Boden - when it's sold out is that really it??

[electra]

I have found this to be the case in the past - once the cross appears that's it! Very frustrating for winter clothes to have sold out when it's often cold in April....grrrrrrrrr

Hey! I found out if there's something you really like you can ring up customer serviceand ask them if they have any returns. It's still luck of the draw as to whether your order gets to the warehouse before someone elses but they can check any returned stock on the phone. Worked for me as I was gutted I'd missed something! Good luck

Failing that, try ebay. Just got a spotless used boden dress for DD for half the price!

I'd had a pair of boots for DD1 in my basket a few weeks back, which were suddenly sold out before I bought. I looked again a few days later (thinking I'd buy them in a different colour) and they were available again; I'm assuming they were returned

Thanks for replies. Boden is the only place apart from Gap where I can find clothes I like for my children but you have to buy so early - what is it with their stock situation? I would have thought they should be making more money than they are if supply isn't meeting demand...

I just complained to them about this because I wanted to buy pyjamas and jumpers as Christmas presents for my various godchildren and literally ALL the ones I wanted had sold out.

To be fair, they sent me back a very full, prompt and apologetic response here (if anyone is interested):

"I am very sorry to hear of the disappointment caused. All of our items were available at the launch of our Autumn/Winter season on the 28th July.
Unfortunately, nearly four months of worldwide trading many popular items will start to sell out. Our Winter season finishes in three weeks time and we are now coming towards the very end of the season.

The most common cause of bankruptcy amongst retail companies is holding too much stock (especially in the current economic climate). Even if we wanted to, we couldn't order much more stock than we do currently as we couldn't afford it. It would also mean much more 'Sale' activity - nice for you, but ultimately suicidal for us. In addition, it wouldn't really solve our stock problems, which are dominated by a few styles outselling our predictions (and historical trends), often by a factor of as much as 5! We therefore try to order a realistic amount, but as mentioned above, certain items shoot out of the warehouse far quicker than anticipated.

We design all our ranges in house and have them manufactured to order. We offer no products that are "off the shelf". This, we hope, gives our customers a unique and much better quality product but it does reduce our availability owing to long lead times. Further, we are a mail order company so every item must be identical to the one photographed (a high street retailer often reorders something similar but not identical).

If it looks like an item will run out, we do try and re-order in plenty of time but clothes can still take some time to arrive with us. As well as having to have the garments made, checked, delivered, and checked again, we also often have to have the fabric especially woven for us, which can take at least 2 months if the mill is busy.

We have to print our catalogues two months before we send them.
Unfortunately, during this time some popular items can sell out.
Unfortunately, we still need to continue to send catalogues as we still have items we need to sell. Without these sales, we could not afford to operate.

Once again, I am sorry for the disappointment caused. If we can be of any more help, please let us know."

I now understand the issue and problems they face alot better, and I was impressed by the length and detail of their respone, but ultimately it is still very much their loss....as I (and judging from this thread - many more) will now be going elsewhere to make our purchases ...

Plus buying winter clothes for growing children in July is simply not practical!

You can keep looking for returns to show up on stock levels, as someone has already said-
or you can try phoning- sometimes they have 1 left but the computer is behind and shows sold-out.

I don't understand their point about the catalogue being printed 2 months before etc and then they sell out before it is delivered- how an they sellout if people don't see the catalogue??

on a different note, I wonder how much sale stuff will go before the sale hits the UK- if they start it in the US first like in the summer? I notice that this season they seem to have plenty of stock levels of most items- be keen to see how these levels plummet before WE get the sale!!!!

There must be something they can do about it, surely? I get the impression though that it's a relatively small business. Very annoying though. I remember my daughter wanting a T shirt they had last winter, and within a week it had sold out completely and I never saw it again!

They are not small- their gross turnover and end of yr profits are huge! and their warehouse in Leicester looks massive viewed from the M1!

I think they are not good at judging popular items- they have loads of crap left each season a nd sell out of the obviously good items fast.

Well, I suppose if they could judge the popular items in advance they'd have found the Holy Grail of retailing.

Well I managed to get the desired item as one had obviously been returned

Keep checking: I have seen the dreaded cross turn into a 'low stock' icon again, due to returns I assume.

I think that in the future I am going to have to think ahead.....but very difficult to be imagining warmer weather now

One of the good (?) things about Boden is that they tend to repeat styles each season, so if you missed out last time you can sometimes bag one next year.
hohoho, have decised it's time for the festive emoticons!