Pick n Pay
Reviews and Complaints

I visited pick n pay carlton centre on the 29th of november 2018 around 18:00. Queues were out the door however that is expected as it is month end. What shocked me was they do not have express tills and I was expected to join the same queue with the people with grocery trolleys while I was just buying 1 item. A loaf of bread to be specific. How does this make sense. The manager made the experience even worse, cant greet, just boldly telling me there is no express tills I must join the long queue. How come this pick n pay doesn't have express tills and other pick n pays have. Do they not understand the difference of an express till? Why the other pick n pays have this service and they don't. Even shoprite has express tills, when are we catching up at pick n pay carlton.

Do they have a service manager, if so what is his/her mandate? Please make me understand this situation, I really don't get it.

I have ordered and paid for a case of JC Le Roux sparkling wine and a case of Russian Bear Vodka. Order was placed on 24 Nov and delivery requested for Monday 26 Nov at 15:00.

Delivery was late - at 18:20. Furthermore, when the container with the sparkling wine was opened, I noticed that a bottle was broken. I removed the bottles from the container and left the glass shards in the container.
When the container with the vodka was opened, similarly a bottle was broken.

I updated the delivery note and handed it back to the delivery person. This was 26 Nov at 18:45.

The next morning, Tuesday 27 Nov, I sent an e-Mail to the customer care line, expecting a response within reasonable time. I also called the customer care centre on Tuesday morning and was told that they will send me an e-Mail with details to get a refund. Since then, I have sent several e-mails to the customer care centre (Daily because I have not received any response from them). On Wednesday and Thursday, I have called the Online Contact number and the Customer care centre. They told me that I must wait indefinitely as they cannot/will not assist me.

It has been 5 days since I first reported the matter. I have paid them and do expect them to replace or refund the order.

I have also noted that there are several complaints against PnP and that they are not responding to the HelloPeter complaints against them .
I will never shop with PnP again.

Hi

I placed my order on Black Friday, only to receive this week Wednesday 28th Nov a notification from your company that my transaction was not successful. I have then been advised that I can select all products that is under that order and re-order but at the normal price. I feel that this is unfair as your took so long to notify and won't compensate me for the lost of deals that was offered. I would like to pay for my order at the Black Friday price.

Date: 28th November 2018
Time: 16h00
Standing in a long queue waiting to get to the teller in PnP Liquor. I asked the manager what seemed to be the problem. To be told by the manager, that the teller had gone to the cash office, to get change. I stated that was not acceptable in any store, during peak hours, only to be told, by the manager that he does not have to listen to me and he was going outside to have a cigarette. The other customers were just as shocked at his response as I was. This is totally unacceptable behaviour and I will never be using your store again.
Mike Crawford
[protected]

Greetings. I received what I perceive to be poor service at the above named store today. I asked for R600 cashback when I went to pay at a till and was nonchalantly told by the cashier that she had only just started on her till and didn't have cash to give me. I then asked for cash to be brought to me as is the standard procedure at other Pick n Pay stores which are very accommodating of customers. I was told that I had to cancel my purchases and move to another till if I wanted the cash. This was confirmed by two employees in a supervisory position.
None of the three offered any apology or explanation for their store's policy which does not match up with other Pick n Pay stores. None were even bothered when I said I would complain to Pick n Pay head office about the poor service delivery. In fact the cashier was so utterly nonchalant and this is such a poor reflection of your brand.

Other stores do not provide cash from other tills but they make every effort to get the cash from their offices. Why can't this store do the same?

As cash back is offered as a service of your stores and is one of the drawcards of your stores, I believe that all stores should make every effort to satisfy the customer.
As a principle of the matter, customers should not be forced to cancel purchases and made to move to other tills.

In protest, I cancelled the transaction and made my purchases and received my cash back with zero fuss at the Checkers nearby.

I would like you to clarify Pick n Pays policy regarding cash back.

I was shopping at the Glen mall pick n pay and bought 6 ultramels when I got home I was packing the groceries and then one box of ultramel felt watery and a bit light I then shaked it a bit to make sure and then I realized that the it was not sealed like the unopened ones. I opened it and to my surprise is had been already opened and even the silver foil that closes was opened and looks like someone had drank from it. On the tip of the box mouth there's some blackness around which I don't know what it is. Please see pictures

Dear Sir

I wish to report an incident that happened whilst shopping at your Empangeni Store on Saturday, 17 November 2018.

