Woolworths is going backwards. I experience the same, no stock on the shelves etc. Cashiers chatting whilst 1 or 2 tills are open. Have even had the experience of beeing stopped at the main door by Woolies Security and told " If you pay by card you can shop as we cant except cash due to there being no floats in the till, the Manager has not come with the money yet" (And this @ 10am in the morning)

The standard of service in this country is totally pathetic! Granted, these are real concern in our service industry but can you beat being treated like you don't matter at all? As a black SA'can I can't deal with going to any grocery store because of the attitudes of the people behind the tills. They do not greet, they do not ask if you will be needing a bag and you'd be lucky if you get a thank you at the end of the whole deal. But on many occassions I have seen them treat my white counterparts differently. What's that all about? The worst part is... I never complain because I do not want to get them into trouble and maybe get them fired! Who is to blame? I say we do because SA'cans do not complain.

Here we go AGAIN. Hey white people don't get treated better than blacks! The majority of people behind tills are black and they probably resent white people if what I've read in these forums are true. PLEASE PLEASE get over yourself.

we do need to get over this racial issue, but i also need to address the fact that yes white people are treated better that black people the fact that black people might resent white people is not the case, they get better treatment because those cashiers know that white customers don’t hesitate to complain and black people hardly ever use things such as customer service.

I work in the food industry and I often feel that well-off black people are often resented more than well-off white people. I am talking about the way a black chef (earning min. wage) feels when a charismatic black businessman comes into the shop and places a large order. Thus racial issues are now becoming more of a feudal issue (poor black people resenting richer black people). South Africa is getting way complicated...

How did we go from a discussion about poor service to racial issues??

Typical. Very typical indeed.

Indaba Hotel: I asked for an ironing board and an iron and they didn't deliver. It is unacceptable for professionals to be treated this way at a four star hotel: what does this do to our country's image with foreign tourists

now i think this is really funny. come on! pay for service man.... have your clothes ironed for you. thats what happens at hotels.
you do travel often .... don't you....?
you do know that there is an ironing service at top hotels.... don't you.
zzzzzzzzzz

Or is that beneath you?

We recently went to the Lost City, a la 5 star hotel, etc.
The service was excellent, the hotel was great, however the valet parking was a nightmare.

We gave the car keys to attendant, he parked the car, all was well.

When we had to return to the Sun City, we waited 30min for our car to arrive. Then the attendant phoned to say he can't find the car. We literally walked to the parkade, looked for our car, and found it! Then we had to look for our keys, because they (parkade attendants & security) didn't know where the keys were. A R 500 000 car missing in a 5 star hotel's parkade. Eish!

The funny thing about is that, didn't seem concerned at all!

And you are most probably white yourself hey, thats why you say you dont get tretaed better then anyone else that is NOT white?

If you're not willing to complain at the store's management, it is your own fault if you get bad service. Honestly, the person working for the store is paid to provide a service to clients. He chose the job, so you have the right to complain.

And as an afterthought, what is the relevancy of race? White people do not get better service. People that are willing to complain about bad service gets better service!

i wish you could just paint your face black and go shopping and see the service you'll get, it not the same.

How can you say that? Have you painted yours white and made the comparison? This convo is ridiculous.

i dont have to, i've seen the treatment you guys get.

wow - some confidence and pride in yourself. Ag shame man.
don't even go there. Stand tall and respect yourself....

The need for customer service improvement in South Africa has prompted us to come up with a solution. We are based in Cape Town at the moment. N'lighten customer service improvement company purely focusing on the issue of customer service. Check our website for more details. www.nlighten.co.za. It should no longer be a joking issue, we need to do something about it before it is too late. Don't walk away when given a bad service say something. These people need to know why they battle to retain their customers. Most of the time its not the price issue but it is the service issue. Looking forward to hearing your views.

