Take your Order, confirm they have stock and then cancel due to no stock

I have been a client of Takealot since their inception and with Kalahari.com for some years before that.

Yesterday, I ordered a Mac Book Pro from Takealot for about R25 000.00. Before placing the order, I twice checked they had stock in both JHB and Cape Town. They then took my order, accepted my payment and banked it in under 15 hours and then told me they had no stock.

They send you an email and provide no phone number to discuss the matter or offer an alternative. When you call in to the Call Center they are "unable to transfer your call" to the agent in the email.

There is no way to escalate the problem to a manager/supervisor.

Having taken your money, they say they can only refund in 7 to 10 days which at this time means I cannot purchase an alternative gift in time for my daughter's birthday on Sunday 17th December 2017.

To make things worse, I go to hospital tomorrow for 3 days to have my shoulder replaced!

I am so *****ed with no ability to get compensation from these people. They are just so uncaring and despite the apologies, have no idea of the chaos that results from such a situation.

They must review their stock on hand reporting for orders placed on the website and they must review their refund process for when they cancel an order. It should be immediate. Why must we wait to be refunded for an error not of our making. Why must they gather interest for my money when I really need it to purchase elsewhere?

Why should I ever buy from them again?

I have just had a phone call to advise me they are trying to refund me by tomorrow, so let's see if they can keep that promise. What alarmed me the most was when I came to Hello Peter to see if I was an unusual statistic, I saw streams of people with the same complaint - THIS WEEK!

That made me sit up and think.