Woolworths customers without groceries two weeks after half-price freezer sale
Woolworths customers say they have been left “disappointed” waiting two weeks without their groceries or a refund after the supermarket cancelled some online orders during its half-price freezer sale.
The retail giant held a 50 per cent off sale on frozen items on Thursday 14 March, which Woolies said exceeded expectations.
Customers have told Yahoo7 the supermarket canceled their online orders “due to technical difficulties brought on by an unprecedented number of orders being placed”, according to correspondence sent to them from the Woolies customer service team.
While most shoppers were issued refunds for their purchases, plus a $25 voucher for the inconvenience, at least two customers who placed online orders during the promotion were on Wednesday still waiting to either be credited or receive their goods.
Mother-of-five Samantha Playford, from Glendale NSW told Yahoo7 she was “very unimpressed” she has gone a fortnight without her $61.26 in groceries, a refund, or even a resolution each time she tried to follow up.
With a family of seven, Ms Playford told Yahoo7 she can’t usually afford treats like the ice cream and potato gems ordered on sale, and usually bought generic brand items, so her children were looking forward to them.
“Sixty dollars isn’t much to a company like Woolworths, but for families it’s quite a bit of money,” she said.
In an email to Woolworths Ms Playford wrote: “You can come and explain to my children why the ice cream I promised is not coming – I don’t have the funds to buy ice cream, usually it’s a special treat.”
She called the communication “ridiculous”.
“Most of the responses were generic. It didn’t matter what I said, they kept saying I’d get a refund in three to five days, it just made me angrier,” she told Yahoo7.
It was a similar story for Kristy Rodgers from Lismore, NSW. The mum said she made two orders totalling $97, including some non sale items like baby supplies she was forced to re-purchase in a third order because the first two were not able to be fulfilled due to the frozen items.
“I spoke to them on the phone and asked if they could give me the non-sale stuff because I desperately needed the nappies and the informed me they couldn’t as the refund had already been issued,” she said.
Despite this, Ms Rodgers still had not received the refund. She said a Woolworths representative assured her she would be refunded within thee to five working days – but two weeks on she is still waiting for her PayPal to be credited.
After being contacted by Yahoo7 on Wednesday, Woolworths contacted Ms Playford’s husband to confirm the family’s order would be available to collect on Thursday, honouring the half-priced items they already paid for.
“I’m happier it’s been resolved, but it annoyed me it came to this,” she said after receiving the update.
Woolworths did not respond to Yahoo7’s questions on Wednesday about Ms Playford and Ms Rodgers’ orders, nor did they confirm how many orders were cancelled due to supply issues during the frozen sale.
“While demand for our freezer sale was unprecedented, our team worked hard and fulfilled the vast majority of orders,” a Woolworths spokesperson said in a statement.
“In the rare cases we couldn’t fulfil orders, we have apologised to affected customers and refunded money back to their financial institutions in full.”
The supermarket encouraged online customers who have yet to receive a refund to call 1800 000 610 for a customer service member to follow up.
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