Coles Supermarkets Australia
reviews and complaints

Store 4530, Receipt 8440, Sat 19 Sept at 2:51 pm. Bought 2 x 250g strawberries for $3. Kept in the fridge until Tuesday 22 Sept 5pm 1x 250g left and at least half were rotten.

I do not know how long you expect them to last but at least tell the truth about the produce you claim as fresh produce with a warning or use by dates.

I purchased a 700g pack of beef ribs when I had finished cooking them the ribs had no meat what so ever on 3 of the bones I could not believe what I was looking at it was a disgrace I feel that who ever you have manufacturing this particular product should be quality checked again I am very disappointed and I would like a full refund and I can assure you I will not be purchasing this product again.You can contact myself at lee.[protected]@bigpond.com I also have my receipt thankyou.

I made an online order two days ago via Coles online for something that was out of stock at my local store.
Only after calling Coles customer care line this afternoon has someone actually advised my order will not be filled at all.
As I advised Coles it would have been more appropriate if someone had let me know two days ago that my order was not going to be supplied and not waited until the final delivery day to send an email which was so vague I would have still expected some sort of delivery in the near furture.
If Coles were having supply issues or if they don't recommend purchasing something online (which was also mentioned in the phonecall) then it should not be available to purchase online.

Date of incident - 15/09/2015 (5.45 pm)
Place of incident - Coles Northland, Preston, VIC

I have been a loyal Coles customer of years now and mainly shop at the above outlet. Yesterday, i was looking for some Quinoa on the shelves and was unable to find any. I walked all around the store looking for a customer service personnel, but found no one. I then walked up t a counter and asked the gentleman there if he could call for assistance. He paged help about 4 times, and still no one came forward. After having shopped for almost an hour, I was left waiting for more than 15 minutes with a trolley full of groceries.
Finally I asked for the manager. The store manager Brandon (Brendon) came forward with the most high handed attitude, behaving like I was causing him a great inconvenience. A Simple " Sorry to keep you waiting. How can I help?" would have sufficed, but instead he asked me why I was bothering him, instead of asking anyone else for help. Then I told him that I had been waiting nearly 15 minutes and that help was paged 4 times. His response "oh everyone's in a meeting and I was on my break. What do you want anyway?"
I know one person's business doesn't matter to a company like Coles, but as a matter of principle, I won't be taking my business there anymore.
I'm usually a very tolerant person and not prone to writing complaints (in fact this is a first), but such a high handed, condescending attitude from a store manager, who should be trying to set an example and improve customer service, is SHOCKING!

Dear Sir
At 8.00 p m tonight I went to Coles at Brighton Sydney for groceries filled my Trolley and tried to get service to pay. There was none only self service payment method where I get to work for you unpaid to work out the grocery bill. I have had this experience at this outlet before but usually someone then comes to provide service and quantify bill in the traditional way. But tonight nothing, just an employee looking at me as thought I am a dope and separately watching customers trying to go through the exercise. So my experience tonight was that nearly every aisle had employees working on shelves stacking etc which made actual shopping more difficult but nobody at all to serve those wanting to pay and only option to do it myself. So I simply left and on basis I will go to the new Superbarn at Sans Souci tomorrow or Aldi - no problem at these venues getting service. Told the statue like Coles employee watching customers trying to slowly work through exercise of putting their own groceries through and so not sure how this is done when no bar codes of which my intended purchases included a number of such items with no bar codes. Don't know what happened to the goods I had spend 20 minutes collecting just left them in trolley.

The level of service was to say the least poor, then Coles has lost sales and I query the confidence as to whether to go to this outlet again as opposed to the opposition. My personal experience poor and sales lost and to that extent in a very small way poorer given I also own shares in the listed holding company!

Why has this occurred?

Regards
Mark Green

No wonder Australia lags the world in smart thinking, if the ###s running Coles Finance are typical of the business brains in power.

Background:
I just applied for a Coles Credit Card for myself and my wife.

Actually the Coles on-line credit card application process was pretty straight forward and actually I was left thinking that this was a pretty good on-line experience.

During the application, I was asked a few simple questions and for driving lic. details for ID purposes and that was it. I was then asked for my wife's details. Pretty good so far.

5 days later I got my card and activated it, all good!

