Woolworths
Reviews and Complaints

I went to the Lucas store in Ballarat Victoria to get my Cod for Good Friday (Thurs 29th March). I was told that none of the stores in Victoria have been supplied with Cod ahead of God Friday. My Dad also could not get any in Sebastopol Ballarat. A lot if people have Cod for Good Friday. It's ridiculous you did not have any and I had to go to the other side of town to your rival Coles to get some. Your loss, their gain.

Have been a Woolworths / Safeway shopper for years, lately have been going to Watervale (Vic) the standard of store presentation would be one of the worst I have ever seen, The regional manager should walk in one night about 8pm unannounced and see for themselves. Especially during the current festive season. Free standing displays, empty or half empty, Gondola ends look like a 10 yrs old attempt, lack of ticketing, floor areas dirty & service Deli looks like it was closed for business, half empty.

To whom this may concern,

I wish to bring to light a situation for which a can of 1.2KG Pedigree Dog Food exploded on opening the tin. I have been in consultation with Pedigree direct however they have shifted the blame towards the retail store, and in this instance being Woolworths as it was from Woolworths that I purchased the product.

I wish to bring this to your attention as the issue involves extremely poor quality control and a significant safety risk on grounds on potential injury to humans and a risk of food poisoning if eaten by the dog. I will attached corresponding emails between me and customer service of Pedigree for your reference. It appears that Pedigree hold no claim of responsibility for this event or potential future events.

On the 27th March 2018, my wife opening a can of 1.2KG Adult Pedigree Dog food with Lamb & Veggies. Just before opening the can, she did notice that the tin was bulging in a convex shape but proceeded to open the tin anyway. In doing so, the pressure inside the tin actually forced the tin to explode in an upwards propulsion with a very loud bang. Fortunately she had her hand holding the tin downwards, sustaining a minor injury to her hand. Had this been a child with less strength, shorter in stature, face closer to the tin, who knows what consequences could have been. From a risk assessment, the results could potentially range from a superficial injury such as mild bruising to having their face or other body part cut or severely injured. It is for this reason as to why I believe it is a safety issue as well as a quality issue and that further action should be taken. You can see from the attached images that the tin still shows a bubbling effect like a massive build up of gas and toxins. Even the not opened smaller tin dated 2016 has the same shape.

When I reported this to Pedigree, they advised that based on the stamps at the bottom of the tin, the tin was packaged in 2015. As I have explained to Pedigree and I will elaborate further, to remove any suspicion or authenticity of his claim, my Husky's are only two years old, born January 2016 and the other February 2016 but we took ownership in April/May of that year for both dogs. As they are still pups for 1 year, they have been on puppy food and progressed to adult food later in life. Most of their diet has been dry food and it is only recently that we have progressed to wet food and more recently to the Pedigree brand. Prior to this, I have not had dogs and have certainly not purchased this product years ago and now reporting this. The product was purchased from your Woolworths Corrimal Store approx a month ago or earlier.

As you will see from further attached images, on the same day we purchased other Pedigree tins of dog food (various sizes and product) and off the three shown, one is dated 17/11/2015, 06/10/2016 & 31/01/2018. There is no USED BY or BEST BEFORE date labels on any of the tins so from a consumers point, the product could be safe eat indefinitely. But as Pedigree stated, not dated tins have a safe usage life of 2 years. But as you can see by the dates, this is well beyond two years.

Quoting word for word from Pedigree Customer Services person Cath reference Case [protected], she states:
"We do not hold product at the factory. So the cans are made and dispatched out to the relevant stores warehouses. From there the stores will then ship to their individual stores as needed. This does mean that I can confidently say the can dated 2015 was not in our control.
Typically the stores will go through product rather quickly and to find stock on shelf with the PEDIGREE cans over a few months old is not common. As you have mentioned that you also have a can dated 2016, this would indicate that either the store have not rotated stock as regularly as one would imagine or they have received older stock from their warehouse. I am not able to confirm where it may have come from once it has hit the stores control."

If what Cath is stating is true, your quality control system at your main distributing store is failing. As a quality endorsed organisation, I would treat this with major concern as this could also affect all your products that you distribute.

I hope that Woolworths takes this complaint seriously enough to review their systems and investigate further if there are other products on their shelves with these extreme packaging dates. Pedigree seems to have washed their hands of it and are not considering the safety aspect of this. As parents, how common is it for an adult to ask their child to feed their pet. I wouldn't like to think my child was scared for life if a tin cut their face open. I hope that you agree.

Yours Faithfully

Gino Defrenza
M: +[protected]
E: gino.[protected]@outlook.com

I get phone pre-paid and once again on the 28 March 2018, I got the wrong recharge. As about to recharge phone once got home, noticed they gave me the wrong pre-paid account. This has happened many times at Taylors lakes Woolworths. Also the employees have attitude when returning as I don't appreciate there attitudes. This has happened on many occasions were the manager blames me as it's hard to change over. I have said to managers that your staff need to stop having chats with other workers during serving customers.

