Pretty much anyone can sell on Takealot, so be careful

I've been a long-time customer and always enjoyed the deals and the convenience of online ordering with Takealot. While the range of products available has expanded, I've become very concerned about the vetting process for vendors to be eligible to sell on the platform.

I've been seeing more and more reviews, and having my own personal experience, with receiving products that are **** name brands, open and USED, or just generally not as advertised.

This, of course, is not the case for all sellers. I used to trust that Takealot had vetted them, but now it feels like Facebook marketplace where you have to be cautious of ****s and look into individual sellers to determine their trustworthiness. Quite sad.

Takealot has vamped up customer service. They're highly responsive and arranging exchanges and refunds has become much easier (which is excellent), but this doesn't offset the disappointment of receiving substandard products so often. It wastes one's time.

I hope the company can review and pivot from their current business model, or at least implement quality control checks with the sellers they associate with. Long term it could irrevocably damage reputation. For now, I will probably be ordering a lot less, and only from sellers I'm fami**** with or have the time to conduct independent research on. At that point, it's easier to order from those companies directly, or use other online platforms.