Why do we have to argue first?

Guys, I'm hugely disappointed in you today.

I wanted something for my wife for her birthday, which is tomorrow. I was hoping to find it in retail, but a Google search directed me to your site, where you offered same day delivery. Sounds too good to be true, right? So I called, asked how it work. You asked me to tick certain boxes to qualify-

1. Order before 11am, check 2. Make sure items are in stock in Jo'burg warehouse, check 3. Pay an additional shipping fee, check

I placed the order, yay. In the early afternoon, I had to leave home to run an errand. I called you to confirm delivery today as I didn't want to miss the courier while I'm out. "Won't be before 2pm", takealot.com customer service confirms. Great, back in good time.

Just after 17:00, I had still not received the delivery and called you for a third time today to follow up. Your agent told me very matter of factly that you had "system trouble" today, which translates that you're not going to do same day delivery as I asked for, ticked all your boxes and paid more for. All of the sudden, the agreement we reached earlier in the day means nothing.

That was until I had to fight for you to honour our agreement. Our deal was, in a nutshell, that I would choose goods and pay for said goods immediately, and you will pick those goods and deliver today. I held up my end of the bargain, why do you think it's okay to not honour yours until after I follow up?

As perspective, at no point in our agreement did I have the option to withdraw my payment with no warning to you.

After frustration boiled over into anger, speaking to many people, I did receive my delivery* around 19:00 tonight. This means that it was possible after all, and you could have sent simple comms, something like "We had system trouble and we're running late, sorry! We notice that you chose same day delivery, that must have been for a reason. We will still do what it takes to get it to you tonight if it's time critical, we know that you may have gone home by now, can we deliver there? How do we make this work, what do you think is possible" Instead you chose to do nothing, until I followed up and you say "sorry, no can do, lol". After that, we argue, and fight, and generally dislike each other a bit, and for what? Just so that you do what you agreed to do in the first place.

If you want to reply, I'd prefer not to receive a generic "we're sorry" cut-and-paste answer - if that's the best you want to do, just leave this post unanswered. I'd like the COO of takealot.com to tell me why his or her clients has to fight with the callcentre staff because the operational team does not honour their promises, or communicate when things go wrong. My email address is visible to you on this site.

Willi

*I'm really appreciative of the delivery tonight. I will send praise those members of the team in a separate post on this site. The guys in Cape Town picked up the slack tonight for their colleagues in Johannesburg.