or 1,000. All I know is that I clicked on the button to purchase and it said in stock and then a couple hours later it said my order had been delayed. (I just re-read my oreder confirmation and it had the delayed date too. So maybe I should have refreshed the main order page before ordering and it might have said out of stock. I didn’t think I was that long on it though.) If I can count right I placed my order somewhere around the 5+ hour mark. I’m not sure when the clock started though. So my guess is the website hadn’t been updated yet when I made my purchase to indicate that it was sold out. If I’d seen that I would have waited to purchase one. I know how these manufacturing dates can slip and no way I want to play that game. Why do I keep having these shipping problems with Amazon?

Update: Amazon emailed me and apologized for the ordering problem. They mentioned that during a short time that the product availability listed on their order page lagged the actual availability. Sounds like a programming problem to me–and one that should be addressed. I don’t think it’s acceptable. They can track their numbers. And when the numbers get low they can put a “limited availability” warning on the page. Simple as that.