Which recent post? Please provide a link if possible. It helps to clarify things.
The customer isn’t interested in the details of the stock system.
I agree… which is why a semantic debate about “in stock” seems pedantic to me. The meaningful information is lead time. If a vendor tells me “in stock with a lead time of three months” all I hear is “three months”.
Many companies will list a number of units available, especially if there is only a limited number left.
That’s true. Many do have carts that are linked to live inventory. But most online vendors don’t have that. It’s just “available”, “in stock”, “ships in x time” etc. Many vendors also say in stock and then after ordering, they send an email saying it’s back ordered. Some companies are disorganized. Some are scammers. But all of companies have been feeling the impact of the past two years. I first purchased from Purism almost 4 years ago, so I know they are an honest company that has been hit hard by supply chain problems. That may be anecdotal, but it’s really what I think.