PS5 restocks at Amazon and immediately sells out, as customers turn to Argos and other retailers for hope

Andrew Griffin
Tuesday 16 February 2021 10:27 GMT
Comments
(Getty Images)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Stock of the PlayStation 5 has arrived at Amazon – and immediately gone again.

Fans are now turning their hopes to expected restocks at Argos and other retailers.

Rumours suggest that many of the big stores will be replenishing their online stock this week. Most of them – including Argos – offer the ability to sign up for email alerts about stock, though there is no guarantee they will arrive before they have sold out, and the new stock tends to arrive at particularly unsociable hours of the day.

Stock tracking websites suggested that Argos and Very were both planning to offer the consoles in the coming days – though such rumours are not always correct, and often relate to very limited numbers of consoles even when they are.

Customers have been largely unable to buy the new console since its released in November, amid high demand and problems with automated systems snapping up any stock so that it can be sold on at increased prices.

The console arrived at Amazon on Tuesday morning, just after 9am. Even customers who clicked through straight away saw that the console was either out of stock or that the website was not able to load as normal at all.

Customers saw a standard error message indicating that there had been a problem “when we tried to process your request” and that their order will not have been placed.

Others said could see the console as if it was in stock – but pressing to add it to the basket brought up an error indicating that doing so had “failed”.

Some users did however report that they had successfully bought consoles from Amazon, and that they were due to arrive on Wednesday.

The difficulties getting hold of the console have led to widespread frustration among fans, who are forced to wait for vague rumours of restocks and stay up through the night in order to maximise their chance of getting hold of one.

It has also led to vilification of the resellers who use automated systems or bots to buy the consoles and then sell them on the grey market at high prices. Some MPs have suggested that reselling should be banned entirely, and a petition urging action on the Parliament website has received some 13,000 signatures.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in