I was on hold for 30min - no joke. Not sure how they are helping me but Ja that's the service we recieve on a daily basis.

i have recently visited Circus Circus @ the Suncoast and was appauled by the service, firstly, we stood and waited to be seated for about 20 mins, people who came in after us were seated before us, when a table finally became available we were steered towards it by a waitron pointing a finger as to which table we should go to, once at the table we waited another 10-15 minutes for a menue, after ordering a cup of tea and cuppicino we waited almost 40 minutes for it to be served to us, when the drinks came to us, there was a sqaushed fly on my cuppicino,obviously i was upset, and showed it to the waitor, and told him that i am not going to drink something with a smashed fly on it, he offered to then bring me another which i politely declined, but made him aware that i am not going to be paying for it, when it was time to leave the bill came through with the full amount of the order, i queried it and the waitor said "it's fine he'll pay for it" which i found quite upsetting, why should the waitor pay for the uncleanliness of the place, these poor waitors are on their feet all hrough their shift obviously working hard for as little money that they get, and still they are liable to pay for what wasnt even the fault of him in the first place. the manager there really needs to get a better plan, firstly they should be effecient, make sure they have enough staff, so that their customers get the best service, and secondly they should buck up on their cleanliness! 082 8794518

I fully agree that service levels at Woolworths stores are dropping. Untidy or half-empty shelves and dirty floors are enough to send you straight out the door. But, lets not forget the dull, unfriendly faces of the cashiers, especially the ones that work at the Customer "Care" counter. And don't even think about getting anyone to try and help you find something - because the packers (if there are any) are never useful in any case. And the supervisors are absolutely rediculous - they see themselves as the store manager, making it almost impossible to report an important matter to the REAL store manager! Totally disgusting service Woolies, especially when it comes to Christmas shopping. And sadly, many will continue to put up with this terrible service in 2008. South Africans need to make a stand when it comes to poor service in SA!

If you think service is a problem - then what about the quality of their merchandise. Never been so bad.

I was once at Spur and complained about the size of the burger patti, the waiter with a groan whisked my plate away and brought back a bigger patti. I noticed a lot of waiters eyeing me out.I called the manager over and told him I would eat it but also take the food away to the CSIR for analyzing.His eyes grew to the size of the plate and grabbed my plate away and brought me a brand new meal.
Spit, urine, snot etc etc was this in my food?
Carefull when you complain, South African's in the service industry don't know how to handle complaints, they take revenge, show a long face or are rude - we need to wake up.
Service in the USA is impeccable, we are so far behind.

I strongly agree,the quality of food and service at Spur is down the drain,I have eaten there on two occssions in the last two weeks and at different branches hoping that I would aviod a bad eating experience from the previous week.My meal at the next branch was even worse I had to send my family meal in twice and then gave up.I will make all atempts to avoid eating there again.

The reality of the matter is, that you just cannot really complain about service in SA. When you do not get the required service how can you complain about the service?? You cannot!!

YES!! The service is bad everywhere - all be it that there are a couple of companies that really do try - and get it right. Herewith a list of industries where I have complained directly or by website and get standard rhetoric - "This is really unusual, and is not what and how we work at all..." Like it is only you Mr/s. Customer, not us. "We know how you feel!" "It will now be rectified!" and more fairy tales and myths...

They are
BANK; Fast Food; Medical Aid/s; Municipality; Insurance Company; Telephone Company (Fixed Line); and the list continues.

The one company has afiliation with the USA and service is supposed to be tip top, Learning from the masters????? Not only is the service bad but when you bring it to their attention, there is no feedback from there either. So it kind of drills down.

Someone commented that you cannot compare a Third World service to taht of the First World??? What a cop out?. If you want to compete in this global village, you have to be at your best and play according to the rules put down and deliver. Sadly, too many people/companies just do not get it.

THe nameless entity remains without a face and it is impossible to get it to teh attention of the CEO or Top Management. And when they do they fob you off to their Customer Liaison department or someother dept. that caused the problem in the first place and you start the circle again....

ahhh its always bigger and better elsewhere - so how many of you moaners ever really experienced first world service, like having to fill your own car with gas or dine in an affordable eating establishment where the owner and his family of 4 run the entire outlet - waiting times of 30 -40 mins to be attended to. Get a life and worry about real issues, average outlets in SA offer far better service levels than thier counterparts in the "1st" world

i totally agree about both the service mishups and the fact that we love to compare oursleves with others. have you ever been to a sore in the uk and got a smile from any of the tellers? well maybe think of that the next time you visit your local shop and get greeted with a smile, better yet, start by greeting them and i am sure you will get a smile back.

Can't be. just can't be.

You are right and wrong with the point you are making,when we get gas at the garage I tip for the service offered ,I am sure you will not support a garage without a petrol attendant if other garages continue to offer that service.We must compare services in our country with positive examples ,you never know you could just improve some ones business and reap the benifits ,I run a family restaurant in Cape Town,It gets tough at times but the customer knows that he is getting the service he was expecting.I always interact with my customers just to feel the pulse,if a comparison is made to a another company,I discuss the differences and usually have a satisfied customer,I guess I am one of the Lucky ones, I do not get too much of negative.

