A SOUTH AFRICAN HYPER AND SUPERMARKET GROUP THAT BADLY NEEDS SOME MORE CHECKERS

 Dear Readers,

         The Management of the Sun Valley Checkers Hyper in Cape Town leaves a lot to be desired.

                  I live in that area and I shop at this Hyper quite regularly and in my experience the help desk inside the main entrance is left completely unmanned at times and items in the hardware section don’t have clearly visible prices on them.

What really capped my bad management experience at this Hyper a couple of weeks ago was when an apple crumble special was promoted on a large board outside the main entrance at R39.99. When I saw this I went in only to find that the apple crumble there was priced at R44.99.

This sent me on a hunt for the store manager. After speaking to a couple of people who said they were ‘one of the managers’ I finally located the manager Wayne Rosenberg. After I pointed out this price discrepancy to him and told him I wanted to buy an apple crumble he went to a till and organised for me to get it at the promoted price.

The entrance to the Sun Valley Checkers Hyper

We all make mistakes so I expected him to immediately ensure that the price inside the shop matched the one on the board. But he did no such thing. Several days later nothing had changed so it is anyone’s guess as to how many people paid R44.99 for an apple crumble they could have got for R39.99. It should not have been up to a customer to point out such an obvious mistake which should have been seen earlier by the manager or one of the other managers and when the manager was made aware of this he should have corrected the situate immediately.

I put all this in an email to Pieter Engelbrecht the CEO of Shoprite Holdings the owners of Checkers. I ended it with “In my experience the service at this Hyper is nothing like as good as what you get at the nearby Pick n Pay.” He passed my complaint down the line to Brandon Anthony in the Customer Care Department.

Brandon thanked me for bringing my concerns to their attention and then referred to the various aspects of my complaint. This is what he told me:

 

·      “The staffing issue at the Information Counter has been addressed with the Front Admin Manager to ensure that there is constant coverage.

·      “The prices in the store have been updated and corrected which is a standard procedure and will be continually monitored.

·      “Regarding the price discrepancy on the apple crumble, the Branch Manager has been addressed about not immediately attending to the error on the price board outside and the price the item scanned for. The matter has also been addressed with the Stock Administrator and Department Manager to ensure that the pricing and scanning of products is correct, to minimise the likelihood of such an issue from reoccurring.

         “We would like to apologise for the frustration you experienced and hope that your future experiences in our store will be better.”

Regards

Jon, a Consumer Watchdog with a taste for apple crumble.

P.S. There are 37 Checkers Hypers and 202 Supermarkets in the Shoprite Group.

P.P.S. It’s rare to find a CEO of a large company who is not too high and mighty to answer emails sent to his or her email address by a journalist like me because they always have somebody to delegate it to. Pieter Engelbrecht as it turned out was not in that rare category, unlike Richard Brasher, who recently retired as Pick n Pay’s CEO. Richard set the Gold Standard for CEOs who answer their own emails. He would reply to mine sometimes within an hour or even on a Saturday and as a lone freelance it was not as though I was employed by a big newspaper or some national media group.

 

ARAMEX COURIERS THAT HAS DROP BOXES IN PICK N PAY & OTHER STORES IS HAVING TROUBLE WITH TRUTH IN ITS ADVERTISING

Dear Readers,

Hein Bruyns

          For months I was using Aramex Couriers to send my books around the country at the prominently advertised price of R99.99 in leaflets in Pick n Pay where this courier service has drop boxes.  This price included the paper Waybill that had to be completed with the details of the sender and those of the recipient.

Suddenly without warning I was told I would have to pay an additional R20 if I wanted the Waybill. The alternative was to load my information digitally at no extra cost. But for those who have no internet access it makes the catchy price of R99.99 completely untrue and nowhere in the adverting leaflets that I found in the drop box at Pick n Pay was this R20 mentioned.

Then there is the difficulty that Aramex has in arriving at exactly how many drop boxes it has in Pick n Pay stores.  One leaflet claimed they were in “over 1000 stores nationwide” while in another one the figure had dropped by a staggering 40% to “over 600 stores nationwide.”

