Nedbank Avo Africa - Treats customers like they are idiots

The initial online ordering was the only positive of my experience with Avo Africa (Nedbank Company)

I ordered a new iPhone and Avo indicated the delivery would happen latest 7 December. My partner ordered the same phone one day after me and got the same delivery date. That phone arrived on the 5th, which was a welcome surprise. 1. My issues with Avo started when I reached out to the call centre to confirm that everything was ok with my order and that we are on track for the 7th (only logical to ask as one ordered after mine was delivered already). They told me they could only speak to the vendor once they missed their delivery date. Confused about this process, I left it there.

2. At the end of the day of the promised delivery, I reached out again, and Avo told me they would escalate this to the vendor and give them 3-5 working days to revert. Considering I waited 5 days for a missed delivery that I pre-empted, I was left unimpressed with their standard scripted 1st line response with no attempt to expedite this. I asked to speak to the supervisor so we could try and resolve this quickly.

3. Once the supervisor, Juntin, called me the same day and tried to soothe me with an R250 gift voucher (which I did not want or ask for), they told me again there was nothing they could do besides waiting for the vendor. At this point, I wanted confirmation that stock wasn't the issue and was only a delivery mix-up. If it were the former, I would change it to another colour to prevent further delays. Annoyed but not surprised; 3 days came, and still nothing.

4. At this point, I started following up via their unhelpful chat services until, finally, someone told me that the item I ordered was out of stock, I suspect already at the time of placing the order. They offered me a gold phone, as by now, every other colour I could have chosen as a replacement, since ordering, was also sold out. I initially declined but reached out 20min later and informed them to swap out and deliver. Now you would think after the poor service, they would make every effort to resolve this quickly. No, they told me the phone would be delivered in their normal period of 3-5 days. I insisted they escalate this and get it sorted quicker as it wasn't my fault.

5. 3 days later, I again had to do multiple follow-ups and having learnt my lesson, I checked my order and noticed they still had the old out-of-stock item as pending, not the swapped-out one. I asked them to confirm, and they told me they would escalate to the product team and to wait 3-5 days AGAIN. After telling them off that this was ******* and they had no concept of the value of a customer, the same supervisor reached out to me (and yes, his unwanted but promised voucher from the previous call with him was still not in my inbox either)

6. He checked my order and informed me that they are still waiting for my confirmation to accept the swap out they offered me 3 days ago. Their *********** staff never actioned my confirmation, which I have proof of in our chat history. Thinking he was doing me a favour, he told me he would do it for me now. The final straw was that I had to wait 5-7 days for them to deliver. I expressed my severe dissatisfaction with his organisation and *********** staff that refuse to be accountable for their mishaps and refusal or inability to go the extra mile to resolve them quickly.

Now here we are. I seldom do reviews, but they have yet to develop a concept of customer service, value or retention. I doubt anyone of significance or authority in their company will read this. Still, hopefully, other consumers will find this raw yet honest review helpful and be spared the frustration of ordering from Avo (Nedbank)