Misleading - stock not actually available in South Africa

<p>I purchased a two batteries through their website (http://za.rs-online.com) on 9 March 2017. The website claimed they had stock available "<em>Available in 4–6 working days for collection or delivery to major cities</em>".</p> <p> </p> <p>I then received an email from Carmel which included the following: "<em>Also be advised that there are flight restrictions on Lithium based products which has a significant impact on our transit times. The following item (407899) is affected by this and therefore please allow delivery times of 8 to 10 weeks for non-South African stock and 2-3 days for South African stock.</em>"</p> <p> </p> <p>Reading this, I figured that perhaps it would take an extra few days because I ordered a lithium battery, and not 8 to 10 weeks, as the website stated they had availability, which naturally one would assume as being available in South Africa.</p> <p> </p> <p>I rep**** to Carmel on 17 March to ask what the status of the order was and when I could expect delivery, to which I received no reply.</p> <p> </p> <p>I called today (23 March) to find out where my order was, to which the agent rep**** that it would take 8 to 10 weeks to receive the order from the UK, from date of order. <br />To top it all off - on replying that I'd like to then cancel my order, the agent rep**** that a refund can only be processed once the stock has arrived in South Africa, in 8 to 10 weeks - how convenient for them.</p> <p>I've just checked again on their website and for the product I'm ordering, it still clearly states that products are available: "<em>209 Available in 4–6 working days for collection or delivery to major cities</em>". I even used their "Real time stock check" tool and again it confirms that the stock I want is available in 4 to 6 days.</p> <p> </p> <p>RS Components is misleading their customers in allowing them to purchase products that they state is available, but in fact still has to be imported into the country, at a significant time delay. This would make most people not complete an order if they knew this was the case.</p> <p> </p> <p>It's these kind of trust issues in the ecommerce space that holds people back from moving to online purchases in South Africa.</p>