Worst Service EVER
I purchased a Smeg stand mixer which arrived damaged in the box on the 10th of November. On the 24th of November I received a message advising me that my replacement order is being processed and my estimate delivery date is 01 December.
In the interim, One Day Only were selling the exact same Smeg Mixer @R4999 (R400 less than my purchase price) and @Home offered the Kitchen Aid stand mixer with a 40% discount.
As per your mails, I trusted my stand mixer would be replaced. I decided not to purchase a better value for money offer from another company only to return yours. Instead, due to poor/unreliable service of both Takealot and Smeg I lost out completely.
On 1 December I tracked my order to find out the new estimate delivery date would be 14 December.
On the 4th of December I received an email telling me Takealot are no longer able to replace my stand mixer as the product is all of a sudden out of stock. My options were to get a refund or a Takealot credit. A few hours later I searched your site and found the same stand mixer (suddelnly back in stock) at a higher price. I was further advised that if I wanted the exact same product which I had actually paid for a good month ago, I would now have to pay the higher price for it, ON THE SAME DAY AS MY OUT OF STOCK REFUND, all thanks to the lack of service and quality between Smeg and Takealot.
What if I had purchased the product on credit and on top of that was paying interest the on R5399 over the last month and a half? Would you still not care?
Reading reviews I see that I am not the only person who has received a damaged Smeg stand mixer. As a matter of fact some other people have received theirs at the same “discount” price as me. I’ve also noticed that previous bad reviews have since been removed from your online site? Do Smeg and Takealot have a deal to get rid of faulty appliances at a discount price? This is the only logical explanation as they are not happy to exchange goods faulty on delivery unless you are willing to pay a higher price!
How many Smeg stand mixer has Takealot sold since the date my product was returned to your warehouse/I was notified that my replacement order was replacement order is being processed and my estimate delivery date is 01 December? How can Takealot not have a system in place that manages your stock accurately?
I find your mails extremely misleading – had I known upfront from the 24th of December that I “may not” or “will not” be receiving the product I would have definitely purchased the product from another supplier whilst I could actually still afford it. I understand that you have return policies but how can such a well known brand not be willing to replace their stock that was faulty on delivery? Does Smeg and Takealot actually care about the quality and service they offer their customers?