Now for my wife's card so 10 days later after not receiving her card, I decided to go on-line to check the status of her card...no trace, so I decided to add her again.

This time the security check was all sorts of [censored] white pages listing, electoral roll listings, rental statement, etc the type of crap that nobody has all the details of.
Frustratingly, no opportunity to use her Driving Lic, Passport, Utility Bill the sort of things that most people can prove.

Then today I received a letter from Coles advising that my wife now needs to piss about going to the post office to prove her ID before a card can be issued.

So the madness in summary:
I, based purely on driving lic. alone and a verbal commitment about how much I spend can successfully apply for a Coles credit card..

However, despite the request being made by me as part of the same application process to add my wife as an additional card holder she now needs to run around like a mad women to prove who she is?

How in Gods name if my driving lic. was good enough for me, why my wife's driving lic. not good enough for her? What ### loonatic decided not to permit driving Lic checks for additional card holders.

Why when letting me finish my application, did the process leave me thinking everything was OK for both cards does it take over 10 days for Coles to tell me that my wife needs to become Indiana Jones just to get the bloody card.

Stupidly, if she had asked for her own credit card, chances are she would of been issued with one within a few days based on her driving lic number.

Come on Coles get a grip! maybe spend some of those huge profits on better design of your systems and better quality testing. Make sure the ### setting the business rules for validation has to do the testing!

To whom it may concern,

Last night 13th September 2015 about 7ish my husband and I went to coles Derrimut to do our shopping, as we were walking around little did I know there was a cardboard laying on the floor and I almost tripped. I did hurt my toe and ankle. We went to pay at the counter and I asked for the manager, I asked my husband to take the shopping in the car and ill wait for the manager to come.

After 5 mins the manager came and he asked what was the issue and I said to him that I almost tripped and hurt my self, I think I have twisted my ankle because no one in the store has looked out for trip hazard, and it is OH&S issue having cardboard laying on the floor, and I would like a compensation for it.

The manager asked where it is and so I advised him where it is located. At the mean time my husband came and told him to go after the Manager to show him. So my husband followed the manager, the manager didn't see my husband and comes back to me saying where is the cardboard I don't see any on the floor.

My husband went and showed him little did I know that the manager so the cardboard and picked it up but didn't know my husband saw him doing it and coles manager denies that it was ever on the floor.

I am sorry but coles is being very ridiculous there are witnesses that saw the incident and my husband saw him picking up the cardboard. So if I don't get any compensation and coles suggesting that I am lying I will go to consumer affairs and tell them as they would love to know how coles is being sneaky...

The other day I bought Coles brand greaseproof paper for the first time. I have tried to use it several times since and it sticks to everything, regardless of whether it's for cake-baking or savoury food (e.g. chips, kievs). As a consumer, I'd expect a cheaper brand to not be of quite as good a quality, but to not work at all is disgraceful. I've had to throw the roll out as it's useless and will not be buying that brand again. I suggest you work on improving the standard of that product.

I'm a shopper at Coles two to three times a week, today I was at arndale store I was served by a lady called Donna it was at 11.16am my receipt number is 8872. Your store had just opened we got our stuff went to regerster I was not greeted there where two of us I did not notice it was a 12 item line and she did not tell me before serving. She became loud and said this is a 12 items I said ok but you don't need to raise your voice. So that was that we then went to pay we asked if we could use our 50 dollars bounce that was on flyby card she again raised her voice and said not with out PIN number I have never needed this before. Due in this conversation I asked why she was being so rude and loud she said she wasn't I told her I shop here all the time.
To be honest she should not be in customer service I'm a manager and if she was my team member she would be retrained.
I love cole love the service and produce but will now re consider due to this experience.
I would also like to say she over charged on my receipt she charged me twice for baby spinach and this is not the first time that it has happened I've never complained before because I can't be bothered but she has up set me and I believe will make many other shoppers in your store have bad experience,

I am so angry, I have just been to coles to get my baby formula as i just ran out. When i got there, the shelf for the sma was empty-they only ever put 6 tins on anyway. I looked down every aisle looking for a member of staff and could not find anyone, so i went to a lady at a till who did an announcement for somebody to come and help me- she did 3 announcements and i waited 20 Mins. When the person did finally arrive, they asked me if there was any on the shelf? wtf?
i replied no so she said il go check in the back, she checked in the back and come back to me and said "we just had a load delivered, so it is there but you will have to come back later tonight or tomorrow when the shelf has been stacked" and then just walked off. My husband had the car for work so i could not go to another supermarket and cole was the only one in walking distance, in the end i had to get a different formula and i am hoping my baby will be ok, as change of formula can affect a babies digestive system. Shopping and woolies from now on!

