The top online selling platform in South Africa is Takealot and like all sales platforms they are geared to favor themselves. This is a bit like being the banker playing Monopoly and I have never known an honest banker.
We know the sales platform inside out as we have been involved with this platform for over 5 years. The problem with this particular company is the reverse logistics as they have never got things correct and credits are hard to come by and when they do they take many months to be concluded. We have received other companies returns which has always been worrying and even worse they can take months before they are collected and if we had kept quiet no one would even know.
This week we noticed an extra backend section that has never been there before or it was hidden elsewhere and interestingly enough it has never been advertised. This was never part of the training and i do think for good reason as in all honesty they do not want you to find this section.
This added section is the items they have lost or misplaced and you as the supplier need to bill them for the losses. The total was quite significant being over R100K or $5K for the last 12 months. What you obviously would like to know is what about the other 4 years. This should be part of your account showing a credit and not having you to go hunting.
When the buyer was contacted at Takealot his words were well done you found it so it is not that clear and obvious so many other suppliers still have no idea. Like I mentioned before the entire platform is all in their favor and as a supplier you are not treated like you should be. We will claim the $5K knowing this is not lost or misplaced and was most likely stolen and knowing in the first 4 years these numbers would have been far bigger. I would easily guess that this number would have been 10 x the number of $5k and there is no chance of finding out the real number.
This company penalises you and freezes your account for a late delivery even if you are in the queue waiting to deliver. This was done on purpose forcing suppliers to use their internal delivery and collection service which guarantees you no late or missed deliveries, but this comes at a premium price. I guess giving money back for their own mistakes was not something they had or wanted to reveal until now and has taken them 5 years to do this.
They may have had this loaded on the site somewhere hidden away making sure it was not available, but at the same time covering themselves from a "grey" legal area. My mind tells me this is something that should have been up front with immediately and not waiting for their customers to have to "find it" and is like you solved a mystery. Just the wording from the buyer saying well done you found it tells you most have not and have yet to discover what is owed to them. No one likes being treated badly or playing games whilst doing business especially when they have total control and make up the rules on how they do business.
