HP Statement Regarding Amazon.co.uk Shipping Delay Emails

By on December 5, 2007 in Hardware, Windows Home Server

Several of you received emails from Amazon.co.uk last week stating that your orders for the HP MediaSmart Server would be delayed until after Christmas, only then to receive a further email this week that your server was now shipping. Confused? Well, HP got back to us with this statement:

HP UK has a full shipment of HP MediaSmart Server retail stock ready to launch as planned from the 3rd of December at Amazon UK and other UK Retailers.

Since 4 November 2007, Amazon UK has been taking pre-orders of the HP MediaSmart Server, 4 weeks prior to the official planned arrival of the units into the UK. This unusual lead time for Amazon UK, because of stock delivery and the proximity of Christmas, resulted in Amazon’s service automatically generating an e-mail stating wrongly that the product may arrive after Christmas.

In the meantime, this issue has been corrected by Amazon UK and their customers have been informed. The HP MediaSmart Server will be made available to Amazon UK this week and they should be able to ship to their customers before Christmas. HP and Amazon are strategic global partners and are aiming to provide the best launch experience for the HP MediaSmart Server in the UK from the 3rd of December.

So there you go – hopefully, you’ll all receive your servers shortly (I know some have received them already) and there should be plenty of stock to go around.


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About Terry Walsh

Terry Walsh is the founding editor and owner of We Got Served. Since February 2007, the site has provided detailed coverage and analysis of the emerging home server category, and has subsequently grown into a trusted outlet for digital home news and reviews.
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  • Shan

    Still no sign of a launch date in Australia though. I’ve bitten the bullet and ordered an OEM copy of WHS before the version I’m running dies. Absolutely gutted, as I was determined to buy the HP on day one. Guess I’ll be running on my old dog of a workstation for some time to come….

  • Al

    Looks like 45 units available right now in the HP UK supply chain — visible “in stock” on the HP UK store at c. £500 (incl VAT) and retail channel at Amazon level (£450 delivered). Probably 44, once I stop procrastinating…

  • Ying

    My order is still showing the old estimated ship date (early jan). I wonder when Amazon will begin allocating this reported delivery to their backorders. That’s probably when I’ll get an email with revised ship date.

  • http://www.ultim8pc.co.uk Ultim8pc

    That’s good news indeed.

  • Mark

    AL – HP have (at least a few weeks ago) that if you created an account on their online site you got £40 off your first order:

    “Welcome, Mark xxxxxx. Thank you for subscribing to the HP Newsletter.

    We are pleased to offer you a reduction of £40 on your next purchase of £235 or more from the HP store. When you place your order, simply enter the e-voucher code* below in the appropriate box in you shopping basket and 40 will be deducted from the total price of your selected products.

    Your code is xxxxxx.”

  • Ken F

    Unfortunately, my order from Amazon is still delayed.

    I’m in the U.S. and ordered the HP EX475 from Amazon back on November 9th. This week, they delayed shipment from Dec 4 to January 7-21. This status has not changed.

  • MJ

    @ Ken F
    Yep, when is the US going to be getting more stock??? I too ordered from Amazon.com on the 9th Nov (with next day shipping) and was promised a Nov 25th – 3rd Dec delivery window. This has now shifted to an ‘unknown delivery date’ after Christmas! I called them earlier to find out what was going on and was advised that they hope to receive another shipment from HP between 10th-24th Dec but cannot guarantee this (or that my order will be dealt with at this point). I was offered a refund of my delivery charge by way of apology however so it might be worth calling to do the same…
    I can’t find any other US retailers (on or off-line) with stock now – not even HP themselves :-( Kind of wish I hadn’t been tempted by the extra $20 off coupon with Amazon and just ordered direct from HP when they listed them in the HP online shop :( It’s particularly irksome when you read a thread like this in the Amazon forums: http://www.amazon.com/Mine-shipped-today/forum/Fx3O7SZMGM5ECLD/Tx273XJMH97H7QJ/1/

  • Steve K

    I’m in the same boat as Ken F and MJ. I ordered my EX475 from Amazon US on 11/6. As of today, this is what appears on my order:

    Delivery estimate: December 10, 2007 – December 27, 2007
    Shipping estimate: December 5, 2007 – December 19, 2007

  • Keith

    I’m still holding out for the EX470 personally, I found a couple of sites in the UK that list them but no-one I’ve heard of before. Looks like I’ll be waiting until the new year.

  • Ken F

    Had I known what I know now, I would have ordered the EX470 instead.

    Still, we are paying $40 less than newer customers. My EX475 was $689.99 shipped. Now Amazon is asking $749.99 ($729.99 after discount).

  • Al

    Gone for it. Ordered in the UK late last night (c. £450 total from LambdaTek), due for delivery tomorrow, so effectively next day.

