TAKEALOT OF NONSENSE

I have been a Loyal Takealot customer for many years but in December my perceptions of them completely changed and they have definitely lost me as a Customer. As a mother of two children i have had to budget very carefully for School supplies to ensure both my kids had all they needed for the start of the year. I uploaded a voucher and ordered the items that i found to be cheaper on takealot, one being an Afrikaans reading text book for Grade 4's. The delivery date on the order kept changing and eventually it was scheduled for 24 December - i queried this and Takealot took it upon themselves to cancel the item from my Order without asking if i would be prepared to wait or not - FYI i would have waited! When i queried why the order was cancelled they said the item was no longer in stock and had been removed from their website. The next day i found the item listed on their website (for R70 MORE than the original item) so i queried it again asking why they thought it was fair that i would now have to pay delivery for this item as the order would be under the R450 needed for free delivery. The consultant came back and said that on her side the item was not listed so i checked the link again and lo and behold it was gone. Two days later i again searched their website and found the item i was looking for (again at a different price, this time R40.00 more than the original price), i again queried it and told takealot i would like them to cover the cost of delivery as it was by no fault of mine that they removed the item from my order and then allowed it to be relisted as "in stock" under different prices. Again i received a reply to say that the item was out of stock on their side and removed from the website. By this point i was fuming and i told them that i felt they were taking me for a ride as they would remove the item and then allow it to be relisted two days later as in stock until i demanded they cover the delivery charge and then the item would be removed (it was listed and removed 3 times in 1 week). I also told them that since they have allowed outside sellers to use their platform to sell goods that the prices were no longer a "good deal" and that their reliability had gone out of the window - there are now china mall items listed at 3 times the price in the store (NOT what i expect from Takealot) further to this their daily deals and black Friday deals have been absolutely Dismal to say the least. I received a reply saying they could issue me a refund of the amount i had paid for the book and i could then buy it somewhere else as i expressed i was on a tight budget so i agreed and issued them with my bank details only for them to come back and tell me they could not honor their own commitment as their terms did not allow for refunds on gift vouchers.... so why then did they even offer this as an option. I am disgusted in how bad Takealots service has gotten and they have definitely lost me as a customer. Shape up Takealot