Takealot selling items on sale when they are actually out of stock, In Violation of the Consumer Protection Act

Hi

Recently I've had the misfortune of having my house broken into, they stole mostly electronics. My cellphone was one of the items ******. After the insurance payout I went to Takealot and ordered the Huawei p smart that was on sale for R3499. Nowhere did it state that the item was sold out/out of stock or even that there was limited stock left like Takealot usually do by saying for example that there is 5 left of a product. Needless to say my order went through without issue until the next day when I went to check on my orders. I saw that my order was cancelled for the cellphone and that it now was being sold for R3799 by Cellu City. I was not informed at all that my order had been cancelled, usually they send out an email, but no email was received. Now here is my problem my order went through, if the item was out of stock it shouldn't have allowed me to buy it in the first place. I've been in contact with Sybrine Coetzee from Takealot via email for the last few days and she basically told me that I have no choice to pay the R3799. I feel that I ordered the product for the sale price and the fact that they ran out of stock isn't my problem as I ordered it and their system allowed me to order it. According to the Consumer Protection Act retailers must ensure that they have sufficient stock to meet a reasonably anticipated demand for any products that are promoted. If a retailer advertises goods at a specific price and runs out of stock, they can be held liable for 'baiting' consumers, especially when they didn't show how much stock was left and whether the item is out of stock. The cellphone was still on takealot for hours after I ordered it at the sale price, without indication that it was out of stock, surely when an item is out of stock it shouldn't still be available on a website for that long after it went out of stock? Section 30 of the Consumer Protection act also states the following: A supplier must not advertise any particular goods or services as being available at a specified price in a manner that may result in consumers being misled or deceived about the actual availability of the goods. Clearly Takealot is in violation of this rule in the CPA, because there was no clear indication, actually there was none whatsoever, on the availability of the product(in stock/out of stock). I feel like I should pay the sale price for the cellphone as that is what I ordered and believed to be available according to the feedback or lack thereof given to me by Takealot's website.

http://www.seesa.co.za/bait-marketing-an-analysis-in-terms-of-the-cpa/

Please see the above link that has more information regarding section 30 of the Consumer Protection Act .