@Leflic
FFS - Why is ordering early - mid November not organised? How can you shop Black Friday offers in August- do you possess a time machine then?
Online goes two ways. It means companies can easily put “ unable to deliver” or “delivery to store only”on their website, once it becomes clear people aren’t getting items. Customers understand the issues and would rather not give their money away and not know if the goods would arrive, to deal with customer services and then have to rebuy the present anyway.
The problem is that stores thought that goods would get delivered as normal. Until they didn't. Because this is a perfect storm of unique circumstances.
As for ordering on Black Friday - personally I'm always hesitant about that anyway because it notoriously always has problems due to the sheer number of orders and the fact it rarely has deals better than available in some form before / after anyway. It is a bit of a scam.
But i do know that a lot of people will just persist in buying then because 'its such a good deal' which isn't going to change but its always the risk at peak ordering points that you are more likely to be hit by problems.
I do have sympathy for people who have problems this year, but theres also a lot of massively unrealistic expectations and people without a fucking clue as to how these delivery and supply chain systems work and the level of extreme pressure they are currently under.
Its futile getting upset and angry about it really cos its not going to make your goods turn up quicker. Your options are to wait or ask for a refund and thats about it in most circumstances this year.
This is going to get far worse before the end of the year. And may yet affect food. These problems are affecting the production lines at Honda (which costs thousands per hour if there are not parts available), Ikea cant get stock into the country as its stuck in a massive tailback in France, i know of food processing plants struggling to get their supplies through. And none of these big companies can get the answers about estimated delivery times through because no one knows how long a piece of string is.
Essentially things will turn up if and when they do and that's about the level of things right now. And for the foreseeable.
And really feel for the customer service teams dealing with the ignorant impatient rude bastards. They really are getting the brunt of it unfairly. And i feel for the haulers and delivery drivers. And the logistics managers who are trying to plan things in the absence of a trial on new customs checks or even knowing what the customs will be in 3 weeks time due to a lack of formal decision. Everyone is trying to get things into the country at the same time ahead of Christmas and/or ahead of the New Year at a time when services where already operating at peak capacity due to the covid crisis. Its asking the impossible.
We are where we are. And thats it.
Ultimately the government have had warnings that this was extremely likely since the summer and they've ignored it. The buck stops there.