Beware when ordering from RARU...

TheJanitor said:
Hey guys. I'm a bit pressed for time so I just skimmed through this thread after it came up in a google search. My experience with Raru is that I returned a gaming chair as it just wasn't for me. I was charged a R450 delivery fee and a 10% handling fee. They processed my refund credit 3 weeks ago. I'm still waiting for my Raru credit to be reimbursement on my credit card. I'm stuck in "refund queue HELL". Just got word from them today. See below an extract for their email to me.



Up to 30 working days if not longer ... Ridiculous!!!
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It's clearly a scam to earn free interest on your money or just use it for cash flow, what a score!

It also puts pressure on the customer to rather use the credit to order something else in the meantime, Raru winning again.

There must be some really dodgy people running Raru to implement such a practice, what a clever way to win loyal customers...
 
airborne said:
It's clearly a scam to earn free interest on your money or just use it for cash flow, what a score!

It also puts pressure on the customer to rather use the credit to order something else in the meantime, Raru winning again.

There must be some really dodgy people running Raru to implement such a practice, what a clever way to win loyal customers...
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I've said it before. Raru is now operating on interest from the cash you give them, and for how long they can keep it before giving you the item you ordered.

Edit: this is both in way of the time taken from date of payment to delivery; and then from time taken to refund you if there is an issue with a refund.
 
While I've had some bad experiences with Raru (particularly on refunds) - I've had considerably more positive experiences. And they have even honoured many orders that they could've claimed were errors.

They clearly have their product catalogue feeding from their suppliers - resulting in pricing errors occasionally. And yes, their refund process sucks (although PC Link is worse). But I've never not received my money back, and I think any conspiracy theories that they're trying to live off interest from holding onto your money for a couple weeks is misguided.
 
JustinB said:
While I've had some bad experiences with Raru (particularly on refunds) - I've had considerably more positive experiences. And they have even honoured many orders that they could've claimed were errors.

They clearly have their product catalogue feeding from their suppliers - resulting in pricing errors occasionally. And yes, their refund process sucks (although PC Link is worse). But I've never not received my money back, and I think any conspiracy theories that they're trying to live off interest from holding onto your money for a couple weeks is misguided.
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I don't think they're holding the money to earn quick interest, I think it's more likely that they simply have a cashflow problem. When they pay money over to the supplier and the supplier fails to honour the order, I don't think retailers are immediately refunded. Suppliers tend to drag their feet.

This is where I think the cashflow problem lies.

Like you said, all refunds are processed eventually. When it's a few hundred rand, that's all fine and well, but when it's thousands, that could lead to some sleepless nights for the customer.
 
You guys do realise this is basically business 101. Hassle your debtors on day one while pushing creditors out as far as possible. *Everybody* does this including the PnP you shop at because it improves return on equity.

Consumers normally only see the one side (you paying on day 1) but not the other side...except for refunds cause the direction is reversed.
 
Totempole said:
I don't think they're holding the money to earn quick interest, I think it's more likely that they simply have a cashflow problem. When they pay money over to the supplier and the supplier fails to honour the order, I don't think retailers are immediately refunded. Suppliers tend to drag their feet.

This is where I think the cashflow problem lies.

Like you said, all refunds are processed eventually. When it's a few hundred rand, that's all fine and well, but when it's thousands, that could lead to some sleepless nights for the customer.
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They aren't immediately refunded yes.
Take into account how many products ordered. The poor state of suppliers and their systems and this is what happens.
I've waited weeks for communication from Banks to suppliers and I'm still waiting.

Place an order. Bam. You've got someone to talk to. It's poor business and it's not by default the fault of Raru or anyone else.
 
windowlickers_rsa said:
Wish I had found this thread sooner...






































Chargeback has been submitted, waiting on my bank to process
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Please update the thread on how the chargeback works out, that is probably the way forward for anyone else encountering this issue. I'm sure the banks will eventually blacklist them in some way if there is a high volume of chargebacks.
chickenbeef said:
The refund issues were there before the pandemic started. ****ers jumping on the pandemic bandwagon :mad:
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Caught in the lie, I started the thread on March 2019 and if recall correctly I was far from the first victim.
 
If you guys only knew how many emails I get from them:

1613336926677.png

This item was still available a month after the initial purchase.

Also thread was started March 2019. Hardly in the year of the old mighty "Pandemic".
 
This has been happening since 2018, this was the last time I bought something from them:

1613374931807.png

Took 6 weeks to get my money back.
 
airborne said:
What's been happening at Loot?
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Slow delivery of new orders. Slow returns and refund process, and a carefree attitude towards it.

Similar situation to RARU, just not as bad yet.

In their case things started going downhill with Covid. RARU started going down long before then.
 
While I personally thought Raru was on a downward spiral, and basically using cash management to keep them selves afloat, looking at what Google has to say with their quick search is unreal...

1614721673129.png
 
airborne said:
Please update the thread on how the chargeback works out, that is probably the way forward for anyone else encountering this issue. I'm sure the banks will eventually blacklist them in some way if there is a high volume of chargebacks.Caught in the lie, I started the thread on March 2019 and if recall correctly I was far from the first victim.
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Quick update: after submitting the visa chargeback dispute electronically, and subsequently performing seemingly never-ending hoop jumps to keep the dispute moving forwards, earlier this week I received an email from my bank which sadly stomped all over my remaining enthusiasm to proceed down this path:

"Kindly visit your nearest ______ Branch and fill in a dispute form so that the investigation of your dispute may resume."

ARRG seriously...

Against every fiber of my being I ashamedly threw in the towel: I took a gamble and ordered a number of "in stock" items to simply deplete my remaining store credit; earlier today I received delivery of all items ordered.

Lessons learned:
1) Local banks are incredibly reluctant to actually process a visa chargeback - I do not recommend pursing this exercise unless the sums involved are significant.
2) Raru management are obviously well aware of "lesson 1".
3) For future online purchases, I intend sticking to either a) stores with impeccable customer service records, or b) well established businesses who operate in both online & brick and mortar space.

F**k you Raru!
 
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