Take a Lot - Returns - Their Service Level Fails Miserable

What can I say !

To be honest I am speechless the way Take A Lot deal with returns. They specialize in storage and handling delivery third parties products. Like retailers and small companies which they also seem (heard some horror stories for small to medium companies) to ******* when it comes to storage cost and delivery cost.

If you have a ‘Return’ you are exposed to their red tape which they hide behind their procedures and they do not care about the customer.

Take a Lot is a very unreliable company to deal with when you have a return! Their return SLA in my books failed miserable! Not even worth a one star !

My story:

On the 24 January I placed an online order for a iphone for a youngster who was on her way to Germany and I opted on the behalf of her family to get her a reliable phone to allow her to contact her family as her phone was old and not reliable. The phone arrived within 5 days and 7 days away from her departure date. She immediately after the delivery started preparing her new phone and realized the ‘home button’ did not want to work nor could she activate her finger print on the home button. I contacted the Helpdesk at Take a Lot and was instructed to log a return on their system which I did. I logged a return and called the Helpdesk again asking them to prioritize it. A few days went past and I was asked to supply the pin for the phone which I did write on a piece of paper when I made up the return parcel. A few days went past again and the departure date for the student came closer. When I followed up again I was asked for the pass word again. I was speechless. Asked for the person testing the phones to call me etc. No calls were returned! I the meantime the student I wanted to sponsor with a reliable phone departed for Germany. Called the Helpdesk again and indicated to rather re-fund me. I was then informed via their system to phone is ready for collection. Tried to explain I have no need for the phone anymore but they did not want to accommodate me. I arrived at their Milnerton branch as their system stated where I can pick it up. I arrived at the site and the security informed me their is no ‘returns or pickups’ at the branch and referred me to the branch where they moved too. I arrived at this very neat office and I was informed there was no phone to collect. As you can imagine I was at the end of my rope with them. They put me in touch with an agent and she promised feedback by COB. This never happened, instead a one liner they will come back to me the following week as it was Friday afternoon. The following week I followed up daily tried to escalate as per the ITIL processes but it was clear to me they are following processes and don’t care about customer and on top of everything they hide behind their return policy. As for the timing it is also mind blowing to say the least. The phone was returned on the 31 January and returned to me on the 21 February. Looking at their system I notice the system dates have been manipulated as well to make their stats look good and their are two return orders.

Now I have the phone and thought let me try and set the phone up. The phone soft cover was not over the phone and not in the package nor was the little tool in the package to open the sim slot and the electrical plug was not compatible with the two pin plugs in South Africa. Anyway, while going through the motions of setting it up I also picked up the return button and finger print functionality is not working. I was speechless and called them and again I was told to log a return call. You can imagine what I thought of Take a Lot at that moment.

I calmed down and decided to take the phone to the iPhone retialer. Handed the phone in and the phone was reset (technical) to its original setting and everything worked as normal. While waiting I overheard an interesting story about Take a Lot suppliers and their products. If the story (suppliers to Take a Lot buying equipment from other countries which are overstock, expired etc) is truthful I would not be able to say but it is an eye opener dealing with Take a Lot in the future.

Well that is Take a Lot for you and their suppliers - Customer Service for Returns fail me horrible!