I asked Hein Bruyns Aramex’s Communications and Customer Experience Executive why the number of  Pick n Pay stores they were supposed to be in varied so much in their advertising leaflets and why the additional R20 for a paper Waybill was not mentioned?

He denied that they had a problem telling the truth in their advertising and assured me that the “issue regarding the leaflets had been addressed with Pick n Pay’s head office and we have been assured this would be sorted out this week,” whatever that means.

“How many Pick n Pay stores exactly does Aramex have its drop boxes in”? I asked. “Surely that’s a simple enough question to answer.”

“Our current Store-to Door network consists of the following: Pick n Pay 681; Shoprite 484; Fresh Stop 200 and Other 19.”

Having Aramex in 681 Pick n Pay stores is a far crying from making “over 1000 stores” the truth.

I would have thought that Pick n Pay would have checked the accuracy of advertising that appears in its stores so that its customers don't get given the wrong information.

Pick n Pay’s National Consumer Services Manager Mary-Anne Hattingh introduced a comical side to this story when she told me that Aramex was only in “approximately 130” Pick n Pay stores.  If the group itself could not get the number right what hope had Aramex?

However when I gave her the figure of 681 that Bruyns had given me she replied: “My apologies it is 681 stores, this is my mistake.”

She explained that what Aramex was doing was the first step in going digital. “The sleeve still costs R99 and we are encouraging customers to go the digital route.” Hardly “encouraging” them more like pricing them into doing it. “I am looking into the updated communication that explains the process plus the additional R20 should a customer not wish to go the digital route. I will get back to you on that.”

This she never did.

Regards,

Jon, a Consumer Watchdog who believes there are too many half truths and some very suspect claims in advertising.

 

 

IS PICK N PAY DOING THE RIGHT THING BY CONTINUING TO STOCK BABY POWDER LINKED TO CANCER?

Dear Readers,

Pieter Boone
Pick n Pay's new CEO

          In spite of the appalling history of Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) baby powder Pick n Pay the South African 1945 store grocery chain has no intention of discontinuing to stock this giant US pharmaceutical company’s product.

          “We assure you that the talcum powder has been approved by the relevant authorities in South Africa,” Mary-Anne Hattingh Pick n Pay’s National Customer Service Manager told me. I wonder what sort of endorsement that is.

          For something like 50 years J&J was endangering  the lives of it’s customers by selling talc, including baby powder of all things that contained asbestos that has been shown to cause women ovarian cancer.

          As far back as 1973 the firm rejected the advice of its own scientists to replace the asbestos containing talc it was using with cornstarch. Like most big companies profit came before saving people’s lives as the talc was cheaper than the alternative.

          Now the Supreme Court in America has told J&J to pay heavily for its greed. It rejected the company’s appeal against an award of $2.1 billion in damages because its powder products caused women ovarian cancer.

          Ken Starr, a former prosecutor representing the women with cancer, urged the justices not to review the case saying that the firm had known “for decades that its talc powders contained asbestos, a highly carcinogenic substance with no known safe exposure level.”

          After I tried to contact Pick n Pay’s new CEO Pieter Boone I got Mary-Anne Hattingh instead and then quite unsolicited I received an email from somebody named only as Joy from J&J’s Consumer Services. This is what she told me:

          “We empathize with anyone suffering from cancer and understand that people are looking for answers. We believe these can be better understood through science – and decades of independent scientific studies by medical experts around the world shows that our talc is safe, does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer.

          “We understand that lawsuits in the United States and media headlines have caused confusion about our products and we are committed to ensuring the facts are understood. The science supporting the safety of our product is central to why our Company continued to defend itself in court.”

           She admitted that J&J had discontinued the sale of its talc-based baby powder in the US and Canada, but claimed this had nothing to do with its safety. “It was rather to address declining demand in North America due in large part to changes in consumer habits fuelled by misinformation around the safety of the product through a constant barrage of litigation advertising”, she went on. Presumably this was to trace the people who claimed to have got cancer. She added that they do not offer a cornstarch-based product in South Africa, but its talc based baby powder is available and continues to be sold in other markets around the world.

          In a follow-up email she described the headlines I had been reading as “concerning” and again emphasised that their powder was “safe”.

