Back in the pre-digital world, people who got horribly caught by rogue companies would invariably tell me: “But they had such a big, professional looking advert in the Yellow Pages!”
Now the victims tell me: “But their website is so impressive and professional!” Here’s the thing: anyone can pretend to be anything on the internet. And when you’re buying something online and paying for it upfront, you’re doing so on blind faith if it’s not a company with a long, reputable track record.
For too many people, that faith is totally misplaced and abused.
Every day I get a string of emails from people urging me to investigate and expose online companies for failing to deliver and failing to communicate about that, too.
And they point me to bad reviews about the company online; reviews many admit they should have checked out before taking a chance on a relatively unknown company.
In some cases, the company started off well, with great intentions, but bit off more than they could chew, didn’t invest in the logistics and the people necessary to deliver on their promises, and then instead of admitting that publicly, apologising and going on to make good, they just retreated.
Tidee, the one-man online air fryer retailer that burst onto the e-commerce scene in March last year, appears to have had a good opening run, if the early HelloPeter reviews are to be believed.
But from November the reviews switched dramatically from five-star to one-star (there’s no zero-star option) and the complaints started arriving in my inbox.
Scores of people who paid just R939 for a Tidee Airfryer Max air fryer, apparently marked down from R4,000 — some of them buying two or more as Christmas presents — still haven’t received them.
Doris Bewick of Durbanville is among them. She paid that R939 for an Airfryer in late November, and all she’s got to show for it is an order number.
“I have sent several emails to them and got absolutely NOTHING back,” she told me. “They even had the cheek to send a Merry Christmas wish — can you believe it!”
Here’s how Tidee’s owner, who provides his first name only — Matt — promotes his offering on his website: “We’re a SA appliance brand with a mission: change the way appliances are sold. We sell direct to the consumer, so we can avoid traditional markups and sell our products at half the price of competitors.”
As for the product itself, it’s described as: “The air fryer that shocked the country with it’s (SIC) affordable price and premium set of features.”
Well, a lot of Tidee customers are properly shocked right now, because they’ve been waiting up to three months for their airfryers to materialise.
On December 12, Matt posted a video on Facebook, admitting to having messed up and promising to make good by the first or second week of January.
“I created the website; did the graphics, I did all the marketing, and I made customer service my responsibility,” he said, but come October, he said, the workload increased and he couldn’t manage it all alone.
In early December, he said, he decided not to accept any new orders, and put a team together to focus on getting the back orders out instead and making customer service his main focus.
That sounded very noble indeed.
“It’s not ideal for you guys to be waiting so long for a reply,” he said. “This has caused negativity and anxiety.”
He stopped short of actually apologising, but he did accept responsibility for his failure to deliver and undertook to improve communications.
“The orders will be arriving early to mid (January) so I will keep you further updated.”
As I’ve so often said, reasonable people love an honest “my bad” confession and an undertaking to make good, and the comments on that post bear that out, bar a few would-be air fryer owners who were clearly not entirely pacified.
“While we appreciate your feedback,” said Elaine Moodley, “it is sad that we ordered this and have to wait months before it arrives. We were hoping it would arrive before Christmas, hence we ordered early. If you had advised us upfront that we had to wait for months before we receive the air fryer, I would have purchased it elsewhere. I even asked for a refund, which we received no feedback on as well.”
Legally they are all entitled to refunds, in terms of the Consumer Protection Act, because they didn’t get what they paid for.
If they paid by credit card, they could apply for chargeback via their banks, provided the chargeback period is still valid.
Delivery can’t be open-ended at the sole discretion of the supplier — that’s akin to an interest-free loan at best and theft by false pretences at worst.
Sadly, Matt does not appear to have made good on his promises — the one-star complaints are still pouring in on HelloPeter, and he’s yet to post an update on Facebook.
On January 7 I sent an urgent media query to the company’s website, requesting an interview with Matt and posing a few questions, but got only an automated response saying it was “being reviewed by our support team”.
When I resent it a few days later, I got no response.
Not encouraging at all.
We all like to see a maverick succeed. Cutting out the middle man and their financial “cut” is very appealing indeed, but if you don’t thoroughly investigate how they are treating their customers BEFORE hitting that “pay” tab, you’re taking an enormous risk.
CONTACT WENDY: E-mail: consumer@knowler.co.za; Twitter: @wendyknowler; Facebook: wendyknowlerconsumer
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