[hubcapboy]

"One or more items from this purchase are still out of stock as we haven't
yet received the merchandise from our supplier."

Receiving this email the same day as others are getting shipping notification sure makes it sound like they shipped all the units they received and my order will be left in "out of stock" limbo indefinitely.

[civano]

I hope that isn't the case. Have you called B&H to check if they plan to get more? Adorama shows them in stock, you could call them just to be sure that is accurate and possibly order one through them.

[GoremanX]

B&H once again allowed more pre-orders than they were going to get in inventory. They ran out quickly, and all further pre-orders will likely remain backordered until the end of time, just like has happened with them many times in the past with other Limited Edition products.

I pre-ordered my silver K-3 early on October 7th. I was among the first to pre-order. But PayPal screwed up the payment method, so I ended up having to cancel the order and re-place it on October 8th (mid afternoon). That reset my place in the queue, and was just enough to knock me out of range from having my order fulfilled today. That means it'll be backordered forever, just like the silver smc DA 21mm Limited was backordered for 6+ months until I finally gave up and had them cancel it.

However, I called Adorama and confirmed that they do in fact have inventory of the silver K-3. I placed my order and it should ship today and arrive tomorrow. Meanwhile, I called B&H and told them to cancel the order. I made sure to let them know that:

a) I bought the product through their competitor instead

b) I think they suck for doing this to people every time a Limited Edition product becomes available for pre-order

[civano]

B&H once again allowed more pre-orders than they were going to get in inventory. They ran out quickly, and all further pre-orders will likely remain backordered until the end of time, just like has happened with them many times in the past with other Limited Edition products.

I pre-ordered my silver K-3 early on October 7th. I was among the first to pre-order. But PayPal screwed up the payment method, so I ended up having to cancel the order and re-place it on October 8th (mid afternoon). That reset my place in the queue, and was just enough to knock me out of range from having my order fulfilled today. That means it'll be backordered forever, just like the silver smc DA 21mm Limited was backordered for 6+ months until I finally gave up and had them cancel it.

However, I called Adorama and confirmed that they do in fact have inventory of the silver K-3. I placed my order and it should ship today and arrive tomorrow. Meanwhile, I called B&H and told them to cancel the order. I made sure to let them know that:

a) I bought the product through their competitor instead

b) I think they suck for doing this to people every time a Limited Edition product becomes available for pre-order

I'm so glad you were able to get the silver you wanted through Adorama. That is unfortunate for those that preordered through B&H and ended up getting a backorder notice yesterday instead of a shipping confirmation. Hopefully Adorama has more silvers available for anyone who really wants one.

I had wanted to preorder a silver K-3 but wasn't sure if I wanted to wait until I heard more user reviews and wait until the K-3 had been out for at least 6 months or so. However, seeing that the silver was available yesterday at Adorama and knowing that it wouldn't be for long, I decided to order one myself and it will also arrive tomorrow. I hope I like the silver finish as my eye is drawn to it.

[GoremanX]

I already have an older K-5 silver, so I knew silver was what I wanted Besides, most of my lenses are silver too! It'll be interesting to finally have a silver battery grip to go with it, though. I've been wielding a silver K-5 with a black battery grip for years.

[hubcapboy]

I just called... There doesn't appear to be a way of asking the question "hey... will I actually get this thing?" without frustrating them. It's happened to me twice now. I'm completely fine waiting in line if that's what's happening, but I'd rather not wait in line for something that they'll never receive from the manufacturer.

While I was typing this, the 2nd response by GoremanX posted, and I'd decided I'd had enough (mine was a 1st thing AM order on the 8th). Ordered from Adorama over the phone just now, they confirmed they had "more than one" in stock and will ship it today.

Between this and my experience on release day with the pre-order price (I found out that pentaxwebstore was selling preorders $100 cheaper than retailers and asked for a price match and was told that I should just weigh "how much I valued B&H" against the additional $100) I think I'm done with B&H for big-ticket purchases.

Maybe the fault lies with pentax for not telling each retailer how many they'd receive? Maybe the fault is with B&H for not having a mechanism to handle a preorder with a known limited quantity? Either way, the reason I placed an order with them was because I assumed that as a "real camera store" they would have a better mechanism for handling this and more targeted customer service. Oops?

B&H would have kept my order, even if it was delayed by months, and even though it was $100 more expensive than another release-day source, if they could have just promised me that they'd be able to deliver on the order.

[civano]

I already have an older K-5 silver, so I knew silver was what I wanted Besides, most of my lenses are silver too! It'll be interesting to finally have a silver battery grip to go with it, though. I've been wielding a silver K-5 with a black battery grip for years.

The silver on silver definitely looks sharp. My lenses, however, are all black. Hopefully, I will like them with the silver body. If not, I suppose I can always return it and get a black body.