          I replied: “This is very strange. How did various women manage to get a compensation judgement for billions against J&J because they claimed to have got ovarian cancer from its powder and when this went to appeal it was dismissed? That’s what I read on Google. If this is total fiction it must be one of the biggest fabricated stories of the century. What you keep telling me to read appears to be all about what J&J is claiming for its powder, not an independent assessment. And for you to describe the headlines I have been reading as ‘concerning’ must be the understatement of the decade considering you represent J&J. What really stands out is that at no stage have you told me that there is absolutely no truth in the ‘concerning headlines’ that I have been reading.”

          J&J’s already tarnished reputation over the cancer claims took another serious knock when it was among the drug companies that a group of US attorneys general obtained a $26bn settlement with for fuelling the deadly nationwide opioid epidemic. They were accused of lax controls that allowed a massive amount of addictive painkiller to be diverted into illegal channels, thus devastating communities. J&J was said to have down played the addiction risk in its marketing.

          All the companies denied the allegations. Attorneys general from 15 states were involved in negotiating the deals and the money will be used for addiction treatment, family support and efforts to eradicate the scourge of drug addiction.

          The bulk of the money will be paid by the three largest US distributors over 18 years with J&J paying $5-bn over nine years $3.7-bn of which has to be settled in the first three.

          “There’s not enough money in the world frankly to address the pain and suffering caused,” said the Connecticut attorney general William Tong.

With its history of serious unethical behaviour how can J&J be trusted to provide safe Covid vaccines to South Africa and the world? Will it be cutting corners to save money once again or will it have learnt its lesson.

Unfortunately we will only find out the answer after millions of people will have received the J&J one dose jab.

          Barron’s the American financial magazine listed J&J among its World’s Most Admired Companies and Fortune Magazine has included it in its list of World’s Most Respected Companies. I wonder where it will come now after these scandals.

          Alex Gorsky J&J’s Chairman and CEO was named one of the 100 most Inspired Leaders by Pharma Voice. He joined J&J, this 131 year old firm in 1988 and has headed it since 2012 so he deserves a great deal of the blame for what happened under his nose to a baby powder that has been in shops around the world. And the same goes for his firm’s dubious painkiller marketing.

Regards,

Jon, a Consumer Watchdog who is always sniffing out funny business that needs exposing.

P.S. It’s absolutely deplorable the way huge companies that are often leaders in their field think about nothing else other than making a profit, even if it means devastating the lives of their customers. As this case proved BIG BUSINESS, far too often, doesn’t have the morals of an alley cat.

P.P.S. A few weeks ago, before I became aware of the background, I tried to buy some J&J baby powder in Pick n Pay and I was told there was no stock. I was mystified as to why they would not have such a well known brand. But as it turned out there was no question of Pick n Pay no longer stocking it because when I was there a couple of days ago the shelves were full of it.

 

           

  

TWO CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY IN A MILLION

 Dear Readers and Bishops' Old Boys,

Richard Brasher

          Richard Brasher, who has just retired from Pick n Pay after eight years as CEO of this 1945 store grocery chain never ceased to amaze me.

          He doesn’t know me from Adam, yet when I sent him an email to his personal email address on a Saturday this year at 02.07 pm he replied less than half an hour later at 02.30.

          I asked him to pass on the following email to Raymond Ackerman as I did not have an email address for him. It went like this:

Dear Raymond,

Congratulations on your 90^th. I presume you are going for your century. Thanks again for the attached. It brought back good memories of somebody like you who could fit my little triumph into your busy schedule. Well done for making your 100^th – in anticipation.

Raymond Ackerman & his wife Wendy

Yvonne Cummins, who I assume is his PA, replied: “Mr Ackerman sends his sincere thanks for the birthday wishes sent to him via Richard Brasher. He really appreciates you thinking of him and he had a very special 90^th”

        

           The attached I referred to was this letter (those were the days when the postal service worked) he sent me in 1974 congratulating me on being the runner up in the Stellenbosch Farmers' Wineries' National Award for Enterprising Journalism for my series in the Business Section of the Sunday Times about crooked business. "This was a first-class effort and I think you can deserve all the congratulations you can get for your forthright reporting," Raymond wrote.

