Obligatory impotent frustration over something not all that important

After a couple of days of being pestered about it, I finally caved in Monday night and ordered a halloween costume for my daughter from www.frightcatalog.com.

We were really careful to select an item that they indicated was "in stock" (see where this is going?), and, even though their standard shipping charts showed it would arrive by Saturday with their normal ground shipment method, I specified second-day FedEx shipment, just to buy some breathing room.

I was emailed a receipt promptly, which included this:
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Your Order Date is: 10/24/2005
Items Shipping From Warehouse 1 (Worcester, MA):

Item # Name Status Qty Price Total
1104002 Ghostly Gal Costume In Stock 1 $34.94 $34.94
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For most things I order on-line, a get an acknowledgment of shipment, usually with a tracking number. When I hadn't received any such thing by Wednesday morning, I grew suspicious, and started trying to call them.

I tried three different times during the day, several hours apart, but they never answered the phone.
At close-of-business, I sent an email requesting order status and a tracking number.

I hadn't received any reply by late this morning, so I tried the phone again. This time, I got a busy signal, so I kept trying, and, eventually, got through, and got an answer.

I was told that the item is on back-order, and that the reason my order wasn't met by an in-stock item was that I was "outraced" by people issuing purchases at the same time as me. Great. So, I canceled the order and said goodbye.

Then I went and checked the web sight again. What do you know? It *still* says that item is in-stock!

So I called (and called until I got through), and got a different operator this time.

Well, the explanation became that they have a glitch in the website, and they are working to fix it.
Then why did my receipt say "in stock"? Same glitch. Why didn't they answer my email? They are really busy this holiday season. Well, no shit, Sherlock. Maybe you should stop taking orders?