Takealot - Poor, unresponsive Customer Service

I ordered a wifi router from Takealot on Sunday 18/8/19 by Priority delivery, as my router was down and it was an emergency. The router as ordered arrived on Monday, but was faulty. On Tuesday, I arranged by phonecall to Takealot for the faulty router to be returned and another replacement router to be delivered. Despite the fact that the initial order was Priority, they could only arrange for the replacement to be delivered two days later, on Thursday 22/8/19.

The replacement wifi router was also faulty. This was ascertained by many hour long phonecalls to my IT Specialist in regard to both routers.

On Friday 23/8/19, I called Takealot and asked for the second faulty router to be returned. They could only arrange for the Collection of the second faulty router to be done on the following Monday, 26/8/19, three days later. On phoning their Helpline yet again, I was informed that the credit back to my Takealot account for the returned router, would take another two days.

I have had exceptionally poor internet since Sunday 18/8/19, when the first wifi router was ordered by Priority delivery, and an internet blackout since last Thursday.

Another phonecall to Takealot, resulted in nothing but the phonecall being terminated on their side, after I held on for a length of time.

I have had to give in to their appalling service, and order a different router, without using credits from the payment for the faulty router, and to pay for it in full, as well as paying for Priority delivery, a second time over.

Takealot is unresponsive to Customer complaints or problems experienced. They do not respond to a Priority payment made, with Priority collections in the event of a faulty product. In this instance, two faulty routers from a faulty batch. Nor do they refund you, the Customer, with priority, taking over two working days.

Calls to their VOIP number have cost R hundreds. Many calls to my IT Specialist have cost more, and have taken hours of time, both mine and the Specialist. At this stage, the overall billing for this basic wifi router has gone to R hundreds, given all the phonecalls, emails and texts which resulted from the situation, and the failure by Takealot to respond adequately, or with any care whatsoever.

Takealot is rigidly bound by their self serving “rules and regulations”, which do not benefit the Customer, nor take into account if an item was urgently needed and ordered as Priority. Their attitude takes no account of the individual, or the particular situation surrounding the order.

I await the different model of router now ordered by Priority, and hope this nightmare is over. Even Telkom had to be involved as the faulty routers led to the possibility of a faulty ADSL line.

How many parties do you want to inconvenience due to inefficiency, Takealot? How about a refund to my bank account? How about refunding the Priority delivery fee paid twice, and recouping the cost of the router?

There are phone bills, internet bills, time, and inconvenience which you could not begin to repay.