    Pleased that the net price is not far off the US (once VAT reclaimed, as a business, so pricier for home use). Online stock level at HP UK and linked retailers shoiwing at c. 36 now (i.e. down around 10 on yesterday). Was nervous in case any delay in restocking, so jumped. Shame little sign of the EX470 yet nor showing at JohnLewis.com (as their after-sales would have been reassuring and probably worth a premium).

    Noticed US retailers showing stocks on Shopping.com (incl. Amazon) and loads of good reviews at egg.com.

    Fingers crossed, this is the small business filer/backup/RAS solution I’ve been looking for years. Suspect the harsher techie critics and Linux-heads don’t appreciate how badly multi-taskers need to avoid getting bogged down in IT hassle/worry. Just needs to work with minimum effort/admin. Interesting to see even some Linux fans giving WHS the thumbs up. Now considering a DIY home buld…

  • Steve K

    Just wanted to provide an update to my post of 12/5. It seems Amazon.US has pushed by the delivery date even further. This morning I received the following email:

    “We’re writing about the order you placed on November 06 2007 08:42 PST (Order# xxxx). Unfortunately, we are unable to ship the item(s) as soon as we expected and need to provide you with a new estimate of when the item(s) may be delivered:

    “HP EX475 MediaSmart Home Server (AMD Live/ 64 Bit Sempron
    Processor, 1 TB Hard Drive)” [Electronics]
    Estimated arrival date: 01/09/2008 – 01/24/2008

  • Jerry Lowe

    I pre-ordered from Amazon UK in November and had a delivery date of the 5-Dec to 12-Dec. Today they sent me an email to say the new delivery date was the second half of Jan-08. I queried this with their customer services after seeing this post. Customer services tell me that “it is now back-ordered, and our supplier has not been able to let us know exactly when they expect to have more in stock”.

    So I’ve cancelled the order from Amazon and placed an order with Lambda Tek who had 29 in stock according to their web site. Cheaper than Amazon too.

  • Steve K

    One final update. About 20 minutes after my post earlier today I decided to look elsewhere for the 475. Turns out HP had them available through their website (the 470 was listed as out of stock however). List price was indentical to Amazon ($709.99), and they had free shipping. I purchased the 475 and then cancelled my order with Amazon.

    While the delays with Amazon were frustrating, what finally decided it for me were the growing number of reports from individuals having placed orders far later than the beginning of November when the item was first available and already having receive their order. This is apparantly the result of they manner in which Amazon fills orders, as it is not entirely a ‘first come, first serve’ basis.

  • MJ

    Yep, I too cancelled my (pre-)order from Amazon just now. Seems that B& H Camera in New York are also carrying stock now and are matching the original $709 Amazon price for the EX475. Will think twice before pre-ordering with Amazon.com in future! Now it’s time to play with my new toy… :-)

  • Steve K

    I just received an email from HP stating my 475 had already shipped this morning via FedEx! Now that is service!

    I’ll definitely not be ordering anything from Amazon in the future unless the item is clearly marked as being in stock.

  • Ying

    Amazon UK is still reporting my order cannot be delivered until after X’mas. I don’t believe HP’s spin doctors about Amazon.

  • Al

    Got mine next day from LamdaTek as promised and delighted so far. So small, it’s going to need to be locked up!

    Just need to figure how to get it on the ‘net, what addins to prioritise after AV, which guide book to get, and looks like I ought asap to upgrade router/switch to Gigabit Ethernet and UPnP.

    Seems only 6 units left in HP UK’s direct/reseller channel, so glad I jumped unusually early, but appearing to shift 39 EX475s over a week doesn’t look exactly like a stampede. Still no sign at johnlewis.com, but prices a bit lower than a week ago elsewhere. Wonder how soon they’ll restock.

  • Jerry Lowe

    My HP Server was ordered Sunday and arrived Tuesday from Lamda tek. Something must have gone badly wrong at Amazon UK

  • Steve K

    As I mentioned earlier, I ordered my 475 directly from HP last Sunday after receiving an email from Amazon earlier in the day stating the delivery date for the 475 I preordered on 11/6 had been pushed back to mid January. I placed that order with HP around 9:30 CST on Sunday. They had free shipping with a 5-7 business day delivery window.

    I’m happy to say HP shipped the 475 on Monday, and it even arrived the next day around 10 AM via FedEx. I finally unboxed it last night just to take a look, and plan on getting everything setup this weekend.

  • Al

    UK channel now: “NO STOCK AVAILABLE – more expected on: 28/12/2007″. My question answered, I guess.

  • Ying

    I placed an order through Lamda-tek yesterday. They now report out of stock. I now have 2 pending orders – one with Amazon and the other with Lamda-tek…

    From this, I think HP have limited stock in the UK despite what their PR say. The claim that Amazon UK would fulfill orders by X’mas… this clearly doesn’t seem to be the case since HP said shipping to Amazon would occur 3rd December… and my order still has ETA of 4 January….

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