Takealot ruins christmas with poor operation

I placed and paid for my order on the 30th of November 2018. My estimated delivery date was the 10th of December on the 11th i got a message to say items will be delivered by the 12th on the 12th i got a message to say my items are shipped but there was a scheduling error and will only receive it on the 13th. On the 13th i got 1 of the 9 items i ordered. When i called them they advised me that they will investigate and after 3 calls and various emails and 7 hours of wait and difference of message, one said my items were now out of stock the other said it wasn't shipped and finally the last message was that my order has been claimed for and that usually means that the items are lost, ****** or damaged and wants to do a refund/replacement order. I fail to understand, at which point was it “claimed” and by whom?

I eventually had to give in and agree to get a credit to re-order my stuff but had an issue since i am due going on holiday out of gauteng and when i wanted to re-order the same stuff it was mysteriously out of stock, so i was forced to order different items and get them shipped to where i was going on holiday and the delivery date i was promised was the 20th and the other stuff had to be delivered to my brother on the 21st . Because of this mess i had to order different items which cost way more and now again today they tell me that the package due to be delivered to my brother is late due to waiting for stock and can now only be delivered on the 24th. The other package was "shipped" but still in cape town so i don't know what to do.

And to make things worse, i told my friend about the toysale and she ordered gifts for her kids for christmas and guess what? Her package got claimed too and she had to re-order her stuff too so how is that a coincidence? Her Re-order was due to be delivered this week and what happened, they just told her today that her parcel has gone missing again - how does this happen?

I have been a loyal customer and supported both takealot and Kalahari for more than a decade – I am so disappointed with this companies service, which is something I would have never thought to say but it is true. And now both myself and my friend don't have christmas gifts because our parcels keeps getting lost - so to quote a comment from another complaint on this website - takealot has ruined christmas!