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My favorite is how home depot lists stuff in stock on the search results page, but then when you click the individual item it's out of stock. It's a store. Wh

by x0x0 7y ago

My favorite is how home depot lists stuff in stock on the search results page, but then when you click the individual item it's out of stock. It's a store. Why the fuck would a store ever show me an item -- at least by default -- that it isn't willing to sell me? Like who exactly wants that "feature"? It makes attempting to buy something from home depot's site an infuriating experience.

ebg13 7y ago
One of the items I tried ordering that was cancelled showed 34 in stock at that store while I was on the phone with them (immediately after the delivery person left) trying to find out why they cancelled my items and they were saying the items were probably out of stock in that store. And if you have three stores within a couple of miles of you that all claim to have a bunch of stock of an item but you order from one that suddenly (allegedly) runs out, you get to go all the way back down the hill because they don't migrate stock between stores.
- bradlys 7y ago
  This is one of the reasons I don't buy things from Home Depot if I can help it. I've gone to multiple stores thinking something was in stock to only find they were all out of stock. On top of that, the staff there are almost helpless when it comes to finding things that aren't on the shelf itself. If it's up top, be prepared to waste an hour trying to get someone to fetch the item. (If it's there!) Their poor system can work in your favor though. Went to go pick up my order after it being cancelled at multiple places. Turns out, at this one, they only had 2 of the 4 items at pickup. I tell them it says there are more in stock, they confirm. We go hunting for the remaining 2. Takes 30 minutes for them to fetch the remaining two from the top with my help (without my help, they would have never found it!). We go back to the register, they punch in that they're giving me 2 more. I go home with all 4 of my items. I was never charged for the full order. Only the initial 2.
  - solotronics 7y ago
    I mean technically that is stealing but I guess its pretty low on the scale of "bad stuff".
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - bradlys 7y ago
      Is it? They rung me up with it - it's up to them to decide what to charge me. I'd put as "bank error in my favor." I only noticed later when I was making sure they didn't overcharge me when looking at my bank account. (They had to charge and refund about 3x)
      - boomboomsubban 7y ago
        It's still stealing, the correct move would be to go back and pay the correct amount as you likely would have done if they overcharged you. That said, I doubt you could legally be held responsible and I see no problems with what you did morally either. If you noticed at the time I'd find it morally questionable, but you can't fix every mistake.
        sneak 7y ago
        Stealing requires intent, generally.
        filoleg 7y ago
        Not just that, but like, the parent commenter actually got his items rung up in the store. So the parent wouldnt have even noticed they didn’t get charged for those items unless they were constantly checking their bank account for actual dollar amounts charged for every purchase. I find it difficult to believe that anyone would be able to claim that the parent commenter is at fault here.
dvtrn 7y ago
This has long been an issue I've had when trying to use online shopping/curbside pickup for grocery stores, and this comes even before the COVID-19 pandemic arrived and pushed more of us fortunate to live in cities where online grocery buying is a thing to....well start buying groceries online. Found myself just as baffled/apoplectic as you are: why would this be on your online storefront if you don't have the inventory for me to actually buy? Even Amazon Prime delivery via Whole Foods has this problem, to bring it back around to the thread topic. Interestingly it's something that small e-commerce stores are much better about, it would seem (though I don't really have any data backing that up)
- justforyou 7y ago
  >> why would this be on your online storefront if you don't have the inventory for me to actually buy? Twofold: 1) They're betting that you'll still buy something once you're surrounded by merchandise. 2) This allows them to play games with shrink, imventory, and insurance.
  - dvtrn 7y ago
    They're betting that you'll still buy something once you're surrounded by merchandise. Hrm. Good point, that’s exactly what’s ended up happening. Just never actively considered it
- goatforce5 7y ago
  Last year I tried setting up a subscription for some pet food from a mid-sized pet store chain. The first order went through fine. 3.5 weeks later I get an email saying my next order is about to be processed, now is the last chance for cancellations, etc. I ignore it, as I want the order to be processed. A few days later I get an email saying they're out of stock and they'll retry again later. I get these emails every day for 2 weeks, and then my order is automatically cancelled. This happens for 2 or 3 months before I get fed up and cancel the subscription. If I put in an order effectively a month in advance you'd think they could make sure they had enough stock for that upcoming order. (And it wasn't a complicated order, just multiple boxes of a single SKU.)
justforyou 7y ago
Even better, you can reserve items to pickup at Home Depot online which are not actually in stock. Website quantities are not tied to point of sale, and are instead manually enteted by staff when they have the opportunity/bandwidth. (Or at least that was the explanation given by Home Depot's customer support.)
- markkanof 7y ago
  I feel like I'm using a different homedepot.com than everyone else on this thread. I'm not aware of an option to reserve things for pickup at the store, only to purchase them and pickup at the store. Every time I have done this they send an email when the order is ready to be picked up, and then I go there and pick up all the items. Not saying you didn't have the experience you did, just wondering if they actually do things differently in different parts of the country.
  - ebg13 7y ago
    > I'm not aware of an option to reserve things for pickup at the store, only to purchase them and pickup at the store. Those two things you just said are the same thing.
    - markkanof 7y ago
      I don't think they are. When the parent commenter said reserved for pickup, I assumed they meant some way to say "hold these at the counter for me to come purchase". What I am saying is that in my experience, you are making a purchase, someone at the store is pulling the items from the shelf and setting them in a special area, then you get an email/text that the order is ready, meaning that everything is ready to go, they had all the items, and no other customer will be able to purchase the items that you ordered.
      - ebg13 7y ago
        "hold these for me until I get there" is exactly the same as "don't let someone else buy them before I get there". Whether you pay before you get there or after doesn't change the fact that the item is being held for you so that no other customer will be able to purchase the items that you ordered. We can break down your two statements and put them piecemeal side by side: I assumed they meant... "hold these..." What I am saying is... "pulling the items from the shelf..." I assumed they meant... "at the counter..." What I am saying is... "in a special area..."
harrisonjackson 7y ago
The first part sounds like a pretty terrible UI bug - it should be showing as out of stock everywhere :thinking: maybe the search results don't cross-check your selected store location but the detail page for an item does. (not excusing it just thinking where the issue could be) A couple of reasons to show items they can't sell you right now in the search results... 1. The best reason I can think of is if you click into it and it isn't available then they could show "similar" items and cross-sell you on those - and maybe actually help you find a good alternative. 2. If you are searching for a specific item then the result should show you that item regardless of availability or you'd just keep looking for it and be confused about it never showing up in their results. 3. Maybe SEO? More listings - even out of stock listings -> more SEO juice
zo1 7y ago
Personally, I think this is due to "Microservices". You have a separate "search" microservice whose data is out of date or misaligned with the "product listing" microservice. Same goes with Amazon and international delivery on some level. It's gotten better over the years, but there is still such a mismatch such that you can't "filter" only "international" delivery items.

