Poor Poor, Disrespectful, horrible service!!

So I was at Pick n Pay mdantsane last week Monday. The store was not that busy at all. Did my shopping and I went and joined the line. As I was standing there we noticed something was up at the till because it was very slow and people were just getting stuck there. We started having conversations amongst ourselves as to why they were so slow. Eventually after an hour of standing in that cue ( please note I was probably the 5th person as I mentioned it was not busy at all) we could not tell what was happening because their cues start from the start of the food isles, no one is allowed to stand over that point so even the next person is quite far from the till. I hope I’m making sense.

So eventually it’s my turn and I’m greeted by a lovely lady, did not get her name as she was not wearing a name badge. As I put in my card she says “ Eish the cards a little slow but it will go through after one or two times of trying. Then I ask her is that the reason why you are so slow today? She responds yes. I further ask her is her manager aware of this and she says yes and she thinks he has been calling someone to fix the problem. So I tell her but now we as customers don’t know that. I have been standing on the cue for an hour and now I’m at the till for another 15mins and my card keeps declining. Her colleague who I picked her name when she called her “Siya” at some point jumps in to sort of help. She asks that I pay at her till. And I’m thinking this is great team work. Until I tried once and she said “we are going to try for the last time and if it does not work then it’s your bank, clearly Old mutual does not connect with us” I started getting annoyed because now I was given an ultimatum, and I said to her I just used the same card and clicks and she continued in a condescending way to say yes but it does not work here. And she continued to say don’t you have a another card. I had no cards on me I decided to do cash send and she was like yes yes that should work. And guess what it was still declining. So I looked at her and asked her now what do you have to say for yourself? and she could see I’m getting really irritated and loosing my patience. She started mumbling with embarrassment on face because she was the fool now. Oh as she was trying to help me someone who assume was a supervisor her name tag was printed Gunuza just passed me , no apology or care to pretend she is assisting she just payed for her food and left. My transaction had to be paused so she can pay for her little lunch 😳😳. Then another tall man appeared and asked his cashiers if they still offline and they said yes. He looked at me and said sorry we are offline. That’s when I lost my ****. I had been standing for almost two hours. And hour on the cue and almost 45mins at the till. Why is no one communicating with the public to make us aware that they are offline? So one can make a choice to continue to cue and try or go out and get cash? There should have been print outs on the tills reading “ Card payment and cash send offline “ there should have been a till open for those who have cash to go through and pay. There should have been someone on the floor doing all this. The manager was sitting in his little corner like a King. If he could not do it then deligate. How can as a manager you just sit there when you see your store is at a standstill and you have frustrated customers but not have the sense urgency to get up and want to do something. I asked for the manager because I wanted to ask him this. By the time I got to him I had a lump on my chest I could not even talk. Because I was disrespected and my time was wasted and I still did not leave that store with my little groceries. I was furious. Even when he saw my distress he just sat there and looked at me. He didn’t even get up from his little King chair.

As someone who was raised in a family business and running a business of my own, I feel sorry for the franchisee of Mdantsane Pick n Pay. I think induction trainings are needed to remind those people why they are there. It’s really sad 😞.

I would start sending mystery shoppers in that store until it’s running smoothly.