What Appears in the Catalogue "Isn't Always True"...

On Tuesday 27 August, my husband and I visited the Cell C store at the Pavilion Shopping Centre to upgrade one of my existing contracts. Having already settled on the Honor 200, we were interested in taking advantage of the special offer listed in the Connector catalogue, whereby we could add an Honor Pad X9 to the contract for R150 per month. The lady who helped us, Mbali, informed us that, unfortunately, the X9s weren’t in stock at the moment, so she wouldn't add it to our contract now, but that she could add one to our contract when stock became available. When we asked whether we’d still receive it at the special offer of R150, she confirmed that we would. Satisfied with this arrangement, we left with my new phone.

Imagine our surprise when my husband visited the store this past Monday to check what was happening with the tablet, just to be told by the gentleman on duty that it should have been added to the contract when we came in on Tuesday, and that it wasn’t possible for us to take advantage of the offer now. He then promised to get Mbali to call us, only for her to give us a different story than the one we got from her before; namely that she can’t add the tablet now, it would cost R300 per month, and that what appears in the Cell C Connector catalogue ‘isn’t always true’ because of stock!

Nowhere on the advert for this special does it mention anything about it being available only while stocks last. How is it possible for your salesperson to promise us one thing while we’re upgrading – confirm that we can add the tablet at the special price once stock comes in – and then give us a totally different story less than a week later? To tell us that what we see in the catalogue ‘isn’t always true’? Was she so eager to make the original sale that she’d tell us anything to get us to sign?

My husband and I are really disappointed as we were really looking forward to using the new tablet. We just wanted to air this grievance so that it doesn't happen to anyone else.