I think that woolies staff on the whole are the best trained people in the business and their standards of hygiene are far superior to anything else. But i agree that complaints are good and if we dont complain how will they ever know if people are unhappy. We just need the right channel for complaints - like SMS!

Their service has declined considerably, the food is old and stale, managers are always on holiday or away. They are really in trouble! They don't get my share of wallet anymore.

I remember tucking into food from the Woolies foodmarket as a teenager and everything was tasty. Now everything is so carefully preservative and additive free that there is no flavour - you may as well eat cardboard. The sandwiches have no salt or pepper on. The pies have absolutely no meat - basically chicken gravy in pastry.

The 10 o'clock story with no cash takings because the float had not arrived yet has happened to me on more than one occasion at the Kloof Street FoodMarket. Often there is no stock on the shelves.
But who do we complain to without sounding like a bunch of whiners? Half the time we don't realise we are getting bad service.

It is only when someone treats us with extra care that we realise what we have put up with.

Does a forum exist for specific service complaints. Why do we not have a consumer rating site?

it's called hellopeter @www.hellopeter.com. South Africans can post positive or negative comments about the service they recieve in South African stores. Companies who subsribe to hello peter even have the option to respond. This is really great as it gives us an indication of which companies give a fuck and which don't. On the openning page there is a list titled comapanies who respond and those who don't. I think the more people who know about this site and post comments- the more powerfull this site will become as companies will know that should they treat customers badly- they won't just tell one or two friends - but thousands of people through this website. The other really positive thing about this site is that good experiances are also aired and so just as much as bad word of mouth can spread, so too can positive experiances. I urge all of you that are concerned about the service levels in South Africa to try this site out as the more people go there per day the more impetus this site will gain

I have never had a problem at any of them - and I regularly shop at a few...

Great service, great products, friendly staff, and no problems at all.

i am a woolies worker and the reason we dont do our best is cos managment suck they treat us like shit decline our holiday requests so like my manager they can swan off to south africa.now ive had my say my manager wants to sack me.

is this the attitude of an employee of the woolworths group?
no wonder all the comments on bad service from the shopper/s etc.
your attitude obviously reflects in your work.
nasty.
guess you want to be the boss ey!
ha ha ha
i don't think so. it will never happen for you - work on your outlook on life - improve yourself and everything else improves around you.
oops: you are probably too important and arrogant to take advise.... mmm? thought so.

All Truworths stores in Pretoria (except Brooklyn)have long queues. Too many customers? No: One line for payments of accounts (fewer customers - called from the till by those unfriendly ladies), one line for purchases (very long)while all other tills remain unoccupied. Shop assistants hover around you; not to offer help but to remind you that the store is closed. Unlike Edgars and Woolworths which close at 6pm, Truworths (Church str)closes at 5pm despite thier ineffeciency in managing customers.

The one thing that is wrong with most sectors in SA haunts the food industry to ridiculous heights. Ever wondered why shopping in Sandton is faster and more effecient than in, say the Joburg CBD? Sandtonites, who are presumed to be people of higher influence than most other, are notorious for causing scenes when service is not intact, so extra care and maybe even training is provided to people who serve this precious few. But it's not just food,(i was gonna say power failures too but then something tells me that would't be entirely true) if stores in Sandton were entered into some global service excellence and broad smile world cup we'd own the trophy by now.
Bottom line, it seems when in need of decent service you need to travel to a woolworths in affluent suburbia and put on your best 'I'm capable of causing shit for you' face.

Pity. Real pity indeed

From one Darkie to many... Whether it's a bank or a municipal post office, Black tellers are the pits!!!!!!

darkie - now what the heck is a darkie supposed to be : another person who thinks nothing of himself.
Respect yourself man .... please.
'Unbelievable'!!

- no further comments to you until you speak about yourself in a mature way -

In case you didn't see the piece on the news on Biz Community, service levels are considered very poor in SA by a lot of people. Compared with Asia and the USA and even Britain these days, we are shockingly bad at service. Yet we South Africans just keep coming back for more. Why don't we all start saying no and demanding value for money and proper service. Even better, take our business to those companies that do offer the 'luxury' of decent service.

