Amazon UK: Gawn to the dogs?

With an increasing number of new books from major international publishers it's proving difficult to get a copy out of Amazon UK: "hard to find" they say, "may have gone out of print" perhaps, even for books recently reviewed on mainstream media (you can't get more mainstream than the BBC).

My latest efforts include two recently published books (one in December). Months after placing the orders, there is still no sight of the books, and no word from Amazon about when they might think fit to dispatch them.

The marketing department of one of the major publishers concerned (US in this case) is equally perturbed. Its international sales manager has written to me today concerning a book written by one of their Europe-based authors, which I've been expecting for some months now, as follows:

"I am equally perturbed at Amazon about this and have tried my best to communicate this to them. Of course, as a publisher, we have little control over how they choose to stock their various warehouses around the world. They have apparently run out of stock on this title in the UK and are informing readers there that it is "hard to find." This is simply untrue. Amazon.com in the US and even Amazon.jp in Japan can both ship in 24 hours. The book is also readily available to individuals and booksellers through our UK distributor [names major major UK publisher]."

Others of my acquaintance have been pressing for the same titles for months, without any joy.

Poor stock management and crap service. What more could you ask for?

PS this evening, I finally received a formula cut-and-past response from Amazon. God, how I hate these ("You will notice that there is some crossover between the Amazon catalogues..... some items being available for order at more than one of our websites..... This is possible due to fluctuations in availability." ....go the formula paragraphs....)

Amazon has written to me about this order (yes, but about a different book in a 2-book order - even more of a ridiculous timescale for a widely available book). It has managed to 'procure' something-or-other, it promises...but still no sign of a despatch date. Still no sign of anything being delivered among several orders, all outstanding for months.