DISHONEST - READ THEIR VERY WELL HIDDEN Ts and Cs
******** ****MER COMPANY.
Bob Shop reminds me of those reprehensible cup-and-ball con artists who swindle unwitting tourists: every interaction appears carefully designed to distract, misdirect and extract money while concealing the true nature of what is happening. There is zero transparency. Sellers are intentionally and knowingly misled at every turn. This company represents everything that is wrong with large corporations and precisely why they should not be supported.
The “refundable” account-verification deduction
Bob Shop tells you that it needs to verify your bank account by deducting R1, which will supposedly be refunded immediately. Why is a verified bank letter not sufficient? Because this appears to be less about verifying your account than ensuring that Bob Shop has free rein to access it and **** your wallet.
The R1 was never refunded. When I queried this, Bob Shop laughably claimed that it had credited the R1 to my Bob Shop account so that I could receive a discount on a future purchase from them. I never saw this alleged credit anywhere in my account. More importantly, this phantom “credit” was never disclosed upfront. They promised a refund and then quietly converted my money into an alleged credit designed to force me back onto their platform.
An “order” I never placed
I then received an email out of the blue thanking me for my order. I had ordered NOTHING from Bob Shop.
It turns out that Bob Shop had created an unsolicited R25 voucher order that now sits permanently in my cart. This is supposedly a voucher that I would purchase and gift to someone else so that they could shop on Bob Shop. I would do no such thing, and I cannot find any way to remove it.
Even calling it a “voucher” appears deliberately misleading because the word creates the impression that you have won something or received something for free. I have no doubt that, if I proceeded to checkout, Bob Shop would charge me for it and then claim that I had willingly purchased the voucher. This is another calculated exercise in creating confusion and manufacturing consent.
A “30-day” Premium Boost that lasts four days
I paid for a Premium Boost on one of my listed products. Bob Shop advertises this Boost as valid for 30 days, yet immediately after paying, I discovered that mine would expire in only four days.
When I called customer care, they confirmed that my product listing would close in four days and that the Premium Boost for which they had just charged me would therefore also end in four days. I explained that this made no sense: my products were not sold out, and I reasonably understood that the listing would remain active until the available stock had sold.
The customer-care agent repeatedly laughed at me in a mocking manner and told me that I should read the Ts and Cs. Apparently, Bob Shop automatically closes a listing 30 days after it was first posted, regardless of the seller’s sales or remaining stock. It will nevertheless happily sell that seller a supposedly 30-day Premium Boost just four days before closing the listing.
When I pointed out how utterly bizarre and indefensible this was, the agent repeatedly insisted that I had chosen to purchase the Boost and that Bob Shop lists my products for free. Neither statement addressed the actual issue. It was the verbal equivalent of a magician’s misdirection: divert attention from the deception by talking about something entirely irrelevant.
The problem is not that I chose to purchase a Boost. The problem is that Bob Shop sold me a product advertised as lasting 30 days while its system already knew that it would terminate after four. That is not meaningful transparency or informed consent; it is a cleverly engineered trap.
I have never encountered a company so shockingly disingenuous in its treatment of sellers. The apparent deception is not confined to one isolated incident—it seems woven into every level of the customer journey. Truly, I curse everyone at Bob Shop who knowingly participates in this dishonesty to die a slow, agonising death from a terminal disease.