The problem occurs because there is no body that offers any form of consumer protection. There are a few so called Ombudsmen, but frankly I don't think they are of any consequence. Woolworths are the best in the country and I am surprised to hear the comment, but like any business, it is as good as the local mangement and staff. South Africans have become jaundiced by the plundering mentality of management so there is an attitude amongst employees of 'I love my job - it's the work I hate'. The attitude has to change from I get payed for coming to work, to I get payed to work.

Try Cape Town for bad service. Waitrons (stupid bloody term!) spend all their time trying to outcool each other instead of serving. I actually have to go and fetch them and tell them what to do! Any business owner in Cape Town will tell you that they need more work, but try and get any one of them to actually come and attend to your request for a quote! Hopeless bunch of mountain huggers.

Isabell Jones tried valiantly to do the job of a consumer protector, until death threats put a stop to her efforts. We need a proper sanctioned consumer protection organisation like 'Which' in the UK to take on business SA and get some value and care.

Come on South Africa - stop accepting shody service and start saying no - it will only get worse if we don't act now.

We just don't know or care what service means, in SA. Sad that, on those rare occasions that one receives service, one is elated (after being revived)enough to comment or write to the head of the company. One is just so very grateful!!!!

Try http://www.hellopeter.com/ (SA site). It has worked for many of my friends and colleagues.

Ever been given training by Mr Cheales? Now that's what I call poor service! He's simply a repackaged sales manual with nothing original to offer anyone. Won't let him near any of my sales staff!

I live in Kenilworth and frequent the Woolies in KC, well I used to at least. Their shelves are always empty and I sometimes feel like a lottery winner when I actually find what I'm looking for. I asked the store manager why they never have any Ostrich meat. I was told that they did a "survey" and the "community" in Kenilworth do not purchase Ostrich meat...or sushi for that matter. I know that there's a certain lower class stigma attached to Kenilworth Centre, but really, it Woolies for Pete's sake. I was also told that there's not enough space to actually stock everything. A 3 minute drive down the road there's a specialised Woolies foodstore in Belverdere Rd. This store is half the size of the food market in KC and is also owned by a franchisee, yet they seem to stock everything!

A recent customer service survey done rated South Africa 44 out of 46 countries. I do agree with Tracy - we are a nation that should keep up the pressures and demand good service, we we are always faced with increased prices why is it that we are never faced with improved service?

I am very passionate about service and the company I recently started champions the rights of the customer, instead of having a website where one can just complain, my company actually actions the complaints for customers and boy do we get results..

Talk about bad service... I took out my first DSTV subscription in June and every month get disconnected due to a accounting glitch. So far I've been disconnected 5 times and lost over 3.5 days of viewing despite paying the full amount on time, at the right time and with all the correct details. I'm tired of accounts departments like theirs fielding all their calls through some ruddy call centre who treat clients with suspicion.

They have a screwed up accounting system and it may be time for all the other clients like myself to form a pressure group. We waste a lot of money each month having to call Jhb and send faxes all just to be connected despite doing nothing wrong. They have an entertainment monoply but this has become unacceptible. At what point does the percentage or ratio of disgruntled clients like myself have to be for a service provider like Multichoice to do something? This month I didn't even receive my DSTV magazine. How difficult can it be to create a customer care program which addresses a billings department with glaring errors and a team of paid mouths to try calm clients down?

I hear you bitch about poor service at Woolworths, but I bet you will still go back and shop there. It works the same in our industry, my company is a CD / DVD manufacturing business, we service most of the big agencies in CT and about 300 smaller ones. The big agencies support us because of our over the top service and quality, if a client calls .. we run ! service is everything to us, but you will not believe how many people support our competition even thouth the service is sub standard, the quality sucks and frankly have just become lazy.. you will not believe how many people there are like you out there.. bitch about service, but still support the company. It pisses me off !

I always get bad experience from MTN.I wanted to upgrade in March but only got hold of the correct person in May and I still got the incorrect info and decided to let my contract run out at MTN and then I will choose another service provider.This week my phone got stolen and I asked them last night and this morning for a list of phone numbers that was dialed from my phone to give to the police.When I at last got hold this afternoon of an accounts lady by the name of Pam Pillay-she said that i WILL get my list this afternoon.I am still waiting and it is almost 15:30 - If I do not get my service I am taking it further-because the investigator wanted the numbers before the week-end to nail the bastards.MTN has never been a good service provider....

