False Advertising - Furious Customer

Good day I went to Makro Stubens Valley 01.10.2018, I was there on Saturday 29/09 as well to look at a new cellphone as mine was ****** and urgently require a replacement. I saw the Huawei P20 on display being sold for R5499, with the specifications listed below it indicating the 20MP camera and the 24MP selfie camera in store. I noticed the item was still for sale at the same price when I returned to the store to purchase the item on 01.10.2018. I asked one of the store attendants to please bring me the phone, upon closer inspection I realized the camera is not a 20MP as advertised but a 16MP, also the memory was not the same. I spoke to a Manager and he said, sorry the item was sold incorrectly and this is the first customer to mention this. I wanted to purchase the phone as advertised and he refused and said he will not honor this. I have been buying from Makro for years and now I feel as it is just the same as any other retailer, I will definitely not advise any friends or family to support Makro to my experience and the fact that an advertised item is merely removed from the display and brushed under the mat. There were no retractions regarding this item and I almost purchased the incorrect item under false pretense. I drove all(my cost) the way to buy the item and took time out of my day as well just to have a manager be quite rude and firm to refuse the needs as the customer. He said he would take it up with Management at Head Office but can guarantee me that he would not sell me the phone as advertised as according to him it is online only and an "innocent mistake". The manager said that the information was printed from Head Office and he will not accept responsibility for the advert being incorrect. I indicated an innocent mistake is not placing an item on the shelf and indicating Huawei P20 cellphone with the listed specs of the P20 Pro with a price and once a customer wants to purchase it there is no refusal, they just needed to check stock. It is only when I asked why am I receiving the P20 lite with lower specifications that it was a problem. This means Makro is falsely advertising items to attract customers and catch the ones that do not know of better, which is in actual fact theft in my books. I am extremely furious regarding this ordeal and will not be leaving the matter at this. I did take a picture of the advert in store in anticipation that the item would be brushed under the mat and not honored.

I have been trying to contact Makro customer care since 01.10.2018 to report this matter as I am without a cellphone and it is affecting me financially in terms of business lost. Makro customer care then said they will speak to the Manager at Strubens Valley which in turn happens to be the very same manager that said he will have to contact head office and would let me know in two days, which would have been feedback by 03.10.2018 which did not happen. He took my details and I was just silenced in store and told they would contact me and they then kindly just removed the advert from the shelf in light of other possible customers.

The same response from Makro the last 10 days have been:

"Good day We thank you for your patience thus far and apologies for the delay Please be advised that we have escalated the matter to our superiors at the Strubens Valley store they will be in contact with you shortly"

Just sending an e-mail as above over and over without any action is not customer service.

I do not feel that this is acceptable by any industry or service standard.

I am furious to say the least and Makro has done nothing to rectify the matter.

I do not think that I will be supporting Makro again due to this, and will make it my mission to inform others of this ordeal.