The notice pinned to the shelf stated that your no name brand sliced bacon, 200g had been reduced to R10.00 per packet. I took in total 13 packets and noticed that 3 had stickers stuck to them indicating that the price had indeed been reduced. I re-read the pinned notice to the shelf and was convinced that it indicated that all the 200g diced bacon items had been reduced.

At your till we were charged the full price for the bacon packets without the reduced sticker on them. I objected and showed the till operator an image of the notice pinned to the shelf. She called a supervisor who after seeing the notice decided that we will have to pay the full price for the items without the reduced sticker on them. My wife and I objected and those particular items were removed from our trolley and rectified on the till. I then went back to the shelf a took pictures of the shelf and notice in question. I told the till operator and supervisor than this is not the end of this transaction as the amount displayed on the shelf and the amount that we were charged differs completely.

We were not taken seriously at any time during this episode. The situation was basically laughed off. There after the supervisor came and removed the notice from the shelf.

I wish to attach my till slip to prove that I was at your shop and actually bought diced bacon as mentioned above. I also attach seven scans of the shelf, the notice and a bacon packet of the kind that I had wanted to buy. (Till slip in word therefore not accepted by your complaints system)

I am not happy with the way in which this matter was dealt with. The shop was quite busy and this incident caused an unnecessary scene. I decided not to pursue the matter further in the shop, but instead to take it up with senior management, hence referring the matter to you.

We hope to hear from you soon.

Kind regards
Kosie Brits

Oil spoiled smell in wheel chips. Expiry s 2month and D.o.m is 7th oct.. brand name: annaporani home products. Bar code number: 351868. Another product from same brand also same bad oil smell. It cost 30 rupees. Thought to return, but we r unable to come from our place. Pls check the products before u get it from distributors. Attached the image. Check it.

The below is what I have sent to Pick n Pay customer care:

I ordered groceries on 1 November 2018 for collection at your Pick N Pay Century Mall store, I was advised that the collection can take place on Saturday at 10am.
The funds were deducted from my account at 12:00 noon on 2 November, an amount of R1186.10.

At 09:30 on Saturday. 3 November, I received a call from Pernel who advised that the order cannot be collected as they are experiencing technical difficulty and the person who is collecting must collect on Monday at 9am.

The person collecting went in this morning at 9am as advised by YOUR consultant onlt to be first told that the store does not do online purchase delivery or collections (VERY funny since it is listed as a collection store on your website) and then she is told that she cannot get the groceries and it will take TWO WEEKS to sort this out.

I have called your head office today and spoken to Reagan who is making me hold on for the pat 15 minutes for a Team Leader.

I cannot believe the pathetic service which you give, it is absolutely terrible that this is the service you offer and yet you cannot provide it to your customers. this is beyond unacceptable and I will be making this incident known on every Social Media site available.

your website states that you only process payment for the goods once they have been picked due to substitution and number of packets needed so if you took my payment on Friday at noon that means your store in Century Mall had already packed the goods and they should have been just waiting for collection to take place on Saturday at 10am. so WHY was the payment taken if you DID NOT pick the goods yet? If you had technical difficulty? This does not make sense and your monotonous, corporate apologies will NOT right this wrong.

Why isnt there a notice on your website advising clients that you are experiencing technical difficulties? Why isnt there a turnaround time on your website in the interim of experiencing technical difficulties? so clients can know that they will be waiting for two weeks to receive their groceries, then they can cancel and get in their car and drive to their nearest pick n pay instead?

I want the groceries DELIVERED to 27 Elm Street, Arbor Park, Newcastle - how you get this done I do not care but you will get it done because there is no way that anyone is going to go to your store AGAIN, waste of time, money and petrol. Contact person is Rochelle Lucas - [protected]/ [protected]/ [protected]

I also believe that as a gratitude and good will for this horrible experience those groceries should be free or vouchers given for the equivalent amount when the groceries are delivered to the said address.

