Makro Black Friday Voucher: Promotion offer not redeemable

I received an email from Makro on the evening of 24th Nov offering a R500 voucher if I purchase for over R4,000 before midnight as a pre-Black Friday promotion. The email was sent to me at 21h26 and I proceeded to do an online purchase of a washing machine at 21h52 but when I tried to use the voucher code, I got an error "voucher cannot be redeemed".

I tried calling the Makro customer service line but it was outside of operating hours so I could not complete my purchase. I sent them an email with copies of the email from Makro and a screenshot from my phone showing the error.

They took so long to respond to me, I even went in-store to query this with their online department and they said that I must call the call center which I did. The agent said that they will escalate the matter and respond to my email.

I received an email asking me for my order number but I advised that I could not proceed with my online purchase as the voucher was not working. I then got a response that the voucher was on a first come first serve basis which was not disclosed anywhere on the email so that was just a tectic to get rid of me.

I did not accept this and sent them an email with my views. I proceeded to purchase the washing machine in-store as I needed it thinking that they would sort out my query and do a manual voucher. I finally got an email stating that the purchase date is out of the coupon promotion period therefore I will not get the R500 discount.

This is unacceptable, I was unable to proceed with the online puchase when I was in the coupon promotion period and I met the requirements;

1. It was an Online Purchase that I was trying to do. 2. It was before midnight, I attempted to purchase at 21h52 3. the purchase value was above R4,000.00 as the item was R4,799.00

This was a system error on Makro's side so I would have expected them to fulfill my purchase after the coupon promotion period by applying a manual discount for me.

Really disappointed with Makro!!!