If your taking pre orders, I would assume it's so you know how much you need to order and guarantee you're going to sell that amount. Since they are a middle man, and are shipping them right out, why wouldn't you want your entire order filled right away so you could get them to your customers? I could understand a brewery that would be using them over a period of months not needing or wanting them all at once, but on a retail sales basis I would want all my product as quickly as possible so I could get it to my customers.
I understand things happen, especially with agricultural goods. I would have been fine with them saying " we will get your orders out as quickly as possible on a first ordered first shipped basis".
You are right, I don't know how the ordering and delivery of hops works. My issue is that this is their business, and we relied on them to know the way things are done in that business and meet the deadlines that they themselves set.
All that being said, you say you haven't ordered anything from them, so you have no skin in the game.
