On the 31st of July, First4Figures annonced there Sonic the Hedgehog Statue line with Sonic being the first. On the 14th of August, i pre-ordered mine from Play.com. Like noted on his site in the news archives, they had the release date wrong because it was december and they said september at first or something like that. Anyway. It was on there site and you could order it up until ALTEST December. then it said 'out of stock' more then pre-order. I wondered what had gone on. On tuesday, i e-mailed Play.com to find out what was going on with my order. The Order statues still said 'Order taken' and i had no order to say they had to cancel it or such like. <br /><br />On wedseday (7th) i recived a reply.<br /><br />"We are sorry to hear that you have not yet received your order. This item was only available in limited quantities and all stock has now been sold. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused you and thank you for your patience and valued custom."<br /><br />This annoyed me to say the lest. Standard practice, and even there Terms and condistions, say if they can't get the item and have to cancel your order, then they will tell you. I wasn't, and am not, very happy about this. So i sent them another e-mail (after a long time hunt for an e-mail address which is deeply hidden in there site.. so deep, i infact got it from another site -_-. basicly, me not being very happy about the fact they should have told me about them NOT being able to fulfil my order when i could get it from somewhere else. Pretty much too late now. Yesturday (8th) i got a reply:<br /><br />"I am sorry to hear that you are not entirely satisfied with your recent experience of using Play.com. Our intention is for every customer to enjoy helpful and efficient service and I sincerely apologize if this has not been achieved on this occasion. <br /><br />Due to the logistics associated with a large mail order business it is not possible to keep our stock statuses precise. This is in our Terms and Conditions, and it is also why we do not charge for any item (and hence complete the contract) until despatch. Additionally we currently do not have the capacity to monitor customer accounts, and can only respond to queries concerning individual accounts when brought to our attention by that customer. "<br /><br />The customer care was very nice BUT there order deparment is a different matter. How can they not keep track of orders, even stock for a limit edition item? I have set up two shops for two companys in my life (small companys but still) and on both them shops, you put in how many of them items you have in stock. You can say you have pretty much an endless amount but with a limited edition item, you know you haven't. If you look on Amazon, when they are nearing the end there current stock, they say 'Only X amount of stock left, order now before restock' or something like that. Amazon which is a BIGGER Company with more stock.. i can't carry on talking with them because there is just no point shooting the messanger in this case.. I have thought of taking it to a watchdog group to get some action but it's not gonna get me anywhere..<br /><br />So what does this mean? i got get my statue, i have wasted a fair bit of time so i can't get it.. Everyone that gets one, has first chance for the next in the series so in theory, there goes my chance for the WHOLE Series..<br /><br />I have one small chance which i have tried.. and i'll get back to you on that.. But don't pre-order stuff on Play (which is a UK site) cause they have openny said to me that they don't keep track of there orders and will take orders AFTER they have complete run out of stock and will never get it more. And they won't even tell you. I didn't like Play in the first place and now? I have NEVER been treated like this with a shop, I order ALOT on-line from Amazon and even small companys Via Amazon, i have ordered from a couple of shops like Tokyo Toys in the UK and GMZone (or something like that) in the US and they were all nice and helpful. I have gone into shops and ordered stuff that they didn't stock and they were nice and helpful (Mostly note this for gamlies (my home town branch has just closed though) and MVC (which has also closed a few years back). Play has been the first unable to keep track of there orders and the first to treat me like this (even worse then when the Customs people open your post from the US and charge you for that! -_-).. I hope i NEVER have to deal with them ever again! And i pray that you guys will think twice before doing any pre-orders for important items. One company did come close to this (because they just don't tell me when they have to cancel orders) and that is forbidden Planet so i NEVER deal with them.. for items only with them, i get someone else to do it for me and even then they aren't very happy with how Forbidden planet behaves..<br /><br />YES! I am fed up with protecting this prats! Name and Shame and i doubt i'll stop with posting about this here.