Utterly Disgusted by the Mistreatment as a Seller
I'd like to start this review by stating that I have been a loyal Takealot customer for years, I've recommended these guys to both friends and family as being reliable for years.
However my complaint isn't with the Takealot platform but rather the Takealot Seller Portal and their incompetent compliance team.
I've been a seller on the platform for just under a year now and I've sent hundreds if not thousands of tickets and queries trying to resolve issues. Of which most of these tickets are either ignored or set as solved without anyone actually responding to them or helping you in any way or form. And the people that you do eventually connect with listen to your problem, state they will contact/call you back and you never hear back from them again.
Over the last month, I've been trying to add new products to my Catalogue, these products are branded and were bought in a retail store, I have the receipt for them and everything. These products kept getting rejected however by the compliance team due to needing a letter from the manufacturer or a receipt for the products. I then uploaded the receipts and the products got rejected yet again, I was then told to contact the retail store and ask them for a direct invoice for the products. I did this and got a new invoice from the retail store. I then uploaded the new invoice to the compliance team, this was on the 14th. I woke up on the 15th with an email stating that my account has been suspended because the specific agent has the opinion that the products are fraudulent. Note none of these products were ever actually listed under my account let alone sold to anyone, the requests were for permission to sell the specific products.
No member of the compliance team had ever mentioned that these could have possibly been fraudulent over the month-long period that I've been uploading the products. Even so the Takealot T&C state that "You may not provide Product Information or Listing Information for any Unsuitable Products, or otherwise seek to list such Products for sale on the Website, and Takealot is entitled at any time to suspend or remove the listing of any Unsuitable Products from the Website. A list of Unsuitable Products may be included from time to time on the Seller Portal, but Takealot is entitled at any time without prior notice to You to declare any other item as an Unsuitable Product, whether or not it also amends such list." Therefore like in the past, the listings should have just been rejected like they have been in the past. Except the reasoning should state that these are potentially fraudulent products. My account shouldn't have been suspended.
Takealot also states under Prohibited Content, "Illegal and potentially illegal products: All Products sold on the takealot.com site must adhere to all applicable laws. Our sellers are therefore legally liable for their own actions and transactions. As a seller you are expected to familiarise yourself with the legal parameters surrounding any products that you intend to offer for sale on takealot.com. This would include the sale of products by entities outside the Republic of South Africa." None of these products were ever added to my listings let alone sold to anyone, I was simply requesting permission to sell these products, unknowingly that they were fraudulent. If I had known that or if it was ever mentioned I would have gotten rid of the products and never looked back. I'm not the manufacturer nor the importer for these products, again, I bought these from a brick and mortar store, It's illegal in the first place for that retail store to sell fraudulent products.
This has been the latest issue, last month a bunch of my products got disabled because they were "branded" and associated with "PS5" which wasn't allowed to be sold at the time. This is funny because the products that were disabled are generic products that are simply compatible with the PS5, Xbox & Switch controllers. Because it's a generic controller display stand. And on top of that, if you search for "PS5 controller stand" there are still hundreds of products online that weren't taken down like mine was.
Another issue before this, a bunch of products getting rejected due to the primary image being a lifestyle image. This means that on a phone stand or holder, it must be the stand alone without showing the phone. A headphone or controller stand, without showing the controller or headphone. This is especially funny because if you search for a phone/headphone or controller stand right now, there are hundreds of products showing a lifestyle image as the primary image.
Mmmmmmm, Its rules for some and none for others and its BS. I've even had reversible plushies rejected 12 times because either the image with the plushies had to be the same angle, then no arrows allowed on the image and then the product would get rejected for no "dimensions & weight" even though this is a compulsory field when uploading a product. So in the excel sheet that you get back when a product is rejected, a reason is mentioned like the one before. So I'd add those specifications again and reupload. I'd then get the product rejected AGAIN and in the same document with all the specifications listed, I'd get a BS "No dimensions or weight" issue again. After 12 attempts I gave up on those products. That was still when there was a single reversible octopus plushie on the market, now there are hundreds. All with shitty images, arrows on the image and I'm pretty sure none of their listings were rejected.
I'm still dealing with the suspended account, and my whole company runs around selling on Takealot, it's everything, our whole importing market of products is on Takealot. I'm losing thousands because of this and no-one can tell me how long this will take, how long the suspension is, how I can get it reactivated. I have the option to repeal the suspension, which I've done several times without any responses. I've never received any warnings, tickets or suspensions before, this is all a first. And my account is being suspended even though I haven't done anything illegal or against the T&C of Takealot.
I hope someone that can help me sees this and attempts to help me because going through the compliance team and sending them tickets is useless, nothing ever gets resolved, let alone answered.
Kind regards
William