Perkal Gifts Review (South Africa)

Quick background: I do most of my shopping online and I support a lot of South African e-commerce companies.

Perkal Trading/Perkal Gifts. This was the worst experience I've had with any South African company selling products online.

I implore online shoppers to read and be aware of how poorly this company conducted itself to the point of breaking the law.

I bought a moderately expsenive pen from the company a few weeks ago.

Here are some of the things that went wrong:

1) They took my money (in excess of R700) when the pen I ordered was not available. It did not state on the website that it was out of stock or on back-order.

2) I had to concede in taking another pen with a different model number and  different colour even, for the same amount of money. This was my first mistake. Don't allow this ever as a consumer.

3) They shipped the product via regular post office shipping (by my request, as the courier option they provided was exceedingly expensive for a mere pen). Note that other South African online traders often provide free courier shipping on orders over a certain amount. Or charge much less than this company did.

4) The pen was broken and run-dry when I received it! A R700 pen that is not even working. Also the pen clearly did not match the images Perkal provided themselves and neither did it match the pens with that model number as from the official website of the company that makes it.

5) I immediately cried foul. Perkal responded by calling me 'insane' and alleging I am a criminal trying to extort them, that in fact I bought a fake pen at "china mall" and now want to make a quick buck. All over a pen!

6) They refused to communicate with me via e-mail. They wanted to communicate via Post Office Mail!? Why? What are they hiding? This is 2015, you run an e-commerce site and you want to use snail mail to resolve this issue!?

7) They refused to provide me the invoice for the original shipping, as I noted they charged tax on that amount too. Meaning the post office charged tax then Perkal illegally charged tax again on that amount. Double tax. Just to squeeze a few more pennies out of me.

8) After an inordinate amount of e-mails and reluctance they finally allowed me to send the pen back on my own expense so that they can first 'investigate' the matter.

9) They raised objection when I sent the pen back via speed-services. Why? How is this company doing business?

10) After days of waiting they finally agreed to refund me. We did not manage to agree on an amount that they will refund as I incurred extra cost by shipping it back to them. They Still refused to provide me with the original shipping invoice as they realised I picked up on their incredibly poor and dodgy business practices. They even put the phone down in my ear and told me to get a lawyer.

11) I received a refund, finally. But it is clearly not about the money. It is about something much bigger than a stupid pen. It is a matter of principle. It is a sign of a deeper problem in our economy. One which I regret and wish to improve upon.

Never support companies like this. This is why SME's in South Africa struggle yet still continue to treat clients like rubbish. This is because we allow it. Because we have the TIA (this-is-africa) mentality and believe that this is how things are and we can do nothing about it. We should not allow this.

MUST READ PART: Subsequently I bought TWO of the same pens INCLUDING shipping from OVERSEAS for Cheaper than what this dodgy South African company did for one!

By all means please support South African companies, but do not allow them to treat you like crap. Support the good companies and make sure the bad ones gets rooted out.

Happy online shopping everyone!