Amazon appears to be having trouble fulfilling pre-orders for the new ASUS Chromebox.
We’ve heard from a number of US readers yet to receive the device, released March 14, despite having placed a pre-order almost as soon as listings for it went live.
Normally a wait of a few days wouldn’t seem strange, or could be put down to heightened impatience.
But since both of those who got in touch with us are Prime subscribers who selected ‘2 day shipping’ for their orders, and as the ASUS Chromebox was ‘officially’ released on March 14, they should have received their orders by now.
Amazon has acknowledged that something has gone awry for one of those affected, Rich C., and e-mailed him to explain:
“We’re still trying to obtain the following item[s] you ordered on March 07, 2014
“ASUS CHROMEBOX-M004U Desktop”
Still want it? We’ll keep on trying. To keep your order for this item open, please click the link below. Otherwise, we’ll cancel your order on April 17, 2014, if we haven’t located it by then.”
Not the most encouraging response.
Some customers have also received an out of stock email.
Admittedly these issues could simply be isolated incidents owing to kinks in the Amazon’s distribution chain. Furthermore we have only heard from two customers. Given that the device became the top selling PC on the site, that’s a pretty small number.
But it is interesting to note that the device is not currently listed for sale from Amazon themselves, only through third-party sellers. This does imply that there are supply issues.
We have reached out to Amazon for comment.
Did you pre-order the ASUS Chromebox from Amazon? Has it arrived yet?