Woolworths South Africa
Reviews and Complaints

Dear all,

I made an online purchase on 09 April 2023 and only realized that it will only be delivered the next day. I then cancelled the order and made numerous attempts to get the money back by sending emails to their online customer center and tried phoning them without success.

I eventually ran out of options when trying to call customer service and online customer service because the menu options are not working.

This is unacceptable, can someone please sort this out.

Woolworths has put me through hell for almost a month now. I’ve paid my account on time and their consultant recorded my payment as a refund. Next thing I’m getting an sms stating that I did not pay my account. I called them immediately. They said I should go back to the store I paid at and it will be resolved. I went there and I spent 2hrs the supervisor of the store trying to help me but my issue wasn’t solved. We called the customer service and they said they would email TransUnion to change that I didn’t pay on time as I had paid on time. Woolworths is treating me like I’m the one at fault but they’re the ones who are at fault and I’ve been very polite with them. Today I received a call again from their call centre telling me I promised to pay my account and whatnot. By then I was beyond annoyed as I have been explaining this incident for almost 20 times.

Woolworths always claim to prioritise their customer service yet they’ve failed me dismally. I’m so disappointed and upset. I’ve worked so hard to keep my credit record up to date for them to mess it up like this. I pay insurance for my account. If I couldn’t afford to pay my account I would’ve claimed from it. I genuinely don’t know what is this you’re doing.

Woolworths has been running Cash Back Rewards, which mean, if you spend R1000 you receive a voucher of R300. I have entered this twice, both times I qualified, as we used our woolworths credit card, and met all the conditions. Yes, we are unable to actually get this voucher, which should have been placed on the woolworths app. It does not matter how many people I speak to in Customer Service, Nothing happens, apart from them saying they will escalate this! Why should we have these cards, pay a monthly service fee of R57 like Religion, yet when we want our vouchers, we have to fight and waste everyones time?

On the 19 April, my granddaughter and I rushed in to Woolworths to purchase a onesy (pyjamas). Upon our arrival home, my daughter pointed out that it was the wrong size. A size 5 and she needed a size 8. We, then put the onesy back into the shopping bag without even fitting it.

On Sunday, 23 April 2023. My granddaughter and I returned the onesy to exchange it for the size 8. The assistant asked if the child had worn the onesy since the mask was soiled. I explained the above situation. A manager was called who informed me that for the exchange to happen, they would remove the face mask and staple it onto the returned onesy and give us the soiled one. I was emphatic again. The item was not worn at all. She then proceeded to ramble through their return policy and how they do not use staples at all. when I pointed out that she had just said that they would staple the mask onto the returned item. She then called her superior.

The Senior Manager then arrived regurgitating the same policy story.

My concern

1. Discrepancy in the scrutiny of items when sold and returned.
Ensure that the same thoroughness is followed.

2. If your policy is not to use staples, then why would the manager say that they would staple the mask onto the returned item.

3. I paid with my debit card. Before my refund was given I had to produce my debit card. So, obviously I was under the impression that the refund would be paid into my account.

4. No, the refund was paid to me in cash. All small notes r20 and r10.

5. Obviously, it was evident, that your staff undermined me and my integrity as a person. I just have to wonder, is it because I am coloured.

6. Yes, that is correct. Your staff is extremely racist.

7. My absolutely worst of all was, the manner in which they upset my grandchild. She even said to the first manager I spoke to. 'excuse me, I did not wear the onesy, it was not my size' even that did not phase your staff. In fact they could have cared less.

8. My granddaughter was crying and obviously upset. And, that was the most infuriating part of your staff. They thought that it was a joke.

Please be rest assured, that I will explore every possible avenue to hold woolworths accountable for the emotional trauma my granddaughter suffered.

Late last year i had purchased a boot on the end of year sale, i went to customer services acquiring assistance because the boot was gathering water from the sole. They said that they would take picture and send them to a technologist. I am not impressed with the services provided by Woolworths especially Unathi mcenjana and Cheron from table bay store customer services is very important as the company sloagn so im surprised this is how a customer is treated and thay have the audacity to be giving out attitude as a customer that purchases there all time.

