Kyle Wales of Cape Town bought a laptop on Takealot, and when its charger exploded recently, he went looking for an invoice on the app in order to make a warranty claim. When he couldn’t access it, he turned to Takealot for help. But the e-tail giant said its third-party supplier was non-responsive to requests to provide one. Meanwhile, some Makro online customers’ dealings with third-party suppliers on that platform have gone weirdly wrong: they’ve received poor imitations of the top branded products, completely wrong orders and in one case the “new” couches with clear signs of prior use – gouges and crumbs and fluff in the seats. Where does the consumer stand? Wendy Knowler explains.
You choose to buy your stuff from a reputable online retail site because you trust that they’re going to deliver as promised, right?
But what if that appliance, sofa or laptop you bought is actually being supplied by a third-party merchant which is paying the big e-tailer to host them on the platform.
And the goods you get are either not what you ordered, or second-hand, stolen, or they don’t come with an invoice, meaning you can’t make a warranty claim. Must the host platform take responsibility?
According to consumer protection laws, they must, but in reality, that doesn’t always happen.
A year ago, Kyle Wales of Cape Town bought a laptop on Takealot from a third-party seller, one of around 10 000 on the platform.
Earlier this year, the laptop’s charger exploded, but Wales hasn’t been able to get it replaced under warranty because he wasn’t issued an invoice.
Some of Makro’s online customers have been having their own battles with the company’s Marketplace third-party vendors – being sent cheap, nasty versions of the branded products they ordered, totally wrong products and even used goods.
Cathy Littlejohn of New Germany, outside Durban, ordered two beige sleeper couches last month but received one beige one and one green one. And that’s not all: both couches were clearly used, with deep gouges and one with crumbs and fluff in the seats.
When Littlejohn contacted News24 for help, she’d been waiting two weeks for Makro to collect the couches. That has since happened.
Massmart’s senior vice president of group corporate affairs Brian Leroni said Makro had addressed the cases “directly and robustly” with the sellers concerned. “We contract marketplace sellers to uphold the relevant consumer legislation, and we reserve the right to suspend unreliable sellers from our marketplace platform,” he said.
But Wales has yet to receive proof of purchase for his laptop.
“As I bought it from Takealot, a reputable seller, I expected to have no problems logging onto my Takealot profile, downloading the invoice and submitting it to Lenovo,” he said.
But that didn’t work.
Ten days later, Takealot told him that the seller was “unresponsive” and that they were thus unable to supply him with the required invoice.
He was given the third party seller’s contact details and essentially told: good luck, you’re on your own.
“Not being able to procure an invoice means the warranty on my R23 000 laptop is effectively invalidated because you need an invoice to claim under a warranty,” Wales told News24.
Having lodged a complaint with the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud, Takealot shared with him its response to the Ombud’s office, pointing to one of its Ts and Cs that states: “The third-party seller is solely responsible for fulfilment of delivery of the goods”.
“The third-party seller is also responsible to provide an invoice to the registered user if required.”
As with all the products sold by independent third-party sellers on the Takealot platform, the company said, “the sale takes place between a customer and the seller. We are therefore unfortunately not able to provide an invoice for the sale of the product.”
The company told News24 that all third-party sellers had to go through a robust vetting process before they could start trading on the platform.
They were required to submit documentation and information, which was automatically checked and validated using a matrix of databases.
SAPS and company registration records were also checked, and sellers’ sources of supply were validated using previous invoice checks.
“If the seller does not pass the checks and overall vetting process, they are not permitted to trade on Takealot.”
On the “rare” occasions when the checks and balances fail, Takealot said, “we assist customers as best possible”.
“In Mr Wales’ case the seller has unfortunately been unresponsive despite our best efforts to make contact with them.
“As a result we have suspended them from trading on Takealot Marketplace until we have established contact with them and resolved the matter at hand.”
But that leaves Wales without the means to lodge a warranty claim in respect of his exploded charger.
Asked to comment, Consumer Goods and Services Ombud Lee Soobrathi pointed to a section of the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) which states that an intermediary — such as Takealot in this case — must “keep the prescribed records of all relationships and transactions…”
And the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (ECTA), which regulates online transactions, states that a supplier must inform customers how and when they can “access and maintain a full record of the transaction”.
“The approach of the CGSO is that an e-commerce platform hosting third-party business products will be regarded as an intermediary for the purpose of the Consumer Protection Act, and as such will need to comply with these provisions,” Soobrathi said.
Should the Ombud’s office find that Takealot is not adhering to those provisions, Soobrathi said, it would engage with the company to ask what it had done to ensure it complies with relevant legislation, and protect consumers in respect of Ts and Cs which limit the risk or liability of the supplier “or any other person”.
“The CPA requires that this be brought to the attention of the consumer in a conspicuous manner and form that is likely to attract the attention of an ordinarily alert consumer…” Soobrathi said.
Takelot would also be asked what relief had been provided to a consumer that had been deprived of such legislative protection, he said.
“Online platforms are required to take measures to protect consumers by proving the ability for a consumer to exercise their rights in terms of the relevant consumer protection laws, be it a defective product, a sales record, warranty or otherwise.
“It could not have been the intention of the CPA or ECTA for the consumer to be left to deal with the third party directly when the consumer has been engaging with the online platform from inception to finalisation of the initial transaction.
“Especially since such hosting and marketing is the day-to-day business of the intermediary or platform in question.”
CONTACT WENDY:
Email: consumer@news24.com
Twitter: @wendyknowler
*Due to the volume of emails Wendy receives, she cannot undertake to take up every case or respond to every email. Please include dates, reference numbers, receipts and other relevant details in your emails.
