On Friday morning Kenyan shoppers were engaged in a cat and mouse game with online store Jumia during the previously advertised Black Friday flash sale.
Jumia intends to run the sale every Friday throughout the month of November in preparation for the main Black Friday event on the 23rd of this month.
At around 9:00 am this morning, Jumia sent a tweet notifying customers that the sale on specific items was now live and that the stock was limited so shoppers had to do it fast. After just a few minutes they announced that the items were sold out. Caption: Jumia announces lucrative discounts on some of the most popular items in the market. Like in every promotion, not everyone gets lucky enough, which is understandable. What was surprising about this specific sale, however, was nobody seemed to win anything. Jumia themselves didn't announce the winners of these items.
Angry Kenyans took to the comment section to air their frustrations and they were clearly not a happy lot. Some complained of an item they had selected suddenly disappearing when they tried checking out. Others said the products ran out of stock immediately after selecting them or extremely high prices despite the advertised discounts.
Jumia is a company that's never too far from controversy. Last year, there were numerous complaints of the vast difference in the items ordered and the product that is actually delivered. Unless they somehow manage to explain today's multiple incidents then this goes down as an outright scam.
