Pick n Pay runs one customer care line for the whole group and publishes it, along with the head office switchboard, on its corporate site. The shopping site itself renders its contact page in JavaScript and gives up nothing to a plain reader, which is why the numbers below come from the corporate pages instead.
Where to complain
- Customer care line: 0860 30 30 30, written on the corporate site as +27 860 30 30 30
- Customer care email: [email protected]
- Online shopping complaints use the same customer care line, 0860 30 30 30
- Boxer, which is part of the same group but a separate chain: 0860 02 69 37 or [email protected]
- Head office switchboard: +27 21 658 1000
A complaint about a specific store is usually resolved fastest at that store first, with the store manager, because the customer care line will route it back there anyway. Go to customer care when the store has not fixed it, when the complaint is about a group-wide practice such as pricing or a promotion, or when you do not want to deal with the store.
Group addresses
- Registered office: Pick n Pay Office Park, 101 Rosmead Avenue, Kenilworth, Cape Town, 7708
- Postal address: PO Box 23087, Claremont, 7735
- Company secretary: [email protected], at the Kenilworth address
Write to the registered office rather than to a store if you intend the letter to be a formal step, for example a demand or a notice before legal action. A letter to a store is not service on the company.
What a complaint should contain
- The store name and the date and time you were there
- The till slip number, or the order number for an online purchase
- What you want done: a refund, a replacement, a corrected price, or an apology and a change in practice
- Your Smart Shopper number if the complaint touches points or a promotion
Shelf-price disputes are worth raising precisely because the Consumer Protection Act deals with them: where a displayed price is lower than the price at the till, and the display is not obviously an error that a reasonable shopper would spot, the lower displayed price is the one that applies. Photograph the shelf label before you leave the aisle.
Reporting dishonesty rather than bad service
Theft, fraud or misconduct by staff or suppliers goes to an independently run whistleblowing line, not to customer care, and it accepts anonymous reports.
- Toll-free: 0800 772 759, published as +27800 772 759
- From outside South Africa: +27 31 571 5301
- Email: [email protected], or SMS the words Tip-Offs to 32480 for a call back
- Free post: Deloitte Tip-offs Anonymous, Free post, KZN 138, Umhlanga Rocks, 4320
If Pick n Pay does not resolve it
An unresolved consumer complaint against a retailer can be taken to the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud, which handles this sector at no cost to the shopper, and from there to the National Consumer Commission. Give Pick n Pay a reasonable chance in writing first, and keep the reference number, because the ombud will ask for it.
Note that the customer care number and the supplier and donation mailboxes on the corporate site sit alongside two named individual mailboxes. Those are not reproduced here: a message to a role address keeps working when the person moves on.