TakeAlot and order delivery times

Zewp

Zewp

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I just ordered the Game of Thrones book box set from TakeAlot, and upon placing the order it said that it was in stock. Upon reception of payment, it suddenly reflected on both my payment confirmation page and the product page that it will now take 15-20 working days to deliver.

This is the second time it happens that an item says it is in stock, but changes its delivery time immediately after ordering it. It happened when I order a videogame last year December as well. The page said it was in stock, but it changed to 7 working days as soon as I placed the order.

Isn't this somewhat shady on TakeAlot's part? How the hell are they doing this? Don't get me wrong, I love TakeAlot and always order everything from them, but this really leaves a sour taste in my mouth. The only reason I bought it from them was because it said it was in stock, meaning it would have been delivered tomorrow or the day after. I don't want to have to wait 15 - 20 days for it. I wanted it this week so I could start reading this week. :<

Now I have to try and get the order cancelled and my money refunded, and idiot me used their PayFast EFT option. If I had used standard EFT, I would have seen this before placing the order. :/
 
Well, my order page in the Order History now says Ready to Ship, but the product page still says 15 to 20 days. I'll wait till tomorrow and see. Does anyone know if their system is directly tied to their stock, so that it counts down the amount of stock as the orders come in? Maybe I got the last one? Just found it odd that the payment confirmation page said 15 - 20 days.

I honestly hope I got one, because getting a refund out of them can take up to 30 days, so either way, I'm screwed for a while yet. :/
 
When I have $$$ again I can put this to the test, though I really never had this issue before.
 
I'm pretty miffed about it, to be honest. It was supposed to be my early birthday present to myself (even though my birthday is more than a week away), now I'm possibly only getting it long after my birthday, even if I ask for a refund to buy it at retail myself. :(

I can't really remember what happened when it happened over December, though. Pretty sure the game only arrived a week later, but I might be mistaken as I wasn't home when I ordered it in the first place, so I wasn't able to collect it immediately anyway.

From their T&Cs

CANCELLATION AND REFUND
You are entitled to cancel your order for the Goods, without penalty, within 7 days of the Goods having been delivered to you. In such an event -
you will receive a full refund of the purchase price within 30 days of the date of cancelling this agreement;
you undertake not to utilise the Goods;
your agreement of purchase will be deemed to have been cancelled, and
you will be liable in terms of section 44(2) of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 (as amended from time to time) for the direct costs of returning the Goods, such as courier and/or shipping charges. If the Goods in question were procured from the "Import" section of our website from a third party affiliate supplier of Takealot, you will also be liable for the direct costs incurred by Takealot in returning the Goods to such third party affiliate supplier.
Please note that your right to cancel your order for Goods without penalty set out in this clause, shall not apply where the Goods that you have ordered are newspapers, periodicals, magazines and books, or where audio or video recordings or computer software were unsealed by you, or where goods are made to your specifications or are clearly personalised..
The Company will deliver the Goods to you as soon as reasonably possible, but no later than 30 days of receipt of your payment ("Delivery Period"). We will notify you if we are unable to deliver the Goods during the Delivery Period. You may then, within 7 days of receiving such notification elect whether or not to proceed with your order for the Goods. If you elect not to proceed with your order, we will reimburse you with the purchase price within 30 days of having informed you that we are not able to deliver the Goods during the Delivery Period.
Click to expand...
 
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If orders take up to 30 days to be refunded, is it entirely legal for TakeAlot to have misleading delivery times on their website? Say they mail me tomorrow and tell me I have to wait 15 - 20 days for delivery, it would mean I bought the product under the impression that it was in stock, but it actually wasn't. Now, if I want a refund, I have to wait even longer than the delivery period of the order for my refund to arrive, so in the end I'd probably end up just waiting for the books to be delivered.

Isn't that just another way of misleading customers into buying from you? As I said previously, if it hadn't said the item was in stock, I wouldn't have ordered from them.

This is all just speculation, though. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see what's what.
 
