SM
Sipho M

1 reviews | Active since Oct 2019

23 Jul 2024, 16:37

Woolworths Refuses to Refund for a Shlocky Product

About a week or so ago, I bought 3-ply 9Pk toilet paper from Woolworths Maponya Mall. After using the product, meaning, the toilet papers, when the last two were left, I discovered the one of the pair was partly shredded like tuna, and I took it to the aforesaid Woolworths store the next day. The store manager there, a Mr. Siphiwe Mabuza, refused to give me a full refund even though I had demonstrated the clearly defective product to him, with a dismissive vacuous sort of nonchalant and cavalier disposition and said that he saw nothing wrong with the product, which was clearly shredded as it should NOT be. There was no way of knowing that the first of the last pair of toilet rolls would be defective. So, I demanded a full refund from Woolworths after indicating that I believed there was some racial profiling involved because when I purchased products from Hyde Park, Sandton City or Greenside, or anywhere where the market was mainly white, with some Indian folk, and of a wealthier echelon (SEM, formerly LSM) no products were ever defective, yet the frequency of schlocky Woolworths products came largely from stores that serve mainly black folk, in current parlance, Black Africans, as the Maponya Mall store does, and this was to me, plainly, ****** (Woolworths is welcome to send me the summons from their General Counsel or whatever legal wigs they have got there). My email was sent directly to the CEO (Mr. Roy Bagattini) and the Head of Foods (Ms. Zyda Rylands) and I copied Mr. Siphiwe Mabuza as I had indicated in our meeting where he was dismissive of my complaint and demand for a full refund. I then suggested in my email that Mr. Mabuza deserved to be fired by Woolworths because he failed to prioritise my point of view as a dissatisfied and clearly unhappy customer. [The day MUJI Japan comes to SA to whip Woolworths, give them a run for their money, I shall be delighted, because fierce competition will improve both customer service and product quality which has been in decline at Woolworths over the last 15 or so years while the packaging improved (smart move Woolworths, I'll give you that). Point of the matter is that there is a case to be made in South Africa that in the retail space, there is both blatant and subtle as well as not-so-subtle ****** (Retail ******) of which all the major retailers, including Woolworths, are apparently guilty, and I dare them all these major retailers to sue me in court, so that, this matter can be out in the open for public debate and the courts can finally make a ruling on this; which I imagine will take quite some scratch of time, given the resources and legal teams these retailers have at their disposal. Yet, still, let me make one point clear: I do NOT fear any corporation where I suspect even so much as a subtle case of ****** that violates section 9 [Equality Clause] of the constitution [Constitution Act 108 of 1996.] We just cannot at all tolerate or countenance any type or sort of ****** in South Africa. And major retailers such as Woolworths and their peers, Checkers, etc., are practicing ****** in mainly the historically African and Coloured areas, where despicable practices occur in stores that cater to this specific market that you would never witness at any store that caters mainly for or to Whites and Indians. We must have the courage to call ****** by its name; ******, in this specific case, retail ******. Had I bought the product, the shlocky product at Woolworths Hyde Park, it would have long been refunded. But because I bought it at Maponya Mall, no, Woolworths refuses, through the person or rather the pomposity of Mr. Siphiwe Mabuza, and now their head CT office Head of Customer Services, Ms. Anita Scott. I am no friend of Woolworths, but simply someone who is their loyal customer, because in SA, unless you find online alternatives which involve excise duty at times, what other alternative have you got for everyday products? Hence their nonchalant dismissive attitude that I do not deserve a refund because I have used a portion of the product, while their purchase stub says they must and will refund me with or without a purchase stub. And, now, what is this? I want my refund, period. The amount is not at issue, but the differential treatment depending on which store you bought the product. I do not want to deal with such ******; at all. We have to be done with it. Roy, fix this. Now.

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