Misleading Free Device Offer – No Support or Resolution

Thank you for responding, but I must respectfully disagree with your conclusion.

You’ve confirmed that I signed up during the valid promotion window, yet now claim that because I didn’t request the device before the offer ended, it no longer applies to me. This is unreasonable and unfair.

Nowhere during the signup process was it stated that the device must be ordered by a certain date — only that new signups would receive a free device. That was the advertised promise, and I re**** on it when choosing to open an account with Payfast.

Had I been told there was a strict cutoff to order the device (not just sign up), I would have acted sooner. But this condition was never disclosed, making this feel like a bait-and-switch.

Furthermore, the fact that your website still shows the offer creates confusion and misleads others.

At this point, I am simply asking for what was clearly promised when I joined — a free POS device under the terms advertised. I urge your team to reconsider and resolve this fairly.

Thank you for your follow-up.

I’ve now gone through all my email correspondence from the time I signed up — and I can confirm that I never received any email outlining the promotion terms or redemption deadline. The only email I received clearly stated that I would receive a free device, with no mention of a timeframe or conditions for redemption.

Therefore:

The claim that terms were “emailed to merchants” does not apply in my case.

I was never informed that I had to order the device by a specific date.

There was no notice during sign-up, nor was any alert or banner shown on the dashboard.

This further proves that your system failed to provide adequate and fair communication.

There is no onboarding or after-sales process in place for online users — unlike those recruited by field sales consultants.

This means:

No one followed up to ensure I redeemed the device in time.

No human support was available to explain how Payfast works after compliance checks were complete.

If I had not chased support myself, this would have quietly gone unresolved.

If your promotion truly depended on a redemption deadline, then it should have been:

Displayed during the sign-up process.

Shown prominently on the merchant dashboard.

Followed up by a proper onboarding team

Thank you for your follow-up.

I’ve now gone through all my email correspondence from the time I signed up — and I can confirm that I never received any email outlining the promotion terms or redemption deadline. The only email I received clearly stated that I would receive a free device, with no mention of a timeframe or conditions for redemption.

Therefore:

The claim that terms were “emailed to merchants” does not apply in my case.

I was never informed that I had to order the device by a specific date.

There was no notice during sign-up, nor was any alert or banner shown on the dashboard.

This further proves that your system failed to provide adequate and fair communication.

There is no onboarding or after-sales process in place for online users — unlike those recruited by field sales consultants.

This means:

No one followed up to ensure I redeemed the device in time.

No human support was available to explain how Payfast works after compliance checks were complete.

If I had not chased support myself, this would have quietly gone unresolved.

If your promotion truly depended on a redemption deadline, then it should have been:

Displayed during the sign-up process.

Shown prominently on the merchant dashboard.

Followed up by a proper onboarding team

Merchant ID: ***9

Good morning,

I am still waiting

I am writing to express my disappointment with the continued mishandling of my complaint regarding the free POS device I qualified for under your promotion at the time of my signup.

From my perspective, this matter has been dealt with in a disjointed and fragmented manner:

Different representatives have responded to different parts of my case, without consolidating my email history and Hellopeter review into a single, complete record.

As a result, the call I received today was clearly in response to my first email only, with no regard for the subsequent points and evidence I provided via Hellopeter and later correspondence.

This approach wastes time, causes repeated explanations, and results in inconsistent answers.

Last week, I was contacted by Caylin, a CSC manager, who acknowledged that I had raised valid concerns about the lack of onboarding and after-sales support for online signups. She even invited me to assist Payfast in improving this program. I declined, as it is not fair to request my help in improving your processes while my own issue remains unresolved.

This further highlights that:

Payfast recognises there is a gap in your process.

The lack of proper onboarding and follow-up directly caused me to miss the promotion deadline, as there was no communication or reminder.

Despite recognising this, you are still refusing to honour the offer I signed up under.

My position remains:
I signed up during the promotion, and the absence of a redemption deadline in my communications means I acted under the reasonable assumption that I could claim my device once my store setup was complete.

The process failure lies with Payfast — emails were never sent to me with terms, onboarding was absent, and there was no after-sales follow-up for online users.

The refusal to resolve this, despite internal acknowledgment of the process gap, is both unfair and contrary to the Consumer Protection Act.

I request this matter be escalated to senior management or your compliance department for a final review.
If no resolution is offered, I will be proceeding with my complaints to the National Consumer Commission (NCC) and the Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB), now including the fact that Payfast has acknowledged but not remedied a process failure.

Hi,

We are now in the third week since I've logged my complaint. No Resolution has been brought forward.

I need an answer today.

Will I get a resolution to this or should I take further steps to have it resolved since Payfast is failing?