Coles Supermarkets Australia
Reviews and Complaints

I understand that market prices are going up. But this is just ridiculous.

Coles Brand Chocolate Peanuts (milk chocolate). You're really going to only put half a peanut in these? It's not even the peanuts, it's the integrity. As a dedicated customer, I expected more from Coles. The resolution I seek is not money, or extra food, just try to be fair with your products. Be reasonable. Customers notice these things.

Hi,

This complaints focus on the Hornsby Coles staff bad services.

It's caused since I didn't check if the payment result successful. I came back to Hornsby Coles reception after I notices it. A staff rush out and Yelling they will call police. And snatch the stuff what I picked up back.

I am just wondering if I don't want to pay, why don't just go away. The only possible is that the uneducated people always treat others as in this way.

Hi, I do understand that working night fill can be a tough gig as I have done the same line of work for a year, however that does not mean that the workers need to make excessive noise. I live on flinders street in an apartment complex and I can hear the workers every night since the start of July, be over the top with the noise. They are for ever screaming and shouting at one another, they aren't lifting the pallet jacket high enough from the ground letting it scrap and bump. I have actually been down there to the back of coles where they receive there stock about 3-6 times now between the hours of 1-4am in the morning because its waking me up. One of two thing happen. They either don't say sorry and lower the noise for an hour or they just ignore me. I understand they work those hours and there jobs important. But come on how hard is it to show some courtesy. I have work during the week and I have to be up early for it. Im really not happy with this because its not like I haven't tried to be reasonable with them prior to this complaint. I would like immediate action taken because I'm loosing sleep and time over this. If its a staffing issue maybe look at employing other people because to be able to lift a pallet jack high enough, and reduce noise is not a hard task. I hope you actually take this seriously and sort it out.

Hi:
I bought a bag of Almond from Coles, Winston Hills NSW. The expiry date on the package shows 22/12/2017. But when I opened the bag and tried, it tastes old & awful..., its definitely not good for eat.
I think you shouldn't sell this kind of product any more, this kind of product will destroy Coles' reputation.

My email is [protected]@yahoo.com

regards
Ye

Dear coles
We have been shopping at cole in coomera since we have moved to the gold coast and have been very happy with coles. When shopping at your coomera coles store we were accused of shop lifting this under cover detective came up to my mrs once she had left your store and told her she was under arrest for walking out with unpaid meat
What had bloody happened was she paid for her shopping and then relized she had forgotten milk so she went back in got the milk paid for the milk left your bloody store then got arrested and a very rude under cover guy should have ask first in stead of arresting her and guess what we had the receipt for all our [censor]ing shopping how dare you guys accuse us of shop lifting he even opened our brand new box which had a flying pan in it incase we had meat in there wtf
We have been shopping at coles for years but not no more have told all our friends family not to go to coles anymore
This is my email and number not that I think I will hear from you guys
[protected]@jnltransport.com [protected]

Incident occurred Friday 1/9/2017 8:00 am.
Coles at Westfield price of San pelegrino special $2
the same bottle of water at Coles near by $3.75

Today 7/9/2017 same Coles:

mini donuts NOT price at the shelve BUT at the counter $2
I notified the in-charge of the bakery auguing that Tag price not in front of themisleading the Customer.

Cashier and Manager of the Bakery Section unaware of the situation but not apologies to the Customer (me)

I confront the Bakery Manager to put the correct price to the iem who when smiling and got upset. I finally comeback to the Cashier and pied the Item at for $2.50

I've noticed for weeks that these two products have been off.
I reported it to a staff member that the product was off as I buy them regularly & the colour should be yellow, not dark grey.
He responded well it's still to date for another 6 months so it should be good followed by are you going to be here for a while? I'll get someone to sort it.
It wasn't sorted that day. Nothing was done.
I came back a week later & the same two off, Crankt banana protein shakes were still there with no new ones behind them.
From what I can tell they've been there for at least 4 weeks & nothing has been done to fix the problem, re-stock & replace the off items.

Why are our favourite products disappearing? Arnott chocolate, cream filled biscuits - GONE! Whiskers chicken and with vegetables (my elderly, sick cats favorite) GONE, along with lots of other casserole varieties. Now to top it off Coles sandwich tuna - herb and garlic - Delicious also now GONE. Yes Coles may be running out of room because of the introduction of many new products, but this is to the detriment of losing good products. Not happy. 😞

She is a lying inconsiderate person who doesn't care about customers or staff that she has working for her . She doesn't do orders or rosters and she calls staff members at 3am to let them know they have shifts and she makes her pregnant staff member work by herself for 2-3 hours at a time. She gets the pregnant staff member to open the deli by herself so she can have a sleep in and when she has to start at 8am doesn't come in till 10am when the pregnant staff member finishes at 10am. She is always late by 2 to 3 hours and then leaves early if she comes in at all . And when she has a problem with a staff member she sticks them by themselves to make them look bad.

