I'm on the phone with customer service right now. I had the same thing happen to me that a lot of you have - ordered on the 28th, charged showed up on my credit card, 1-2 days later the charge disappears, order still hasn't shipped, panic ensues.

According to customer support that initial "Charge" was just a hold of funds, and since the order didn't go through in a certain ammount of time, it was dropped.

However, they also informed me that the warehouse is now completely bare - if your order hasn't shipped, it's not going to ship period. They said that the database wasn't updated in real time, and that's what allowed a lot of orders to go through that shouldn't have.

They said that because of this, that order would sit in my queue as "Pending Shipment" indefinitely, waiting for some magical stocking fairy to drop more Empeg players in the warehouse and ship my order out. The only way to get rid of it is to cancel your order.

Well, what a great end to a sad story. I've wanted an Empeg player since the Mark I, and when they announced the price drop on the 24th I scrambled hand and foot to get the money together to be able to finally own one. Then when I think I finally have one, I get kicked in the arse by SB's archaic inventory system. :(

At least now I can officially mourn (instead of thinking I wasn't going to end up getting one but secretly hoping it would work out). Just thought this info. might be of use of some of the others of you out there getting stress headaches :)

Just for grins, anyone out there that has a spare model and wouldn't mind selling it (I'm willing to be flexible on the price at this point), please contact me at mhemby@ensemblestudios.com . You would really be appreciated.

Here's wishing I didn't sell my Christmas presents to be able to afford that Empeg player I've always wanted...

-Matthew Hemby

I don't see how the warehouse could be bare if they aren't shipping until the 3rd. They made a huge mistake doing such a price drop when they know everyone would be on vacation. I too will pay top dollar for an empeg. skyhigh@rldb.net. *sigh*

So how would we find out if our order has already shipped? Did any order placed after christmas ship?

Immensely bummed out,

Skeeter

You can check the status of your order at store.sonicblue.com, just click on Customer Service (hah).

Mine says it's ready to ship. *sigh*

i got order status: pending shipping
next to the riocar it says "shippable"

Yep. That's what mine has said all along, too.

I just thought of something interesting... These people selling them on ebay may not have received them yet. They could be in the same situation as us.

Wah! That really is not good... Oh well, back to the Neo, I guess...

Mine shows 'shippable' also. Are we sure this means no unit will be shipped? I called support and they gave me another number (800) 468-5846. They told me that they didn't answer questions (even shipping questions) for legacy products, and to call 800 661-4411. That was a recording for tech support only, so I'm not sure what's up.

But it isn't looking good, is it? :(

Skeeter

I just also got an email from the CSR I spoke to earlier today saying that if my order does not ship by the end of the week it wont ship at all.. so basically for all of us that didn't get in on the price drop early.. we are S.O.L now..

Oh well.. at least now I won't keep stressing out anymore about whether I am going to get one or not.. *sigh* time to go look for another headunit to replace my stolen one

If SB did mess this up as badly as we are fearing, they are going to have a lot of unhappy customers on their hands. I got an email that says "Use this as your proof of purchase". How can I have a proof of purchase when there is nothing to purchase. Ah well. Let this be the conclusion of my bitching :P

I daresay the driving force behind the price reduction was December 31st - getting the sales into Q4. For what it's worth, even some of our own programmers have been unable to buy players because they were all sold to customers during the Christmas holiday.

I'm disappointed that we were unable to give some notice to genuine customers, but then, the players have been available at a good price for a long time. It makes me quite sad that it took a $199 stock dump to raise significant interest. The decision to EOL the product would seem to be quite correct.

Rob

I had been planning to buy one for years. I have just been waiting until I got a car. The low prices and running out of stock forced me to purchase before I had a car. I was prepared to pay the normal price.

I too had been planning on getting one.
I was actually in the original queue back when they were still empeg's. (#15096 in June of 2000)
My co-worker got one of the first Mark II's, and I was greatly impressed. Just couldnt justify the cost.
But when they dropped to the cost of a Nomad Jukebox or an Archos, who could resist?
Got my 20GB on Monday. :-))

Zachary Volpicelli
Lost In Boston

yes it is sad.

if you wanted one you could have bought it a long time ago.

this reminds me of the freebaters (free + rebate) that would come to compusa when I worked there several years ago they would only come to the store to get the free after rebate stuff and would raise the biggest stink if the store was out of the free after rebate cd cases of some other garbage they wanted

Could be worse Matthew..

I'll sell you one of the units I purchased on the 23rd... if it ever arrvies. I got the notification of shipment supposedly by fedex on the 27th.. and nothing. They did charge my card though.. not an authorization either.
I got a tracking number on the 27th that still shows as not being in the system. I was totally unable to get through to customer support today. :(

fwiw: I work at the same place as Matthew H.

I have my fingers and toes crossed on both arms and legs. I ordered a 20GB unit on the 27th and it still says 'pending shipment' for a status. I called twice today and both times I was told that I would get a unit for sure. I even upgraded the shipping to next-day, hoping beyond hope for this order to go through.

I would have ordered earlier if I had known that the prices had dropped some. I can only say that to those who are lucky to get one, good for you guys! I have had my eyes on one of these babies for a long time, so I hope it works out. Anyway, if anyone has an extra unit they purchased and is willing to sell it for a reasonable price, I would be very interested. I understand that no one wants to part with one of theses players, but any size unit at this point would do, if mine does not go through.

Wish me luck...I think I need it.

eddie

I just snagged one off ebay just in case.

I disagree. My financial status in these recent years has been so disastrous I've never been able to get my empeg, and also my country's custom office would have taxed it as steep as 80% tax so it was never a reasonable price for me.
Add to that my house's debt and my car's one and the fact that I'm single and living in an underdeveloped country and you will understand why peolple as me have never been able to get an Empeg, although I have been an empeg fan since the time it was just a board and a display, in the "black site" times.

Well, I ordered my 20 Gig Empeg spare on the 26th and just got an email about an hour ago with my Fedex tracking number. Can't track it just yet. Doesn't look like it's in Fedex's system now. I'll try again tomorrow morning.

Has anyone else gotten the
'Have Products Shipping Pending'
result for order status?

I ordered on the 27th if it matters.

Yea, I saw it there for like 10 mins about 4 hours ago. It just went back to the normal message. Dunno.

Mine showed the status of "'Have Products Shipping Pending" from a bit after I ordered on the 26th up until 4 hours ago when it shipped.

Interestingly, the SB internal stock database still shows quite a lot of available car players in the US. Don't give up just yet.

For those who ordered from the empeg store but who missed out on stock, it looks like we may have come up with enough players to satisfy all of the orders that were placed (not necessarily with the capacity requested though). David will be emailing those affected today.

Rob

Rob does that mean ordering *right now* from the e-store could yield another player? Or should we not even waste our time?

To everyone waiting to hear about a 10gb unit. If your offered a 20 or 30 gb unit I suggest you take it. It's still a better deal than those selling on ebay!!

Rob,
When you say the empeg store is that the SonicBlue site? I ordered a 30 Gig unit on the 28th. Is there any hope? I don't see any charge to my CC but I'm hanging on to a thin thread. I appreciate your help.

Joe

Yeah....that post just made me a journeyman.

Do you know who it was you spoke to?

Rob

I doubt ordering now would achieve much, but who knows.

Rob

I imagine SB is deluged with calls, but it would be really
helpful if there was a definative number that I should
call to see if there is any status besides
'Have Product pending shipping'