I have been shopping at Coles Supermarket in Cannon Hill, Brisbane and have found the strawberries they are selling are not of good quality. They say they are a product of Australia and as they are in abundance at this time of year they are selling them at a low cost. I have bought their punnets only to get them home and find half the strawberries in the punnet are mouldy After the last time I swore I would not buy them again. I was at the supermarket again today and they had strawberries on special so I thought I would give them one last go. I was standing in the line being served and wondered why they girl who was waiting behind me picked up one of the punnets and said to me, "did you know these strawberries are mouldy" This was the last straw. I took all the punnets and said to the girl serving me that I did not want them. She was very courteous and put them aside.
I want to let you know that if the strawberries I am buying aren't good, how many other customers are finding that theirs aren't good either. I have shopped at Coles for a long time now but if this type of thing happens again I will be changing supermarkets. I know I am only one person but if all your customers feel the way I do you will not have any customers left. You advertise about the freshness of everything and this happens

I wish to remain anonymous, however I hope you do something about this.
There are a certain minority in the fresh food department that make shopping there awful. Two older guys, who are just dreadful. They are rude, ill-spoken, and God forbid you ask them for help. They stand around in the middle of the aisles with the large trolleys that carry your stock, chatting away to each other and friends they see, but won't have a bar of you if you ask them to move or help you.
The younger men there are so delightful to deal with, I did ask for both of their names which I believe were Kyle and Nathan. Please let them know how great they are at their job, and how lovely it was to see them each week. Thank you Kyle and Nathan for offering great customer service to me and my family, but for also looking very approachable.
However I unfortunately won't be shopping with Coles Armidale anymore due to the horrible service from the older men that work there. It is a shame, it was very convenient for me, but I don't like the way I, amongst many other customers were treated from them.

Yesterday we purchased a box of Coles Made Easy frozen Mussels in Tomato & Chilli. We prepared them according to the very ambiguous directions for our lunch today. Almost all of the mussels fell out of the shells and we ended up with 16 small pieces of mussel meat for our $10.00. We were really looking forward to this meal and as pensioners feel ripped off and so very disappointed. Won't be buying these again.

I was asking my brother in law who works at Deli Department at Coles World Square to buy me a roast chicken on Tuesday 4 July 2015 for my kids lunch the following day. He was working night shift and there was only 1 roast chicken left, he told his duty manager that he was reserving this roast chicken and will pay for it later after he finished working - hence he put it in the oven warmer. A customer came wanted to get a roast chicken and asked about the chicken in the oven. He told him that this chicken has been reserved for someone else then he went to complain about it. The store manager came and my brother in law told him that he was going to buy the chicken. Yet the store manager blamed him of not doing the right thing and should not keep that chicken as he had not paid for it! When he was busy cleaning, the store manager took the chicken and gave it to that customer without informing my brother in law at all. I was very very upset the way this store manager deal with this situation, I feel the store manager had stolen from my shopping basket! Very unfair... You are very narrow minded and you only can only see customer in front of you - but what about other customer that you cannot really see physically in this situation like me? This is not about the chicken but more about your attitude on dealing with situation like this. All customers should have the right to put their shopping in his or her basket before paying... Does it mean it is ok for other customer to steal from other customer'sbasket? You are as a store manager should be more wise and think ten times before doing thing like this. Shame on you - I am wondering: How often do you steal from your customer basket?

