Irate consumers have raised concerns about online shopping, warning the so-called convenience has caused them stress and left them out of pocket.
Complaints have ranged from paying multiple delivery fees to purchases not arriving and unexpected excessive bills as SA records R50 billion spending in online purchases this year.
A study conducted by World Wide Worx with Mastercard this week revealed a growth in online retail, largely driven by a boom in home deliveries.
But shopping from home and avoiding crowded shopping malls has its pitfalls.
A single Cape Town mother said her last money was zapped from her account by Pick n Pay’s delivery app, asap!
“I have three kids and no financial support, the money they took was for petrol,” Arlene Ferreira said after she sent a lengthy complaint, seen by the paper, to Pick n Pay’s head office.
“When I placed my order, my total was R159.09 ... how is it possible that after selecting (three) replacement items which were only R40.63 more than my original order, (Pick n Pay) deducted an additional R188 off my card.
“Replacing three similar items with my original choices should only have cost me R40.63 EXTRA (sic) ... I paid R347.09,” said Ferreira, who is not the only complainant.
Other consumers took to online platforms to detail their experiences with retail delivery services including Pick n Pay and Woolworths Facebook pages.
Sthe Mncwabe was one of 100 consumers who took his frustrations to the official Facebook page of Pick n Pay asap! this month. “By far the worst service. Place my order around 4pm yesterday, the app said they’ll deliver around 5pm, they deducted my money and never delivered,” he said.
“When I checked the app at night they said they’ll deliver around 10am the following day, mind you I’d ordered bread, milk, eggs and stuff, for immediate consumption. Around 11am following day, app says my order has been cancelled ... nobody notified me that my order is no longer coming. Called helpline, lady doesn’t know why it was cancelled and why I wasn’t notified ... so frustrated.”
Consumer Zamuxolo Mlaba, also on the service’s Facebook page, said: “We shall do this every single day until you fix my issue with your wrong order ... You keep saying I should message you and you don’t respond to me. I will make it a point to comment on every post of yours until this is sorted, the incorrect invoice that came with the incorrect order has someone’s personal details and that alone is a red flag, fix this,” she said.
“I placed an order on PnP asap at 15:52 and at 17:48 it showed delivered, but nothing was delivered,” said a consumer named Carmen on sitejabber.
Another customer, Monique, wrote on the site she too had not received her goods. “Very disappointed, bought a few things online, it’s been now three days, no orders they telling me my goods [are] delivered. Disgusted! Where’s my goods pic n pay (sic) ... You took money and didn’t deliver.”
Speaking on behalf of Pick n Pay, Corporate Image’s Lee-ann Strydom said: “No customer is ‘over-charged’ on the app, but it’s important to note full payment will be charged when placing your order.
“Should there be a refund, there are two types … automatically generated refunds that are either due to a removed item, difference in product weighting that can influence price, or cancellation. Second, manual refunds occur once you have informed us of either a missing item or a damaged item.
“A refund is processed to your wallet available to use immediately.”
She urged consumers to contact their call centre as they will “gladly refund you accordingly, and ensure you get your money back”.
Disgruntled shoppers also ripped into Woolworths, saying it’s “unfair” to pay twice for delivery when ordering food, beauty products and fashion items.
“They charge me R60 delivery fee for the food and R60 delivery for fashion items ... it’s ordered in the same cart,” said Hlakaniphani Ngonyama.
“Why should we pay double ... when we’re in the location we’re not close to a Woolworths ... sometimes the clothes will only arrive three or four days later.”
Samantha Keen on website Hello Peter earlier this week complained about her Woolworths online experience.
“Ordered a gift online on [last week] Thursday, paid for it, – so their system said there is stock – and four days later I get an email saying they have no stock and have cancelled my order. Disappointing,” said Keen.
Woolworths referred unhappy clients to their policy on the delivery costs of different items and the speediness of each service, adding any refunds would be processed to the card the payment was originally made with.
World Wide Worx’s study, Online Retail in South Africa 2022, said online retail in South Africa for the year grew by 35% to R55 billion.
“One can call this the pandemic dividend,” said World Wide Worx’s Arthur Goldstuck. “The 2020 boom in home deliveries has continued for the past two years, as retailers compete aggressively in every area of online shopping.”
Online sales were boosted by Black Friday, with banks reporting massive increases in card and online spending on what is now one of the biggest shopping days of the year, according to the study.
The study showed Checkers Sixty60, grew turnover by 150% from July 2021 to July 2022, Mr Price reported online retail sales up 48.2% for the year to April, and Pick n Pay reported in its annual results for the year to the end of February 2022 that online sales had seen annual compound growth of 72.5% over the previous two years.
Gabriel Swanepoel, country manager of Mastercard South Africa, said: “Since physical shopping was limited during the hard lockdown, it was during this time that we first saw a rise in consumers resorting to online shopping. Due to this, consumers got comfortable – but with comfort of use we are seeing emerging consumer needs and expectations that go beyond being able to shop online.”
Weekend Argus