PicknPay, Claremont, Cape Town, Main Road advertising specials in-store that are not honoured at the till.

On three separate consecutive shopping trips to this particular store, I have been succesfully tempted through in-store advertising to purchase more items than I had planned. The first time the special was buy 2 pork packs and get 20% off. Another time it was a one-day only mince special of buy 2 and get 20% or 25% off both - I can't remember the exact percentage. Today it was buy 2 punnets of salad sprouts for R30 (they were each priced at R24.99 individually).

In each case, I checked on the till slip and noticed that the discounts were not app**** automatically. In each instance I had to go to the customer service counter and ask for an explanation. In each instance it was found that my expectation wqs correct and that the discount had not been app****. In the case of the mince, I spoke to the on-duty store/floor manager (unfortunately I did not take note of his name), and requested not only that I be refunded but that the system be fixed to ensure that other customers did not overpay. His response was that I was only the second customer to complain that day, The other customer complained in the morning. My complaint was made after 18h30. This means that many other customers either did not notice or did not complain. It appeared as if the manager thought this was an acceptable problem rate and therefore required no action. The managers' responses in all three instances were curt and unremorsefull, giving the impression that he thought I was now really becoming a troublesome customer for complaining yet again, instead of treating this as a serious matter of commercial *****, as it should have been.