Unhappy about service

I have been a Takealot customer for years now and have been so happy until my very latest purchase. I made a purchase of a Shoe Cabinet. Within 10mns of making the payment I made contact with Takealot to change the delivery address from my work to my home. To my surprise, Lilitha informed me that they could not change the address as the item has already been dispatched. The item was going to be dispatched from Johannesburg and this was within 10mns of purchasing and I could see from my side that it was NOT dispatched yet as it stated so. She then told me that what we see as customers is different to what they see from their side. She then advised after trying to change the address but failed that I should decline the delivery so that it can be returned. She also promised to keep checking it. Later the same day I received a call from Cheslin Jacobs who promised to get back to me with regards to changing the address but never did. I checked the status of my order and could see that it was available for me Return it. I then sent an email requesting for Cheslin to give me feedback so that if it cannot be changed I could then Return it and reorder using my home address. He never responded. To cut the long story short, the last consultant to communicate with me regarding this was Keegan Arendse who just informed me that it will not be changed as it has already been dispatched. I responded to the survey and stated my dissatisfaction and to my disappointment no one followed up with me. This then left me wondering why do you follow up customer’s correspondence with a survey if you do not make contact with unhappy customers and try and remedy the situation.

The item was delivered at work on a Tuesday and I only received it on Thursday upon my return. On Sunday I managed to open the package and discovered that the mirror was broken. Please note, the cabinet comes with 5 mirrors and only 2 of those were broken, the other 3 are fine. This was due to the packaging as I noted that for the 5 mirrors there were only 3 Styrofoam meaning the mirror at the bottom was not protected hence the crack to those two. This did not dampen my spirits much as I thought it’ll be a simple case of returning the broken mirrors and have them replaced and went ahead to assemble the cabinet as the two would just be for the top part of the cabinet which anyway takes two parts. I logged a return and clearly explained that I did NOT wish to return the cabinet but to only have those two mirrors replaced. I followed it with a call and spoke with Bheki Matai who told me that there are many customers complaining about the same thing and we must return the entire cabinet. This to me does not make sense why I need to return the entire cabinet if everything else is fine and the only thing which is an issue are the two cracked mirrors. It also concerned me that he stated on record that there are many customers complaining about cracked mirrors and yet Takealot has not looked into the packaging as I think should the mirrors have been properly packaged, then they might not have cracked. I also noted that the box was cut by a sharp item. I am not willing to dismantle a cabinet that took a whole day to assemble, that I needed help to assemble just for a mirror. Even though I asked him to escalate he told me that the answer will still be that same and indeed he sent me an email within a few minutes of speaking to me stating that I need to return the entire cabinet.

I need to state my dissatisfaction with the manner in which this entire transaction has transpired. I am not willing to dismantle the cabinet. If Takealot cannot take the two mirrors and just replace them without getting the full cabinet then please collect your cabinet with the 2nd item that I purchased with it and refund me my money and that will then be the last item from me. It is more expensive to get new customers to a business and I would suggest that you look into your process and see how you can retain the existing ones. Look into your packaging to minimize the cracked mirror complaints. I will appreciate for someone to get back to me and try and resolve my query or else I will take my business elsewhere. Yes I may be one unhappy customer but 1 is too many and will lead to more.