Is it unethical for online stores to take advance payment for orders with no long term availability?

[Richdog]

I was discussing this with a friend today and we were of the opinion that it is unethical for so many online retailers to be taking payment in advance, at the moment of ordering, for products like new GPU's that have no preliminary delivery date and which could literally take many months to arrive. Retailers KNOW it could take months, they often have no idea when stock will arrive and yet they still take that money immediately.

There are some major online stores that shall of course remain nameless that do only take payment upon availability of said products, but overall not many.

It looks even worse when you realise that many online stored have sold way too many backorders despite knowing that are choosing not to cancel orders and are still holding the money of people who may actually not even receive a card at all.

So my question is... how can online stores justify taking money for products that have little hope of being fulfilled any time soon and often with even no estimated delivery dates? If demand is so much higher than supply and sales are guaranteed then why would a store not just take payment upon shipping, when they know they have the item in stock?

 

[Richdog]

If they didn't take money upfront, people would place 10 different pre-orders with 10 different companies, take whatever comes first and then cancel all their other orders.

Then the companies would have loads of stock they've had to pay for, that they potentially can't sell.

Vincent, think a little. GPU demand is crazily higher than supply, of course they would sell any stock of cancelled orders immediately.

 

[Richdog]

If the store offers the option of cancelling for a full refund at any point up to shipping , there is no issue.

I would disagree that there is no problem... there is still the ethics of taking money for those orders knowing that there is no idea when you can fulfil them.

Frankly with the demand of cards, it's largely irrelevant as I'm sure most people will just say take my money rather than risk being back of the queue.

I'm not sure I get this logic... ordering without paying immediately would still keep you in a queue.

As long as it sits on the balance sheet as a liability then all good. Not like they can profiteer from it, it is simply to secure legit pre-orders and bolster cash flow.

Yes this reflects my view... it seems it is for their own benefit and similar to an interest-free loan that they can then use to order a lot of other things. All they need to do is make sure that they can refund the money if requested.

 

[Richdog]

So your thread is not a question, rather a statement?
Let the guy have an opinion at least

Everyone can have an opinion, and everyone is then free to comment on and disagree with any part of it. Welcome to online forums.

Honestly i do wonder why folk get so worked up about a delayed gpu release, its not like old hardware isnt perfectly viable for an enjoyable time with the settings dialled back a tad.

I cant recall the last time i had a game be "unplayable" that was due to hardware incapability, its almost always the game not utilising whats there, bugs, or mods.

It's not complicated psychology and you can apply the same principle to any new and in-demand electronics release (phones, PC hardware, consoles etc). The pandemic, another obvious major influence on this situation, has sent things into overdrive.

This thread was a little confusing. Initially I thought it was a general question/discussion about websites that take money upfront for pre orders.

Turned out to be a veiled attack on OcUK's GFX card shambles.

The entire industry is having a graphics card shambles, not just OCUK. My question reflects on all of the online sellers doing this.