          I would never have thought that he would have been following my career like this. Alright we did go to school together at Bishops in Cape Town where we were borders in School House, but he was three years ahead of me. And that’s a life time at school. I can only assume he read about it in the paper.

          In 2017 in my role as a Consumer Watchdog on my blog I was trying to get a promised refund of R320.50 for our daughter Mandy from Aramex Couriers that has drop boxes in Pick n Pay branches, but all I got was the same run around as she was given. In desperation I sent an email to Richard asking him if he could get somebody to sort this out. The following day on the 25th working day after Mandy had been promised payment within 7-14 days I got the proof from Aramex that she had been paid.

          I then asked Richard: “Was this your magic? Just after my email to you R320.50 was paid into our daughter’s account. Thanks a lot.”

          He replied: “We are always happy to help.”

          My email to him was sent at 07.30 am and he replied at 09.39 from his iPhone the same day. How’s that for top notch service.

          After buying four stores in Cape Town trading as Pick n Pay in 1966 Raymond built them into one of Africa’s largest supermarket chains. He was Chairman until 2010 when he stepped down in favour of his son Gareth.

          I evidently didn’t pay as much attention as Raymond when I was at Bishops or I just didn't have what it takes upstairs.  

           My career was as a journalist on various papers including the Sunday Times where I did investigations and also wrote a hard hitting weekly column Business is Business for two years. My newspaper days ended when I became a self employed private eye specialising in life insurance.

          At a function at my old school to mark the 60^th anniversary of my year a former master who was organising it said to me: “I couldn’t find anything about your matric.” He had evidently researched the school records of those who attended.

          On another occasion my wife and I went to a lunch for Old Boys like me at the school and on the wall inside the building where the function took place there was a list of Bishop’s Rhodes Scholars. I had a job finding it and at one stage I said to my wife "Was my Dad making this up?"

But sure enough there it was: the 1921 Bishop's Rhodes Scholar - Cecil Willoughby Abbott, who went up to Oxford I think.

It must have been rather embarrassing for him having his first born at this very expensive school where he had done so brilliantly plug his matric. Putting the shot and throwing the javelin to provincial standards was no compensation. This might explain why I never became a millionaire like Raymond.

Regards to you all and here’s hoping you can keep Virus free,

Jon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FRESHENING UP FOOD LOVER'S MARKET'S 'BEST IN FRESH GUARANTEE'

Dear Readers,

Brian Coppin

          I don’t know if you shop at any of the 105 Food Lover’s Markets in South Africa, because if you do I wonder if you have had similar experiences to mine regarding their 'Best in Fresh Guarantee.'

          Founded by brothers Brian and Mike Coppin in 1993 they brashly claim their group holds ‘the honour of being South Africa’s undisputed leaders in fresh.’

          I’m sure you’ll agree with me that a brag like that takes a lot of living up to especially when you are in the business of selling fresh fruit and vegetables, products that can so easily go off.

          For some years now I have been buying our fruit and veges almost every Friday, first at the Food Lover’s, Tokai branch in Cape Town and more recently at the Long Beach Mall one from when it opened in 2012.  And being the conscientious Consumer Watchdog that I am I usually email the CEO Brian, if I notice anything that is obviously wrong.

          I believe that no business can be expected to put something right if you just complain to your wife and friends instead of a top executive, who can do something about it.

          As far back as March 2011 I emailed Brian saying that I had bought some pre-packed beetroot and carrots from his Tokai store in packets that you could not easily see through. "When we opened them at home," I went on, "the beetroot was of a very poor quality and the carrots were mostly rotten because they were so wet. I also bought five loose grapefruit and while picking these out I came across four others that were rotten. You badly need better quality control."

          He apologised, giving poor stock rotation as the probable reason. He described this as "inexcusable" and told me that they sell about 70 tons of these two products every week with very few complaints.

          “All our pre-packed products should have a sell-by date on to ensure good quality and I have instructed the Buyers and Regional Managers to investigate why this was not done, and to immediately ensure this practice is adhered to,” he assured me.

          Seven months later in November 2011 I told him that nobody seemed to be taking any notice of him because I was having a job finding any sell-by dates in the Tokai store. "This no doubt explains why there are pre-packet items like mealies on the shelves with black mould on the ends," I added.     

