Complaint: Builders Warehouse Constantia Berg – Repeated service failures and unacceptable customer experience

I’m writing this because my recent experiences with the Constantia Berg branch have been so poor that management needs to see what customers are dealing with.

On 3 December I went to the store to buy a booster pump, water tank and a few accessories. The staff member who helped me was great, but the visit still took almost 90 minutes just to get everything sorted. I loaded what I could into my car and asked for the water tank to be delivered.

The next day, 4 December, I received a credit note out of the blue. When I opened it, it showed that the amount I paid for the water tank had been credited back to my Builders account with no explanation. Delivery wasn’t refunded, only the tank itself.

I phoned Builders to find out what happened. I was on hold for ages before I got through to someone named Atini. She tried several times to contact the store but couldn’t reach anyone. She eventually told me someone would call me back within two hours. Nobody did.

I phoned again later and got through to her a second time. This time she managed to reach the store. Only then was I told that the credit was because they charged me for the wrong colour tank. They had beige stock, not grey. No explanation was sent with the credit note and nobody bothered to notify me directly.

After that whole mess, I decided I would avoid the store altogether and rather order online. I needed some electrical items for a new plug installation, so I placed an online order on 4 December and received confirmation that it would be ready for collection in one day.

I went to the store on 6 December at 08:30. When I got to the collection counter, there was nobody there and already five irritated customers waiting. Staff were walking around but there was no sense of urgency or concern.

When it was finally my turn, I was told that my order hadn’t been packed at all. The person helping me then grabbed a trolley and said she would collect everything immediately. By this time I had already been in the store for more than an hour. Then it got worse. They didn’t even have all the items I had ordered.

When I asked for a refund in cash for the items they didn’t have, it turned into another long process filled with unnecessary hoops to jump through. After close to two hours, I eventually walked out with my refund.

The two staff members who helped me did their best, so this is not about them. This is a management issue. They are clearly understaffed and poorly supported. The level of disorganisation is shocking for a brand of this size.

What frustrates me even more is that you claim to value customer feedback but even the QR code on your invoice doesn’t work. It takes you to a page that says “rate us”, but there is no way to submit a rating or write anything.

I have genuinely never experienced such a consistently bad service experience. I’m not someone who complains easily, but this needs attention at a senior level. I don’t see myself returning to this store again, which is unfortunate because Brights, your smaller competitor, is far ahead of you when it comes to service and basic efficiency.

Builders needs to fix this. The Constantia Berg branch is failing its customers.