Caxton Books Lansdowne - BAD service

I would like to issue a formal complaint about the service of Caxton bookstore in Lansdowne.

We received a letter from Caxton through our school that noted all 2022 textbook orders should be placed by the 15th of November 2021. I placed my order and paid on the 1st of November 2021. During the holiday I followed up on my order and was informed that part of my order was indeed ready. I was not notified about this and would not have known if I did not follow up. I immediately went to the store to collect and had to wait another 15 minutes while they looked for the order that they just confirmed was ready.

I then followed up on the outstanding order a few times via email and telephonically and was told every time it should arrive by the end of the week. On Saturday, 15th January 2022, I called Caxton again to follow up since it is the last weekend before school and I was told repeatedly by a lady on the phone that it’s okay that my son does not have all his textbooks since the entire Grade 1 will also not have those books so he will not be left out. As a teacher myself I find this very frustrating because we expect our learners to be prepared for school when we have issued our requirements at the end of the previous year. A store assistant cannot decide for the school/ teacher that it is okay that they did not deliver a textbook to an entire grade when that store offered a service to the school and requested orders and payments to be made by a certain date (2 months prior to school starting).

Today I stood in the line at Caxton for two hours to collect 3 of the 4 outstanding books and found that this waiting period is quite ridiculous. Surely there should be a more efficient way of processing orders that are ready for collection.