Pick n Pay Home not honouring advertised online prices

I wish I could give a negative rating instead of a 1 star!

On the 16th December 2022 PnP Home Prospect advertised a Hisense 75 Inch UHD Smart TV 75A6H for the low price of R1699.00 a saving of R16300,00 as advertised on their online Home website( Store: Hyper Prospect).

I Placed this in my basket, loaded my personal details with a copy of my ID as a prerequisite and concluded my online business transaction and paid for the item. I placed on behalf as well another similar transaction for my father with his details as he did not have access to the online purchasing and concluded same. Like usual they deducted R1 from my bank account and later on that day they reserved funds from my bank account. Shortly afterwards I received confirmation of both orders via email that it will be picked shortly. In other words PnP accepted my order and where in the process of concluding my order. On my PnP online profile it indicated that my orders were in progress.

The following day, upon checking the status, it indicated that the product I ordered was not available in my area. I find it ********* and rather strange to have an item advertised with no indication of sold out when I was purchasing the items, to deduct and reserve funds straight afterwards, and sending me confirmation of the order only to be told after being placed on hold for 15min to speak to an online consultant that today there is no stock. There was no contact made from PnP or any indications of the items being out of stock at time of purchase. I inquired if out of stock when will stock come in to meet my order placed, only to be told they cannot say and that even though there are stock in other stores, they cannot uplift from other stores to meet the commitment.

Are other stores working now in isolation that they cannot source from other stores? I visited a Pnp at Arbour crossing Amanzimtoti and found one on display, so PnP cannot say there is no stock at all. The customer care person was not able to help me and said that out right there is no stock they cannot deliver and that is that no further assistance to resolve my query other than "I can cancel your order?"

As per the consumer protection act: Section 23(5) of the Act considers a price to be displayed if it is: b) In any way represented in a manner from which it may reasonably be inferred that the price represented is a price applicable to the goods or services in question;

To me it was for a rather lengthy duration displayed at that price with no out of stock indications and that the price displayed was correct at the time of advertising. PnP did not take any reasonable steps to inform me if there were any erroneous pricing, nor that there were no stock available once my order was concluded for picking.

I believe the sale of the respective items have been concluded upon receipt of the order numbers respectively and that there were no indications of such stating that they were out of stock at the time of purchase. If PnP does not commit to my confirmed order, I will proceed to the customer control board and place a complaint against PnP for false advertising products online and not holding themselves accountable to honour the advertised prices.

I demand a speedy resolution to this problem, and that my orders are concluded by delivery of items purchased.