Online Guitar inventory woes

FarleyUK

I've been trying to purchase a 2023 alpine white LP Custom, and found one at several places online; decided to go with PMT. Money taken, all looking good.

Get contacted today to inform me they do not have it in stock, despite what the website says, and would I like to pick a different one?

OK, I'll try the Ebony one.

Oh - that's not in stock either, despite what the website says.

Is it typical for PMT to do this? Or is it fairly common with online guitar retailers? It's bloody frustrating, especially as the refund will now take 3-5 working days to come back to me.

RaymondLin

PMT online stock do not correlate with their actual stock.  I found out the hard way a few years ago.

Best call and check to be sure, I do this with GuitarGuitar too, and actually...you can then haggle at the same time.

Funkfingers

Andertons manage to add the legend Available To Pre-Order to listings of temporarily out-of-stock items.

The sales person move of diverting a customer's attention to other, similar items may seem cynical but it is their job to shift currently held stock.

Wazmeister

Usual for PMT - I personally wouldn’t order from them 

Strat54

Rewind to 1988 an innocent 20 year old me set off on the train to go buy a new  blonde American STD Tele in London, several dealers advertised them in Guitarist Magazine. I headed down there 220 miles on the train, out on the tube to Tempo Music....none in stock. Tried five other dealers like Peter Cooks...zero, one admitted they hadn't even had one. Eventually ended up in Denmark St at Roka's and settled for a wine red metallic US Tele Std lol....it was either that or head home north empty handed. Lesson learned, dealers ALWAYS advertise what they haven't got and its always been this way. 

Offset

Wow.  That really sucks @FarleyUK - at best they have a shit stock inventory system (pretty basic stuff) and at worst, it's a neat way to get interest on unrecognised revenue.

Hope you sort it quickly.

Wazmeister

Usual for PMT - I personally wouldn’t order from them 

guitars4you

Strat54 said:

Rewind to 1988 an innocent 20 year old me set off on the train to go buy a new  blonde American STD Tele in London, several dealers advertised them in Guitarist Magazine. I headed down there 220 miles on the train, out on the tube to Tempo Music....none in stock. Tried five other dealers like Peter Cooks...zero, one admitted they hadn't even had one. Eventually ended up in Denmark St at Roka's and settled for a wine red metallic US Tele Std lol....it was either that or head home north empty handed. Lesson learned, dealers ALWAYS advertise what they haven't got and it's always been this way. 

Many of the big shops, especially in London played that card - Along with the advertise it without a case policy, to attract a potential lower deal - Yet when you got there you found the true price was say £50 more, with the case

To be fair to the out of stock issue, dealers back then had to send a list into Guitarist about 4 weeks before publication date  of what they had in stock - So was never going to be accurate - But based on web listings today there should be no excuses 

Philly_Q

This used to be commonplace when guitar retail first went online 20 years ago, but I'm surprised to hear of it happening now.

Mike58

One of my pet peeves, get all the way into purchase ( or actually purchase) and yep, not in stock.

prlgmnr

Wazmeister said:

Usual for PMT - I personally wouldn’t order from them 

we do however have surplus stock of this post if anyone is interested in a bargain

Yorkie

As soon as I read the title I came here to moan about Rich Tone: whenever I look for something on their site, I get like a million ‘out of stock’ items along with the prices they were sold for years ago. Still, I think I prefer that to the OP’s PMT woes. 

Dave_Mc

Strat54 said:

Rewind to 1988 an innocent 20 year old me set off on the train to go buy a new  blonde American STD Tele in London, several dealers advertised them in Guitarist Magazine. I headed down there 220 miles on the train, out on the tube to Tempo Music....none in stock. Tried five other dealers like Peter Cooks...zero, one admitted they hadn't even had one. Eventually ended up in Denmark St at Roka's and settled for a wine red metallic US Tele Std lol....it was either that or head home north empty handed. Lesson learned, dealers ALWAYS advertise what they haven't got and its always been this way. 

I got stung like that... I've probably told this tale before, but I wanted one of those Ibanez J-Customs. I could've ordered one online, but I knew I was going on holiday to London a few months later, and Soho Soundhouse was advertising as still having it in stock, so I figured I could try it there and then buy the one I'd tried. Of course, when I got there they didn't actually have it, and by that time everywhere else had sold out...

At least I didn't make a one-errand trip like you did... but it still meant I never got one.  

Regarding the original post... I do think it's common for some retailers at least. It sucks. As @Philly_Q rightly said, you would think the technology is there these days if they wanted it to be...

