When you place an online order with any company, small or large, you have the basic expectation to be updated with the progress of your order. From the legal requirement of an order acknowledgement, through to being informed that it's on it's way, it doesn't take much to send a short e-mail to someone who's waiting for their order to arrive. Even an automated message is better than nothing.

Why am I writing about this?

On 18th January I placed an order with Play.com for a new phone. At the time I knew it was a pre-order "due to be released 30th January". That was almost a two-week wait but because you know there'll be a wait you're prepared for it.

The trouble is 30th January came and went. Wondering why I hadn't had the "your order is on the way" e-mail I took a look at the product info page where I found that the date had changed to Wednesday 10th February - another week and a half to wait.

You would have thought the Play website would have sent even an automated e-mail explaining there was going to be another 11 days to wait to get my hands on my shiny new phone. But no, nothing.

Tomorrow is the 10th February and, guess what? The release date has changed again to this Friday. I don't mind the release date changing but they could at least inform customers that they're going to have to wait a little longer.

I know it's nothing like the scale of Play, but our online shop at work features over 130 products with the added difficulty of making sure the website stock figures stay updated when we're also selling the same products from our physical shop.

But it's not just 130 stock figures to keep updated. The majority of products on our site are clothing and so have different colour and size combinations. Our most popular hoody is available in three colours and six sizes giving 18 stock figures for one product line.

If we can do it with limited staff and resources - and offer alternatives and product updates when things go wrong - surely the likes of Play can do it when pre-orders are delayed.

Anyway, rant over. In a way I'm hoping the phone is delayed for at least another week as I'm not going to be around next week and the last thing I want is for it to get sent back for non-delivery!

Update: 12 February

I've just received this e-mail from Play:

Thank you for your order for BlackBerry 8520 T-Mobile Pay As You Go Mobile Phone.

Due to high demand and limited stock made available from T-Mobile we can only process a limited amount of orders.

We are due further stock on 22nd February from T-Mobile, however this is not a guarantee. You will not be charged until we process your order.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Kind Regards,

Play.com

Well, that's something at least! Looking forward to the 22nd now!