JH
John H
1 reviews | Active since Dec 2016
24 Feb 2026, 13:01
MAKRO refuses to refund us after returning damaged goods when delivered.
I bought 2 toolboxes, only available online total value approximately R25 000. When the toolboxes were delivered to me the boxes were damaged. We contacted MAKRO and gave them photographic evidence of the damage. MAKRO arranged for collection of the toolboxes to be returned to them. A Courier company came to collect them after we had re-packed them for return to MAKRO. This purchase happened in early January and to date we have not had a re-fund. All our calls to MAKRO say that the courier company had a problem and that the issue is under investigation as apparently the supplier has not received the returned goods and that they cannot refund us! This is a problem between MAKRO and the Courier company of their choice. Our deal was with MAKRO and MAKRO only, we had no say in the choice of courier service at all. All this is documented and sent to MAKRO. There is obviously some kind of ***** going on here.
Helpful (0)
Replies (1)0
Replies (1)JH
John H's updateReviewer Update
02 Mar 2026, 09:38Thank you for this response. For 2 months all we heard from various people as it was escalated by telephone and email regularly, was that they were looking into it. Various managers promised to help, eventually one of the managers named Mpho, eventually simply blocked my wife's phone number and he would not answer her calls. When we eventually threw all our toys out of the cot and emailed anybody and everybody we could find, (as well as a post on Hello Peter), "co-incidentally" our missing returned toolboxes were found the next day! This appeared very fishy to us.
A shout out and kudos to a manager Mr Hennie Gouws, manager at Crown Mines, took a personal interest in this issue, he contacted us daily and I must commend him for taking this matter seriously, this resulted in a Ms Nalini Parshotam, who did contact us, again after a little delay and again said she would look into it. We did receive the refund a day later and we were also given a R500 voucher for the inconvenience and bad experience. The returned money reflected into our account the day after we received calls from Mr Hennie Gouws and Ms Nalini Parshotam, much to our relief.
Reflecting on the experience my impressions are:
1. Makro and it's affiliates' management is in disarray and unable to enforce company standards effectively
2. The Walmart slogan " There is only one Boss, The Customer!" definitely did not apply here. The company culture simply does not reflect that when dealing with client services. This company culture appears to be in need of a serious overhaul.
3. The whole episode gave me the impression that there is possibly some collusion between Mass Mart management and the Courier company when it comes to returns and theft of returns, hoping the customer would eventually give up and the problem would go away.
4. It is very disappointing to have go to the point where we have to "throw a tantrum" to get any proper attention, when the system should simply work first time.
5. There are people in the organization who actually care, those people should be rewarded and given credit by the company and retained in order to foster the correct attitude towards the customer.
A shout out and kudos to a manager Mr Hennie Gouws, manager at Crown Mines, took a personal interest in this issue, he contacted us daily and I must commend him for taking this matter seriously, this resulted in a Ms Nalini Parshotam, who did contact us, again after a little delay and again said she would look into it. We did receive the refund a day later and we were also given a R500 voucher for the inconvenience and bad experience. The returned money reflected into our account the day after we received calls from Mr Hennie Gouws and Ms Nalini Parshotam, much to our relief.
Reflecting on the experience my impressions are:
1. Makro and it's affiliates' management is in disarray and unable to enforce company standards effectively
2. The Walmart slogan " There is only one Boss, The Customer!" definitely did not apply here. The company culture simply does not reflect that when dealing with client services. This company culture appears to be in need of a serious overhaul.
3. The whole episode gave me the impression that there is possibly some collusion between Mass Mart management and the Courier company when it comes to returns and theft of returns, hoping the customer would eventually give up and the problem would go away.
4. It is very disappointing to have go to the point where we have to "throw a tantrum" to get any proper attention, when the system should simply work first time.
5. There are people in the organization who actually care, those people should be rewarded and given credit by the company and retained in order to foster the correct attitude towards the customer.
JH
John H's update02 Mar 2026, 09:38
Reviewer Update
Thank you for this response. For 2 months all we heard from various people as it was escalated by telephone and email regularly, was that they were looking into it. Various managers promised to help, eventually one of the managers named Mpho, eventually simply blocked my wife's phone number and he would not answer her calls. When we eventually threw all our toys out of the cot and emailed anybody and everybody we could find, (as well as a post on Hello Peter), "co-incidentally" our missing returned toolboxes were found the next day! This appeared very fishy to us.
A shout out and kudos to a manager Mr Hennie Gouws, manager at Crown Mines, took a personal interest in this issue, he contacted us daily and I must commend him for taking this matter seriously, this resulted in a Ms Nalini Parshotam, who did contact us, again after a little delay and again said she would look into it. We did receive the refund a day later and we were also given a R500 voucher for the inconvenience and bad experience. The returned money reflected into our account the day after we received calls from Mr Hennie Gouws and Ms Nalini Parshotam, much to our relief.
Reflecting on the experience my impressions are:
1. Makro and it's affiliates' management is in disarray and unable to enforce company standards effectively
2. The Walmart slogan " There is only one Boss, The Customer!" definitely did not apply here. The company culture simply does not reflect that when dealing with client services. This company culture appears to be in need of a serious overhaul.
3. The whole episode gave me the impression that there is possibly some collusion between Mass Mart management and the Courier company when it comes to returns and theft of returns, hoping the customer would eventually give up and the problem would go away.
4. It is very disappointing to have go to the point where we have to "throw a tantrum" to get any proper attention, when the system should simply work first time.
5. There are people in the organization who actually care, those people should be rewarded and given credit by the company and retained in order to foster the correct attitude towards the customer.
A shout out and kudos to a manager Mr Hennie Gouws, manager at Crown Mines, took a personal interest in this issue, he contacted us daily and I must commend him for taking this matter seriously, this resulted in a Ms Nalini Parshotam, who did contact us, again after a little delay and again said she would look into it. We did receive the refund a day later and we were also given a R500 voucher for the inconvenience and bad experience. The returned money reflected into our account the day after we received calls from Mr Hennie Gouws and Ms Nalini Parshotam, much to our relief.
Reflecting on the experience my impressions are:
1. Makro and it's affiliates' management is in disarray and unable to enforce company standards effectively
2. The Walmart slogan " There is only one Boss, The Customer!" definitely did not apply here. The company culture simply does not reflect that when dealing with client services. This company culture appears to be in need of a serious overhaul.
3. The whole episode gave me the impression that there is possibly some collusion between Mass Mart management and the Courier company when it comes to returns and theft of returns, hoping the customer would eventually give up and the problem would go away.
4. It is very disappointing to have go to the point where we have to "throw a tantrum" to get any proper attention, when the system should simply work first time.
5. There are people in the organization who actually care, those people should be rewarded and given credit by the company and retained in order to foster the correct attitude towards the customer.