CAPE TOWN – Takealot started their blue dot sale for Black Friday today at midnight on 23 November but according to their customers, the company didn't provide a great experience thus far.
Takealot customers have taken to Twitter to complain about numerous issues such as problems with paying for their items on the website, some consumers found that they were charging more for the item today than a few days ago and complaints came through with the website not being responsive.
Users stated that the website crashed at the payment screen after they had clicked pay, and on certain occasions funds still came off their account.
The company was responding to certain users on Twitter to try and help them resolve their issues.
In response to the checkout issue, TakeAlot said on Twitter: "We've disabled the Credit Card and Masterpass payment options until our payment partner has restored their service. Please try using one of our other payment methods like Instant EFT via I-Pay in the meantime."
Over an hour later, the company said that the service was up and running again.
"The Credit Card and Masterpass payment options have been reactivated on our platforms. Please feel free to use your credit card or any of our other payment options, like Instant EFT to complete your purchase. Thank you," said Takealot.
Julie-Anne Walsh, Chief Marketing Officer at Takealot.com said “All of the preparation done for the enormous increase in shoppers has paid-off and the site performed well, staying online. Thousands of Blue Dot Sale deals are still available for shoppers to take advantage of over the entire Blue Dot Sale weekend. ”
Walsh added that Intermittent technical issues with Takealot’s credit card payment provider resulted in some customers experiencing difficulties with credit card transactions but this has since been fixed.
Here is what consumers had to say:
@TAKEALOT is there a problem with your app? pic.twitter.com/iFf2kmeta0
— Dr. Mogomotsi Xiga (@DrXiga) November 23, 2018
Wow @TAKEALOT didn’t come to the Black Friday party this year...
— ~ sheryll ~ (@sheryllc89) November 23, 2018
The first #BlackFriday #outage victim in #SouthAfrica is @TAKEALOT- as predicted, could not keep it up 🍆 - sometimes billions in funding are not the silver-bullet for successful #ecommerce💣 pic.twitter.com/dIsMpv1nA0
— Gerd Naschenweng🎸🌟 (@gerdnaschenweng) November 23, 2018 This customer was one of the few accusisng Takelot of increasing their prices.
@TAKEALOT how is this a sale? It costs more now than a week ago? Jacking up the prices to fool people into believing its a sale #BlueDotSale pic.twitter.com/YuuQ6WR0Cc
— Darth Nate (@Nate_Dryden) November 23, 2018
Credit card payment option is active now. However I keep getting an error when trying to pay with my credit card pic.twitter.com/td6yJhr8Rz
— Marna Marais (@Marna_Marais) November 23, 2018
@TAKEALOT Could you explain please? pic.twitter.com/C4FRcNTvoN
— Bheki (@nomorebullSA) November 23, 2018
You need a better QA and infrastructure team. pic.twitter.com/0Y79UGmXuT
— Kyle Meyer (@Miracle_Salad) November 23, 2018
Payment taken and no confirmation. @TAKEALOT pic.twitter.com/vKujZXEyQz
— Malebo Sephodi (@malebosephodi) November 23, 2018
This was R4999 3 weekends ago on Takealot. #blackfridayza pic.twitter.com/7dNaCygp7P
— istoffberg (@istoffberg) November 23, 2018
Looks like@TAKEALOT annual #BlackFriday crash strikes again. pic.twitter.com/7QxQLmiRQ4
— Its Ms Cleo to you ♔ (@the_cleof) November 23, 2018