Online shopping

On 15 December 2022, I purchased the items as per Tax Invoice, with the delivery date set for 17 December 2022. On 21 December I followed up with the recipient but alas no such delivery had taken place and nothing was received. On 21 December 2022, I sent an email requesting a follow-up since the package had not been received. I am still waiting for any response to that email. I subsequently telephoned the Woolworths call centre and spoke to Avul (***). She alerted me to the fact that the delivery had been diverted back to the store. This however was a problem as the recipient was at home all day on the 17th but no call had been received regarding the delivery. The call centre assured me that the store would be contacted via email to ensure that the delivery was made for the next day ie: 22/12/2022. By 10:30, no contact had been made and I telephoned the care centre yet again. This time I spoke to Rosanne. She stated that the store had not followed up on the email regarding the delivery. She once again made contact with the local store and stated that the package would be delivered this afternoon. I have subsequently received notification that the package was delivered just before 16:00 today, despite a slight deviation in the mince pie order.

The problems with all of this are: 1. We were not notified that the delivery did not take place. 2. It was 4 days later that we were told the delivery had not taken place but only after we had contacted the call centre ourselves. 3. Had we not done so, the delivery would never have taken place and I would have still been charged, as no attempt to reimburse my card was made.

This is totally unacceptable and the lack of communication does not bode well for online shopping. A copy of this email has also been sent to HelloPeter, for their response.