Hi my name is Chris diurkovic my order was canceled after 10am this morning due to me not being home for a phone call that my farther answering the phone from [protected] to my number [protected] but the lady on the phone told me no one called that number calling my farther a liar now thanks to you I won't be able to have Easter due to your stuff up! What the hell do I get out of this [censor] up

My husband was drying the tongs when he sliced his finger on the edging near the handle. He received 2 stitches on the top of his middle right finger and 1 stitch at the bottom, whch is consistent with the tongs. He was able to go to work but he is a machine opearator and working much slower. He goes on Thursday to get stitches out. Why are they so sharp! Another brand we have, which are more expensive are thicker so won't slice you.
I can get the doctors report. He also had to have a tetnus needle too.

When I opened the bag, it had cobwebs inside the pack. I had bought 2 packs. I have attached photo's of the open pack, receipt and barcode/expiry date.
I am very dissapointed as I usually buy this product and I' m wary about homebrand products now.
I have kept the offending packet.
My complaint bounced, as you said there were things missing. 30 words is not missing information. Please address my complaint

I crashed my car on the 6th of March 2018, (claim number: 862921) Called woolworths and reported this claim immediately following the accident, they took 2 weeks to assess the vehicle, once assessed the assessor told me all i needed to do was call woolworths the following monday and ensure they have my correct banking details and i would be paid out. I did this on Monday the 19th where they informed me they needed further paperwork- a full drivers history, car registration proof and my banking details, ( these things they could've asked me for the 2 weeks they wasted as opposed to last minute before my care hire runs out) I asked if they would cover hire car costs for going past the date- they informed me they don't do this. So I had to drive to copious places pay money for histories and retrieve this documentation, again sending it through to them immediately, where i was told now the paperwork was received they would be sending me payment. I call again the next day where they told me it had to go to another team to be assessed and that it would be done by Monday the 26th, I call Monday the 26th, and they told me it would be done on the 27th, I have now called again today where they inform me they are still processing it and it will take another 10days.. I am now left with no car, no payment, no hire car and no way to get to work, university, my kids to school etc. This is unacceptable

This incident has happened last week Monday on the 20th of march it showed a cheaper price then it shows in the cart, again same thing happened again which I have attached photos to provide evidence of misleading information to customers and false advertisement, if I hadn't checked the cart price I would have been over charged thinking it was the price I saw the first time, I believe the price shown the first time should be charged and like in store policy where if they had a different price it scans they should be charged the lower price, please refer to a complaint made over the phone on the 20th evening which I have made them aware of this issue which they choose to do nothing over the issue but said they will raise the issue to the IT department.

The product: coke cola 24 can pack
Member number: [protected]

On Thursday evening I purchased about 1.5kg from Mirrabooka shop. When opened the packet the next day not only were a lot with black heads they also had a smell. I couldn't cook them as they must be off. My receipt went into the rubbish so I have no proof of purchase. This annoys me because I have also bought salmon from here and I was told to either cook and eat it straight away or freeze it. I freeze it and take it out to cook a couple week later and it smells terrible. I had to take it to a public rubbish bin. Do Woolworths sell a lot of rotten fresh food. I have friends say they get told the same about chicken. Must cook today or freeze.
Very concerning for food industry

Today I went to my local Woollies to buy my salad ingredients. I purchased a trolley full off goods and the 4 things I wanted in my salad. When I got home and was ready to prepare my food I cut open my red capsicum to find it was mouldy! Then I sliced open my red onion to find it rotten as well! I'm furious not only is our Woollies filthy and run down, I mean it's f I'm the stone ages it's also selling rotten food when we live. In the food bowl off Australia. This is by far the first time this has happened! This time I'm going to make it known!

My name is Leanne mayor, I live in Penrith nsw and I am disabled.
Today I was shopping with my carer, I needed a few things so we popped in.
My carer took me through self service, she took me to a corner register so we wouldn't affect everyone.
My carer started scanning everything when the floor supervisor looked at me and went to say I was in the way, there were plenty of registers anyone could use, I tried to move closer to my carer. This woman pointed to the person behind me and she pointed the lady to the register closer to me. She huffed and I asked her where she wanted me to go. My carer was almost ready for me to hand her my money. I wasn't watching when my carer asked this woman if something was wrong and her and the lady stopped talking.
Now I was belittled and made feel like I was taking up to much space in my electric wheelchair.
I went home and called the store. I asked to speak to the store manager. I was transferred and when the lady answered I asked if she was the store manager and she said yes.
Well for a start I could hear the registers, she proceded to call me love and Hun and I know of no manager that would address a customer in that way.
I did not get the first or second ladies name. They were never offered.
She left a message on my phone telling me the First Lady would be on duty tomorrow. Now as a disabled woman I demand a complaint, what's frustrating is I doubt my complaint would have been logged for management. I want answers I want a formal apology and I want policy changed. Could someone please get back to me, I think the public would love to know about this.
Regards Leanne mayor ph [protected]

