Grrrr. After much research and several shop visits, I paid deposit ( sale price) on new camera Canon SX70 HS, after getting assurance with a double check that there was warehouse stock and it would be here in a couple of weeks. I have a month till I'd really like to have it in hand, but have a couple of months till it's really needed.
5 mins later, call from store manager saying, sorry we don’t have any stock, there’s no stock in Australia and we have no idea of when stock will arrive and when it does we have no idea where will be going within Australia.
Offered a full refund of course. When I went back I asked if I could leave the deposit on and if the camera is still on the never-never in a few months, I could cancel. Effectively an option on the sale price. That's where we stand.
I know all about shortages of chips and of camera stock in general which is why I asked them to double check that they had my choice in stock.