Just to offer a *possible* solution...
In the past year (and for as long as I can remember before that), my bank has called me a grand total of 2 times to confirm a purchase prior to authorizing the sale:
1. When I bought my Nexus 7 from Google online a few months ago
2. When I bought an iPad from Apple online (it was a gift for my stepfather...don't judge).
Had I not answered the phone to confirm those purchases, there's a very good chance the sale would have been declined by my bank and thus canceled by the seller.
I'm not even sure why it happened. The fact is I travel quite a bit for both work and recreation, I buy stuff online all the time, and I use this bank card to buy pretty EVERYTHING so it's not like those are the only major purchases I've put on it. So even though I'm frequently making large purchases online and in various different cities in the US all the time (things that could trigger an alert), they've only ever called specifically regarding two mobile devices I ordered. (They must be high risk for fraud?).
My point...is there a chance your bank/credit card/etc may have declined the charge rather than Google cancelling the order? I have no idea, just figured I'd float that out there if it can help get to the bottom of what happened.
And hey, I'd much rather have a Nexus 4 than an iPhone 5 too...but that's not a bad phone to be "stuck" with while you wait...