I will not accept anything less.

regards,

Mitchelene Lucas

Good day

I am highly upset in the last 3 months I have purchased 4 pairs of shoes from Pick n pay clothing in City view Durban. I purchased the first pair in august sometime I wore them a day or 2 and my feet kept slipping out of them they were a size 5. I thought after wearing them 2 or 3 times they would stretch and my foot would be able to stay in the shoe. I then thought I would give those to my sister as she is also a 5 and I went and bought a size 6 thinking maybe i will have better luck with a bigger size, lone and behold same thing. I think I have worn them twice to see if they would stretch and nothing they now just sit in my cupboard collecting dust. You cannot even walk in them. I did send in a email which I am battling to find to the complaints department but I cant seem to find it anyway I never heard back from pick n pay. I once again did what I wasn't going to do and that was purchase more shoes from pick n pay clothing. I went and bought a pair of pumps and another pair of sandals from pick n pay probably two weeks back, pumps are fine but once again sandals are a problem, the one foot was stretched more than the other which wasn't to bad but now they literally fall off my feet as I am walking not only that there is a long piece of metal coming out the shoe... After two weeks that should not be happening they have not even been worn everyday. I just cannot win with pick n pay sandals and have just had such bad luck... I love the clothes and shoes at pick n pay but if I am not going to get any feedback out of this I will be sure to never purchase another thing from any of your shops. Im sorry but I do not and cannot afford to be wasting my hard earned money on shoes that last me two weeks or not even just collecting dust in my cupboard cause they cannot be worn.

Terrible customer service! I purchased items online on 19th october, the reserved amount of r2 289 was placed on hold on the day of delivery, 22nd october. Goods were delivered but not all. Another amount was charged to my credit card for the goods which was delivered. Up until today, the reserved amount of r2 289 is still not cleared on my credit card and is still on hold. I contacted your online contact centre, spoke to adrian on 26th october who (incompetently) referred me to absa to remove the uncleared amount. Even after I told her that is not how it is done and pnp placed the hold, she insisted - please send her for training as she clearly needs this. I called back the same day and spoke to casey - very helpful. She allocated a reference number [protected] and told me that she has logged a query with the finance dept to assist. She told me that someone would call that same day or the monday, 29th october. It is 1st nov, still no call...
I attempted another call to the call centre today, was placed on hold for almost 30 mins by cindy "who was trying to sort this out" before the call was cut off. She also mentioned that the finance dept will contact me today - is this a ploy to get the customers off the line because I have still not been contacted. I will never purchase anything online from pnp again nor will I encourage any of my friends to do so. This is 2 weeks later and the reserved amount is still on hold on my credit card and I paid for the goods already! I'm extremely frustrated with the process!

31 October 2018
Today just after one o clock I made a cash payment of r5900 at pick n pay vangate mall I never use this mall but because it was the nearest one I had to go there, few mins after my payment was made I was then told by the Telkom consultant that the payment was supposed to be made at absa so I immediatelly phoned pnp vangate mall after 2 o clock to explain the matter of which in was advised to hurry back to the store as it can be reversed since its same day, upon arrival at pnp at 3 o clock I was then helped by a lady named Moira who went as far as getting the receipt refunded but she didn't have enough cash and the manager Mo's authorisation was needed and he couldn't be found at that very moment so there was a long queue at customer service and they eventually voided my request since Mo wasn't there for authorisation and there wasn't enough cash to do the refund, Mo the manager evenetually came 40minutes later headstrong instead of giving authorisation he felt he needed to now phone claims which wasn't necessary at all he was on the phone for more than 30minutes, only to tell me he cant do anything I then spoke to the store manager Darryl who told me the very same story, what irritated me most is that they never listened to the request I spent 1hour and 30minutes and only upon leaving one of the line supervisors asked if I was assisted and that's where they fetched the receipt from Mo and checked that the refund went through long time already they only needed an authorisation from Mo so this was a huge lack of communication error and I am so disappointed in pnp having me waisted 1hour and 30mins for a query that could've been sorted out in less than 5minutes had they listen properly

I have been this way and that deciding whether I should complain for 3 days because I hate complaining and I absolutely love the staff and the store at Plattekloof. But I have decided I need to complain.

For years I have supported this store, driving past 5 that are closer to my home because I love the service and the shop.

I have ordered exactly the same sushi there for the last 3, possibly close to 4 years.

I have another complaint about the pricing and labelling changes, i'll save that for another time.

