Woolworths
Reviews and Complaints

I am a staff member at Temora Woolworths store, and dread going to work each day. There are three members of one family working in this store and all we hear is back stabbing and ### all day. One particular family member not only ### about staff members but customers also. I am sure if Woolworths conducted a survey most staff members would say the same. All we can hope for is that they be transfered to another town. WE HOPE! Please Woolworths management rescue this store, come see for yourself.

I bought cherries from Woolworths store yesterday and when we started to eat them last night we found that most of them were rotten, mushy and horrible, I will be returning them to the store today, and at this time of year the traffic on the road is very very busy, and of course there is the extra running around that I don’t need not to mention the extra cost. This is not the first time I have found that woolworths so called fresh food company is not so fresh, they should have been as the shelf had only just been filled and it was early in the morning.

So come on woolworths how about looking after your customers, one very very unhappy customer and employee.

Woolworths call centres are a waste of time and money! For 2 days I have been calling, faxing and emailing. Emails don’t get responded to and calls don’t get returned. Every time you call you get through to a different person who you then have to explain the whole sob story again to or leave a message for the 5 other people who you originally spoke who never return calls. In-between this you get cut off after holding 20 min! I find it ridiculous that the very same documents that FNB will accept to change details they will not! Woolworths spend less money on your adverts and more on your call centres and training up your staff! Your service is PATHETIC!

I went into Woolworths in Jean avenue Centurion. Bought a few things like I always do. Went to the cashier, she scanned the items. I gave her my standard bank card. She swiped it 3 times and said it was declined. I said I would draw the money but for some odd reason none of the ATM’s worked, I guessed standard bank must be off line. So I drove to the next place, to see if I could draw money. Due to me not be able to buy it there I went to another store to buy the things I needed. To my surprise it went off from my account. So now what?

I was humiliated in front of a whole store, I didn’t took my items home as my card was declined 3 times according to the cashier, so I paid for what exactly?

I recently experienced the extremely poor customer return policy of Woolworths. I have always felt that when returning an item if it is being returned in the same condition in which it was bought and you have the slip to verify purchase, that the store should provide a full monetary refund and not a voucher Why should a consumer be held to ransom to purchase something at that store while they retain your money, earn interest and have the value of the returned product returned to their stock?

What makes this situation worse is that they are not upfront about this policy, they hide behind red tape. They say that they will refund a credit card payment with a credit card refund only to insist that the credit is applied to the same credit card number that the items was bought with. Only a cash purchase is refunded with a cash refund. The problem with this system is that it forces the consumer who did not buy the item to get a voucher. By forcing a voucher on to the customer, they are in essence coercing you into “a forced contract with them” where you can only spend that money at their store, while all this time having the money in their bank and the items back in their inventory. This leaves the customer with the risk of not finding the required item they need and having to spend additional money elsewhere while the value of your voucher gets reduced (inflation and no interest).

This means that if your credit card has expired before time of return of item you will not get a credit to your account. If you received the same items in a baby shower you will be unable to get the money back for the items you return.

In my case, my husband bought me a jersey and he specifically left the price attached and gave me the slip in order that I would have the option to get a refund or exchange the item. The jersey was not to my liking and I took it back to the store with the slip and price attached. The store refused to give me a cash refund or to refund my credit card (even though my husband and I have a joint account).

I find this practice extremely consumer unfriendly. It seems to be an excuse for Woolworths to insist on pushing their vouchers on to the consumer. They should be secure with their products and service to give a customer the choice of refund. As stipulated in the Consumer Protection Act, the customer is entitled to a choice and is entitled to not be forced into further commercial engagements or agreements with the vendor store.

It seems as if they insist on giving back the same R50 note that was given to them when the item was bought. They may refund with two R20 and a R10. By the same token I do not see how they have the right to insist on refunding the credit to the same credit card number that the item was purchased with. A credit is a credit! The credit card number is incidental for them to refuse a simple refund. I do understand that in the accounting system it may not marry up 100% of the time but why should the consumer be responsible for their accounting inadequacy?

I paid my Woolworths loan and card up in full in September 2010.Woolworths wrongly allocated my payments and said I owe them money. After explaining everything to them and sending proof of payments they admitted the fault was by them. They said they will correct everything and I will not be ITC listed(December 2010). Today I found out my ITC is bad because it shows that I owe Woolworths 6 months payments. I phoned them and they said they will send me a letter stating I do not owe them anything - still waiting for the letter. I feel they should take me off ITC as soon as possible.

i have shopped twice at the moe woolworths now and not been given my reward points. the first time the girl forgot to ask and before i could get the card from my purse she had completed the sale and told me opps sorry. the second time the girl had not been paying attention and got the card details from the customer before me, he put his credit card into the eftpos machince an she continued to swipe my grocheries and then when we told her the mistake as she had not yet scanned his 3 boxes of soft drink (which she advised him to leave in his trolley) she said ill finish scanning yours. i then paid asked to swipe my reward card and the girl told me sorry but the points are on that mans card, all because she was not doing her job correctly.
this is unacceptable and the girls at the reg seem to not care that you dont get your points..