Isn't there a way for me to go back in my cache and see the page as it was before it changed? A guy at university told me something of the like a while back, but he's not very smart so he could have been talking out of his ass. :p
 
No no, I'm ordering the books, not the television series. :p

I actually checked for the books on Kalahari, and theirs was R20 cheaper, but it had a 15 - 20 delivery date on it.
 
I think that I also received a similar message from Takealot that my shipment would be delayed after making payment so I was not expecting the delivery man when he arrived before 8am the following morning. From my experience Takealot usually delivers really quickly!
 
How it works is, sometimes the order you make is shipped in from the USA or the UK. Takealot uses Amazon directly for these purchases, so if it is in stock on amazons website, it will be in stock on the takealot site. You have to make sure that the product is in stock in South Africa (will have SA flag). I have never had a problem with takealot, in fact, they are overboard friendly. They gave me a R100 the other day just because my order was delayed. Kalahari on the other hand I will never buy from... Problem after problem after problem... Hope that helps :)
 
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They do have issues with their ordering system, something to do with your location and the warehouse the stock is at.
I ordered two "in stock" items from them a few weeks ago, and also got that "deliver in 8-10 days" crap. I contacted them (on their facebook page) and they sorted it out chop chop, had the stuff the next day.
Not sure if it's entirely the same problem that I had though.
 
Soapy_Bubbles said:
How it works is, sometimes the order you make is shipped in from the USA or the UK. Takealot uses Amazon directly for these purchases, so if it is in stock on amazons website, it will be in stock on the takealot site. You have to make sure that the product is in stock in South Africa (will have SA flag). I have never had a problem with takealot, in fact, they are overboard friendly. They gave me a R100 the other day just because my order was delayed. Kalahari on the other hand I will never buy from... Problem after problem after problem... Hope that helps :)
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Damn. That explains it then. It has a US flag on it.

Ah well. It's still kinda misleading though. I didn't know that and now it means I won't be reading the books within 15 days at the soonest. If I'd known that, I'd simply have gone to a retail store to get them. :(

They should just clarify that a bit in future.

My order page says Ready to Ship, but if it turns out it's going to take that long I'm going to see if I can't push them to refund me before the end of the week. The long weekend is the perfect time for me to get some reading in.
 
Hi there Graal,

Just to clarify that we looked into your query, and have also replied to your Facebook post.

You did, in fact, order the last item in stock, which is why the page then changed it's status. As to why your payment confirmation page also reflected the 15 - 20 days, our technical team are looking into that.

If you ever need more clarity or have questions, you're always welcome to give us a shout : 0861 222 989 or [email protected]

Regards,
TAKEALOT
 
I didn't order that one, I ordered this one

http://www.takealot.com/books/fiction/game-of-thrones-boxed-set-paperback,8984686

Regardless, the order was dispatched and is on its way, so it seems their site keeps pace with their stock. That's a really nifty feature. Also wasn't really expecting them to deliver it today, seeing as I didn't order it within business hours yesterday.

TAKEALOT said:
Hi there Graal,

Just to clarify that we looked into your query, and have also replied to your Facebook post.

You did, in fact, order the last item in stock, which is why the page then changed it's status. As to why your payment confirmation page also reflected the 15 - 20 days, our technical team are looking into that.

If you ever need more clarity or have questions, you're always welcome to give us a shout : 0861 222 989 or [email protected]

Regards,
TAKEALOT
Click to expand...

Ah, thanks for the reply. Just saw that. Was just worried when it changed the delivery time on the confirmation page.

I've still got access to the page from my history, so here's a screenshot of it.

aaf9s8.jpg
 
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TAKEALOT said:
Hi there Graal,

Just to clarify that we looked into your query, and have also replied to your Facebook post.

You did, in fact, order the last item in stock, which is why the page then changed it's status. As to why your payment confirmation page also reflected the 15 - 20 days, our technical team are looking into that.

If you ever need more clarity or have questions, you're always welcome to give us a shout : 0861 222 989 or [email protected]

Regards,
TAKEALOT
Click to expand...

Welcome to myBB TakeALot! Now your service can only get better :D
Maybe PM RPM and ask to be marked as a supplier.
 
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