The absolute WORST online store to deal with!

This is TOTALLY THE WORST Online Store I have ever dealt with!

I looked online for a Bosch stove extractor, saw what looked like a quite good-looking product; saw the "Ships in four to seven working days" and on this basis, ordered same and paid by credit card. This was on Monday 7th November, so....theoretically....I should receive it by Wednesday next week.

Having paid, I then got an emailed invoice, with the anticipated delivery date as the 24th November, which is far too late for my purpose. I phoned up Customer "Care" and got Sabrina, with a fairly "off" attitude. She said the the 4 to 7 days was the time it would take for Loot to "source" the product and had nothing to do with the actual delivery date. The item would then be shipped by Bosch from Gauteng.

I then spoke to a lady from Bosch in Cape Town. Between us, we worked out that the photograph in the Loot advert is not even the product that I have ordered. The picture is of the 90cm cooker hood and not for the 60cm one. The Bosch lady then spoke to their rep, thru which all orders from Loot HAVE to go. He said that he had not, at that point, even received my order from Loot.

I emailed Loot in this regard, and got another "just suck it up, hartjie" kind of reply from Sabrina. When I responded to this, I was give a response number but, from previous experience, I know not much will happen. This morning, I spoke to Lyndon, again explaining the entire story with the multiple levels of extremely poor service AND attitude. Lyndon promised, faithfully, that he would get back to me..........and never did, over a period of five hours.

The Bosch lady called me back to say that, if I can get a refund from Loot, they can source the same product, at the same price, for me. I thanked her, profusely, and said that I would get back to her if Loot were unable to pull themselves towards themselves. Furthermore, their rep had told her that he had spoken to Loot, who said that they had not placed my order because I had not rep**** to the email regarding the finest details of the delivery, as in are there stairs etc. (It's a cooker hood, not a stove or a two-door fridge, for Heaven's sake.). I explained that I had not rep**** to this, because it might infer that their unsatisfactory delivery date is acceptable. If we get past this issue, we can then worry about the refinements of delivery!

I phoned Loot AGAIN, to speak to Lyndon. Instead Ebrahim answered the phone, saying Lyndon is on another call, but that he would get him to phone me back. Twenty-five minutes later, still no call from Lyndon. I phone again, only to get Ebrahim again. I pointed out that the "hitch" told to the Bosch rep had not been relayed to me by Sabrina, or Lyndon, or he himself and may I please speak to Management, apparently, named Laura. However, it is IMPOSSIBLE to speak to Laura, because she works from home and they don't know where she is or what she's doing, they can only relay my request that she call me back. Half an hour went by, with no call from Laura. I tried to phone Ebrahim again, to find that, although he told me that they only close at five, he had already "gone home". So, instead I got Phumi, who could only relay a message to Laura, which she might or might not think about before tomorrow.

The whole issue could be resolved in MINUTES. Loot simply needs to bite on the bullet. Arrange for the Courier Guy, or similar, to collect the hood in Gauteng........and deliver it. Could be with me in TWO DAYS.

If they really cared even a jot for customer relations!

Subsequently, AGAIN, spoke to Phumi, to cancel my order and get a refund. Huge mega deep SIGH from her......She cannot send me an email confirming my cancellation, but I will get it sometime in the next couple of days, together with my sometime in the next couple of days, maybe and perhaps, refund. This is because "the order is with Bosch", only the Bosch rep told the other Bosch lady that Loot had still not even placed the order, because of the delivery instructions. Soooo if this is true, at this point in time, the transaction has absolutely NOTHING to do with Bosch whatsoever.

I have been in retail FIFTY-ONE YEARS, so know a little about Customer Service.