This incident happened on Saturday, 19 February 2011 at 14:45 at the Pick ‘n Pay store in Vincent Park, East London. I was standing in the 10 items or less queue. I had unfortunately 11 items in my basket, it was essential 4 tins of beans, 2 punnets of mushrooms, 2l milk, a punnet of broccoli, a butternut, green bean and baby marrow. I was firstly wasn't greeted by the cashier whose name is Thembela Nqabeni. The cashier was not friendly or approachable, he appeared to be fed up and indifferent. He grunted something like "10 items only" and told me to get out of the line, which I waited in for at least 5 minutes. He then started to call customers behind me to be served, leaving my goods on the untouched on the conveyor belt. His argument for not helping me was that I was holding up the line with my extra item. He called for management, which also took time to arrive. The head cashier arrived first, I did not get her name but she told Thembela to serve me and let me get on my way. He obviously did not like that response and still refused to help me and then proceeded to wait for the manager. I was greeted by an insincere manager Michael, who apologized unsympathetically on Thembela’s behalf. Now it seems that they wanted to prove a point they were both adamant that I purchase and pay for 10 items. They rang up the 10 items and then rang up the last item separately making me pay twice with my debit card. I am truly and honestly shocked by this bad attitude and service that I received. Surely PnP employs a screening process for their managers and front line staff.

The store manager (Faldie Smith and Wahied) at Pick n Pay Promenade seems to have a problem when customer want to return or exchange items at the store. About a month ago my boyfriend took back batteries which he had bought at the store but only returned it a week later as it was the wrong size, by then we did not have the till slip anymore, they refused to give his money back and told him that they would not be able to exchange the item with one, when he told them that he bought the wrong item they eventually gave him a gift card, firstly this was not bought with a gift card and secondly why are they giving customers so much grieve. A 2 min transaction took 20 min of arguing.Today my brother in-law took back two clothing items which my mother had bought for his 4 year old daughter as it was to big for her, the store manager (Faldie Smith and Wahied) told him that he should leave it there as they first have to check on the system if the items were bought there seeing that he does not have a till slip, the items were not bought there but in Canal Walk, why would we want to drive all the way to Canal Walk just to exchange an item when there is a Pick n Pay store down the road.

On the 27 March i went to pick n pay cedar square to have breakfast at their deli.i had a cup of rooibos tea, when i went to pay i was told by the guy that served me to say to the cashiers i had tea and the would know the code. to my surpise it wasn't the right code it was for normal tea instead of rooibos tea, i was stopped at the door cause i had not paid the right amount of money. Today (29 March) i was in the store and couldn't help over hearing another customer complaining about the same thing, i found it appouuling that your staff members actually sit there on the tills and gossip about customers saying she just wanted to ***** the food. I only send this email now cause i feel that this was what was said about me i find it really disturbing. i would like to know why don't you put prices on the takeaway food that is bought at the deli just like everything else that is on the shelves or better why don't you deputize somebody to ensure that all is scanned correctly? This is humiliating and degrading.

I bought a DVD-R on Saturday 06032010 13:47 and was charged R5.00 (instead of the stated R4.00), when I brought this up I was charged only R4.00. When I enquired about the Pricing Policy, I was told if the barcodes match the item will be given for free and the remainder at the lower price . I have however had the same scenario (where the barcodes did not match and the Pricing Policy was applied) - Van Riebeeck Mall Pick n Pay. Must the customer search the entire shop for the correct Barcode? When is the Pricing Policy applied and when not?

I frequent the Pick n Pay frequently as it is one of the two shops in the Meerensee area, the other being Spar. I dislike going to the Spar as it is always busy, it seems dirtier and the Pick n Pay name brand sits better with me.

However I am growing more and more frustrated by the lack of service and poor cashier management at the Pick n Pay.

The Pick n Pay is by far a better store - cleaner, bigger, more parking, better security and, from what I can tell, more competitive pricing. But, there are never enough cashiers to handle the few people who do shop at the store. Almost every single time I go there in usual shopping hours there are big queues as only 3 or 4 of the tills are open.

What is even more frustrating is the fact that on the wall is a poster of the 'Pick n Pay promise' that if there are 2 people in front of you in a queue they will open another till - this has never happened. I have complained about this fact and the response on both occasions is 'we are short on staff'. I doubt if Mr Ackerman had made similar comments when faced with similar problems he would been able to build such a strong name brand.