Cape Town - The National Consumer Commission (NCC) is to investigate whether the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) was contravened after complaints about Mango Clothing store’s cancellation of online sale prices.
On Monday, clothing items were advertised from R1 upwards, causing a buying hysteria among online shoppers.
But by Tuesday, shoppers were informed via e-mail and on Mango’s Facebook page that orders were cancelled.
Buyers took to social media to vent their anger.
One wrote on Facebook: “Disgusted with Mango. It’s not a technical fault. The order was confirmed and the money taken out of my bank account. What the customer sees is what the customer gets. False advertising and definitely a cause for reputational damage.”
Another stated that prices seen on an order, and paid in full, must be honoured.
Damn. I really wanted my R1 panty. #MangoSale
— Anja Fourie (@exploradoranja) May 17, 2016
NCC spokesperson Trevor Hattingh, however, said a supplier can retract a displayed price under certain circumstances. If the price contained an inadvertent and obvious error, it would have to be corrected in the displayed price, and customers must be informed.
“The NCC has received several e-mails from consumers who have raised concerns about this particular transaction. We also received one formally lodged complaint which we will be assessing to establish if there was a contravention of the CPA.”
The great R1 lace panty scandal of 2016.
History will never forget. #mangosale
— Daddy (@LifeisSavage) May 17, 2016
He added that one of the issues they would look into was whether the prices were used as bait to lure consumers to the clothing website, and the company knowingly advertised without enough stock supply. This would be in contravention of the CPA.
Mango spokesperson Marta Soler Morera said the promotion of up to 50 percent was part of a worldwide drive. .
“In South Africa, some of the garments included in this selection were affected by a technical problem involving prices, reducing them to more than 99 percent of their original price.
“As soon as the company realised the error, Mango proceeded to immediately communicate this to all clients affected and cancelled the orders, issuing all the refunds straight away,” she said.
Mango also issued a statement on Facebook saying: “We regret the inconvenience that the technical issue may have caused to our customers last Monday on our website. It was never our intention to confuse our customers in any way. The incident was corrected without delay and customers have since been able to enjoy the Mid-Season Sale promotion. We have immediately notified this situation to all customers and proceeded to issue the corresponding refunds.”
Cape Times