The item I prepaid for was sold was sold to another customer.

On 28 November 2017, I paid R3995.00 for a Harvey coffee table which was at the time out of stock at Fourways Crossing. The sales assistant for this purchase was a Ms Lerato. She advised that stock would only be available on 11 December 2017 and that I should await a call from the store to confirm collection.

On or about 11 December 2017, Lerato called to advise that stock is not available yet. I asked when I can expect it, she said she would call back- she didn’t.

I called back about a day 2 later and spoke to a lady whose name I forgot, stating that I had been waiting for a callback from the store to confirm when I can collect my order. I held on the line as the lady confirmed with a colleague. She got back on the line to confirm that it would be around mid December 2017.

On or about 20 December 2017, a Johaar called me to advise that my order is ready for collection. I advised him that I was out of town but would make it the store the following week.

On 30 December 2017, we (my fiancé and I) arrived at the store and waited for an hour only to be informed that there is no stock in store. One assistant went to the back to check and said she could not find it as there were many boxes. She called for her colleagues to assist her. The latter colleague returned with the same information that she cannot find our coffee table. She then contacted Lerato to get an explanation on what happened to our order. Nothing useful was said. Another call was made to Johaar/Johan who confirmed that he contacted me a week ago to advise that my order was ready for collection.

It appeared that the coffee table we paid for well in advance was sold to another customer. We were then informed by the two ladies in store that the next batch of stock will only be available from 9 January 2018.

Amidst all this, my fiancé and I were made to wait while the only 2 store assistants were attending to other coming customers, some of who came in after us. How does a busy store like Coricraft only have 2 staff members on duty- holiday season or not?! This amounted to extreme poor service!

Please advise how you are going to the bottom of this. We need to know who sold or authorized the sale of the coffee table already paid for by us.

What was the purpose of pre-payments if it didn’t secure my order- someone else came in the store,paid for the item and collected it. What did we pay for?