Misleading Promotion & Zero Transparency – Collectaboks Swap Days a Complete Failure

I am lodging this complaint because Pick'n Pay has repeatedly failed to address the actual issue in their Collectaboks campaign, and Customer Care continues sending template responses that avoid accountability.

The Issue

Pick n Pay promoted the national Collectaboks card collection campaign, encouraging customers to:

Spend money to earn cards Attend designated “swap days” Complete albums for themselves and their children

I participated fully and collected over 100 duplicate cards. I attended PnP Hyper Princess Crossing every Saturday since swap days began.

Every single week, the store only had the same 5 cards available to swap. No rotation. No stock replenishment. No support. Just 5 useless cards on a table.

The Problem

Pick n Pay Customer Care has now confirmed that the cards are out of stock nationwide. So why are customers only being told this after the promotion is over? Why were swap days still being advertised and hosted if there was no stock to support them? Why was the public encouraged to spend money collecting cards that Pick n Pay already knew could not be completed?

Pattern of Mismanagement

This is not the first time this has happened. The previous Rugby card promotion had the exact same issue: customers left with incomplete albums because Pick n Pay ran out of stock and offered no solution.

This is a clear pattern of:

Poor planning Lack of transparency Misleading marketing Failure to deliver on advertised promotions

Customer Care’s Response

I emailed Customer Care multiple times. Not once have they addressed the core issue. They continue to send copy-and-paste replies about “while stocks last,” which has nothing to do with the actual complaint: Why did Pick n Pay continue promoting the campaign and hosting swap days when stock was already depleted and not available?

Relief Sought

I request the following:

A proper explanation from someone in Promotions/Marketing, not a call centre template Accountability for running a promotion without stock A meaningful remedy for customers who participated in good faith A commitment to fix this issue for future promotions

Conclusion

Customers should not have to spend money, attend swap days, and chase down cards for weeks only to discover that Pick n Pay never had the stock to support the promotion in the first place.

The lack of transparency and the repeated failure of these promotions deserve public attention.