Christmas Tree Spirit Broken by TAKEALOT/CPS

<p>This year we decided to suprize the family and buy a new Christmas Tree. My hubby warned me not to use an online store with this type of product, and in hindsight, to his better judgement, I proceeded to place my trust and excitement in a supposedly convenient online store called TAKEALOT.</p> <p> </p> <p>What a grave mistake!!!... I wish I had listened to my hubby and just went and bought a christmas tree at a conventional shop, because the little bit of PT that would have been involved just to go to a store, vs what I am now about to embark on now with TAKEALOTs business rules and policies, are worlds apart!...</p> <p> </p> <p>With much anticipation, we were waiting for our beautiful Christmas tree. We decided to make this an epic event and invite the family and little ones to help assemble and start the festive season.</p> <p> </p> <p>The box was delivered in a damaged and partially opened condition. You can see that someone used tape to try and close it. The box was also really dirty. Upon opening the balance of the box, you can see that items are missing as it is impossible to assemble for example, one of the most obvious items missing is the stand of the Christmas tree. There is no center stem either!!! Usually, products such as these come with assembly instructions, along with an inventory breaking down what should be supp**** in the box. This was also not supp**** and for the average consumer is virtually impossible to determine what other components are missing. As you can imagine, this type of product creates excitement for the family and resulted in grave disappointment. Maybe we should not have bought this type of a product from an online store!!!</p> <p> </p> <p>You can imagine the disappointment in everyones eyes when we had to pack the box back and make arrangements for a refund/exchange.</p> <p> </p> <p>After logging the complaint on TAKEALOT's system, they inform you of their business processes and the replacement might take as long as 2 weeks!!!!!!</p> <p> </p> <p>I am actually so emotional and heartbroken typing all of this as the family have been so excited about this for weeks and now I might have to wait (if all goes according to plan) 2 weeks! Who knows, I might even get another defective product and have no christmas tree at all this year!!!!</p> <p> </p> <p>I feel under the circumstances, since TAKEALOT and/or its 3rd party suppliers/partners, have "scr@wed-up" and that this is a Christmas product, their replacement policy of 2 weeks should not apply. I feel that all the background logistics and the delays that they are the creator of, by taking days to collect, days to process, days to inspect and days to re-ship out should not apply in this case due to their own extreme negligence. </p> <p> </p> <p>If they are in any way a decent company, they will IMMEDIATELY, ship out a brand new, perfectly sealed, perfect condition, perfect new treeto reach us within 2 - 3 days (as did the original order take) and simultaneously drop off the new tree and collect the defective one. </p> <p> </p> <p>With respect, if they offer anything less than this, I will be absolutely shocked, HELLOPETER, please, please can you help me as I feel completely stupid for buying this product from TAKEALOT in the 1st place!</p> <p>Reference: RRN-6c04-2707</p>