No Geforce 6800 ultra in USA retail?

A READER TELLS US that it's virtually impossible to get any 6800 Nvidia Ultra in USA e-tailer or retailer shops. He checked at COMP USA, Best Buy and many others and none of them had these cards in stock.

Nvidia claims availability from Alienware, Falcon North West but he says that many USA consumers prefer just the card not the complete system.

The expected arrival for ATI high end Radeon X800XT is the first of August, just in time for Doom 3 and Half Life 2 but Nvidia items are simply out of stock.

This is the original letter that he sent to Nvidia and he hasn't got an answer yet. µ

Dear Nvidia,

For the life of me, I can't understand the situation with your marketing schemes. Everywhere I look, the 6800 Nvidia Ultra (which I would like to purchase) is out of stock. This card was released more than a month ago and only a few trickled to retailers such as COMP USA, Best Buy, etc. The general American public does not buy Alienware, Falcon North West, etc; They buy from retailers/e-tailers such as COMP USA and the lot of the other tech stores. Considering Nvidia's current reputation as being less on par in comparison to ATI for the last 2 years in the high-end video card sector, wouldn't it be prudent not to further piss potential consumers off with a delayed/back ordered product which has the potential to redeem your performance standing? You could at least post an apology on your Website and a promise that volumes will pick up in time for the release of titles such as Doom3 and Half Life2.

If you go to most online retailers and offline retailers (COMP USA , etc), you'll see that the ETD date for ATI X9800XT is Aug1st (in time for Doom3) whereas your product is still "out of stock". What do you think people will do? They will by ATI and spread there displeasure concerning Nvidia. Before releasing/announcing a product, you should always be ready to deliver. I've always been an Nvidia customer, but with this current blindness to the consumers' needs, I will most likely be forced to buy ATI simply because I cannot find your product to purchase. You should at least talk to "us" on your website concerning availability of this product. It's just the right thing to do.

Sincerely,
James Powers