In an increasingly competitive e-commerce environment, some e-tailers have been responding to delivery date pressures by making promises of by-Christmas deliveries, even when they're not entirely sure about their inventory levels or the capabilities of their over-worked delivery companies. Online chatter noted by Silicon.com indicates that this year may have seen even more blown delivery dates than last year, a combination of somewhat better inventory and delivery controls being outstripped by much bigger promises made to potential customers on the sites.