Woot - a disappointing experience

Earlier this month I posted about an online store with great bargains, called Woot where I ordered an Altec Lansing m604 Zune speaker dock at half the price it was sold for elsewhere.

I ordered it on the 5th December. Woot took my money on the 5th December. Woot sent me an e-mail on 7th December telling me my item had shipped and provided me with a tracking number, estimated delivery on 12th December.

Well, yesterday was the 12th so I phone Fedex. To my surprise Fedex tells me they never received the actual package for shipping!?

Woot has no phone number listed on their website, but ask customers to go to the forums for answers, or contact Woot via e-mail. So I e-mail and then head to the forums, where after going through more posts than I can count I discover that Woot did not actually have enough units in stock to fulfill all of the orders. What the --?

On their website Woot says they do not sell stuff they don't have in stock. So what's up with that? Anywhoo, from what I could gather from the forums, Woot was blaming the delay in shipping due to inclement weather - the additional units they were expecting hadn't yet arrived.

Finally, this afternoon I receive an e-mail from Woot basically confirming what I garnered in the forums, and that my order would be shipping tomorrow or Saturday. But if I need to receive my order before 19th December then I could cancel my order.

Okey dokey, then. I canceled my order.

My major issues with Woot are these:

1. Woot says they don't sell more than they have in stock. In my case this was clearly false.
2. Woot took my money despite not having the m604 in stock, and here's the kicker, Woot e-mailed to tell me my non-existent purchase had shipped.
3. Woot waited 7-days before informing me that there was a delay in shipping.

Anywhoo, I wouldn't be nearly so irritated if Woot had better communication. eg. tell me an item is out of stock and / or backordered before I commit to the purchase and don't charge me until my order is shipped.

To be fair, I admit that if I were home to receive my delivery I would not have canceled my order, but Fedex will only hold a package a maximum of five days.

Overall, an extremely disappointing experience.