I ordered additional T-Mobile G1s last Thursday for the rest of the lines on my family plan and they were supposed to arrive today. They didn’t – so after speaking with the the T-Mobile representative, it appears my order is now backed up. When I asked why the representative didn’t inform me of this when placing the order, their explanation was that they were selling more than they actually had because the inventory system wasn’t keeping up. I think this is complete b-s. Why? Big companies like T-Mobile today all run on the latest inventory software such as Oracle and SAP and thus, the inventory system should be synced real-time with their ordering system unless they failed to bridge this deficiency in their operations. I know because I used to audit public companies. My guess is that they were accepting more orders than they actually had to boost orders for future fulfillment and use this inventory glitch or excuse to get by. I checked my credit card to verify whether it was charged or not and it appears it was not. Thus, they did their part in not charging the customers for an item they don’t have in stock or an item they have not shipped yet or they would be going against the general accounting rules. I guess I’ll just have to sit back and wait.
They let me know that the next shipment will go out November 10. This information also conflicts with the T-Mobile staff I first worked with at the retail store when I purchased my first phone as he left me know, after the first shipment, there won’t be another one till Christmas.
What does this all mean? Even if they have more shipments coming, the fact that they have a supply shortage short term means get ready for a spike in demand and spike in price on the market (aka ebay). Advice? Get your G1s now and decide whether to keep it or return it (using the 20 day T-Mobile return policy).
Update 10/29/2008:
Just checked the T-Mobile store and it’s showing that it’s not sold out. Either T-Mobile is misleading customers into buying phones they have on back order or something sketchy is going on.
9:00am – Called T-Mobile Telesales at 1-877-334-7151 and spoke with an agent. Asked if they had any G1s in stock before and he confirmed that they did have the “G1s in stock” and were taking orders. Then I suprised him by letting him know that yesterday, I had called in and the agent at Customer Service let me know that my order was suddenly backordered. In response, he let me know that there was nothing he could for me but to direct me to Customer Service. Thus, I called Customer Service at 1-800-T-MOBILE and checked the status on my order and notified the agent that I just hear from their Telesales dept. that they confirme the G1s were in stock. He denied this notion and called Telesales himself to confirm. And indeed, confirmed that they were backordered. His explanation was that Telesales had provided miscommunication and that although they were taking ordered, they were backordered. In conclusion, this suggests that T-Mobile is currently taking orders without letting customers know that the phone is actually backordered. Not cool.