[civano]

While I was typing this, the 2nd response by GoremanX posted, and I'd decided I'd had enough (mine was a 1st thing AM order on the 8th). Ordered from Adorama over the phone just now, they confirmed they had "more than one" in stock and will ship it today.

So glad you were able to get the silver like you wanted. Sorry you had to go through all that frustration.

[hubcapboy]

We'll see, hopefully you didn't swipe the last one!

For future reference if I respond to this thread with garbled text and random punctuation, it'll be because I received a backorder notice from Adorama instead of a package from UPS.

[isb.deep]

B&H once again allowed more pre-orders than they were going to get in inventory. They ran out quickly, and all further pre-orders will likely remain backordered until the end of time, just like has happened with them many times in the past with other Limited Edition products.

I pre-ordered my silver K-3 early on October 7th. I was among the first to pre-order. But PayPal screwed up the payment method, so I ended up having to cancel the order and re-place it on October 8th (mid afternoon). That reset my place in the queue, and was just enough to knock me out of range from having my order fulfilled today. That means it'll be backordered forever, just like the silver smc DA 21mm Limited was backordered for 6+ months until I finally gave up and had them cancel it.

However, I called Adorama and confirmed that they do in fact have inventory of the silver K-3. I placed my order and it should ship today and arrive tomorrow. Meanwhile, I called B&H and told them to cancel the order. I made sure to let them know that:

a) I bought the product through their competitor instead

b) I think they suck for doing this to people every time a Limited Edition product becomes available for pre-order

I am pretty much in the same boat. I ordered from B&H on Oct 8th, since that's where I bought my first one (K-30) from. I read on the forum about people who had ordered on the 7th receiving shipping notifications so I called them to check the status of my order. I received the same email this morning that GoremanX received.

I called Adorama and they told me they had a couple of them in stock and so I ordered with them. Hopefully it will be shipped soon and they won't do what B&H did, take the order and then tell us "wait indefinitely" for its fullfillment. Hubcapboy pretty much summed it up for me, I would have waited if they had given me a date. They did not, and therefore I am going with Adorama.

[civano]

We'll see, hopefully you didn't swipe the last one!

For future reference if I respond to this thread with garbled text and random punctuation, it'll be because I received a backorder notice from Adorama instead of a package from UPS.

I hope I don't see the garbled text and ransom punctuation. I didn't get the last one as I ordered mine yesterday and it was shipped last night and should arrive tomorrow!

[Adam]

Maybe the fault lies with pentax for not telling each retailer how many they'd receive? Maybe the fault is with B&H for not having a mechanism to handle a preorder with a known limited quantity? Either way, the reason I placed an order with them was because I assumed that as a "real camera store" they would have a better mechanism for handling this and more targeted customer service. Oops?

I think Pentax is to blame. They probably didn't expect as many pre-orders to come it, and they may have misinfored the retailers. B&H sells a lot more than Adorama, so it makes sense that they received more orders than Adorama before they were informed that there might be a supply problem.

On the other hand, thanks to its size, B&H is usually able to secure larger shipments. It could well be the case that they will somehow source the missing K-3's and fulfill the missing orders, but we'll have to wait and see. My contact at B&H is out of the office today, but I'll see what I can find out for you guys ASAP

[hubcapboy]

I think you're probably right, Adam. it's probably impossible for them to know how many they're getting and when... but then again, isn't that precisely the reason to offer pre-orders? It seems irresponsible of Pentax to allow pre-orders on the limited items, and irresponsible of the retailers to offer them. The only lesson learned here is to pre-order with everyone because it's meaningless and then cancel the orders you don't need? If everyone does that, there's no hope for the system to work.

I'm happy to turn this from a "trashing B&H thread" into a "don't lose hope, B&H went out of their way to fix this for me when..." thread.

[Adam]

I think you're probably right, Adam. it's probably impossible for them to know how many they're getting and when... but then again, isn't that precisely the reason to offer pre-orders? It seems irresponsible of Pentax to allow pre-orders on the limited items, and irresponsible of the retailers to offer them. The only lesson learned here is to pre-order with everyone because it's meaningless and then cancel the orders you don't need? If everyone does that, there's no hope for the system to work.

I'm happy to turn this from a "trashing B&H thread" into a "don't lose hope, B&H went out of their way to fix this for me when..." thread.

I was just able to reach B&H. Have gotten confirmation from their buyer that all orders should be fulfilled

[hubcapboy]

Is it too much to ask that they arm their customer service agents to say that? I was able to get similar statements, but not without some type of "as long as Pentax sends them to us" qualifier. All that they could say about my order was that they'd received some, and those had been sent, and that if more arrived, and there were enough, they'd send one to me. That doesn't read the same as "all orders will be fulfilled" to me.

The fact is there's ANY number of things they could have said to keep my order. I have no idea why it's to their benefit to leave it open ended.