I entered the Waterford Coles supermarket WA this evening at 8:20pm with my Son and 18 month old grandson.
We commenced a shop at 9:02pm the public address system indicated the store was closing so we hurried up our shop but continued through the aisles.
We were approached by a staff member who informed us we must finish our shop immediately and leave the store we informed the staff member that we were nearly finished and continued at 9:08pm we were approached by the store manager 'Maureen' who was extremely rude to us telling us to go to the checkout immediately and leave the store the tone and volume of her voice was extremely rude and aggressive. My grandson became very distressed with her outburst.
I informed her we were finished but she maintained her volume and rudeness we felt like we were being treated like criminals.
We were followed to the checkout and the abuse continued I informed her that we were customers and her behavior toward us was disgraceful she said she didn't care and quote if you don't like it complain.
With this intimidation we left our shopping and walked out the store. By this time my grandson was in tears.

I am disgusted in the way we were treated and that a manager who is meant to be trained in customer service skills could act so appallingly.
What example does that set to the staff.
Because of this experience I and my family will never shop at Coles again.

After reading the cooking instructions on the packaging and proceeding as instructed, l browzed the remainder of the information on the packaging while the microwave was cooking. I then found in the smallest print and down the bottom in amongst the obscure manufacturers' address and the barcode, a line which reads "Not suitable for home freezing." How is anyone supposed to notice this prior to putting it in the freezer after purchase? May l suggest this is located on the front of the packaging? Suffice it to say, l did not enjoy my meal.

Could you please explain to me how this product could go up in price by $1.50 in just over 6 months. They were in your down down campaign last year for $3.50 which they stayed priced at for a while. Around 3 -4 months ago I purchased another box and the price had risen to $4.00. Thats ok, but then in last weeks catalogue they were advertised on special as down from $5.00 to $3.50 a box. I had purchased a box approximately 4 weeks before and they were still $4.00. So you are either raising your prices astronomically over short periods of time or you are deceiving people in your catalogues.
Thankyou for your attention to this matter and look forward to your response.
Lyn Burek

As I read through the complaints section it occurs to me that I probably will never get a response as to why Coles butchers have taken it upon themselves to cut the fat and rind from the pork chops. This is not a new thing as I have experienced the demise of pork fat in your stores from Cairns to Mooloolaba. As with many, many things in life a decision has been made for me and I resent the inference that I am incapable of deciding if I should be eating the fat or not! Woolworths seems to think that I still can decide for myself whether or not to eat it so will be buying future pork chops from there.

Firstly, thankyou for always being my go to for my shopping choices weekly.I went to c oles at stockland Shellharbour today around 2pm .I went to the egg section, as I can purchase 2/3 dozen a week at times, today I was really disappointed as nearly all brands were best before dates for yesterday the 27th August.Your own brand had around 10 cases all which were open and had broken eggs in all, never seen this before there.So naturally I purchased elsewhere. Thankyou for your time in reading this .Regards Julie Barnes

Cross-contamination of Pork and Halal meats: Workers do not change gloves before and after handling Halal meats breaching the Halal accreditation regulations. Workers do not use proper gloves instead plastic bags whilst handling meats. This is a serious concern. Coles shouldn't provide halal meats if employees cannot meet proper rules relating to it. This is deception towards the customer and should not be taken lightly.

I was travelling back from Warwick QLD to Canberra on Thursday and at 7:20am just before Inglewood, a Coles truck took offence at me doing the speed limit. This guy was only metres away from my car at 110klm. He tried an ambitious overtaking move on a short straight and when he couldn't complete this manoeuvre, decide to honk at me in anger. I decided to pull over at the next town as I didn't want to be a hood ornament and I was not only concerned with our safety, but the safety of our 2 dogs in the back had this guy run up the back of my car. An absolutely appalling display of driving from one of your employees. My wife took a photo which should help you identify him.

