Makro Alberton NewMarket Park Compliant

Good day

I trust this email finds you well but more importantly reveals the disappointment in customer service experience by my family at Makro Alberton NewMarket Park today.

My family has been shopping at this Makro for the past 5years more or less and we have been happy with the shopping experience as well as the service up until today.

Today our father who is a pensioner at the age of 70 years asked us to go purchase items for him at Makro Alberton NewMarket Park which we have done many times before bearing in mind that he is an pensioner and we are more than willing to assist and do the shopping on his behalf when he cannot physically come to the store.

Our shopping experience came to a stand still when we where about to make the payment for the items we hoped to have purchased we were approached by one of Makro staff (Lady) who apparently was team leader at the pay points by the Television section who informed us we cannot purchase anything for our pensioner father when his not physically there. Upon hearing this which was a surprise to us as before we have shopped for our father and have never been informed of same proceeded to ask to speak to the manager in charge. Zuko Khambula - Makro Manager approached us at the till point without even greeting us told us we cannot make the purchase without our father being there. He then proceeded to inform us that all pensioners must be at the store with their physical card Makro Card to make any purchase.

We noted the terms and conditions that Zuko Khambula - Makro Manager informed us off and asked him in a case where a father is incapable of coming to the store physically to make the purchase what would the resolution for this be. Zuko Khambula - Makro Manager rep**** again that our father has to be here physically at the Makro store with his physical Makro card to make any purchase as he is the pensioner.

Our response to Zuko Khambula - Makro Manager was that we have been shopping at Makro Alberton NewMarket Park for the past couple of years for our parents who are both pensioners and have never had this issue previously where we have been told we cannot purchase anything for our father who is a pensioner. In addition to above we advised we have proof of purchases made for my father in the previous 2 months when we came to Makro Alberton NewMarket Park store and purchased items for my father and received no difficulties in acquiring same at that time.

After the above was mentioned the response was simply “I am here now and this will no longer happen and this is Makro policy”

Now with the above all said we proceeded to leave all items we wanted to purchase for our father which he needed today and left Makro Alberton NewMarket dissatisfied.

With the inconvenience of travelling a further distance and incurring even more cost to acquire the same items we wanted to initially purchase at Makro Alberton NewMarket we drove 22km further to Makro Crown Mines and today where able to make the very same purchases we wanted to make at Makro Alberton Newmarket Park.

With the above said it is very disappointing to experience a different type of service when we go to another branch where we receive staff who are willing to help us and understand the reasons for our purchase. It was honestly very rude and unprofessional the way Zuko Khambula - Makro Manager spoke to us and the unwillingness to understand our situation and why we where there to make the purchases on behalf of our pensioner father.

More to this we did explore the online option to avoid any further unsatisfactory service from Zuko Khambula - Makro Manager (Makro Alberton NewMarket Park) but we did not unfortunately have the luxury of time with what our pensioner father has requested from us to purchase at your Makro stores.

Can you simply address what is Makro (Massmart) stance where a pensioner cannot physically come to your store and request his children to assist to purchase items? Does this mean any elderly pensioner who cannot physically come to the Makro store cannot request a family member to intervene?

I once again want to reiterate that we have been shopping for our pensioner father at Makro Alberton NewMarket Park for years and have never experienced what we did today with the service from Zuko Khambula - Makro Manager (Makro Alberton NewMarket Park)

Awaiting your response on above matter but more importantly to address the tone and they way in which we where addressed by Zuko Khambula - Makro Manager (Makro Alberton NewMarket Park)