My email address [protected]@webmail.co.za CC Claasen Id No. [protected]. My ref no.[protected]. I have a problem with the woolworths/munnik basson da gama team. Last month a consultant from your office phoned me and told me that i must make a last payment of R260 to settle my woolworths acc, which i paid. Just 4 fun i went and pay an extra R50 afterwards 2 see if my credit will show and it did show the credit available. Today 10.03.2011 i went in to woolworths store and made a payment of R50 just to see if the account was stil showing the credit available and it only showed the R50 that i paid. And if the account has been settle why dont you give me a clearance letter, so tel me what happens now. Do i stil owe you people. Let me know, cause im on the verge of contacting the ombudsman if im not satisfied with your response

My husband bought woolworths chocolate mousse pudding (R44) on Saturday - just in time for Mothers day -- found large lumpy gelatin like substance in the pudding - totally unedible, totally disappointed as this used to be my favourite pudding. Also bought the Organic vanilla flavoured large tub of yoghurt at a price I may add - the quality has dropped drastically - it's now like milk - not at all creamy and thick like it used to be. Even the sticky toffee pudding's quality has gone down - the sponge seems to be rather dry - which it never used to be. I sent a complaint to their customer services - i haven't heard anything from them - not a word. It's sad to see that Woolworths doesn't engage with their customers.

I'm not one to complain, but this is one 'bridge' to far. I have always spent up to 5 minutes waiting at the hot food counter to get served and today was no different but this time there was someone behind the chicken rotisserie filling it with chicken. There is a glass font through which this person could see that there were two people waiting for her. There was no acknowledgement of our presence nor any movement on her part to assist her CUSTOMERS.

Now i'm quite sure chicken would not go off in the time it takes to help two people on their way with their hot food. Eventually another of the floor staff, emerging from the back, called her repeatedly to come out but she continued with her back room functions. It took this second person at least a full minute to get her outside. By that time I was angry and walked away.

I'm happy that Woolworths can afford to lose out on a sale of about R100.00, and I'm sure it's shareholders would commend their staff in ignoring their customers to complete mundane tasks. I also returned to the counter two minutes later and again there was no-one manning it. I received a shrug when I confronted WW on their service.

I applied for a Woolworths store card, TWICE and was declined - no reason was given. I then checked with ITC and I was credit clear, empirical score is 1, no defaults whatsoever. I then applied for an Edgars storecard and they accepted my application within 2 weeks.

Now what's Woolworth's problem? The mere fact that I'm 24 with no bad debt should serve as an indicator that I'm not a reckless consumer...so what's the point of offering a service like this, but you get declined..on what grounds?

I finally get a reply after a long time, which explains that I do not have a credit record...I was absolutely gobsmacked- Why are you offering a financial service if you're not willing to give credit to a guy who has no bad debt?!...The reason I'm applying is to cover myself incase I run over my budget and need an outlet maybe for the last week of the month or a few days before payday...I'm not going to use the **** card for my monthly grocery shopping!

Are there perhaps other companiesorganizations that would possibly grant me access to a storecard for perishable goods and willing to take on another stakeholder? because WOOLWORTHS ARE TOO 'exclusive' for me.

I was shocked to see that Woolworths carry a range of padded bras for very young girls. The row I saw them on was for girls aged 9-10, maybe they have them for younger girls too. Why not read articles about Primark, the high street retailer in UK, which, after severe pressure, discontined their padded bras for 7 year old after much public and government outcry about the premature sexualisation of young girls. One newspaper even labelled it as 'high street paedophilia', I agree. Let young gils be young girls, don't encourage them to be adults before their time. Come on Woolworths, if you are serious about 'adding quality to life' stop the sale of these gaments and be a responsible retailer as opposed to following certain overseas trends for the sake of making profit. Be ethical. No wonder young children have identity problems when retailers and marketers influence them into being something they are not and are not ready for.

It appears as if Woolworths has a problem with some of their yoghurts. We often buy The Ayshire Lemon Curd yoghurts. On at least 5 occassions now the yoghurts have either exploded open or started fizzing from under the lid. I mentioned it to my father. He is an expert in milk and milk products and has worked in well known dairies for at least 30 years. He said that for a yoghurt to do this, it is contaminated with bacteria THAT SHOULD NOT BE IN THE YOGHURT. He went on to say that these contaminating bacteria could indeed be harmful such as e.coli, salmonella etc... All these yoghurts start fermenting at least 34 days before the expiry date. My father says regardless of the expiry date, the yoghurts should not be exploding and fizzing. This is a huge annoyance as we are constantly having to clean the fridge. My greater concern however is what are these yoghurts contaminated with? I have friend in the food industry who is willing to plate the yoghurts and find out. Just imagine if they were to find something potentially harmful. BEST WOOLWORTHS LOOK INTO IT QUICKLY. We have taken the said youghurts back to Greenstone Woolworths each time it happens, we get our money back.