Yesterday Date:20/02/2023 (between 2:30 pm and 3 pm) I had an unpleasant encounter with 2 ladies at your store, one is a customer who found me shopping in the 75% sales area (sneakers to be exact) and she's 7 months pregnant by the looks of things and offered me the items at a lesser price from a lady (Named Zandi who works at Woolworth's). Zandi even followed her to meet me as if they've been watching me for a while.

"Nomsa" doesn't have a name badge therefore I assume she doesn't work at Woolworth's but Zandi on the other hand has a name tag and is in Woolworth's black uniform with a name tag but unfortunately I didn't have a look at the name to confirm is her name is "Nomsa", anyway long story shot: They both offered me the sneakers at a much lower price than the R310.00 that I already saw them at inside the shop and they said we could meet outside, so I said yes, "Nomsa" and I left the shop and waited on the benches, Zandi came out the back where the deliveries are received and said okay, give me what you got and I'll give them to you. I RAN AWAY AND LOOKED BACK. I guess the numbers they gave me are incorrect because I have tried phoning them to no avail ([protected], [protected]) but the one number does go through on whats app, just there's no communication at the moment. You can have a look at the camera's and check out the numbers, I'll kindly assist with identifying them if need be.

This is the email I sent today

Good day

I am a Woolworths customer for years as my mon has been therefore I am. U never havd any complaints but tye service my husband received last week was so terrible in the cape town branch on Thursday. My mom bought my husband a shirt and pants. As a present.. Unfortunately it was not really my husband style as he is more into chinos... I advise him to go on his lunch break and change it or if they can put the credit on a gift card as prior I did it before. and my mom did not give a slip but I ddnt thought it woud b a problem as I do not want the money... firstly they said they cant change it as they did not stock it and he need to go to waterfront.. And then I asked to speak to a supervisor, my husvand calles me to speak rather. and she said if he need to change it it must be to the worth of the exchange R1100... But my husband did not have alot of time to look and I told him I would go buy something the next day they shoukd just credit it. They refused and I spoke to the supervisor again where I said do different Woolworth has different rules.. By this time my husband embarrassed already as he said the cashiers were looking at him and he just wanted to leave.. After I spoke to the supervisor again as he do not like to complain and told her to leave everything give him the item back and I will write an email to customer service and I asked her name. Immediately she credit the items on a gift card which why ddnt u just assist him in the firts place... So now he is at a new job he got his first warning for late coming... And he do not want ever go to the cape town store as he was sembarrassed... I was so disappointed as all of this could have been avoided. I know im just 1 person not important at all but u just lost me... My husband advised me to write to Hello Peter as he is stating mabe he looked like a gangster and that dont sit right with hin as he felt judged.

Regards

Rochelle Okkers

‪[protected]‬

I bought the boerewors at Vincent Park East London SA, and I buy this wors frequently, as it is really the tastiest wors in our city, but I thought that at previous times we barbequed it, that the extremely tough casing was due to freezing the wors before I used it! That has proved to not be the cause! I have taken pictures of the casing that is totally inedible! I do hope you obtain a better supplier!

Dear Woolworths,

I am unhappy with the service I am receiving. I've been a customer since 2014. Woolworths' insurance, I submitted all the documents to them for claims. The last email I rece3for them, they are waiting for a letter from my company. They don't respond to my follow-up e. Mails. I am not happy with the service.
The EDC are busy calling me and my credit score dropped as well.
Please advise what is the way forward.
I played my part with sending all the documents, how long should I wait to receive the best customer service 🙄

I purchased the chocolate mini digestives biscuits at a woolworth's store and to my surprise when I was packing my children's lunch boxes I noticed the packet felt empty it has one whole biscuit inside, packet is still sealed I feel they already overpriced for the amount of biscuits they contain inside the pack and to have a packet with one whole biscuit is rather disgusting.

Where is the quality control woolworths!

Every week I visit Woolworths Umlazi mega city to buy fruits and vegetables. I prefer woolies because is well known for quality even if you know you will pay more because of trust you do pay more. Since December 2022 I started to notice a negative shift in the quality when for numerous occasions when I bought robot peppers. When I cut the peppers, the inside is rotten inside. I would throw that and believed maybe it's not their fault.

