Business15.01.2020

Returning my Takealot order – This is how all shops should work

Takealot

Takealot is the largest online retailer in South Africa and is known for its good order and delivery systems.

It has a wide range of products, too, meaning you can order what you want and get it delivered to your door.

But what happens if you need to return an item – is the process quick and easy?

To find out, MyBroadband tested its returns process after a pair of our office headphones – which were still under warranty – stopped working properly.

The results of the test are below.


Online returns

As the purchaser of the headphones, I logged into my Takealot account and went to the “Log Return” menu.

You are presented with two buttons: one to log a new exchange or return, and one to track your returns.

Takealot also states that returns follow four steps:

  • The user logs their return online.
  • They prepare the item to be returned.
  • It is collected by a courier or dropped off by the customer at a Takealot pickup point.
  • The item is exchanged or the user is given an account credit.

Takealot


The process

After clicking on “Log New” exchange, you are taken to a list of all your previous Takealot orders.

You are then required to navigate to the item you wish to return and click on the “Return” button next to it.

This takes you to a “Return Request” page, which requires you to complete a short online form made up of three sections.

  1. Reason for return – You select the reason for wanting to return the item (the product is defective or damaged, the product is not what I ordered, etc); the number of items to return; and whether you want the item replaced, your account credited, or a refund. In our case, we were also promoted to provide a short description of the problem with the headphones.
  2. Method of return – You select whether you want a courier to fetch the item, or if you will take it to a Takealot pickup point.
  3. Contact details – Our contact details were populated at the bottom of the form, and we could change them if needed.

After completing the form, you submit the request.

Process


Quick return

The online process above was quick and easy, and we selected the “courier collection” option.

After submitting the request, we received an email and SMS from Takealot acknowledging the submission.

The messages from Takealot contained more information on what would take place next, including:

  • It confirmed that the return request fell within its returns policy.
  • The item would be collected, taken to its warehouse, and evaluated.

We logged our return on a Wednesday at 09:00, and the headphones were collected the next day from our office.

A new pair of headphones were then delivered the following Monday at 11:22.

Excluding the weekend, this means the return took two business days from online submission to the new pair of headphones being delivered to us.

Overall, the Takealot online returns process was excellent. It was quick and easy, and the collection and delivery of the old and new headphones, respectively, meant there was no need to go back to a store with a slip and explain what happened.

This is an opinion piece, based on testing.


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