Atrocious service delivery from SA Toy Trade (http://www.satoytrade.co.za/)

SA Toy Trade on their website states the following reasons for purchasing their products: High quality educational toys and equipment from trusted brands Complete product range Specialize in early childhood development Affordable and competitive prices Unique and well researched products

Unfortunately I cannot yet comment on the above, but please note that they deliberately chose to not mention their customer service as being a reason to purchase from them, since that absolutely sucks (pardon my crude expression). I am beyond appalled by the service received. An order is placed online via their website. A DAY later, a return email responds to say that the order is forwarded to one of their franchisees. Depending on how on the ball that particular person is, you will then receive an email from them, to which you then respond by making payment for the products purchased. In my instance an order was placed on the 9th of May, the 10th I received confirmation from SA Toy Trade that their franchisee would get back to me, which happened on the 11th, when I then made payment for the product purchased. Thereafter it was a back and forth correspondence thing to try and figure out when the products will actually be delivered. According to the franchisee the order was placed, and there was stock on hand, (which the website also indicated as a positive) and I made payment immediately on receipt of the invoice. On the 21st of April I followed up. Please note SA Toy Trade is a LOCAL business, in the Gauteng area, we are based in the western cape, close to Cape Town. The franchisee could not confirm when I'd be able to have the product I ordered as the business could not confirm when they'd be sending it on. Apparently they change delivery times as the demand changes (whatever that means). I followed up again on the 24th. According to the franchisee it often happens that the products take forever to arrive, and often times a client would have paid for something, only to find upon delivery that whatever they ordered, was not completely supp****. On the 24th the franchisee received an email to state that delivery should happen the next week, which would have been round the 30th of April, but unfortunately no delivery occurred. On the 30th they apparently told her to expect delivery on the 2nd or 3rd of May, but nothing happened. It is absolutely ridiculous how useless their service delivery had been. Rather pay a few bucks extra somewhere else than make use of their business, esp if you are in the Western Cape. Maybe Gauteng gets better service from them than we do. I doubt whether I will be ordering anything else from them, no matter how good a deal it might be. This, at present my opinion, is not a business worth supporting.