Originally Posted by roadwarrior

Hi...
It gets doubly hard with a bike like the one you are interested in, because it's made in China.

They, companies, have production runs. Most of the time there's a bike in stock at the manufacturer's warehouse, but sometimes not. The good news is that, in Trek's case they have a dealer site which lets the dealer see when the bike will be available. Which is what it sounds like is going on here.

In our case, we'd probably give you a gift card to apologize for the error. Because we treat customers this way, all the time, we sell millions of dollars of bikes. And are a top ranked shop in the US.

Since, reviewing the thread there don't appear to be any responders that actually know anything about the bike business or how business is transacted between a shop and a manufacturer, I hope this helps.

I hope you get your bike soon.