THE WORST ONLINE SHOPPING EXPERIENCE - DISAPPOINTING SERVICE FROM A SHOPRITE/CHECKERS BRAND!!

I purchased a rice cooker from the House & Home online store on 5th December 2021 and chose store pickup from their Tokai branch as my delivery option. On the 10th of Dec I called the online customer care line as I had received no order updates and was unable to track my order after logging in to my online profile. This rendered useless as I was left on hold for over 10 minutes!!

Eventually I logged a complaint on their online form after which one of their customer service agents Kabelo got back to me. He apologised for the delay with my order and asked if the N1 City branch was too far for me to collect my item as the Tokai branch did not have any stock of my item. This confused me as I was under the assumption (like with most online retailers) that stock ordered online goes straight from the warehouse to the selected store for pickup - why did it matter that my selected store for pickup did not have stock?

I told him that N1 City would be too far for me to drive out and he told me that he would then request an interbranch transfer (IBT) from the N1 city branch to the Tokai branch, my item should be available for pickup by 14 December latest. He also said I would have to call either him or the store to check whether my item had arrived, I would receive no update via email.

I waited patiently until 14 December where I then called House & Home Tokai and dealt with Marcellino, who confirmed that an IBT had been requested and that the item was on its way to the Tokai dispatch center (DC) for delivery to their store. He said the item would most probably be at their store by Thursday 16 Dec and that he would give me a call to give me an update by then.

Once again, I waited and no call came. I called the store again on Sat 18 Dec where I spoke to Ryno as Marcellino was not working on this day. I briefly explained my situation to him and he said that the item had arrived at the Tokai DC but no truck had been sent to deliver the item from the DC to their store as of yet as they were short of drivers. He assured me that there was a 90% chance the item would arrive at their store by the next day and that he would give me a call.

I phoned them once again on Mon 20 Dec, where I was told both Marcellino and Ryno were unavailable as they were busy unloading the truck. I requested that they call me back once they were available and have once again received no call.

It is now 15 days since I placed my order and paid for this item and I still do not have it! I am fed up with being given the runaround and am appalled at this terrible customer service from a well-established store. Besides paying for the item, I have spent copious amounts of money on airtime for these to-and-fro phone calls which is just ridiculous!