to wonder if anything is ever in stock anymore at fecking Argos!?!?!?

[GoryGilmore]

I know there are much bigger problems in the world right now, but I need to rant about this.

Every time I look on their website, at any type of product, it’s never in stock at any stores for collection and is definitely never available for delivery! We live in the East Midlands, we’re surrounded by stores but they never seem to have anything in them! Is it just me they don’t want to sell things to!? What the fuck is going on with them?

Well, at least I’m not alone then! The whole process drives me insane, I have ordered items from so many other companies in the last year and everything was delivered in reasonable time (and their websites didn’t almost give me a nervous breakdown either). Argos really are spectacularly shite.

It has fuck all to do with covid or suez though, it’s been like it for well over a year now.

the suez problem isn't confined to this one incident in the news you know....its fairly frequent. and also, the containers get stuck in transit meaning they cant be refilled and sent on...theres a shortage of the things

maybe argos could pay for air freight but then would need to increase prices, and its just a bargain basement, cheap shop...so guess that won't happen....as i said,dont worry it will be gone soon enough

theres a shortage of the things

But this is not the case. Argos have the items. People want to buy the items. Argos' issue is that the items are not in the same place as the buyers and have zero system set up to transport the items to the buyers. Why can I buy a bookcase if I am in London but if I live in Manchester there is no way to get one despite the fact that the company has them available to buy immediately and therefore don't have to worry about foreign supply chains?

No major problems, I think they must have zoned stores though and stock is just moved in-between them even if other stores are just as close. Due to the seeming zoning method if I can't get something from my local store I often can from the store near work (20 miles away)

I find the app on the tablet easiest for checking stock as it comes up on the first page rather than having to go and check individual items - but again due to the zoning I often still have to change stores.

Currys just as bad. Lots of stock in other parts of the country when I randomly enter, say, a London postcode, but "not available" if I enter any towns near me. If they have stock in one area, why not transfer it to another area where a sale is waiting to be made? It's nonsensical that they can't move stock around the country to where it's needed.

@ItsGoingTibiaK

Argos has always been like this. At least nowadays you don’t have to trek down there, look through the laminated catalogue, use the stubby little pen to write down the code and then queue up to be told, “Sorry, not in stock.”

Those were the days!

I’m starting to suspect it’s deliberate.

Sainsbury’s owned Homebase, sold it to Argos, who then ran it/wound it down. Then Sainsbury’s bought Argos and seem to be doing everything possible to destroy the brand.

I am starting to suspect Sainsbury’s plan was to close every stand alone store and have it only out of supermarkets. But that would only work with centralised warehouses of stock that would be shipped to where it needed to be. I think it’s as a mistake to move this way and this is now being bourne out by it’s rapid decline since it was sold to Sainsbury’s.

Under their new ‘counter in supermarket’ model they dont have the stock in the right places, and no longer have enough stores/warehouses large enough to keep the stock evenly distributed around the country.

Instead you end up with pockets of stock in random areas and no stock in others. I’m not sure I can see a way back from here without major investment in warehousing and logistics to bring them into line more with the Amazon model (who are their main competitor after all).

I guess it all depends how much Sainsbury’s can be bothered, although at this point I think the damage to the brand is too great, they have lost the trust of the their customer base. Argos would be the go to place for many/most ten years ago.

But people will only keep trying to buy from you for so long before giving up and going elsewhere, and they may never return. If you look at the comments on their FB page it’s just filled with hundreds upon hundreds of angry frustrated customers.

I don’t think there’s any coming back from them, which makes me sad.

why put people at risk for a bookcase?

This is nothing to do with suez, covid or brexit. Argos has been like this for a long time. I've also given up with the effort of messaging friends all round the country to check their local stores. Can't believe there are posters blaming those who have given up and turned to Amazon for their decline. If you kept going to your local independent chicken restaurant but they never had what you wanted and the service was poor, would you keep on booking just in case they occasionally had it or wound you just go to Nando's instead?

I don't bother with Argos now for the same reason.

YANBU

I have given up on them

Oh yes! Absolutely dog shit!
Every time I think of ordering from them they don’t have anything. Even if I don’t have a specific item in mind and just want to browse their range of electric toothbrushes say, there will be about 2/20 available if I’m lucky.
This definitely isn’t a new thing, I’d say it’s been the last two years or so.
There’s one stand alone store and two concessions in our town and still can’t get anything.

Their delivery service used to be very good, would rival Amazon

I had similar with dunelm mill recently. Went through their website, ordered lots of stuff online, only to find that one pillowcase is only available for click and collect from one branch to 60 miles away, whilst another is only available from London stores. Yet more items are only available for online order and delivery only.

To make it worse I live very close to a dunelm mill store and while out running sometimes go past it, where I can see lots of "sale" items in the window that I can't buy, taunting me!

Have had similar problems with John Lewis in the past.

It's just damned difficult to give some businesses business!

I bought something yesterday from Argos using click and collect. The same item was cheaper that Amazon too. I also discovered some gardening items were more that double the price on Amazon than in B &M. I'm wondering if Amazon have increased prices.

Argos are useless and either needs revamping or closing down.

When we could go to a shop, we actually went to a huge Argos, and spent god knows how long clicking through their stuff in store, trying to find even one laptop that was available! We knew the make we wanted and there was about 10 online and not ONE was available to buy, and this was a big store!

What is the point of Argos?

I refuse to go on their website anymore either. Last time I got as far as putting my in CC details only to see it 'not available'.

I don’t know why the sniping at people going to Amazon instead - as someone pointed out, Argos legitimately could rival Amazon in the UK - they’re a trusted, go-to brand, I have more faith in the products than I do with Amazon and would prefer to buy from there! But they make it very very difficult for some reason. They’re not doing basic things other reason retailers manage and haven’t been for some time. The catalogue model actually fits today’s shopping patterns really well! Like Amazon, but you can go to the shop and see the thing in the person. If someone invented that now it’d be hailed as a brave new venture. And yet they’re just being run down.

This has nothing to do with Suez canal or Brexit. Argos has always been like this. Once I ordered garden furniture that miraculously appeared in stock. Turns out it wasn't, and my order got cancelled on delivery day. I don't know how they stay in business.

It’s really hit and miss, I’ve found most the time I can’t get what I want but then the other day I ordered something in the morning and it arrived that evening! I hate that you can’t filter by what’s in stock though, such as waste of time

I was thinking it was just me but I've had the same experience. It has got worse since they closed our large store during lockdown 1 and like another pp it never re-opened. Trouble is, we don't have a local Sainsbury's for it to re-open there. So our nearest Argos stores are 26 miles away (along rural roads) or 35 miles away. Both are in a different region and legally we've not been allowed to travel there under Covid restrictions! I loved Argos and used to work there but I just can't get the items so have to order elsewhere

I need a cupboard with very specific height and length requirements to fit in a gap under a window.
Type "cupboard" into Google, and my luck, the first result is argos, on sale and exactly the size I needed.
I really couldn't believe how lucky I'd gotten . . . Until I tried to purchase it.
Not available for delivery or collection. At all.

YANBU. Their click and collect is always miles away. Don't bother with them anymore.

I gave up even visiting the Argos website a long time ago. The frustration of their products showing as available in google searches to go through all the hassle of checking out only to discover, of course, they don’t deliver / not in stock at any branch vaguely near me is too stressful. It’s SUCH a crap, useless business model.

Have just managed to find and book delivery for an in stock sofa for Monday

Faith slightly restored

Argos steam wallpaper stripper - £40
Same one in B+Q - £30

YANBU!

EVVERYTHING I looked at there recently was not available in my area and for home delivery. I though I was cursed