by x0x0 7y ago

ebg13 7y ago

One of the items I tried ordering that was cancelled showed 34 in stock at that store while I was on the phone with them (immediately after the delivery person left) trying to find out why they cancelled my items and they were saying the items were probably out of stock in that store. And if you have three stores within a couple of miles of you that all claim to have a bunch of stock of an item but you order from one that suddenly (allegedly) runs out, you get to go all the way back down the hill because they don't migrate stock between stores.

bradlys 7y ago
This is one of the reasons I don't buy things from Home Depot if I can help it. I've gone to multiple stores thinking something was in stock to only find they were all out of stock. On top of that, the staff there are almost helpless when it comes to finding things that aren't on the shelf itself. If it's up top, be prepared to waste an hour trying to get someone to fetch the item. (If it's there!) Their poor system can work in your favor though. Went to go pick up my order after it being cancelled at multiple places. Turns out, at this one, they only had 2 of the 4 items at pickup. I tell them it says there are more in stock, they confirm. We go hunting for the remaining 2. Takes 30 minutes for them to fetch the remaining two from the top with my help (without my help, they would have never found it!). We go back to the register, they punch in that they're giving me 2 more. I go home with all 4 of my items. I was never charged for the full order. Only the initial 2.
- solotronics 7y ago
  I mean technically that is stealing but I guess its pretty low on the scale of "bad stuff".
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - bradlys 7y ago
    Is it? They rung me up with it - it's up to them to decide what to charge me. I'd put as "bank error in my favor." I only noticed later when I was making sure they didn't overcharge me when looking at my bank account. (They had to charge and refund about 3x)
    - boomboomsubban 7y ago
      It's still stealing, the correct move would be to go back and pay the correct amount as you likely would have done if they overcharged you. That said, I doubt you could legally be held responsible and I see no problems with what you did morally either. If you noticed at the time I'd find it morally questionable, but you can't fix every mistake.
      - sneak 7y ago
        Stealing requires intent, generally.
        filoleg 7y ago
        Not just that, but like, the parent commenter actually got his items rung up in the store. So the parent wouldnt have even noticed they didn’t get charged for those items unless they were constantly checking their bank account for actual dollar amounts charged for every purchase. I find it difficult to believe that anyone would be able to claim that the parent commenter is at fault here.

