Why does this happen? I saw an item advertised by a well known gunshop, ordered it online and received an invoice for the item. I duly paid and waited for delivery, no item showed up. I eventually contacted them and was told that they do not have said item in stock, but they are expecting stock shortly. I gave it a week or two, phoned again and got told the same story. Phoned a few more times; got the "we are expecting stock shortly, please be patient" reply again.

Two months down the line there is still no stock; now I get told they have no idea when stock is expected.

The bit that gets to me is that the same item is still available online.