Take the Refund! Learn from my mistake.

<p>Now that this is finally over, I feel like I should warn others, in the hope that they might learn from my mistake.</p> <p>Let me start by making one thing clear. Takealot is not willing to do any more for their customer's than they feel they're legally obligated to do according to their T's & C's.</p> <p>If an item you're returning is older than 6 months, and you'd like to have it replaced or repaired, sorry, you're out of luck. You'll either have to wait an indefinite amount of time, or take the refund after the initial 21 day period has lapsed. Be careful though, it doesn't end there. If you used a voucher as part or full payment for the item, they will not refund that portion. Depending on the source of the voucher, you'll either get store credit, or forfeit the amount altogether.</p> <p>Takealot justify their actions by hiding behind the following clause in their terms and conditions regarding items returned after the first 6 months:</p> <p>"Takealot is under no obligation to provide you with a credit, repair / replacement, as your remedy lies with the supplier or manufacturer. However, since we want your experience to be as good as possible, if the supplier or manufacturer has offered you a repair / replacement within the applicable extended supplier warranty and it takes longer than 21 days, we will get in touch with you to see if you would rather receive a credit / refund directly from us."</p> <p>By simply having the above statement in their T's & C's, they are in fact obligated to offer a credit or refund should you have a valid warranty claim which drags on for longer than 21 days.</p> <p>Having said that, beyond offering you a credit/refund, they refute ANY responsibility for the return. Even if their courier damages the item you're returning, they refute responsibility. This means you're actually safer returning the item directly to the supplier yourself, should Takealot even be willing to divulge supplier information.</p> <p>If the current replacement cost of the item is more than the amount paid, it's not their concern. Fair enough right? After all, they should only be obligated to refund the original purchase price.</p> <p>Well, they also don't care how long the supplier takes to source a replacement, meaning, the supplier is actually not obligated to do anything at all once they receive your faulty product, because even if the supplier does nothing, Takealot will simply remind you of the fact that they've offered you a refund.</p> <p>Trying to get assistance from Takealot has proved impossible. You might get through to someone who sounds like they're interested in helping you, but the next day you'll be back at square one. No matter how high you try to take your complaint, it'll never get further than the "Customer Service Team". These individuals have no more power or influence anyone else in the company below them. They are simply a "metaphorical wall" placed there in order to ensure that customer complaints don't reach the people in charge.</p> <p>As far as getting a refund goes, this is the only thing which Takealot seems to know how to do properly. Upon acceptance of a refund, processing happens surprisingly quickly.</p> <p>So in summary, if you're ever in a position where Takealot offers you a refund for your return, take it and run! The alternative isn't worth it, and it will save you a huge amount of time and frustration.</p> <p>Initially, I was under the impression that I was the only person who had experienced this, so was surprised to see numerous other complaints to the same effect on Hellopeter. Even one posted as recently as today.</p> <p>It's worth mentioning that Takealot wasn't always like this, they used to be great when they were smaller. If you had a problem, they'd go out of their way to try and sort it out, and problems were few and far between.</p> <p>Until Takealot reconsiders these questionable business practices, I'll be doing my shopping elsewhere. However, I haven't lost hope that someday "Ye olde Take2/Takealot" might return to us in it's former glory, only this time, even bigger and better.</p>