In July this year I raised a series of questions with Brian in an emailed letter. Here they are together with his reply and one from Regional Manager Demetri Gaffley.

I began by saying to Brian: "If your Long Beech Mall branch is anything to go by it seems your stores are not living up to the very impressive undertakings your group claims to live by.

"What’s the point in your stores promoting the slogan ‘The Best in Fresh guaranteed’ when, at least one of them, puts obviously vrot fruit and vegetables on the shelves at very reduced prices, as if that suddenly makes them fresh. And if your Long Beach Mall branch keeps doing this, is this the general policy adopted by all your 105 South African branches, as well as the others outside the country?

"On Friday 12/07/2019) when I was at your Long Beach branch pre-packed, clearly rotten bananas were for sale at the knock down price of R10 for two. Some time ago this store had punnetts of what were obviously rotting waterblommetjies on the shelf with the price reduced by 50%. They were removed after I complained.

"Your website tells us that your business was built by you and your brother Mike on ‘traditional family values of trust, honesty and integrity.’ You also claimed to be ‘South Africa’s undisputed leader in fresh.’ How does discounting what anybody can see is rotting food gel with any of these family values you are so proud of? 

"Then there is the case of the pears that are too fresh to ripen. I have twice bought two different types of pears that were just as hard weeks later, as when I bought them. But like the rotting fruit and vegetables your staff was fully aware that there was a problem with the pears concerned yet they still had them on the shelves. On the first occasion many months ago I got the manager to come down from his upstairs office and when I pointed to the tray of loose pears he immediately said: ‘Yes I know they don’t get ripe.’ This was before I told him what the problem was. More recently when I bought a different variety of pears that were pre-packed a similar thing happened. This time it was another member of staff who told me that these do not get ripe. If your staff know that there is this problem with particular pears why are they still kept on the shelves?

"On another subject: Friday is billed as ‘Pie Day’ at your Long

Beach branch, when pies are usually sold on the basis of buy two and get one free. It strikes me as being very bad business if you have a regular promotion like this and by around 11.30 in the morning the pie warmer is just about empty.

          "After I complained to you on May 31 about the fact that there had not been any steak and kidney pies for weeks you replied saying you could not believe ‘we are offering service like this’ and you would personally get hold of Demetri as well as the baking supplier to solve this problem of ‘piss poor service.’

          "Your intervention brought back the steak and kidney pies but the service was as bad as ever on ‘Friday the pie day’ (12/07/2019) with the pie warmer being just about empty at 11.30 in the morning. I bought the last three steak and kidney pies, which left the warmer devoid of pies. All that remained were some sausage rolls at the bottom.

          "On the outside of your stores there are notices which tell us you have ‘Best Quality’ and under a ‘Best Service’ heading it says that if the staff don’t live up to ‘your expectations tell us about it and you’ll receive a R100 FLM shopping voucher.’

          "Well for some time now I have been telling you about how the your stores have not lived up to my expectations and not once has anybody even suggested that I should be given any kind of shopping voucher. My complaints to you were not motivated by the possibility of getting a voucher as I only noticed this undertaking a couple of days ago."

          I also asked: "Does anybody ever get one of these vouchers?"And : "Is the Long Beach Mall branch a franchise operation or one of your own?"

          Here’s Brian’s reply: "Thank you for your support and letter. I am obviously very upset that the Fresh Produce team continuously disappoints you. We at both Head Office and throughout the DC’S had a massive drive around our guarantee for over 15 months now, and it’s disappointing that you haven’t experienced any of the ongoing work being done. 

          "I can only once again apologize for the above and promise you that every Buyer, Regional Manager, Distribution Manager and Marketing Team will visit this store and get to the bottom of this. They are not living up to the guarantee.

         "I have also copied the Speciality GM, and Buyer and Baker Specialist on the pie issue.

         "I don’t know why you didn’t receive a voucher, but please accept one of R300 for your inconvenience.

          "We have given, and still give out 20/30 vouchers per month and will continue to do so to live up to our guarantee.

          "Long Beach is a corporate store and that disappoints me even more.

