UK Retailer Warns Of More Potential Xbox Series X Delivery Delays

So are retailers genuinely not aware of how many consoles they will be allocated before the pre-sale date?

Got confirmation of day 1 from Shopto. What concerns me more is that Microsoft has yet to confirm their pre-orders.

@Andyjm Usually manufacturers give an allocation range rather than a fixed number before sale "you'll get between 2000-3000 units"

Retailers stupidly like to oversell their allotment based on calculating how many cancellations to expect. I assume all of them hire Michael Patcher for this estimate who tells them half of all preorders for new items will be cancelled. So they sell double the allotment.

Do they sell double the 2000 guaranteed number? NO! They sell double the high range, just in case they get it.

Then the manufacturer tells them, "ok, we can only give you the 2000 for the first batch". So now they sold 6000.....

So glad i got mine through the Microsoft store... largest allocation i hope fill all their orders and allocate the rest

@Bruvas
Mines Argos too

@LKY They atleast get stuff to my door on time or early and if they don't then I get a ton of extra prime.

It’s ridiculous that retailers are allowed to do this.

@NEStalgia thanks for explaining this I really had no idea how it worked. Do you think microsoft will honor their preorders by shorting other retailers? This is a dumb system to use.

@VisitingComet1 hard to say. I don't think the ms store oversold any the way retailers do. But they probably sold their high range, because even they don't know the factory yiels and shipment yield coming in since it's all happening in real time, and Chinese mfrs are running reduced capacity, and freight companies are behind on ocean freight. They're using some air freight, but that costs fortunes and is only worth so much sales, and it's always possible they get a call that the container ship 20000 units were on had to make port for a week due to typhoons or tsunami warnings and won't get there in time etc.

Funny, it's the 21s century, but 15th century problems are still the same

I think they're more reliable than the retailers but nothing is a sure bet with. JIT manufacturing even in normal years.

JIT ruined many things in the world imo. Though consoles were always badly handled and therefore in demand. I remember when the SNES launched, the container ships leaving Japan (Back then things we're made in Japan, not just China!) Needed a naval escort through the Sea of Japan because there were reports the Yakuza were planning to hijack the ship.

These days the Yakuza can seemingly only manage to hijack XBox One, XBox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, and PC Holiday 2020.

@NEStalgia thanks for the information I didn't think about that stuff.

@InterceptorAlpha They stop giving me extra prime when they realized they couldn’t get anything to my door on time.

Funny thing, I literally used to work there the warehouse is so close.

Ordered my Xbox Series X on the UK Microsoft Store. Got a confirmation email and my order appeared in my order history. Today I went to check on the order (after reading about other orders going missing) and sure enough... my order had evaporated... no notice, no email... nothing.

Not happy Microsoft as I had bought extra hardware to go with my CONFIRMED XSX order... At least notify when you pull a dick move like this.

@NeoMorph that is pretty poor behaviour on MS’s part I must say.

I’m not sure why the manufacturers are having such a tough time getting pre-orders right when in reality it’s quite simple.

@NeoMorph Contact them. From reading on Reddit they are having issues like this but Customer Service can still see the orders.

Reminds me of the air industry, oversell in expectation not everyone turns up. And if they do, some of the customers lose out.