I stop working with coles 6/7/17 my I D is [protected] Rudy Chandra
I have been spoken store manager and payroll officer even HR manager Andrienne Massage until now still no response at all
Why this small case can't solve quickly
Should I proses to fair work ombudsman it will damage coles reputation
I hope someone can solves asap
I really need my wages last 3 days still no pay and several hundred hours of my annual leave still never pay.
I have been working with coles over 6 years full time
Thanks
Rudy

Always advertising things on special, but can't deliver and never have the quantity. Coles had special running from 23/8/2017 to 29/8/2017. On the 23/8/2017 excited to go in after work arrived at the Deli counter at 6pm and was told they had already run out of Basa fish that evening at the Campbelltown Mall branch. Next day 24/8/2017 my husband went in just before 6pm advised they had also run out. A relative visited 24/8/2017 who went in on the 23/8/2017 was told the order of Basa fish doesn't arrive until Monday 28/8/2017. There sale ends on the 29th of August, this is dishonest advertisement. This is not the first time this issue has occurred in this branch, its very common but no one has ever seriously addressed it. Tonight 24/8/2017 me and the relative rung and spoke to a Duty manager to find out which is the truth they run out or is the stock coming in on Monday 24/8/2017 to avoid making unnecessary visits to the store in the weekend. The Duty manager was vague and didn't know about it and didn't sound interested either, this is appalling and dishonest advertisement.

Customer Service Complaint – Coles Coburg North

Sunday 20th August 2017

I am not one to normally complain like this but this particular issue has been playing on my mind all week and after discussing it with many friends and colleagues, I feel compelled to share it with you.

Last Sunday my partner & I went to our local Coles store in Coburg North to complete our weekly shop.

Whilst the cashier scanned our items we were asked in a belligerent tone ‘Who eats Tofu?!’ I replied ‘both of us’, to which the response was ‘Why?’ I replied in an honest manner since I was put on the spot - ‘I don’t agree with the animal product industry, and part of that is not consuming or purchasing animal products’.

It was about this time the eye rolling commenced, and the cashier started to tell me how unhealthy my lifestyle choice was, and that they should know because they are training to be a surgeon. Even saying they heard a story of this type of diet causing Polio and death (which I am sorry is just ridiculous, not to mention that surgeons do very little nutrition study as part of their complete training).

At first I just went with it, as this isn’t the first time I have received criticism for my choices and ethical beliefs. I attempted to justify my reasons (which I shouldn’t have to do whilst shopping) by explaining that I have never felt better since cutting out all animal products, with this being the first winter I have gone without a cold or flu.

The cashier cut me off by saying ‘well you know, I could tell you that you’re feeling better, and you would chose to believe it, because it’s all in your head’.

At this point I had to bite my lip and look down, as I felt genuinely insulted and disrespected. I had no more responses from this point, as it was clear I would be wasting my time. Unfortunately the scathing remarks continued, a few I can recall being:

‘Well I couldn’t care less if my products are tested on animals’ (this one stung as I had already explained that my reasons for my purchases were ethical)

‘My grandmother lived till she was 103 and she ate heaps of meat’

‘Well I don’t even eat that much meat anyway’ – Firstly, I didn’t actually ask you, and secondly, do I sense a slight guilt on the subject? The defensive response is generally a result of people knowing deep down that they don’t agree with animal exploitation and cruelty.

We left feeling really quite angry, and disrespected as a result of this experience. I am writing this because I believe this needs to form part of your customer service training – not to judge people based on their purchases. This is the equivalent of serving someone who is buying lots of processed foods, sweets and pizzas, and telling them that their choices are going to make them obese and cause them to die.

Usually we would choose the self-service tills but unfortunately they have been removed from this store, I presume due to people taking advantage of them somehow.

The irony of this is that people who choose to avoid animal products (and yes I am purposefully avoiding the term Vegan – it tends to ruffle peoples feathers from the get go) are labelled as extreme, pushing their opinions on others. But I can speak from personal experience that it is the other way around.

My partner joked ‘next time please just say you like the taste of Tofu’.

I hope that by sharing this experience I can prevent this unpleasant experience for other customers.

Yours Sincerely

[removed]
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I purchased this product for the first time on 20 August 2017. I ate it for dinner the next night and for the next 24 hours suffered stomach pains. On looking at the ingredients I realised this product has all 3 flavour enhancers (E621, E631, E627) and a heap of other numbers including preservatives. I usually do read labels but I assumed it was just tofu and garlic. Stomach complaints aside, my main issue is that I am absolutely disgusted that in this day and age of health that you are still stocking a product as rubbish as this. Not only that, it claims to be a product of Australia and WA made but honestly, I have my doubts. It also has refined vegetable oil - probably GMO.