Poor Service Complaint - Takealot.com

I have ordered from takealot.com in the past and the experiences have been pleasant. I received my orders on time and in good condition, but this one experience has pushed me to a point that I am so fed up that I just have to write this complaint.

I placed an order on the 15th of November, and the order has a rather large value with 6 items. I paid immediately and understood that there would be a few days waiting period. Then the delivery date came and went, the 28th of November, and nothing had been delivered.

On the 29th of November I phoned in to follow-up on my order because I did not receive a message to say that my order is on its way and the delivery date online still stated the 28th of November. After 3 times of having to phone in and getting my husband to phone in, only then did I received proper feedback that they hadn’t even received stock for the one item for my order yet. But instead of letting me know and updating my order information online so I could track my order, I had to phone takealot.com and used R 110 airtime just to get feedback that I won’t be receiving my order anytime soon.

I phoned in again on the 30th of November and received an email stating that my order will take another 1-2 working days. On the 3rd of December I phoned in again and got a whole bunch of apologies and excuses, but I was assured that I would definitely be receiving my order that day. I did not receive my order as promised.

On the 4th of December I received an email to ask if I wanted a replacement order for the large item that I had been waiting for, or if I wanted my takealot.com account to be credited. I was furious! Firstly, why did there HAVE to be a replacement order to begin with? The order was never cancelled by me! Secondly, Now I had to wait another 5 to 7 days for my order! The new delivery date on the takealot.com website where you can supposedly “track your orders online” was now the 10th of December.

Part of my order was delivered today, the 10th of December, but one of the items that I ordered two of was not delivered and I am still waiting for the large, high value item I have been struggling to get from takealot.com. So, I only received 4 out of the 6 items that I ordered. I phoned takealot.com to find out where my missing item is after the takealot.com driver allowed our reception at our office to sign for my parcel without my permission. So I couldn’t even check the item before the driver left!

It has been over 5 hours and only now after my husband phoned takealot.com again and another R 110 airtime has been phoned out / wasted did I receive feedback from takealot.com as to where my missing item is and I am still patiently waiting for my final, high value item to arrive, but my patience is running out. This poor customer service is unacceptable and I am disgusted with the lack of communication. I am very disappointed in takealot.com and their courier company they are using and wouldn’t recommend them to anyone until they sort out their communication procedures.