Coles customers infuriated by failed discount offer: 'Very poor'
Coles customers are growing increasingly frustrated over broken promo codes issued by the supermarket.
An annoyed shopper took to Facebook to complain that his Coles promo code for $15 off his order failed to work at checkout.
“I’m very cross with #Coles. Yesterday they emailed a promo code for $15 off orders of $260 or more made online before August 31. It didn’t work,” wrote the disgruntled customer, alongside a screenshot of the Coles email with the promo code.
The promo code, which had been emailed to Coles customers, required customers to spend $260 or more on their grocery order by Tuesday, August 31 to receive $15 off their next online order.
The irritated customer said that after emailing Coles Customer Care back and forth several times, the supermarket continued to instruct him that his “order is invalid” without telling him how to fix it.
Eventually, Coles were able to resolve the issue by sending the customer a new promo code.
However, the customer explained it was too little too late, as he had already placed his grocery order.
“Just now I receive an email from Coles apologising and giving a new code. Too bad the order I placed last night is being delivered tonight and I don’t need to order more groceries before 31/8. Very poor, Coles,” added the customer.
Customers were quick to flock to the Facebook comments to voice their own frustration over the broken $15 promo codes issued by the supermarket.
"Same thing happened with me, increased my order to make sure over $260 thinking surely they’ll credit once they reply to my inbox, still haven’t received a response," wrote one angry customer.
"Order being delivered tomorrow and no way to add correct promo code."
While others lamented that it was “too late” to use the promo code by the time Coles reissued them with a new code.
Coles blames ‘technical glitch’ for promo fail
A Coles spokesperson told Yahoo News Australia that customers were unable to apply their initial promo code due to a “technical glitch” on their end.
“We experienced a technical glitch with a promo code sent to customers last week, that meant they received an error message when they went to check out,” said the Coles spokesperson.
“Our team quickly corrected the error and re-supplied customers with a promo code that worked within 24 hours.”
The spokesperson went on to say that if customers believe they were entitled to a discount that was not applied to their order, they can contact Coles Online Customer Care who can manually apply a credit to their account.
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Coles shoppers label Flybuys promotion rule as ‘wrong’
This is not the first promotion from Coles that’s gone awry.
Customers recently slammed the supermarket giant over their popular Flybuys promotion which gives away picnicware items in-store.
Concerned customers took to Facebook to question why the Flybys promotion hadn't been moved online, given the second wave of Covid-19 lockdowns sweeping the nation.
“Coles should not be running a campaign during a Covid lockdown where customers must go to a Coles Supermarket store to redeem their points,” the concerned shopper wrote on the Coles Facebook page.
“It is wrong to encourage people to shop in-store if they don't have to or feel vulnerable,” added the shopper.
However, opinion was divided over the post, with some commentators saying it was up to “people to choose to shop in store,” while others defended the already “overloaded” Coles team.
“They are overloaded with orders and things as it is. People complain about everything as it is so they would be bombarded with complaints and queries about it when they have more important things to do,” the person wrote.
Despite growing concern from customers, Coles confirmed that shoppers will need to continue redeeming the picnicware range in stores because of a "technical constraint."
“At this stage, customers are unable to redeem their “picnicware credits” online due to a technical constraint," a Coles spokesperson told Yahoo News Australia.
"Customers can contact our Customer Care team if they have any questions about the new picnicware range and they will endeavour to help in any way possible.”
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