As this company appears to have no stock...
I wouldn't go quite that far. I suspect that he probably does hold at least
some stock although to suggest that he holds all of the items listed as "available" or "in-stock" on his website is to stretch credibility.
I'd like to refer you to this post from Aero-ist Clothing:
FLYER Forums ? View topic - Proviation
I sell a lot through Proviation and in my dealings they have been very good and easy to deal with.
I don't hold vast stocks of the current range, so often I have to order stuff in for them, which of course can create a 2 week delay, but they seem to inform their customers of this straight away and has only caused 1 issue in the past 2 years or so.
Proviation do hold stocks of the popular items (Wristboards and Gilets) which makes things easier.
Most of the order I placed with Bloviation was certainly drop-shipped (as it came direct from the supplier, not Nick) and that Nick admitted to the drop-shipping arrangement over the telephone, bleating about how much that arrangement cost him - as if I should feel sorry for him holding on to my money without providing the items for which I had paid having been deceived into believing that the items I ordered were in-stock.
I would also draw attention to the fact that I received an email from one of his customers who told me that Nick claimed both that he
doesn't drop-ship
and that he
drop-ships out of necessity. The two claims are mutually exclusive and given that even (at least one of) his suppliers appear to be admitting to him drop-shipping, any claim that he does not is almost certainly untrue.
Paul..