When Out of Stock gets Out of Control.

After six years in the Out of Stock capital of Europe I heard all the excuses you can imagine.
"Well, there's not a lot of space in Holland, you know?"
"Yes, usually we have it but with the holidays..."
"Jaaa, it's very difficult to find it."
"Jaaaa, it's custom made, you know. So we have to build it for you."

But I still have to hear the one and only honest excuse: "We don't give a shit about customers and service. We just want to save us trouble and a few cents".

You could think that I am a very picky customer who only buys custom made shirts and hand-made furniture. But I am really not.
Living in an era of mass production and global Starbucks, most of what I buy is standard and available everywhere in the industrialized world.
When I want to buy a mattress, I want it for my standard bed, which has standard measurements. So don't come to me with the "custom made" bullshit (10 weeks waiting time for my mattress? why?)

The "lack of space" excuse, I don't buy it either.
I went to Lettergrafica, a small computer supplies shop in the canal area, to buy one tiny USB cable.
For the nongeeks, USB cables were introduced in 1995. That's ten years ago. They are THE standard in the computer industry. And Lettergrafica is a computer supplies shop. So why on Earth were USB cables out of stock??? There is no f***ing excuse other than "We don't give a shit about customers". No space in Holland??
It's a bloody cable, for God's sake. Not a cruise ship. Get it? Do you need a picture?

Comments

[Mark Simmonds]

It is a relief to see that others have the same experiences and that I am not going mad as the Dutch seem to suggest.

There was nothing on pushing though. It seems to be aa crime to stand in a queue in Holland. Peoplare always sneaking ahead and worse, pretending that they hadn't seen you.

[Mudpuppy]

I kept saying to myself all these years, "Well, soon we'll have internet stores like Amazon where you can just order it and have it the next day."

I usually said this to myself after spending most of a day tramping around Amsterdam to every mom-and-pop computer, bicycle or hardware store looking for something nearly as simple as a USB cable.

Now, 7 years in, we still have shit for online ordering places in the Netherlands. Amazon ships only if you order from the UK or France or Germany. (France seems to have the best shipping). But they don't ship hardware or anything cool, just books/CDs. (Excuse me I thought we were in a EUROPEAN UNION now?)

There are of course, exceptions. I ordered some books online from intertaal.nl. Arrived the next day -- perfect. Just don't go to their store near museumplein, where nothing has a price tag on it. (That's another rant altogether!)

[Dominic]

To Whom It May Concern,

Thank you for cooking up ITSNOTPOSSIBLE.NL; my compliments to the chef/s.

Where can I contact you?

You can email me as detailed on the Post a comment form.

Thank you, rgs.