I bought some lamb stake on June 30th 2015 at 5.28p.m which was marked down. Opening the packet at home I found the meat in as state as shown in the picture. How can you people possibly serve meat like that. When approached the manager she said it is marked down. As an Occupational Health and Safety Officer I asked her where QA (Quality Control System) is. She argued that they have a system in place and it slipped through. (Mind you this the second time). If there is such system in place then why the rotten side is face down obstructed from views from everyday consumers. This matter will be reported to the Consumer Affairs.
The "Fresh Food People - alright"

Sandra who works in the cold meats section at Coles, Pyrmont does not wear gloves. She cuts bbq chicken as the back of her fingers and hand slides on the chicken I'm meant to eat. When I changed my mind on the purchase she rolled her eyes, shook her head and went to the next customer. I took this up with Simon, one of the store managers, who apologised and said he would correct the issue. Upon visiting that section again today, Sandra was still not wearing gloves and was very rude. She did not understand my basic request for half a dozen slices of the turkey breast which was already cut in half and covered in plastic in the window. She rambled on about it not being sliced as it's not on special and she can't give me the middle slices as she attempted to open a new one. When she finalised realised the turkey was already open and cut in half in the window, she then started blaming her new team member who first serviced me for the miscommunication. I then brought up the incident from the day before and she became very defensive and very rude. With the intense competition in this industry I would have thought basic hygiene and customer service would be paramount. I've been shopping at this store 3-4 times a week as I prefer everything as fresh as possible. I won't be visiting again.

we stopped shopping at wollies because of NO parcel pick up and went to Coles Inverell 2360. i shop every fortnight and use parcel pick up. on this day i went right round the shop as usual and get to counter put everything up and ask for pick up and she says no parcel pick up today as its full. i said you have got to be kidding and the girl goes no im not kidding i said why didnt they have a sign out or put over PA system then the girl at front counter came over and asked what was wrong and we told her and this women named JOE which i know well and speek to every forthnight was very rude and basicly told me to there isnt room, she up set me that much i felt like i was going to be sick, i have been back and spoke to the head boss and he was just as rude and the same too bad no room . this isnt even xmas time so what is that going to be like. god help us. if this is customer service i was disgustered and so were my friend that were there with us. this isnt good enough as we have been going there for years. please let me what you could do to solve this problem. we werent happy in the way we were spoke too. we were made feel like crap under there feet please call me

Bad missconduct as witnessed Inappropriate behaviour from member of Coles
Wearing name badge (Tina) my wife had informed her at the time "he is a married man"
I am somewhat nieve as I was u ware until my wife had spoke the young women was flirting in shook and disbelief we left he store and confused to Woolworths for our shopping
If need be my wife and I are willing to make formal statement so this does not happen to any others couples
Sincerely
Mr.Mark.Vamoose

I brought some Coles Made Easy Australian Chicken, Parmesan & Garlic Parcel sounded very yummy but when we went to eat them it was all pastry and i mean pastry i m sure there was no chicken in both of them as we couldnt find or taste any chicken and the parcel only had a bit of the sauce in it, which didnt have any flavour at all wasnt happy.

We are local to Australind. My husband and I are fair people however, since the store has insatlled more self service checkouts the customer service is dis-heartening. Since the dramatic changes in the store 3 times we have tried to be open minded however today was the last straw. We prefer to use a checkout that is manned with a person, each time we have used the store (since the change) we have had no option but to use the self service due to the long lines of trollies waiting at the checkouts. It is inconveinient if you have a fair bit in your trolley. Neither of us have the desire to be check out operators, so I guess it would explain why we always strike a problem where you need to wait for a CUSTOMER SERVICE person to clear the mistake usually a minimum of 2 visits to us, not to mention the wait each time you require the mistake to be cleared. Our problem was intensified by the continued very poor service we have received by a person called Tracey, unfortunately for us we seem to use the service when she is on. (1) she speaks to you in a very condesending way. (2) she does not offer an adequate response (3) she told us that we need to have flybuys to make a feedback on the service(4) when we questioned this she over spoke us and offered alot of excuses(5) she thought it was not a big deal that we would like to fill in a feed back form. I went to the customer service desk and the VERY VERY HELPFUL young lady that was on the 10 items or less checkout informed us what we could do to which was this site. She offered vouchers (how nice) for the inconvenience, we thanked her (declined the vouchers) and told her that we just simply wanted to feed back our disappointment. We love our little shopping centre, and always try to support it, however we feel that we do not wish to support your supermarket (which is our preferred store) and will opt for woolworths in Treendale which is a loner drive from where we live, (Coles is a few minutes from our house) We feel sad but we also feel that you deserve to know this. What was concerning while Tracey was performing her unhelpful service, many people around us commented that they too were not happy.This happened arounf 3pm today. You can contact me on [protected]@y7mail.com should you like to respond .Thankyou yur once loyal customers Cheryl and Rob.