iTrackr Test

[kn]

I posted this in another thread earlier in the week:

Here's an interesting bit of data from Itrakr from my local list of stores saying the Wii is "in stock" as of this morning:

 

5 out of 17 (roughly 29%) retailers show the Wii in stock at 12:24 AM central.   Mousing over the clock gives you a "last updated" time.  Here are the last updates for the 5 showing "stock"

Comp USA - In stock - Time Elapsed Since Last update - 40 Days, 8 hours, 4 minutes.

Target # 1 - In stock - Time Elapsed Since Last update - 3 Days, 5 hours, 39 minutes.

Target # 2 - In stock - Time Elapsed Since Last update - 3 Days, 11 hours, 59 minutes.

Target # 3 - In stock - Time Elapsed Since Last update - 3 Days, 6 hours, 18 minutes.

Gamestop # 1 - In stock - Time Elapsed Since Last update - 1 day, 7 hours, 25 minutes.

 

The targets may have stock they are holding for Sunday, but the other two stores here don't.  Clearly a 40 day old update is worthless and Gamestop doesn't hold systems.  I called, they aren't in stock.   So I ask this:  How good is Itrackr, really, at predicting true stock status?

Make sure you add a "mouseover" on the little clock icon and you will get a time since last update.  The problem isn't that Itrackr can't get accurate data, the problem is that either the systems they get the data from are not real time or they don't update fast enough.  Imagine 3 stores getting stock on three consecutive days, each selling out their stock -- even in hours.  On a three-day-old update such as my sample, these 3 stores are all showing stock and, say there are ten total stores, it's saying 30 percent availability.

 All in all, I found Itrackr to be completely worthless where I live.  The only time it has ever been accurate is when target was stockpiling units and that was because there was a lag of when the systems were reported as available and when they actually sold them giving itracker time to accurately reflect stock.  They might as well take Gamestop/EB games off of their list as it has no value whatsoever.