When you select "Notify Me" on an out-of-stock product, you are added to our system's email notification queue for that product.
When the product comes back into stock, this system will email customers in batches (based on how many units we have) and in order of sign-up to the queue.
Let's clarify what we mean by that:
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Customers who signed up for notifications before you will be emailed first (in order, in batches). So if 10,000 customers signed up before you did, we may sell out before your email/batch is triggered.
- This is why you might not receive an email even though a product was back in stock
- This may happen with very popular products with thousands of customers waiting - such as the Raspberry Pi
- You are not removed from the queue when this happens - you're just nearer the front
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Emails are sent in batches. For example, if we have 1000 units available, the system might email 500 customers in a batch and then pause to review what that did to the stock levels.
- It will continue to email further batches until the stock is sold out or we run out of customers on the list.
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Why do we use this system?
- If we emailed everyone immediately when stock is available, chances are there will be a lot of disappointed customers, as we don't always receive enough stock to cover the queue
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How can I check if I'm in the queue?
- Simply repeat the process - head to the product page and select "Notify Me". If you're already in the queue, the page will tell you.
- Unfortunately, there is no way to identify your position in the queue