I went to Woolworths at Melrose Arch today - I spent over an hour purchasing various summer clothing & shoes for my 3 small children as we are going away for the weekend as well as some sandals for myself. When I get to the till I am told 'you can only pay using cash - we are offline - no debit, credit or woolies cards are working. I asked to speak to the Manager - when I asked why they don't notify their customers that their systems are offline, he just said 'we don't have the facilities to do that'. Why do you not put a sign on the entrance notifying customers of this? Why is the manager himself not standing at the entrance to the store notifying customers of this? Neither he or the teller were very phased by this at all - I was told just pay with cash then. I don't know about the rest of South Africa but I certainly do not walk around with wad loads of cash in my purse! I am a VERY loyal customer of Woolies but this has put a very sour taste in my mouth. Clearly my time is not important to them at all and they are quite happy to loose sales. When I got back to the office, it turned out that it had just happened to 2 of my work colleagues too!

I’m extremely irritated and upset with Woolworths Financial Services. My payment records are as follows: 14082009 – R1000; 24072009 – R1500; 25062009 – R1000; 25052009 – R500; 24042009 – R1000. About an hour ago a very rude woman calls me to tell me that my account is in arrears as I’ve failed to make a payment. I’ve just paid another R1400 a few minutes ago. I’ve never skipped a month. How can my account be in arrears? Am I being penalised for being punctual with my payment last month? I really take exception to a rude person basically telling me that I’m an irresponsible person who doesn't pay his accounts, when I know for a fact that I’ve been paying my account every month. I need a proper explanation and an apology.

I love shopping at Woolworth's food because I feel their food is of superior quality. However this is not the case with their milk nor their kiddies youghurt. I have a 2 year old and she loves yoghurt so I buy only Woolworths ayshire yoghurt which comes in Winnie the pooh containers for the kids. Over the last 6 months at least, buying the youghurt has been like russian roulette. You dont know when its going to be a good batch or a bad one. Many times I have had to take back youghurt because it was off long before the expiration date. The same has been happening with the milk, both full cream and long life. On the 30th of August I returned all the milk I had bought as every single Litre was off and yet it was only due to expire late October. It was a terrible inconvenience as my daughter still drinks milk and she had to go without because I couldnt find a fresh litre during the night! I have now resorted to buying milk and yoghurt elsewhere because I seroiusly do not have the time to keep returning the same products. Its a waste of petrol and time and its just completely inconvenient. I do hope that Woolworth's fixes this problem as their yoghurt is the healthiest for kids.

I have been to four Woolworths food department over the past 2 weeks, stores in Bedfordview, Eastgate, The Glen and Rivonia. I would request the cashier for plastic bags and the cashier will always fill them have way and ring up another bag. I will end up having 5 shopping bags half full, when all my shopping would have fitted into 2 plastic bags. This is not saving the environment at all. Which is contracting the statement by Woolworths that it cares for the environment.

Management should inform the Cashiers that the plastic bags should be filled before a new one is used.

Unacceptable behavior by a large listed company.

On Monday 24th August at 4.45pm, I was shopping at Woolworths in Constantia Village when a ceiling board fell and landed right next to me. If I hadn't moved out of the way, I would have been seriously injured. The shoppers around me were horrified and the maintenance manager just apologised and removed the board. I reported the incident to the manager, Clive Goodman who apologised but didnt take my details. He advised me that he had requested signage from Head Office the previous week to 'apologise to the customers for the inconvenience caused by the construction work.' The store has been under construction since June 2009 and it still doesnt have signage in place warning customers that 'they are entering at their own risk' or that 'their safety cannot be guaranteed'. I explained to Clive Goodman and the manager of the store who phoned me on Tuesday 25th, that that was a breach of safety regulations and that Woolworths' customers have a right to be warned about their safety when shopping at the store. I also lodged a complaint with Head Office on Tuesday 25th, ref no 20090825-105-499-614. To date, there has been no feedback and the signs have still not been erected at the store.