Then the same thing happened with the red apples. I always buy red apples because each morning I eat an apple with my daughter. But Today when this happened, I said enough is enough, something is definitely wrong with the quality of their fruits and vegetables. I have lost so much money trying to cover this up. I am not happy at all with this when we pay so much

Regards

Aurelia Miya

I bought groceries for Christmas lunch and there were a few items not available and they send me more expensive items and I spoke to store in Grove where the packing happens I will send it with driver and I then send it back with driver and signed the form of initial order.

No correspondence about my refund for 2 weeks and then I called them last week. I have been on the phone for almost 10 days trying to get a manager to resolve this issue. I then received a mail Thursday with gift card details that didn’t work at all. I called and explained and again I send another email with a screenshot of message on App. No correspondence the consultant Elvina and Nakita said a Manager will call me. I called again on Monday morning I was told manager is busy and can’t talk now but she will call me back. I waited another day and no manager again. Then Tuesday I called and insisted to speak to her now . She took my call and said she will look into the matter but she was not aware of my query which made me more angry. She took two days to get back to me with a refund and then the consultant Janica called today to ask if I am happy now. I asked her for my compensation as I called every time and I feel I should be compensated as I spend days on the phone for almost one hour explaining myself n query. I asked Janeca for the fuller details of Manager and Regional manager as they said Woolworths policy is not to give out names and surnames of their staff. I need to complain in writing only. I told Janeca she is rude and disrespectful towards customers as I have never had such a horrible experience at Woolies. I told her please go check my online profile and you will see the amount of spending and shouldn’t be treated like this. I also told her all my calls are recorded and she mentioned to me and then said she will drop this call now.

I am disgusted with the online customer service from consultants and manager.

Please advise urgently as I want my compensation for all the phone calls to you guys.

On Friday 30 December 2022 we did shopping at the mens department in the Menlyn Woolworths store.
There was an incident where my daughters IPhone was stolen in the store.
We immediately reported the incident to the security lady on duty.
She did absolutely nothing and just pulled up her shoulders.
We reported the incident at the MTN store 50 meters away and was told by MTN that the theft of cellphones in Woolworths store is taking place on a regular basis, nearly on a daily basis.
We returned to Woolworths and spoke to the manager, she told us that the security cameras did not cover all parts of the store.
She undertook to investigate and will keep us informed via cell phone.
No response received to date

Purchased a pre-pack of Free Range Lamb Leg Chops on the 31/12/2022 at the Galleria branch. Cooked the meat on a braai the same evening. My guests nor any member of my family could eat the cooked meat, owing to it being very tough. I paid an amount of R171.19 in cash and did not retin the till slip. However I still have the cooked meat as well as the tray with the labelling.

We purchased the new Cutie Pie Gateau Cake for my mom's birthday on the 27th December we bought the cake in the morning as it was a cake for the birthday and we had people over. We've been buying cakes for all birthdays from Woolworths due to the satisfactory quality we usually receive but this time with this cake it was a terrible experience. The sponge of the cake was extremely tasteless and crumbling apart it also had some funny bitter taste this was extremely disappointing as we intended to make the day special for my mom but instead had a cake that had absolutely no taste and just brought down the entire mood. None of the guests could even finish their pieces and it had to all just be thrown away.

We purchased duck, Gammon and Lamb from Woolies yesterday for Christmas eve dinner.

EVERYONE that ate the duck became violently I'll 2 hrs later last night and most of today the 3 family members are still suffering.

This is a disgrace and we expect better from Woolies.

Thanks for ruining our Christmas! I have my Woolies card number and copy of purchase for around R3600 if anyone is interested!

Woolies card no [protected].

Mike Vincent

[protected]

I am very unhappy with the service I received from Woolworths Randpark Ridge, we live in the area and shop at this store very often. Yesterday 25/11/2022, woolies had a promotion buy 2 for 3, my husband bought me 3 jeans, so as we understand it, you pay for the 2 highest items and the cheapest one is free. He had 3 jeans, one was R599, one was R399 and other other which was free was 399. So his total receipt was R998, (how it is split on the receipt is not my problem) however these jeans didn't fit and I needed to go back in today to exchange for sizes. Woolies is still running the promotion today the 26/11/2022, so I spend quite an extensive amount of time at the store looking for sizes to exchange these items, the 3 jeans I took today was R549, R399, and R399 which in total is less than what my husband paid. The consultant exchanges the 399 ones and then says I must pay her more for the 549, so I asked her why, she says on the slip it's showing 427, at this time I'm trying to explain to her that the promotion is 3 for 2 and today's items are worth R49 less than yesterday's items, she still arguing and says yesterday it was on special, so because it didnt make sense why I had to pay more, I told her please cancel everything and put it on the gift card, as this lady didn't want to understand. So then that seemed a problem for her aswell, until I said I want the total funds of R998 on the gift card.

