Woollies promises to honour discounts

In consumerland people expect to get what they’re promised – and when they don’t, they are unlikely to be happy about it.

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In consumerland, as in life, people expect to get what they’re promised – and when they don’t, they are unlikely to be happy about it. I’ve had a few e-mails from readers complaining about Woolworths’ special offers not being honoured at the tills.

About three months ago, Richard Ward of Cape Town said it had happened to him more than once at the Sea Point and Green Point branches. “For example, the 500g butter was on promotion, but on checking my slip, I discovered that I’d been charged the normal, full price.

“The store manager told me that it was a ‘regular system problem’.”

Ward suggested to Woolworths’ management that the company adopt the policy of other retailers in South Africa and overseas – that of giving the customer an incorrectly charged item free.

But his suggestion did not fall on fertile ground.

He received the following e-mailed response: “We are aware that some retailers offer the product free if there is a price discrepancy, however Woolworths’ policy, that the lower price is always given, still stands.”

Asked to comment at the time, Woolworths’ group director of retail operations, Glenn Gilzean, said: “We expect our systems and stores to execute promotional activity efficiently.

“Naturally it is frustrating for customers when an item scans at the incorrect price. We share their concerns.”

As for what the company intended doing about it, Gilzean said the stores’ IT processes and “related store disciplines” had been revised and the efficacy of the stores’ new systems and processes would be monitored.

“We have engaged directly with Mr Ward about his concerns and apologised for the price discrepancy.”

Soon afterwards I heard from Lana Magill of Durban, who said that on two occasions she’d watched as her “two for the price of one” punnets of fruit were scanned at a Durban North branch of Woolworths, and she was charged the full price for both items.

“On the first occasion, the manager acknowledged it was a problem, but said it lay with head office. I was told that I could not get the discount because he could not change the coding on the till.

“Needless to say, I purchased only the one box of grapes and left irate.”

It happened again with punnets of kiwi fruit, she said.

On a third occasion, she didn’t notice the overcharge until she got home.

“I was charged full price for two ham packs, when the packaging read ‘Save, buy any 2 for R30’ – an overcharge of R16.

“Other family members have had the same thing happen to them at other Woolies stores,” Magill said.

“Surely a store like Woolworths can get their technology in line with the prices they advertise?

“Why should we have to watch the till like hawks?”

So back to Woolworths I went, resurrecting the question about the company’s response to incidents of store failure to honour special offer pricing – and asking why it did not provide customers with the item free in such cases.

Well, good news – from Monday, Woolworths will introduce a new policy “in terms of items that scan at a higher price than the advertised price to customers”.

“If this happens, we will give the first wrong price item to the customer for free and subsequent items at the lower price,” Gilzean said.

So if someone bought “two for the price of one” items and noticed, after these had been scanned, that they’d been charged full price for each item, they would be given both items free of charge, according to this new policy.

“Our first objective is to ensure that prices always scan at the correct price, and to this end we have robust policies, practices and procedures in place both within our head office and stores to ensure that this is the case,” Gilzean said.

But on the relatively few occasions that this didn’t happen, he said, the consumer would benefit.

Good move!

Incidentally, it’s a policy that Pick n Pay has had for some time.

A consumer who was pleased to hear of Woolworths’ soon-to-be-adopted policy is Charene Bruton, who complained to Consumer Watch about being overcharged by R5 for a punnet of strawberries at the Musgrave branch on Monday.

Having spotted the overcharge while still in the store, she alerted the cashier and a manager was called.

Bruton said the manager gave her two options: go down to the customer services desk on the floor below to get a refund of what she’d paid, and then return to the food hall to pay the “proper” price, or redo all her purchases at the till; this after having waited for the customer at the till at the time to be dealt with.

“Why should I have to be inconvenienced because of the inefficiencies of their system?” she asked.

The new policy will no doubt make the retailer more committed to getting it right when it comes to synchronising the price on the pack with that programmed into the tills – and ensure that customers are appropriately compensated when it isn’t. - Pretoria News

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/woollies-promises-to-honour-discounts-1.1106580

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