Woolworths South Africa
Reviews and Complaints

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

In the last month, I have purchased Woolworths pies from the Chatsworth branch. The first time I purchased the chicken and mushroom pies. The eating of the pie was a disappointing experience as the pie had mainly gravy and hardly any chicken.

On my second trip to the same shop,I decided to try out the roast chicken pies to see if it was any different. Again my expectations were not met. The pie had mainly gravy and a few pieces of chicken.

Woolworths products are meant to be a cut above the rest especially with the high price tag yet its disappointingly ordinary. I can say that the pies we buy from the Breadmill Essenwood are well worth their expensive price. Feeling extremely disappointed,I will not be purchasing pies from your store again.

Hi there, I am a regular Woolies customer branch Woolworths Queensquarters. I purchased Soya cultured yogurt on 8 November 2022 and when I got home that evening and the next morning I noticed that the yogust was gone off. Looked at the expiry date and it w 2 or 4 November 2022. I took it back to Woolworths yesterday, 9 November 2022 with my receipt and obviously the staff was embarrased as apparently this has never happened. They said that either they can refund the money or I can take a new product to that value R46,99 each got back R94.00. I informed the Manager that if it was another store and on the discretion of the manager (and as agreed by a couple of the staff at Woolworths) that the product would be given free and my money would also be returned. The manager refused to do so and I informed them that I will put this on faceback/social media. I even though I did not make a fuss but there were other customers that was aware of the fuss going on and some of them turned back and looked and smiled. The manager just shrugged his shoulder and worked away while the supervisor at the front desk (by the cashers) assisted me. Even though this did not happen and the reason why I did not make a scene or fuss at the store is because they are the nicest staff members but I hope that this does not happen again as next time it could be a very irate customer who could be different to me.

Oh good luck and this would not stop me from shopping there as I am diabetic and some of my products I buy from Woolies and as I leave about 5 minutes away this is the ideal place to shop. PS : Don't stop selling your wonderful soya cultured yogurt products as Woolies is the only store I can get them from.

Please note that I am not complaining but it is the principle that counts as of the Manager's attitude. Also please check your products, especially the expirty date/s on the the shelves and fridge.

All the best and have a wonderful festive season and holidays. Good luck and God Bless

A few months ago, I purchased 2 sets of 3 pure cotton socks from 2 different Woolworths stores in different towns. See the attached photos. I was not in need to wear them immediately. I used a pair after a while and yesterday took out another pair to wear. After wearing them I noticed a hole in one of the socks. See attached pictures. These are expensive socks and am thus requesting a refund for the pair.