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Glossary - Availability

E-Mail Notification of stock status is now available.

There are four ways to look at "availability:"

(1) Do we keep an item in stock?

An item on our website are either orderable or unorderable. An orderable item has the "Add to Cart" bottom near the end of the item page. Such items can be added to the shopping basket by clicking the "Add to Cart" bottom. An unorderable item does NOT have this bottom and therefore you cannot add it to the shopping basket.

We have in-stock items and non-stock items.

There are two kinds of non-stock items: drop-shipped (ds) items and downloadable items.

Drop-shipped items are often shipped directly from our manufacturer or vendor. Drop-shipped items are designated as "-ds" in the title. Typical drop-shipped items include: printers, special memories, and some rack-mount cases. Availability of drop-shipped items are beyond our control and is subject to change without notice.

Downloadable items are those that you can download directly from our web site. Most of these items are free. You may download them at your leisure.

Associate items are those that we sell through our associate programs. Examples include computer-related books and some consumer electronics through Amazon.

(2) How many do we have in stock for a stock item?

The stock items are classified into four groups: (a) Usually we maintain a small quantity in stock, (b) Usually we maintain a medium-sized quantity in stock, (c) Usually we maintain a large quantity in stock, and (d) always in stock. The terms are defined as following:

Small quantity: 1-10. The refill time may be 2-4 weeks. It's possible to be out of stock once per month during transition time.

Medium quantity: 10-40. The refill time may be 3-5 weeks. It's possible to be out of stock once per 2 months during the transition time.

Large quantity: 40-300. In stock most of the time. The refill time is 4-8 weeks. It's possible to be out of stock once per quarter during the transition time.

Always in stock: reserved for very common memory modules and processors at current market. Such items are marked as "Kept in stock most of the time."

Please note that the actual availability is subject to change without notice. The quantity above is the "average" but not the actual quantity we have at any given time. The actual quantity in stock fluctuates with time and sale rate. Maintaining a certain level of stock actually is a difficult job. Availability could become a problem if the stock is not refilled on time due to various reasons such as late PO, sudden large orders, and late shipment. We call this a stock "transition" time. The larger the target quantity we try to maintain the more chances are that we have them in stock at any given time. The larger the quantity we maintain the less frequent will be the transition time.

Once an item is out of stock, we may make it unorderable at our web site. We'll change it back to orderable once it is back in stock. Sometimes for popular items, we may make it still orderable but mark it as "preorders" so that when the item is back in stock we'll ship to the preorders first.

For new products, we may place the item on sale at our web site before it arrives at our warehouse. In such situations, we'll mark the estimated shipping dates on the item page.

We are working on bringing up a live stock status in real time. You can view the stock status in the shopping basket if the item has live stock update. Use the stock quantity in the shopping basket as a guideline. If it says more than 10, it's high likely that we have it in stock. If it says 1 or 2, it may be questionable. More items will have the stock update with time.

Notification: For sold out items we now offer an automated notification service. When used, this service will e-mail you when an item moves from Sold Out to Orderable or from Sold Out to no longer available (Discontinued). Look for this service on all sold out item pages.

(3) When will the item be shipped?

For in-stock items that are actually in stock, most are shipped within one business day.

Systems will require 1-3 business days to complete the system before shipping.

Drop-shipped items require 1-3 business days to process the order.

(4) What should I do in case of back order?

The most difficult task in our online business is to manage back-order situations.

To avoid waiting for an item when you have a deadline to meet, tell us the deadline when you must receive the product in the note or comment section of our order page. You may also tell us whether you want to wait, cancel, or substitute in case of back order. Such information is very useful for us to judge what to do in case one of the items on your order is back ordered.

We will send you an e-mail within 1-2 business days to let you know the back order situation. You may choose to change, cancel or wait for the back-ordered item.

Please note that our order processing / verification department currently does not know the stock status of most items. Therefore, when we call you to verify the order, we do not know yet whether the items are in stock or not.

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