Good day Edgars Team,
Trust my email finds you well and safe.
On the 21st of May 2020, my son had some errands to run at VaalMall Shopping Centre in Vanderbijlpark. The previous day I received a voucher for my birthday via email, Voucher Number: 3794352359. Seeing that Damian went to Edgars, I asked him to kindly pay my account and purchase a specific pair of shoes, pay cash for the shoes and use my voucher. Now, Damian has used my card on several occasions previously and all was ok. Damian phoned me and told me that the cashier would not allow him to make the purchase upon which I spoke to “Thabo”, presumably the floor manager. Thabo informed me that if I can send a picture of my ID via Whatsapp as well as confirm via Whatsapp that I give Damian permission to use my card, they could proceed with the sale. So I forwarded a picture of my ID, Driver License and a note on Whatsapp stating that I was giving Damian permission to make the purchase, but it was denied seeing that they wanted a signed letter. Ok so then I told Damian to simply pay my account and buy the shoes cash- which I also find rather contradictory – you can pay and not buy. Now, please note the transactions would have taken place in the following order: Damian would have paid my instalment of R510-00 first (an how did he know it was R510?). Then he would have purchases the sneakers cash – which was only for the amount of R379-00 and then would simply use my voucher for the sneakers. Which means I would have paid the difference of R205-00. Now, I am well aware of the fact that a number of rules are implemented and applied in order to protect a client, but does the whole situation come across as a fraudulent transaction by any means. NO !!! If Damian tried to purchase the shoes (which was actually very cheap) on my account and no instalment was paid I would have understand. The following evidence of us being related was apparent:
1. Damian Pretorius – I am Pretorius
2. The voucher was sent to MY email address – thus the only way he could have provided the voucher number is if he got it from me- and my I add that the voucher was a screenshot from the email I got.
3. Damian could present the staff with his ID and Driver’s licence upon which mine followed from the mobile number you have on your system.
4. He first paid my instalment, and then bought the shoes cash upon which he would have used the voucher – which by the way is a size four shoe, thus obviously not for himself.
5. After all of this, he was allowed to pay my account (which then is noted as a transaction) and he bought my shoes cash.
Now, as I stated, I do understand that measures should be taken due to fraud and all the other nasty things going on around us in this “beautiful” country of ours, but I think better judgement could have and should have been applied. There was ample evidence that this was not a fraudulent attempted transaction.
So now, the good news for Edgars is that I will not be utilizing the voucher seeing that Vaal Mall is quite a distance from where we stay – so I have saved you R175-00. I will also rather just settle my account and then give my final “wave good-bye” to Edgars. I have been a loyal customer for many years, but honestly cannot deal with a company who cannot even apply logic. I wanted to bring this to your attention seeing that we are all aware of the fact that Edgars is currently in a financial mess, yet will rather chase a longstanding client away for a mere R175-00. By the way, what comes to mind now, all my details are on the system, why did they not just simply give me a call on my cell phone to verify details. After all, when a client contacts your offices for information, security questions are asked and if verified is A ok. In any case, I just wanted to brought it to your attention and I sincerely hope this was viewed by a loyal employee who will communicate this to relevant senior staff of concern.
Sincere regards