I've purchased Australian pork ribs Aussie on the 21/3/18 from Woolworths churolla.
As soon as I purchased the ribs I put them in the fridge.
When I open my fridge today a bad smell came from my fridge. As I didn't think the smell was from the ribs as the expiry date was for the 25/3/17 and today date is the 22/3/17.
As a took out the ribs from the fridge to make for dinner, it came to my attention the ribs were green and had a very bad smell.
As I reside in Auburn, I went to Berala Woolworths where I shop on a regularly basic and a loyalty customer.
I have spoke to the manger and advise her my concerns of the ribs. She was more then happy for me to replace the ribs but needed to confirm with the store manager.
The store manager named Forad, he was unhelpful and very rude. All I wanted was to replace the ribs. As I was speaking to him he told me I need to go churolla and he can't help me at all and walked away.
As I have four young children and it was inconvenient for me to go to churolla to receive a replacement.
The store manager forad didn't provide any customer service and didn't care about my concerns.
As I need to drive all the way tochurolla to receive and replacement.
I would like action to be taken against the store manager. As stated previously I am regular customer.

Please advise me what action will be taken.

Thank you for your understanding.

Suzie
[protected]

Hello,

I'm continually frustrated by the number of your Woolworths Carnegie North trolly's dumped on the surroundiung streets of East Malvern.

I have walked past the 4 of your discarded trolly's (3 x Darling Road and 1 x Maroona Road in East Malvern) on route to my son's school this morning.

It is making our suburb look like trash and it's dangerous. Your trolly pick up service needs to be more frequent. Or people must be penalised for walking trolleys all the way to their homes.

I'd like a response to this email in how you intend to resolve this issue.
Thank-you.

Stacey

My complaint is, why doesn't Woolworths in Collie have a sign that Say's, limit 2 chicken's per costumer. I buy cooked chicken 2 times per week and take 3 or 4 chickens at a time. I don't always know what days during the week that I need them but it is becoming an in convenience for me when I order the chicken for a day I think I might need them and when I don't need them on that day I've got to go into the store reorder for another time. When I did order them for another day, my order was dated in the book for a day earlier and I almost missed out on the cooked chickens. Life was much easier purchasing the chickens when they were cooked on the day that I was certain that I needed them. If the store does not want you to buy 3 or 4 chicken's at a time then I suggest they put up a sign saying 2 per costumer. As this may save time and confusion as well as feeling uncomfortable with the costumer service from that area of the Woolworths store in Collie, Western Australia. Thank you.

1. Trolleys are dangerous because they have no brakes. One ran away from me and almost crashed into a parked car. I have shopped at Woolworths, Grosvenor St, Neutral Bay, Sydney 2089 for 35 years. The car parking is on a slope. The trolley runs down the slope as soon as you let go the handle to load parcels into your car. The trolley runs away with foreseeable risk of harm. I think US courts have held this is negligence. Please add brake. BUT do NOT design it so pressure/squeezing is needed - people (like me) with bad hands will not be able to use the trolley/brake !

2. The 'new' green pull along baskets are dangerous. First, I almost tripped on one being pulled behind her by another shopper because I was looking at the shelves and not aware it was behind me at ground level. Second, they are unbalanced and can fall over and hurt you. I was hurt last week at the express checkout (witnessed by female manager) when I moved my basket with my foot while the handle was up. It fell over and the handle hit and injured my left great for (photo available but can't see how to upload for you)). As I have low immunity this was of concern but seems to be healing well. TIhird, they are not a good design as you have to bend over to load/unload. I suggest
these baskets be discontinued.

C Needham

It's very frustrating after my third attempt to woolworths rowville (twice today as they couldn't find them this morning) to purchase 5 sets of commonwealth games coin set $15, on behalf of my mother for her grandchildren, to be told that I couldn't possibly purchase that many, perhaps 2 at the most!
Obviously staff and managers don't read their advertising catalogues that they send to residents that clearly states limit 5 per customer.
So what do I do now to purchase another 3?
Really isn't a sale, a sale to a customer!
Not good enough!

Well I definitely won't use Woolworths online/delivery service ever again!
Put in my order yesterday waited for order today and they delivered some of my order but No Frozen foods or bottled water 😤😣😠
When I rang them the only options given were they could deliver them on friday at the earliest or refund which would take 4 to 5 working days... And that is that! 😠😡 what an unprofessional company! So I'm out of meals till Friday or refund I have to wait to be returned to me.
I've gone refund and all both departments would say is, I hope you have a nice day 😠😠😠😠 Glad I'm not a starving pensioner!
Rude!

I bought chicken livers 500g and kidneys pack from Woolworths in Preston's on HumeHighway.

Kidneys were fine but when open pack of Livers, top looked ok pulled out another piece it was disgusting. Felt sick looking at it.
It's gone green in colour. This clearly shows the piece that should be removed wasn't and it contaminated the whole pack.
To me I know it would be poisonous. Please see photos attached as I have discarded the meat. If you need it make arrangements retentive it today.
Regards
Indra
[protected]