This complaint is about Wednesday 24 October 2018.

The sushi was shocking. Where the same number of pieces normally fills the tray with a squeeze - on Wednesday they were so poorly and haphazzardly filled that the tray was only 2/3's filled. One couldn't even pick up the pieces without the rice falling out, there were gaping holes and where the mayo is normally nicely pipped it was squirted over like an angry child colouring with a crayon. I could not serve it to my guests - it was actually embarrassing. Shocking. Disappointing. I've never felt the need to complain about anything at Plattekloof pick 'n pay until now. The younger girls attitude stinks.

I have in the last year switched to pick n pay as my choice of store from which to purchase meat. I have been satisfied in that unlike other butcheries they do not bulk up the weight with cuts of meat only suitable for consumption by dogs. I. E dog bones.

Today the 21st of October I was sorely disappointed. A tray of meat neatly packaged with lean back leg and chops on top attracted my eye and I purchased it. I opened the tray to find that under the good meat was layers of fatty waste meat and ribs and bones only suitable for animal consumption. Pick and pay I ask if you are that desperate to make a profit that you are willing to compromise standards. That is very deceptive in that upon arriving home I weighed all the horrible bits and it weighed a whopping 1.2 kg. That means I paid over R600 but received under R500 worth of edible meat. Rather keep the prices constant and stop deceiving your customers. I plan on posting this on all social media groups to avoid others getting fooled by this advertising tactic. I await a response.

I was at the pick and pay store in Kimberly north cape mall, the cashier was pregnant and constantly complaining about her having to go to the bathroom, i was with my grandmother and she asked my gran if she has the R5 points card she said no but you can give me one, after my grandmother payed she waited for the cashier to give the stickers and i then took a card so she told me i cant just take they scan the cards and need to count so i told her but we waiting for one and you just continuing with your conversation forgetting about us, she then said to me oh sorry and turned to the packer saying in the language I'm full of [censored] not knowing i understood what she said.

Dear Sir, I bought four Clover Fruit of the Forest yoghurts at Pick 'n Pay, Soneike, Kuilsriver, three of the products had expired, one 09 October 2018 and even worse, the other two 21 and 27 September 2018. Are they allowed to keep expired goods on their shelves and do you visit the shops to see whether the products are OK and not expired. I am not living nearby the shop and now have to go back with the products which is an inconvenience.

On the 15th October 2018 around 5pm i went to Pic'n pay Trumshed to do a little shopping with my gift vouchers, the Cashier tried to assist me and she failed and they called the Manager and he just said to me "Unfortunately we can't help you because we never saw any voucher like this before" and i tried to explain but he just refuse to listen to me. He did net even do any query since he doesn't know how the voucher works, so i used my cash to pay for those items. He did not even care. So i ask for his email address and when i get to work i send him the screen shot of how the voucher works like it's my duty to do that. this was his response "Thank you Samuel I will definitely do follow-up on this issue
again apologize for inconvenience caused yesterday".

Good Day

I am feeling very frustrated as I drove all the way to Brackenfell, (I am based in Kensington/Maitland), pnp supermarket.

As I saw on pnp catalogue the r100 deals on internet. It state that you get 2 times 12 castle beers for r100. When I got there they advised me that it was an error.

I wasted petrol and my time. I feel that they should have given it to me for that price as it is not my fault that pnp had made such an error.

Very dissappointed!

SF Jacobs

It is so concerning that there are so many complaints! This is very alarming!
I have had fraud on my account and Pick n Pay has charged me for food that I did not order and food that I did not receive!

I having been speaking to Nomfundo Ngwenya who has not attended to my last email and my request of refunding me money that Pick n Pay has wrongfully taken! I have requested to speak to the manager on numerous occasions, which this has been ignored!

I have not received a response from the above person!

I will never shop again at Pick n Pay and I will be sure to let other people know.
Very sad indeed that we cannot trust a company like Pick n Pay!

I bought a sasko bread from your store and found a cockroach in it. The cashier who was about to till the bread saw it as well and a manager was informed.
I would like to know what Pick 'n Pay is going to do about the matter. I do not even want to think about the consequences had I not spotted the cockroach.
I want to express my disgust with the whole matter and also with the fact that the staff who dealt with my complaint did not appear apologetic.
Please advise.