dvtrn 7y ago

This has long been an issue I've had when trying to use online shopping/curbside pickup for grocery stores, and this comes even before the COVID-19 pandemic arrived and pushed more of us fortunate to live in cities where online grocery buying is a thing to....well start buying groceries online. Found myself just as baffled/apoplectic as you are: why would this be on your online storefront if you don't have the inventory for me to actually buy? Even Amazon Prime delivery via Whole Foods has this problem, to bring it back around to the thread topic. Interestingly it's something that small e-commerce stores are much better about, it would seem (though I don't really have any data backing that up)

justforyou 7y ago
>> why would this be on your online storefront if you don't have the inventory for me to actually buy? Twofold: 1) They're betting that you'll still buy something once you're surrounded by merchandise. 2) This allows them to play games with shrink, imventory, and insurance.
- dvtrn 7y ago
  They're betting that you'll still buy something once you're surrounded by merchandise. Hrm. Good point, that’s exactly what’s ended up happening. Just never actively considered it
goatforce5 7y ago
Last year I tried setting up a subscription for some pet food from a mid-sized pet store chain. The first order went through fine. 3.5 weeks later I get an email saying my next order is about to be processed, now is the last chance for cancellations, etc. I ignore it, as I want the order to be processed. A few days later I get an email saying they're out of stock and they'll retry again later. I get these emails every day for 2 weeks, and then my order is automatically cancelled. This happens for 2 or 3 months before I get fed up and cancel the subscription. If I put in an order effectively a month in advance you'd think they could make sure they had enough stock for that upcoming order. (And it wasn't a complicated order, just multiple boxes of a single SKU.)

justforyou 7y ago

Even better, you can reserve items to pickup at Home Depot online which are not actually in stock. Website quantities are not tied to point of sale, and are instead manually enteted by staff when they have the opportunity/bandwidth. (Or at least that was the explanation given by Home Depot's customer support.)

markkanof 7y ago
I feel like I'm using a different homedepot.com than everyone else on this thread. I'm not aware of an option to reserve things for pickup at the store, only to purchase them and pickup at the store. Every time I have done this they send an email when the order is ready to be picked up, and then I go there and pick up all the items. Not saying you didn't have the experience you did, just wondering if they actually do things differently in different parts of the country.
- ebg13 7y ago
  > I'm not aware of an option to reserve things for pickup at the store, only to purchase them and pickup at the store. Those two things you just said are the same thing.
  - markkanof 7y ago
    I don't think they are. When the parent commenter said reserved for pickup, I assumed they meant some way to say "hold these at the counter for me to come purchase". What I am saying is that in my experience, you are making a purchase, someone at the store is pulling the items from the shelf and setting them in a special area, then you get an email/text that the order is ready, meaning that everything is ready to go, they had all the items, and no other customer will be able to purchase the items that you ordered.
    - ebg13 7y ago
      "hold these for me until I get there" is exactly the same as "don't let someone else buy them before I get there". Whether you pay before you get there or after doesn't change the fact that the item is being held for you so that no other customer will be able to purchase the items that you ordered. We can break down your two statements and put them piecemeal side by side: I assumed they meant... "hold these..." What I am saying is... "pulling the items from the shelf..." I assumed they meant... "at the counter..." What I am saying is... "in a special area..."

harrisonjackson 7y ago

The first part sounds like a pretty terrible UI bug - it should be showing as out of stock everywhere :thinking: maybe the search results don't cross-check your selected store location but the detail page for an item does. (not excusing it just thinking where the issue could be) A couple of reasons to show items they can't sell you right now in the search results... 1. The best reason I can think of is if you click into it and it isn't available then they could show "similar" items and cross-sell you on those - and maybe actually help you find a good alternative. 2. If you are searching for a specific item then the result should show you that item regardless of availability or you'd just keep looking for it and be confused about it never showing up in their results. 3. Maybe SEO? More listings - even out of stock listings -> more SEO juice

zo1 7y ago

Personally, I think this is due to "Microservices". You have a separate "search" microservice whose data is out of date or misaligned with the "product listing" microservice. Same goes with Amazon and international delivery on some level. It's gotten better over the years, but there is still such a mismatch such that you can't "filter" only "international" delivery items.