perfectly content if they had chosen to go into their purchases knowing that they would have to wait 'x' months before delivery - they would then have had the choice to proceed with the transaction or go elsewhere
Right. That's called informed choice.
To claim that I have something for sale when I do not and to take your money for a product you expect to be dispatched within a day or two when there is absolutely no chance of that happening and to do so knowingly is (in my book) nothing short of deception. I have spent many hours going over this with Nick and as you reported of your own conversations, he isn't interested in changing his approach, preferring instead to bleat about how damaging poor reviews are to his reputation - It seems that he cannot understand that he is rightly earning these poor reviews and that his treatment of customers is beneath contempt.
Paul..