Yeah it feels like people are trying to make excuses for pretty poor information coming out of PCS.
I keep getting emails every few days saying build will start a couple of days from then. This is never remotely true and if anything I'm starting to wonder if it's deliberate false information to stop people asking for refunds. I finally contacted them today for the first time to see what is going on.
They can't / won't give me an ETA because they don't know when the card is coming. This is fine, it's down to Nvidia and I understand that. However, they also won't tell me where I am in the queue, so even allowing for them not knowing when the next batch of cards will come in, they also won't tell me if my PC will be built when that batch does come, or the next batch, or the next batch.
Yes, stock is low and stock is rare, but a lot of other sellers seem to be much more forthcoming with information. I also know an increasing number of people who ordered elsewhere no later than I made my PCS order, and have now received their product.
PCS could say "we've received an average of 20 cards per week, and there are 60 PCs ordered with 3080s in them that were ordered before your one" and I could make a decent guess that I'll receive it in 3 weeks. If, in 3 weeks the card has come but there's another week to wait for a power supply or cooler or whatever then that's fine - estimates of that information are available too.
The "it's first come first served but we can't tell you how many people came before you" line is a bit tired, when there appear to be people on this thread who ordered later but had their PC built sooner. In my case I handed over £3k to PCS at about 5 minutes past 2 on the day preorders came available. I knew it wouldn't be delivered immediately or quickly, but I expected that a month later I'd at least have a vague ETA.
Did you read my post? I'm not making excuses for anyone.
Your annoyance is apparent, and I sympathise with it but you are misunderstanding the issues at hand.
As has already been covered multiple times in this thread, PCS are most likely as in the dark about the 3080 arising as we are. They won't be told how many they are receiving, when the shipment comes they will open the box to find out what is there. There is also mention of a possible NDA being in place from Nvidia that would jeaopardise future orders if they were to be more open as you suggest. This would be deliberate from Nvidia as they know fine well how thin on the ground the cards are vs the demand.
I have no affiliation to PCS whatsoever so I'm not making excuses for anyone. I'm trying to instill reasoning in people as I understand the impatience building. If you accuse me of trying to make excuses for anyone I won't be taking it lightly, I'm fed up with the blanket statements thrown out in frustration. We all understand it and many 1000s of people are in exactly the same situation. Stop throwing your toys out the pram and deflecting frustration at others who are merely trying to give understanding to the situation.