She continually says I'm not understanding and there are clients in the line, this consultant does not use a name badge. The manager Charlotte, was standing there the entire time and tells her in Zulu I'm not understanding and then does it again while processing the gift card, yet she didn't come and check the receipt to find out why I need to pay more?

I'm very disappointed and displeased with this branch at Randpark Ridge Mall, as now I wasted so much of my time as well as fuel, I could have went to a better branch with better customer service.

I'm so upset. I'm so upset.

The experience I had at the store when I went to make a payment onto my card turned into a horrid and horrendous one that caused me to miss a client meeting.

The store called me back into the store. That was just another blow after a stressful experience.

The worst part was that no one considered my time, how late it was, and how dangerous it was for me.

I was called back into the store without any explanation as to why I was called back into the store after they did processes incorrectly. I found out that they were calling me back because of their incompetence and irresponsible actions by not knowing how to resolve their problems at the right time.

Returning back to your store made me miss an important client meeting

I was unable to sit down and have dinner

Almost choked from having to eat while returning back to the store.

This was the worst experience of my life. I couldn't even begin to describe my level of frustration and anger over the fact that choosing to do a basic transaction in store turned out to be what ruined my day. Merely deciding to give you my money and being a local customer turned into the worst customer experience of my year.

You know, the disgusting part is when the girl who caused all of this didn't even say thank you or sorry.

A simple 'Thank you for taking the risk to leave your safety in the middle of the night to help me with my till, which is short of money, and now we are trying to balance it my wasting your time and balancing your till.

Not a thank you for helping,

Not a thank you for wasting my time or even considering my time and my business.

The only time they said thank you was when you were wasting my time.

How embarrassing. Imagine a customer in the store even asked me if I was lost or okay and if I needed help because I was standing there for so long, not even being updated on what was happening.

They took my card away from me in store and went away from where I can see what actions were being completed and no one told me what was happening when my card was away. You are not supposed to take my card away from me outside of my eye reach.

Then the manager says, 'don't worry, I'll compensate you after I told her that I do not want to be there at night, not considering anything that could happen to me, as though being compensated will keep me safe in the middle of the night.

Who compensates me for having to return from my house back to your store?

I missed a meeting because I was standing in the middle of Woolworths sorting out your problems, you had the audacity to chase me with a packet of Chuckles saying you are compensating me for losing 499.0 USD.

As a result of your incompetence and the putrid capacity of your team, I put myself in danger in this rape culture world.

This has really ruined the relationship I have with Woolworths, I've been with you as a loyal customer, and even now I was making a payment I did not need to make at this time.

I'd really appreciate it if you could.

Balance my account, run a debit order for everything, and close the accounts.

I'm good.

I was at Woolworths Airport Cape Town International

Thulisa Peter

On the 11th of November 2022, when I went to Woolworths Cresta Mall to credit a Levis jean that was bought by my wife. The management told me that this is not heir jean, and it was worn, therefor they won't exchange for me. I tried to explain to them that it was bought there on the weekend. With confidence the manager told to take that jean to where I bought it,

I was really humiliated and harassed in front of the customers and Woolworths staff. I never thought that would happen to me especially at that store as I always do my shopping there, I am really disappointed with the management.

I always do my shopping at the same Woolworths, when I went there to report it look like my case was not taken seriously. Therefore I have decided to consult with my lawyers maybe they will take me seriously.

Good day, I purchased a packet of chicken rashes from the woolworths in malvern (engen garage) durban, on the 09-11-2022 the sell by date is 17 november, I fried the packet yesterday morning for my family breakfast and the product tatsted sour and off, please bear in mind this is a firm favourite in our household and I was very dissapointed with this. Thankfully I tasted it and didnt serve it to my kids, who would of probably suffered from food poisoning. I am extremely upset and digusted. Please can you call me to further discuss the matter. Thank you