Unprofessional, ********* and ********* Business Practices

During the months of July till September 2023 I have been getting harassed and hounded by Woolworths Financial Services for the smallest amounts of money on the planet. I have had a Woolworths account now for almost 20 years and have been a good, loyal and paying customer since. I spend a lot of money on my Woolworths account and expect respect in return. I always pay my accounts on time and do not take kindly to being bombarded with phone calls and SMS's unnecessarily. I am NOT and never was a bad payer and will not be treated in that manner.

On 3 October I phoned the company and spoke to Shamima regarding my concerns. She apologized to me and said she would remove me from their SMS list. Unfortunately the phone calls and SMS's continued every month despite me paying more than what was due on my account at the end of every month. I received phone calls twice in DEcember and it got so bad that I had to block the company phone number on my phone to stop receiving phone calls saying my account is in arrears and I need to pay. When I questioned the agent regarding this conduct I was told that SMS's are sent by a different department and he knows nothing about it. How can you know nothing when you are phoning me for the same thing?

I received more messages on 19 December 2023; 22 December 2023; 27 December 2023; 03 January 2024; 05 January 2024; 17 January 2024; 23 January 2024; 26 January 2024; 30 January 2024 and 02 February 2024. These messages were for amounts well under R100. The messages on 03 January and 05 January threatened to hand me over to the collections agency if payment of R50 was not made. The minimum payment I make when required at the end of the month is R300 via EFT. At the beginning of February 2024 I paid in R800.

On the morning of 16 January 2024 I was at the Woolworths in La Lucia Mall. I addressed my concerns with Pinky who immediately apologized to me and understood that I wasn't at fault. She explained that she as a staff member gets the exact same treatment despite having a good payment record. This was shocking. She immediately contacted the call center and put me through to Karyn, who also turned out to be unhelpful despite me instructing her to remove me from the SMS list and only communicate with me on email. This instruction was never followed and the bombarding SMS's continued.

I look forward to settling my Woolworths account in full soon and closing my account. Since the company does not appreciate my business or loyalty I have no reason to maintain this account. I'm not a person to knock a company publicly but in this case I want to expose this company for their shameful and underhanded tactics. I will be reporting this to the Financial Services Conduct Authority (FSCA) as this conduct is completely unacceptable and must be exposed.