After I have tried getting through on the Woolworths Financial Call Centre for a couple of days, I eventually put my phone on speaker while holding and went on with my work. After 1, 5 hours of holding, I gave up as I had to leave for a meeting. This is totally unacceptable that they do not answer their phone. And as mentioned, this did not just happen on one occasion - every time when I phone, this is an issue.

I eventually got through to them, via the head office number, but they could not assist me to the level of comfort that I needed in terms of paying money over to them. I also logged two complaints on their website and till today I have not received any feedback from them - 4 days later.

I eventually phoned head office again and asked to speak directly to Customer Services and after I explained my complaint and that I want to speak to someone who would be able to assist me, they took my number and said that someone will come back to me. Again, it is now more than 48 hours later, and they are also just ignoring this issue.
This is just total disrespect from their side. I would appreciate it if someone would get back to me.

Made a payment on my Woolworhts Visa Credit card on 6 Oct that would place my account payments in advance. Today is 5 November and the payment still don't reflect. After sending the proof of payments through a number of times, faxing my bank statements ect. Nothing!. My name has been list at the credit bereau as a bad payer and my limit reduced. Other than the numerous calls I made to the Customer Service department I received five phone calls form their credit department asking for payment. I explain to them what's happend, they make a note and then two days later you received another call. The customer service is always apologetic, specially the supervisors but yet no one return phone calls as promised and nothing gets done. Each time I phone in to the [protected] number I perservere through 20min of holding on and sometimes they just end a call. Basically don't try and phone the customer service, try are not interested in your complains and are letting you hold on in hope you would give up hope before they need to listen to your wining.

I would like to inform you how disappointed I am in your service. I know that You (Woolworths financial Services) moved to Absa from Mercantile Bank. But what I am really and truly disappointed about is the fact that you or ABSA blocked your customers credit cards due to FiCA, without informing your customers about it (Believe me, it gets more intense).

Which basically means, like in my case I went to a store swiped my card and guess what, it DECLINED. How embarrassing isn’t that. Not only that, I then go to the ABSA bank to check my balance and GUESS WHAT, ABSA could not even give me a balance, it gave me an ERROR MESSAGE.

Me, suppose to be a valued customer (I am so sick and tired of hearing that woman’s voice on your phone while I am holding)immediately goes home and I then tried to call you at 9am Saturday morning (31 October 2009) and for some strange arb reason I was holding for almost 3 hours (on and off) so by now it is almost 12pm on Saturday afternoon. I then decided that there must be a reasonable explanation for this and I then take my car and drive all the way to a Woolworths store(Kenilworth Centre) to call from there, THERE ISN'T ENOUGH SPACE HERE..

On Saturday morning 10 October 2009 I visited Woolworths Delmas to report my card lost. The staff at Woolwoths told me that they can not use the company land lines to phone head office to cancel my card as they could no phone out because the lines had been locked due to excessive phone bills.(misuse by employees)

They had a bad attitude and did not have any sympathy with my situation. I told them I will inform head office of the bad service and they just shrugged their shoulders.

I purchased a bag of potatoes from Woolworths, at a price of R50 for a 7kg bag expecting quality merchandise. When the bag was opened the potatoes were green. I contacted the Contact Centre, where my complaint was recorded and I was informed that I would receive a letter from Woolworths. I then purchased a second bag of potatoes, green again! I am surprised at the quality of the goods on sale and that a company such as woolworths would allow this. Please take care when purchasing as these potatoes are not cheap and in this economic climate it is a disgrace!

Woollies used to be the place where anyone could shop for good quality clothing at affordable prices - it was never the trendy shop, that's what Truworths is for, but rather a shop where you could buy timeless classics for the whole family, from baby to great-grandma and not have to break the bank. It was always the reliable and service-friendly store, where staff would actually help you in the change-rooms, give you advice if needed, and bring you a different size if you picked up the wrong one. Now Woollies has become like any other clothing store where it is trying to compete for the trendiest clothing line. The prices have hiked up accordingly, and, naturally, the quality has suffered too. I had to pay in extra (and not just a few rands) for a bigger size shirt which I had to get in exchange for a shirt which my husband received as a birthday gift, but which was too small. Even your Food quality is suffering - I have had a few rotten items from your stores, as have other people I know. My store card is starting to collect dust and I am considering closing my account.

I’m extremely irritated and upset with Woolworths Financial Services. My payment records are as follows: [protected] – R1000; [protected] – R1500; [protected] – R1000; [protected] – R500; [protected] – R1000. About an hour ago a very rude woman calls me to tell me that my account is in arrears as I’ve failed to make a payment. I’ve just paid another R1400 a few minutes ago. I’ve never skipped a month. How can my account be in arrears? Am I being penalised for being punctual with my payment last month? I really take exception to a rude person basically telling me that I’m an irresponsible person who doesn't pay his accounts, when I know for a fact that I’ve been paying my account every month. I need a proper explanation and an apology.