Takealot gets shaded on Black Friday for hiccups ... again

Takealot's Black Friday sale is a “scam”.

This is according to not-so-happy shoppers, who flocked to social media to complain that the discounts offered are "not actually" discounts. On Twitter, the hashtag #Takealotscam trended as customers screengrabbed images of items which were allegedly cheaper days before Black Friday.

Over the past few years, Takealot’s Blue Dot Sale has been hyped as the ultimate Black Friday extravaganza.

With so much advertising put into it, South Africans jumped on their phones and laptops at midnight to look for their first purchase.

However, some customers say that the prices were not reduced as much as expected.

Others social media users complained about the checkout process, claiming that the prices change during checkout and the 'payment page is stuck.'

Takealot defended the pricing complaints, telling TimesLIVE that in some cases there are two different sellers for the same product on the site. The company says that it is possible that one seller of the same product is not part of the Blue Dot Sale.

The company explained that in some cases there is limited stock of an item available. It said once the Blue Dot Sale stock is sold out, the item reverts to its original pricing. 

"Unfortunately, this can sometimes happen whilst a shopper is in the process of checking out which seems to have been the case in this instance. Deals are available on a first-come, first-serve basis and stock is only reserved once payment is received."

This is not the first time Takealot has been slammed on Black Friday. In previous years, their site crashed and customers experienced difficulties making payments.

Here is a snapshot of some of the reactions:

This article was updated to include Takealot's comment.