On each product page they will have something like
"In stock, ready to deliver," or
"Despatch Against Order : Product listed but dispatch depending on Availability."
Do you recall what was said for the products you ordered? Mind you, it is not very clear that
"despatch against order" actually means they will source it against our order. That is my assumption. It would be better if they were more straightforward.
In my 12 year online buying experience I never saw any e-commerce vendor selling item they do not have.
I suspect that they often do. This is one advantage, for them, over bricks-and-mortar selling: in an actual shop, if it isn't there you can't buy it, but online is different.
I waited three weeks and still did not receive an item from Pepperfry. They were suitably apologetic, and stated that they could not source from their supplier. They mention different despatch dates for their items, which I suspect includes their supply lead time. Flipkart can deliver many items next day, but on a lot of import-editions of books, music, etc, their delivery times strongly suggest that they will
mport only when ordered. It makes sense for these sellers not to tie up capital in stock other than for fast-moving items. I don't mind that, but indeed, they should not mislead.
Did you get your refund promptly? Making sure this happens, and not holding on to customers' money when an order is cancelled is an important measure of a dealer.
By The Way... I was thinking about a new monitor a few days ago (not actually
needed: just
thinking) and I noticed that the Dell model was available at a noticeably lower price from Flipkart