Bots, and the virus not allowing companies to sell in store. Sony said it did not want to sell any PS5s in store so people are not bunched up in line. 

I'm not gonna lie,  this generation's GPU launch has been frustrating to say the least.     Reminds me of the flight sim hardware situation right now with FS2020 dropping.

this will be the norm 
demand far out exceeds supply - and in a pandemic when there are shortages due to labor stoppages, shipping delays
after years of low sales they knew a boom on sales was gonna come and smack dab in the muddle of this

It is always like this because companies want to release their product asap. Hardware is competitive as hell so they want it out even before the ramp up can occur. If a competitor release a much better one before you announce/release you are kinda screwed. 

I thought I might just update my thread - in my searches for a video card in just the past 3 weeks .
 ** LONG RANT **
 
Today was the closest I have come in the past few months to even get a chance to sniff a card. 
I got an alert from Bestbuy - it was for the Asus Strix 3080 .$ 849.
 
Seemed to be going great, Best buy has since changed their policy that you hit the 'add to cart' button and it tells you they are releasing inventory slowly & that when your button turns yellow again you can really add it into your cart & checkout - where the product is reserved until you finalize the process. 
 
* Here's where it goes bad .-  I actually got the Asus 3080 into cart  and was practically smiling ear-2-ear  when it informs you they are requiring in-store pickup only ! ..for these cards !  ( not a problem I thought ) ( sounds good )
 -YET , as you try to checkout it informs me that Sorry,  NO store within 250 miles of me will be getting it , so too bad .  ..but you can try to select another store .  Of which I kep doing , then it switches to tell me it is now at a store 37 miles away , great, select, nope - gone already....then 50 miles away, nope,...then 75 miles , then 81 ...I think you are getting the picture.
 
Then I got notified on the OEM Nvidia 3080 also going up -- WOW ! .. I actually got this in my cart with the new procedure again ... but ended up with this same looping comedy of location picking - only to see each store go out of stock each time I selected one farther & farther away from me !!.
 
Apparently you still now have to fight with people within your state to get the 1 or 2 cards each state/ location  may be getting ??? 
 Best Buy  wont complete the sale & send to a store near you , you just have to get lucky..
So yeah , it's still a cluster pudgster out there trying to get a company to make a decent procedure to spend  ~ $1000 on a  technology product.
 Ouch !

I saw the 3090 fe go live today and had add to car showing up probably a dozen times. I didnt realize the whole timer thing meant dont refresh and totally missed out becuase that was not clear. I hate this whack a mole sales method. Just open up back orders and be done with it.
 
This was after checking out on the amd site probably a dozen times only to get to the last page have the site go down and take me back to the shipping page.
 
It really shouldnt be this hard to give a company $1000-$1500. At least EVGA does it right here with the notify me, if only I cared to have any of their cards.

** UPDATE **
 
Walmart claims to been having success in shutting down the shopping Bots .....
 
https://www.pcmag.com/news/walmart-heres-what-were-doing-to-stop-bots-from-snatching-the-playstation
 
 

“One bot preventative action we implemented just hours before the PlayStation 5 event on Nov. 25 blocked more than 20 million bot attempts within the first 30 minutes alone,” Jerry Geisler, Walmart’s chief information security officer, wrote in a blog post.

According to Geisler, the 20 million-plus bot attempts represent a mere fraction of what Walmart’s systems deal with on a routine basis. However, the retailer says it’s been able to thwart scalpers using unspecified anti-bot techniques.

“Bot scripts are constantly evolving and being re-written, so we’ve built, deployed, and are continuously updating our own bot-detection tools, allowing us to successfully block the vast majority of bots we see,” he said.

“As an additional step, we also audit and quickly cancel any orders confirmed to be purchased by bots that may have slipped through,” Geisler added. “As a result, the vast majority of our next-gen consoles have been purchased by legitimate customers, which is exactly what we want.”

 

20-million+ and just for one website and one product...   Maybe some tech companies will finally begin to re-evaluate their decision/cost analysis about paper launches into already forecast strong demand. One can dream. 

wedansti

gterry180
I don't understand marketing, but I do like transparency.

EVGA's transparency and customer interaction so far has been incredible.

I guess you haven't been in the Step-Up program. No interaction, no communication, no projected outlook for people waiting months already on a step-up. I would have had better luck finding one in the wild. But I'm financially locked into the program because of the initial card purchase.
 
EVGA should just temporarily drop the program because it's obvious nobody can keep up with demand. Yet they'll just keep introducing new lines without being able to fulfill current demand.

InTheFace911
I guess you haven't been in the Step-Up program. No interaction, no communication, no projected outlook for people waiting months already on a step-up. I would have had better luck finding one in the wild. But I'm financially locked into the program because of the initial card purchase.
 
EVGA should just temporarily drop the program because it's obvious nobody can keep up with demand. Yet they'll just keep introducing new lines without being able to fulfill current demand.

I am sorry to hear you're stuck in that mess. 
 
EVGA's stuck in a bad catch-22... if it doesn't open queues it loses sales to competitors, but if it does open queues then it knows it will have angry, irate people months from now that will still be waiting... even though the launch was over 3 months ago. EVGA has an insufficiently small supply of cards it must divvy up between store sales, online website backorders, restocking online websites, the step-up program, and RMA's. The sheer quantity of people on the notify lists and sitting on backorder lists from a dozen online retailers is mind-boggling.