Pick n Pay shocking customer service

Anyone who follows Business news will be aware of PnP's woes of late and how they have fallen behind their competitors in so many areas in recent times. My recent experience with Pick n Pay at Plattekloof Village underscores exactly why so may consumers have turned their backs on them. I feel I need to share this experience, so that maybe, just maybe, they will take their remaining customers' opinions and complaints seriously.

On Monday, 27 November, I received a text message (being a loyal shopper since they opened this store some seventeen years ago and also registered with their "Smart Shopper" loyalty program), saying the following:

"GET A R50 VOUCHER when you spend R500+ at PnP Plattekloof from 30 Nov-3 Dec. Redeem 4-10 Dec. Swipe Smart Shopper Card & check slip. Ts&Cs. SPOUT =opt out" There was no access to the Ts&Cs and nowhere was it stated that this app**** to a single shop or one voucher per customer.

on 30 November I spent R1589 at the store, swiped my Smart Shopper card and received the R50 voucher. The following day, 1 December, I spent a further R2377 and swiped my Smart Shopper card again and did NOT receive a voucher. At the same time my wife spent R1065, swiped her Smart Shopper card and did NOT receive a voucher. I approached store management and was rather rudely told that it was only one voucher per customer, despite me pointing out that this was not specified in the message I received from PnP.

Not happy with being so rudely dismissed, I decided to call PnP's Customer Care Line, reference ***, and spoke to Nokulunga. After keeping me on hold while she went to consult a higher authority, she came back with the same response I had received at the store.

I am not particularly concerned about the 2 x R50 vouchers not received, much more so about the way that PnP treat customers who have valid queries and actually take the trouble to raise this with management. How can one possibly be happy to return to such a business. I have on so many occasions taken the trouble to partake in their Smart Shopper shopping experience surveys, without seeing improved results that I have decided to stop doing so.

Finally, this store has just undergone several months of revamping, during which many shoppers decided to shop elsewhere until such revamp was complete. I continued to support this store during this period. With the company having spent, I guess many millions of rands, on the revamp, leaving the store looking stunning, the aim of regaining lost market share will never be attained until their is a paradigm shift of management's approach to their customers.