selling more items than they have

This morning for the 3rd time I have attempted to check out my basket, only to get a message that one item has to be -1. The first time this happened I phoned and the girl said "I will remove it so you can check out", No appology it was bought 2 days earlier but because it was a clearance event I had several items and so didn't check out while I was still adding. I sent an email complaining and as a gesture the p&p was removed from my order.
Yesterday I bought some earrings and a couple of beads and bangles went to check out this morning and the earrings are no longer available, I emailed and was told they are moving warehouses and are sorry. So I emailed back and said this is the 2nd time in 2 days and it really wasn't very good CS the reply was a £10 goodwill gesture.
having seethed that I am wasting my time watching and then not getting what was placed in my basket, I decided I would check out the 2 remaining items but not buy for a while if at all. Tried to check out and you've guessed it one of the items is not available so I can't check out. I have sent an email saying the gesture is good but the
3rd unavailable item in 3 days is not. So i'm finished with gems.
I have an order to be delivered some time next week and I am seriously contemplating just sending the whole lot back. £700+ worth
Its their loss and I am just so disillusioned. this after getting a glass necklace form TJC last week and their response is they will forward my comments on to management and hope it hasn't inconvienced me too much (I feel a trip to trading standards comming on)

I don't NEED jewellery I just like it.

It gets better have just emailed again to tell them I still can't checkout, got a reply appolgising and asking for the item number, logged in and there are now no items in my basket. That is every item I bought yesterday over sold.

I've just had a phone call from CS telling me that they have an IT problem which allows web buyers to put items in their basket which they don't have. which means the first people to check out get the item and the rest don't. Also their stock numbers are incorrect so they are selling more than they have.
It will be a cold day in hell before I purchase anything from them again
It may be cutting my nose off to spite my face but as my earlier post said I don't NEED jewellery I just LIKE it
I'm sure my husband will be pleased

How very disappointing and frustrating for you! is it worth contacting CS again and asking them to reinstate the items?
Since Gems operates everything by computer, I can not see how they manage to oversell items as sales should cut off when the stock reaches 0. That would be on an efficient system, I think. Being cynical, I often wonder if they deliberately oversell ( like the airlies overbook) in case buyers drop out.
I have had the over-sell situation happen to me several times over the last year or more but have never had more than a short apology and removal from my basket so I can check out. You were lucky that you were offered goodwill gestures to make up for overselling items in your basket! I have never even had any goodwill gestures when that happens to me!
The other problem Gems has with purchased items is when an email arrives stating that they can't find the item you've bought.
Regardless of apologies, it does make me wonder whether to bother buying too.

update to post above. I was writing when you wrote your last post.
The comment about IT is the excuse I have been given for over a year.
Surely if you have a system problem that is potentially losing you customers, you wouldnt wait that long to sort it out?

I've had this happen to me loads of times, very annoying.

The order I received this week was minus one of the lucky-dip watches as it had 'failed a final inspection'.

Gems, please sort out your IT and QC your goods before selling them!

This happened to me again(!) yesterday. I bought an item from a large quantity auction - early in the auction I may say. when I tried to check out a couple of hours later I hit the same problem. Customer services removed the offending item to let me check out but could give me no explanation as to why it had happened.

Maybe this is what they are told to say but it is occuring a bit too often.

:angry:

good grief not this old chesnut again....... over the past few years we have had this for various reasons ....... robbery in the vault, changeover of systems, takeover of gems by Rocks, move from web only company to web & tv. I have had this happen to me so many times over the few years I have been a customer that it simply makes me raise my eyebrows and sigh......here we go again. Web customers are being treated like second class customers - priority is given to phone buyers and despite items being in baskets if there are phone callers, seems they take priority and be allocated. But I would guess web buyers tend to buy more as they can simply click and keep adding whereas phone buyers think harder before ringing up.............................and finally if we remember Rocks tv had its roots on the web and its biggest and most longstanding customers are webbies - shame if that is forgotton

Janey said:

I've had this happen to me loads of times, very annoying.

The order I received this week was minus one of the lucky-dip watches as it had 'failed a final inspection'.

Gems, please sort out your IT and QC your goods before selling them!

Click to expand...

Received an email to say that the order I checked out on Tuesday will be missing an item :headbang:

Ditto this morning for an order started last weekend so not only is a piece "not available", but it'll be next week before I receive the rest. :sad: I don't know if it may be a regonal thing, but TJC service in all respects is beating them for me at the moment, especially with deliveries, but it must be said I am very close to them. My last two orders have arrived in just a couple of days. xxxxxxxxxx

This has happened to me several times in the last few months. Good grief, their IT system is a complete mess. It never happened once in the old Gems days - their IT system then was second to none and if you popped something in your basket, you could be sure you'd receive it.
Their search engine now is one of the worst I've ever seen - if you want to find a pink tourmaline, you have to trawl through about six pages of tourmalines. These pages are really short and there isn't even a 'view all' button. Why on earth isn't there a search facility so that you can just type in 'paraiba tourmaline' and everything in stock is listed under different criteria (high to low price, popularity, new items, just as a few examples)? They've had two years to do something about their systems and it just appears to be getting worse, not better. Please Gems, sort this out, because at the moment it's just giving a really negative impression.
As for their loose gems website......now I know I'm not exactly computer literate and I'm certainly no genius, but I have absolutely no idea how that works, so if anyone could enlighten me, I'd be very grateful!