Something has changed...

I have been a loyal Takealot customer for many ears. I used them mostly for the convenience, not really because they have the best prices. And one thing I could always count on was the fast and efficient deliveries. But something has changed. I am not sure whether it is a coincidence, but since they launched their delivery subscription service, my orders have been taking way longer to be delivered and over and above that, it has happened twice that while waiting for the delivery, the date was pushed out even further.

I placed an order on Sunday 14 July for three small items, all of which showed to be in stock. Historically this would mean I could expect delivery by Tuesday or Wednesday latest. When I submitted the order it showed delivery only by Friday 19 July. Not much I can do so I had to accept that. But then, this morning (Wednesday 17th) I checked on the delivery status and the delivery date was pushed out by another three days to Tuesday, 23 July with no explanation. I queried this and still no explanation was given and I was told that I can’t cancel the order now because it has been shipped to the courier. Only when I receive the official SMS confirming the delivery date can they look at cancelling the order.

My suspicion is that it is due to the new delivery subscription service and deliveries for people not subscribing to the service is getting bumped. Well, I don't respond well to ******ion. I will not be forced into subscribing to this service and if you (Takealot) can't sustain the previous delivery SLAs, there are other suppliers that can.

Case in point, I placed my first order with Amazon recently and they delivered a small appliance in two days. This is the service I used to get from Takealot. I know Amazon is new, they currently have a limited product offering and only time will tell if they can sustain this good service, but for now, there are alternatives.