I’ve been reading these forums for sometime now in an attempt to keep up with how things are going. I ordered an ASUS TUF 3080 last year and as of two weeks ago, I was around the 1k mark in terms of the pre-order list.
I think it’s great that OCUK have been trying to do the best in a bad situation and their free upgrades to certain customer groups has been welcomed, I’m sure. I understand that it’s not OCUK’s fault for the supply issues, but (and I could be in the minority here) I believe they are partially to blame for the situation (in terms of the backlog) we are now all in.
As far as I’m aware, OCUK has the largest backlog of any UK retailer (that openly shares its’ pre-order data online) for the 30 series cards. A number of other retailers have regular pre-order updates on their websites and if those are a true reflection of the numbers, on the ASUS 3080 alone OCUK have around 95 times the number of backlogged pre-orders. Why is that?
Am I the only one who thinks that the explanation of “they told us we’d have plenty of stock” is simply not good enough?” To give the benefit of the doubt, even if that did take place and OCUK were royally done over, what contingency plans did they have in place? How did they deal with situation that ensued?
There are people who have been waiting since launch day and have been seeing fellow customers being upgraded for free ... surely OCUK cannot morally cancel all of those backlogged orders? People have waited around 8 months, they have given up the opportunity to buy cards from other retailers in the hope that their order can be fulfilled.
I don’t believe OCUK have had any bad intentions, but they’ve certainly been inept. The situation has just been allowed to fester and continue for months, it’s just not acceptable.
Can you imagine how much brand damage this has caused to OCUK? How many people would just not purchase anything through them again?
OCUK... please, start assigning members of staff (or consider hiring temporary staff/agency staff on fixed term contracts) to deal with this situation. Create a system enabling people to place their interest in a 3080ti or on the LHR cards once stock levels are known. Or enable customers to downgrade/upgrade to a different card paying the difference, minus a discount for the amount of time spent waiting and not receiving a free upgrade like many others did. Perhaps consider allowing the customer to remain on the list until a time that prices drop and supply increases ... at least give the customer a choice instead of leaving 1000’s to just fester in a vague hope that they may see the product they ordered.
Well, that’s my £2’s worth. Good luck OCUK, you need it!
