Why a Black Friday sale product actually costs more!

Gerhard Olivier spotted that the price of a JBL Charge 3 Bluetooth speaker increased from R2,199 on Thursday to R2,299 on Black Friday, which is billed as a shopper's delight.

"This means Takealot was selling an item as 'reduced', when in fact the prices increased on Black Friday," Pretorius said in an e-mail.

"Funny enough, when looking for the exact same item again on Takealot, it can be found again at Thursday's price," he said.

But Takealot.com said there was a perfectly good explanation.

"These are two different product listings.

"The listing shown at R2,199 is our own stock, and the listing at R2,299 is our third-party seller's stock (namely Shop and Ship Online)," Takealot.com said.

"Since November 23 Takealot.com has been offering the JBL Charge 3 Bluetooth Speaker (black) at R2,199, and the product is still currently available at this price.

"We, however, ran out of stock at our warehouse from Friday and the item has since therefore gone on lead time and is only available in three to five working days," the company said. "We always try to offer our customers the best buying options with regards to pricing and availability.

"As the third party seller still had stock at our warehouse on Friday, they won the 'buying box' and their stock was offered to customers as first choice as they would be able to get the item sooner, albeit it a slightly higher price."

Source: The Times