Poor service / inordinate delays / Order placed 1 Dec 24 and still unknown when delivery will be

0 out of 5 stars. My experience with AC Direct has been nothing short of frustrating and shocking. On 1 December 2024, I purchased two air conditioners from their online store using Payfast as a payment option. Initially I felt the process of actually placing an order was extremely efficient and convenient as AC direct offers various payment methods. Their pricing was also very competitive. However, it soon became evident that this does not outweigh the extremely poor service I have been receiving since the purchase.

Despite receiving an immediate payment confirmation from Payfast, I did not receive any communication from AC Direct regarding the order. Around 4 days later, I checked my AC direct account and notice that that payment was still pending. This struck me as odd given the immediate payment facilitation through Payfast. I reached out to AC Direct via email and provided the payment confirmation email and received a response saying that the merchant has not released the funds, that the order will not be processed until then and that I should follow up with Payfast. I disagreed with this as Payfast is a payment service being offered by AC direct and therefore, AC Direct should have enquired into the issue. From my side, the funds were out my account the very instant I purchased from their online store. Despite expressing my concerns to AC Direct, they went radio silent. At this stage I honestly began to fear that I had been ****med.

A few days later and due to a lack of communication from AC Direct I gave Payfast a call. I was advised that it is not for the buyer to enquire regarding the payment but for AC Direct to do and that all enquiries regarding the purchase of a product from a store offering payfast should be addressed directly with the Supplier (AC Direct). I reverted to AC Direct regarding this and received no response.

After sending another email on 10 December 2024, in which I expressed that if the order is not processed without further delay I would request to be refunded, and that if it comes to it I would appoint my attorneys to recover the amounts, I finally received an order confirmation by way of an automated email from AC Direct on 12 December 2024 (approximately 12 calendar days after I placed the order) without a tracking number (which was stated to be provided later). The order confirmation states that I could expect the order to be delivered 4-7 business days after being processed subject to stock availability. This raised further concerns as I had already struggled for 12 days to simply receive an order confirmation and now I would potentially have to wait another 7 business days for delivery depending if there is stock. It is important to note that at the time of placing the order online, there was no disclaimer regarding delivery time being contingent on stock availability.

On the same day, I addressed the above concerns in a further email to AC direct, and thereafter received an automated response with a tracking number for the order. The status of the order simply reflects as "captured".

In the total of 15 days thus far, I have sent AC Direct 7 emails and only received 1 extremely unhelpful response from their customer service. At this stage, I feel all I can do is hope to receive the order, probably sometime in January next year at this rate and it doesn't help requesting for a refund because I will just be ignored. IT remains to be seen when I will even be given an indication as to when I may expect delivery.

From the recent reviews on Hellopeter regarding AC Direct, it seems that there are others experiencing similar issues. I can understand that AC Direct is experiencing an influx of orders given the recent heatwaves and their blackfriday specials, however, the manner in which they have dealt with their customers is inexcusable. It feels as if they are attempting to buy themselves time without communicating this. Instead, from my experience at least, I am left with speculating as to when I might receive my order and feel extremely demotivated to fight for a refund as there is basically no communication from their side. I am not sure if I am over reacting but I have never experienced this level of service from any other private service provider / retailer in South Africa.

Conclusion: I would suggest you think twice before ordering from AC Direct, unless you're comfortable with waiting an inordinate period of time for your order to be processed and potentially delivered.