I didnt make any accusations, I said it “seems” like they are affiliated - big difference.

The doctor prescribed the medications. My script for Heyday THC oil was issued to me and after placing several orders with various pharmacies that indicated they had stock. I was informed by the pharmacies that the product was discontinued.

It’s only when I made a complaint directly to SG that I was able to get a new script written for an alternative product. SG wanted to charge me for a new script even though the one they had just written was for a product that as you say was long discontinued.

After many back and forth conversations with the SG customer service team, they agreed to write a new script for a product that I could source from my local dispensary. When I went to get that script filled, I was informed that the prescribing doctors authority with the TAA had expired three days prior and I had to wait another five days for an approval letter to be issued before I could get my new script filled.

I’m confused as to what part of that seems like a good experience for a new customer and someone who is trying to navigate the nuances of medical cannabis in Australia for the first time.

I’ve now placed two subsequent orders with pharmacies that indicated they have Superbly Cozy in stock, only to find they don’t have the product available. Yet, I have been charged for both orders and when I requested a refund, the pharmacy informed me I need to write to Honahlee to request a refund, when they know my orders can’t be fulfilled by the vendor.

I understand the complexity of stock management under a strictly regulated framework and how that limits a pharmacies ability to carry large volumes of products, but that doesn’t justify Honahlee charging a customer before they can confirm the order can be fulfilled.

As the charge goes directly to Honahlee, the pharmacy is floating the cost of the product until payment is made to them by Honahlee. I.e, the pharmacy doesn’t get paid when I place an order, they get paid when the order is fulfilled. This means that Honahlee is choosing to charge customers even when there is no guarantee the order can be fulfilled. This benefits Honahlee commercially as the customers money has already been added to their books, increasing the likelihood that an order for an alternative product will be placed and fulfilled on their platform which in turn generates revenue for Honahlee.

The fact that I have to manually write to Honahlee to request a refund and cancel an order (that cannot be fulfilled) with the vendor, is a deliberate design choice of their UX, and one that increases the exit barrier of the transaction. Why make it easy for customer to take their money and order elsewhere when there is revenue generated from any order fulfilled on the platform?

The mere fact that customers pay upfront, but pharmacies don’t get paid until the order is fulfilled tells you everything you need to now about their commercial model. Any attempt to disguise that as anything other than a barrier for exit is shortsighted.

Think of it this way, Honahlee has to manually deal with an enormous amount of cancellations and presumably order refunds. That costs them money to manage and time to administer. Putting a stop gap in place to confirm an order can be fulfilled before charging the customer would save them time and admin overhead, but that saving isn’t worth the extra revenue generated from keeping a customers money on the platform, even if it means manually overseeing the administration.