Yorkie said:

As soon as I read the title I came here to moan about Rich Tone: whenever I look for something on their site, I get like a million ‘out of stock’ items along with the prices they were sold for years ago. Still, I think I prefer that to the OP’s PMT woes. 

I think you can filter the stuff to only the in-stock stuff. Unless I imagined that! But it's still a pain, I agree.

Yorkie

Dave_Mc said:

I think you can filter the stuff to only the in-stock stuff. Unless I imagined that! But it's still a pain, I agree.

You can, but by the time you've ticked the box you’ve already seen the wonderful prices of the past and got all worked up because that obscure thing you want to buy is on the list… out of stock. 

I hope someone from Rich Tone is reading, I do love their shop in spite of these issues. 

Rob1742

Strat54 said:

Rewind to 1988 an innocent 20 year old me set off on the train to go buy a new  blonde American STD Tele in London, several dealers advertised them in Guitarist Magazine. I headed down there 220 miles on the train, out on the tube to Tempo Music....none in stock. Tried five other dealers like Peter Cooks...zero, one admitted they hadn't even had one. Eventually ended up in Denmark St at Roka's and settled for a wine red metallic US Tele Std lol....it was either that or head home north empty handed. Lesson learned, dealers ALWAYS advertise what they haven't got and it’s always been this way. 

Reminds me of the day I went into town to get a West Ham subbuteo team and I ended up coming back with a Swansea 

bgmartinsbridge

PMT did exactly the same to me about a year ago. I ended up contacted their head of customer services on the phone after tracking her down on LinkedIn.

She apologised and said if I ever needed anything to phone. That after taking three grand cash off me but don't worry I'll get it refunded in a few days... 

That's after me chasing the order and being told it's being process, on the way and then out of stock. 

I'd never buy a guitar from a shop without calling first now or picking it up in person.


Then blow me, a month a go a 1973 les paul custom appeared in my local branch in Cambridge and online / ebay. 
I did actually message PMT to be sold it's in stock and they would take payment. 
By the time I responded it was sold on ebay but I stock online. 
I contacted them to be told it was sold. 
A week later it appeared back on ebay for sale and sat their for three weeks. 
Contacted them to grab it, as assumed someone had dropped out, to be be told sorry it was sold. 
Customer service blamed the systems not talking to each other! 

Been going on for years. Almost wonder if it's a nice way to build cash flow but insignificant surely. 

FarleyUK

Thanks all - I've actually found a couple of used ones I'm going to see later, including a fairly new 'mint' one. Also 2.5k cheaper...!

Yorkie

bgmartinsbridge said:

PMT did exactly the same to me about a year ago. I ended up contacted their head of customer services on the phone after tracking her down on LinkedIn.

She apologised and said if I ever needed anything to phone. That after taking three grand cash off me but don't worry I'll get it refunded in a few days... 

That's after me chasing the order and being told it's being process, on the way and then out of stock. 

I'd never buy a guitar from a shop without calling first now or picking it up in person.


Then blow me, a month a go a 1973 les paul custom appeared in my local branch in Cambridge and online / ebay. 
I did actually message PMT to be sold it's in stock and they would take payment. 
By the time I responded it was sold on ebay but I stock online. 
I contacted them to be told it was sold. 
A week later it appeared back on ebay for sale and sat their for three weeks. 
Contacted them to grab it, as assumed someone had dropped out, to be be told sorry it was sold. 
Customer service blamed the systems not talking to each other! 

Been going on for years. Almost wonder if it's a nice way to build cash flow but insignificant surely. 

Nightmare scenarios! I had a similar experience with Argos recently – purchasing some IT stuff. It was much less money, and in general they seem to manage their stock more reliably than PMT, but the experience has certainly put me off buying from them again. 

timmypix

I genuinely don't understand how PMT made such as fuss about rebranding to "Play Music Together" and redoing their website layout... only for it still to be an absolutely useless website. They went through a brief phase of having individual photos of some CS Fenders but otherwise everything is using stock photos, so I can't imagine anyone orders anything fancy or with a figured top online from them.

I used to like going to PMT in Salford, but that was because I lived literally round the corner. Don't think I've bothered going to PMT in Brum since I moved down because GuitarGuitar is a) a much nicer shop and b) organise their website so much better.

Penn

I have just had the same thing with PMT. Bit annoying. Email saying they don’t have it but can probably get the guitar in a few weeks. 

Penn

And they have just refunded it. 

What’s the consumer law on taking a payment and then cancelling? Item was on sale and price was good. I wanted the item. Can you refuse the refund and ask them to supply?