I have had a really frustating time since I bought my Opel Corsa Utility 1.4 Sport in December 2005. Ever since I purchased my vehicle I have been complaining about the drivers seat and the back sliding window that rattles. I have phoned and e-mailed Williams Hunt the Glen and General Motors South Africa on numerous occassions but to this day (10 July 2006) have had no luck in getting my vehicle sorted out. I have been contacted on numerous times by the service manager at Williams hunt and people from GMSA and all they do is refer me back to each other. The service manager at the Dealer (Williams Hunt) phones and promises to get my vehicle sorted out but dose not follow through with his promises. I am now thinking of selling my vehicle as I am not at all satisfied with the quality of the vehicle and more so the customer service that I recieve from the manufacturer and the dealer.
Should there be other unfortunate people that suffer or suffered the same, please give advice as to what can be done.

I think telkom crawled out of hell and settled happily in S.A. Good choice, considering we're the only sad enough bastards to put up with their inept minions when we call their helpline.

Tellpm is pathetic on service delivery but SAA takes the cake, we should all boycot the so called national carrier that runs at a great loss ( of our tax payers money) with their burocratic and arrogant service (expensive too) and sink them once and for all. Viva Kulula and Comair and Nationwide for giving us alternative domestic travel. SAA is so missing the point...

I bought a car from Peugeot in 2005 April 2006 (Peugeot 206) and on the 04 December this year the engine overheated and it was towed to the dealer. The dealer told me that the engine could not be repaired as the car should be sent to the engineers and that all engineers are on leave. I then requested a courtesy car and I was told that there are no courtesy cars. It now 2 weeks and I am struggling with transport I then called the Branch Manager in Peugeot Rivonia and I was told that their policy is that if you bring a car to the workshop you do not get a courtesy car. It is not my fault that the engineers had to go on leave and now I have to suffer because the dealer does not take responsibility. This is bad customer service, its the worst that I have seen. Peugeot does not value its clients and they do not deserve any customer loyalty. Peugeot SA failed to respond to my calls and the letters that I have sent to them. It just shows that it is not only the dealers that offer bad customer service it is actually a culture of bad service that has infected Peugeot. Nobody cares, nobody is willing to help. Their quality management systems is bad as thei should guide the customer service culture within the organisation. And they are stiil advertising their cars hoping that customers should support them while they fail to deal with a simple customer focus like offering a courtesy car - this is hopeless. Its time that companies should not only attract customers to buy but they are not able to maintain the clientelle. They are sending one clear message that we should rather support their competitors

Cape Town - Very unhappy!

We bought a Panasonic NN-C2003S microwave in Aug 05. Reason being as it was/is Panasonic's top of the range Microwave. We batlled with the recipes as the food was always underdone. Phone Panasonic in Johannesburg and were we told that it was trial and error with the recipe book. After almost two years, numerous phone calls, we send the microwave back to Tafelberg in Diepriverto send it to Panasonic's agenst in Cape Town to check the following, convection time takes to lomg to cook, combination method takes to long to cook, always raw as with convection, grill takes forever. We were told that we are not using the recipe book to spec and that there is nothing wrong with the micowave. Well the same we took ouyr microwave in, there was another unit with the same problem. Anyway we want either a substitution unit, new unit, or another range as the mirocwave is still under warranty etc. Ver very very poor service from Panasonic to adress this issue with their top of the range microwave.

get a life!

I am very much disappointed with the poor service of the SA Roadlink. Last week I bought a ticket for a bus travelling from Bloemfontein to Pretoria. The bus was to leave Bloem at 06:30, but the bus was FOUR HOURS late! They didn’t even have the decency to notify us of the delay. As a result I left after 3 hours of waiting. When I got to Pretoria I was refused my money back by the manager, telling me I should have reported the matter in Bloem. Mind you, I waited for 4 hours, and had a very imported meeting to attend, and now I can’t get a refund?

I purchased a Nokia N70 on 22 december 2006 for my wife's x-mas present from Virgin mobile.We have sent the phone in for repairs 3 times already. we have been without the phone for 6 months now.Virgin say they will not issue a new handset and will not refund my money.They have however offered to compensate me with R100.00 per month for the time that i did not have the phone. but i still don't have the phone and am no closer to getting my money back. oh, and an upgrade is out of the question too, even after i offered to pay the difference. Nokia is unreachable in the matter. i cannot believe how the big companies take advantage of individuals. we need someone to champion our cause. a "name and shame " site would be great. p.s : i have tried hellopeter.