Rotten groceries, terrible service, food poising.

My wife purchased groceries at PNP Gonubie on 2 April 2018. That week of purchasing we found many of the products which we purchased to be not fresh. At first we didn't think too much of it BUT as the week went by we found more and more items that were rotten, etc.

At first it was sour milk and then it was various fruit and veg that was rotten. We found that slabs of chocolate had signs of melting or incorrect storage temps. They had lost flavor and texture and were covered in a white film. That Thursday we cooked the I&J fish which we bought. It had been frozen and we never allowed it to defrost at any time other than to cook it. When we tasted it we were a bit unsure because it tasted strange, but we ate it nevertheless and assumed that i did something wrong with the cooking and spices.

The following day we both became very ill with nausea, bad diarrhea, muscle pains, joint pains andfever. We straight away knew that it was the fish we ate since it was the only thing which we both ate and the taste was not right when we ate it. The sickness continued the whole weekend and i only started feeling better from about the Tuesday onward. My whole weekend was wasted laying in bed.

My wife continued to get worse however. She started passing blood in her stool and things got very serious. I was about to take her to the emergency room at night but that morning she said that she was starting to feel better and we waited and luckily it passed and she eventually started healing. This ordeal cost us days of our lives wasted in bed and we really felt as if we were dying it was so bad. We missed work and my wife lost revenue since she could not run her business. Weeks later were still feeling the symptoms. Food poisoning is not a joke!!!

We then returned another box of fish which was bought at the same time as well as some expensive Lindt chocolates which were also found to be damaged like the others. We were refunded about R150 or so if i remember correct... barely worth the effort of driving to Gonubie..

ALL THIS TIME I WAS CALLING PNP AND EMAILING THEM AND CALLING THE BRANCH THEMSELVES AND CUSTOMER SERVICES. WE WERE ASKED TO SEND AN EMAIL WITH THE DETAILS OF THE COMPLAINT WHICH WE DID MANY WEEKS/MONTHS AGO.

THE ONLY RESPONSE WE GOT WAS THE MANAGER ASKING US FOR A DOCTORS CERTIFICATE. I REP**** THAT WE DID NOT GO TO THE DOCTOR BUT WE WERE ABOUT TO GO IF WE DID NOT GET BETTER. WE WERE ASKED FOR RECEIPTS AND PROOF OF PAYMENT, I RESPONDED THAT WE ONLY HAD THE PROOF OF PURCHASE ON OUR PNP CARD WHICH SHOWS ALL RECORDS. I SEND THE CARD DETAILS TO THEM AND NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE. ZERO RESPONSE! I HAVE SINCE CONTACTED THEM MULTIPLIER TIMES VIA EMAIL WITH ZERO RESPONSE!

ON FIRST CONTACT THE STORE MANAGER HIMSELF ADMITTED TO ME THAT THE AIR-CONDITIONERS IN THE STORE HAVE NOT BEEN WORKING IN MONTHS AND HE SAID THAT THEY WERE IN A BATTLE WITH EH LANDLORD AND THAT IT WOULD COST R1.3 MILLION TO FIX IT.

When we had been in the store the heat in there was terrible. It must have been 30 deg C plus on many occasions we went to the store.

We are not at all impressed with the response we have gotten from PNP. Nothing was done about it!

WE ARE NOT LOOKING TO SUE OR TO FIGHT OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT! WE ONLY EXPECTED A LOT MORE FROM PNP. THE LEAST WE COULD HAVE GOTTEN WAS A SORRY FROM PNP AND A VOUCHER TO REPLACE THE COSTS WE LOST AND PERHAPS SOMETHING EXTRA FOR THE INCONVENIENCE OF MAKING US SO SICK.

I&J gave us a R70 voucher which to us felt like a complete insult!!! That doesn't even cover the medication costs!!! The Smecta diarrhea medication was R100 alone! Phone calls, petrol costs, time off work and lost revenue. Lost groceries! A massive inconvenience to us and not even much of an apology at all. Even worse from PNP, absolutely nothing from them!