One star is too much - Makro thoroughly deserves a negative rating!!

This is my second review of Makro (as well as the second unfavourable one). I could write chapters about the shockingly poor service levels from this company but for the purposes of this review I'll try and be as brief as possible. Let me state upfront that I have documentation & screenshots backing up everything that follows below.

WEBSITE A while ago Makro rolled out a new website, which can only be described as a severe regression of an already bad site. While the old site had been painfully slow with its share of bugs, at least it was light-years ahead of the current abomination in terms of functionality and ease of shopping.

Here are just a few examples of how they have managed to degrade their website: - Custom wish-lists are gone: There now is only a single wish-list available. I have painstakingly set up lists for different categories of grocery items and all that had been destroyed in one fell swoop, so hundreds of items now have to remain in one flat list with the subsequent frustration of scrolling up and down to find items. They didn't even bother migrating my old wish-lists to this new dumb structure - everything had been wiped and I had to, once again, search for items and add them to the new list. (On the topic of wish-lists (and Makro service - or rather the lack thereof): On the old website (1) All of my lists became inaccessible due to one item in one list giving trouble, with the result that I had to rebuild all these lists from scratch, (2) Due to a bug re. characters allowed in list names, all my lists became inaccessible again. Being a software developer, I went as far as to to identify the problem in a browser debugging session and sent all the information to Makro, essentially doing their work for them free of charge; even then there was no response whatsoever until, 103 days later, I reported it on hellopeter; only then could they suddenly find the ability to respond and fix the problem). - Search for Cadbury P.S. Duo, and one is served a page with two buttons to select from: "30g" & "60g" which does not make sense in the first place as the item wrapper clearly states that it contains 2 x 30g bars. However, on selecting the "30g" button, the resulting item is a single 60g P.S. Duo bar; when selecting the "60g" button, one is presented with a bulk pack of 30 P.S. Duo bars. - A similar, but even worse, anomaly exists for the Cadbury Crunchies page: In the parallel universe of Makro's web site, Crunchies come in two flavours: "Cocoa" and "Dark Chocolate, Mint". Select the former, and it resolves to a bulk pack of 40 Crunchies, while the latter resolves to a single Crunchie bar. - When selecting some items one gets the cryptic message "Product not serviceable for this location". What is this supposed to mean exactly? People, I'm buying normal groceries, not radio-active Plutonium! Or is it Makro's esoteric way of informing me that the product is not available in my area? - Somebody has thought it wise and prudent to set a limit of 50 items on one's Cart. Here follows the twisted logic (and I reiterate - I have saved screenshots showing all of this): I can add two P.S. Duo bulk packs of 30 and two Crunchie bulk packs of 40 (i.e. a total of 2 x 30 + 2 x 40 = 140 bars) to my cart and proceed all the way to the payment screen; but when I select 45 individual P.S. bars and 45 Crunchie bars I can not continue to the payment screen. Instead I'm being confronted by a message informing me that the limit of 50 items had been exceeded and I need to remove items from my cart. In conclusion: It is OK for me to buy 140 chocolate bars if I selected bulk packs but I am NOT allowed to buy 90 bars selected individually. What absurd thought process have been involved during the design of this website?

(NON-EXISTENT) MAKRO SERVICE

- I ordered some items on Wed. 2025-06-25. Due to the absurdity of the Cart limit mentioned above, I had to place two separate orders. The first of these was delivered late afternoon the following day (Thu) - 1 box. Since the same order may be split and delivered by different couriers etc. I made a point of asking the courier if it was only the single box, in case both orders had been handed to him for delivery. He confirmed only one box. - Upon opening the box I verified that the contents consisted of the one order only. - Nevertheless, I received emails as well as SMS's shortly after informing me that both orders had been delivered; moreover, my order history on the (sad excuse for a) website happily confirmed that both orders had been delivered - minus one cancelled item "Not serviceable at my location". - First thing Fri. 2025-06-27, at 08:13 I called Makro's Help Center. The agent told me that she'd have to escalate the issue with Makro Springfield Park who was suppose to fulfill the order. - Friday came and went without any delivery or feedback from Makro. - Early Saturday I decided to call Makro Springfield Park directly. I tried twice: On both occasions I was transferred to an extension ringing for 5 minutes before disconnecting me. - Having realised the futility of trying to get arouse the interest of anyone at Springfield Park, I called the Help Center again. - I once again had to explain the situation to the agent even though I already had been given a reference number during the first call on Thursday. - As I needed the items the next day (Sunday) I implored the agent to let me know if the order would be delivered so I need not go buy the same things again and spending an additional R500.00 in the process. He solemnly undertook to call me and let me know. At the time of writing this review (Wed. 2025-07-02 15:53) I'm still waiting for that call. - 30 minutes ago, without word or warning, the second order (minus the product "Not serviceable at my location") was delivered - 1 week after placing the order. - During this whole debacle, Makro gave me no feedback or updates whatsoever regarding the status of this ticket; not even on the (sad excuse for a) website that still happily kept showing my order as having been delivered.

Needless to say, I'm done with Makro: I'll do my future shopping where I can expect at least some level of after-sales service, even if it means paying more. To any Makro representative reading this review: Don't even bother contacting me for the purpose of a PR-face-saving exercise. I've endured Makro's pathetic service for a too long already, and this has been the final straw. Makro WILL NOT see any of my hard-earned money again, and I'll advise anyone who cares to ask, to stay as far away as possible from Makro.