Currently ordering some appliances from a retailer. For one of them, they said that they would need to get new stock as they had run out, which could be at least two months before the stock comes into the country. But it is not a special order, as they would be getting these in anyway.  However the remaining parts of the order would be available in a week. They asked for the full payment now, including for the item than could be 2-3 months away, if not longer. Is this reasonable for a company to ask for full payment, or should they only be asking for the money for the goods they can supply now?

The reason I can see this potentially being an issue for me as the consumer, is that the company could cease operating, or get taken over by another company who doesn't purchase the liabilities, and then due to the big time delay, I probably wouldn't be able to do a chargeback on the credit card. It is also for quite a lot of money.