          "I trust we can win you over as a satisfied customer once again.

           "Kind Regards,

           "Brian Coppin." (He copied this to Karriem Fredericks; Demetri Gaffley; Paul Rauch (FNV); Warren Minnaar; Vito Polera; Sandro Gastaldi; Robin Wainright; Cecelia Wainright; Travis Coppin; Roxy Norman and Bonita van Niekerk).

          Shortly afterwards I received this email from Demetri Gaffley: "I would like to answer the last two 2 questions that Brian has not answered, and hopefully satisfy you.

Question: Is it acceptable to have pears on the shelf that the manager and staff know don’t get ripe?

The answer is NO.

Question: Is it your firm’s policy to discount fruit and vegetables that are going off?

The answer is YES, and at this stage up to the discretion of the store manager, but can be overruled by store visits/inspections from Head Office. We reduce and markdown to clear, which should be visible on price boards. As for the bananas, the exact opposite, unacceptable for sale and not at any price."

          He then thanked me for my valued feedback.

          After receiving those two emails I decided to pay a special visit to the Long Beach branch to see if there had been any improvement in the sell-by date situation compared to 9 years ago, when Brian first raised the subject.

          They were few and far between I can tell you. There were none on very perishable items like pre-packed strawberries, kiwi fruit or papaya, whereas the same fruit at Pick n Pay a little further down the Mall all had sell-by dates on their labels.

And this is at a Group that trails behind Food Lover’s in the fresh league, if the Coppin brother’s boast can be believed.

A member of Food Lover’s staff told me they only have sell-by dates on fruit salad and similar items that they make themselves, but not on pre-packed product they get from their suppliers.

Founders Brian & Mike
Coppin

I accept that fruit and vegetables tend to go off quite quickly and that if you are in this kind of business it’s inevitable that some items might not be up to standard on the shelves now and again. But that’s very different from trying to sell something at a reduced price because you know it has gone off.

          Also as a shopper you have to wonder why one group doesn’t have sell-by dates on certain items and another one, that has been in existence far longer, does.

          Regards

          Jon, the Consumer Watchdog who was extremely impressed with the frank way Brian and Demetri dealt with my criticisms. It seems that running a business like theirs is not as simple as pie.

P.S. They got the value of the R300 worth of vouchers they gave me back with interest because I put them towards the R360 I spent on 12 R30 hamburgers. I handed these out to men waiting forlornly at street corners in the rain for jobs that would never materialise.

P.P.S. It looks as though the Long Beach Mall manager Karriem Fredericks either doesn’t get the boss's emails; he ignores them or he can’t get the message through to his staff. When I was at this branch today (Friday 16 August) the pineapple shelf was half full with the most horrible looking fruit. When I showed him two he said they were unacceptable. Half an hour later when I was back in the store to buy something else somebody was busy removing these. He had a trolley completely full, both top and bottom with ones he was about to take away.   

Even with its impressive brain power BIG BUSINESS never learns not to do the dirty on its own customers

Dear Readers,

Save's Hyper director Ebrahim Kajee
Picture The Times

          The South African arm of Smeg, the Italian manufacturer of multicoloured kitchen and other appliances has just been revealed as a price fixer, a practice outlawed almost 50 years ago.

          Caught out it agreed to pay the Competition Commission a fine of R100 000.  This was certainly not a proud addition to its colourful history.

          As an investigative reporter on the Business Times (part of the Johannesburg based Sunday Times) my expose` resulted in the country’s first price fixing conviction way back in 1975.  Yet, as Smeg has proved, companies are still at it to the detriment of consumers and the firms like Smeg that have their names tarnished by this type of greed.

          In 1975 Hampo Trading a subsidiary of Premier Milling was fined R300 by a Johannesburg Regional Magistrate for price fixing on the accessories it sells with its Japanese made Pentax cameras. The fines have certainly inflated since then. My impression was that the magistrate was overawed by the occasion by restricting the conviction to the accessories because he said the law did not apply to the cameras as they were patented.

          The authorities had clearly been very lax in policing this type of illegal activity because price fixing was rife in those days. This was the first conviction under a five year old law that stipulated that “any agreement, understanding, business practice or method of trading which is calculated to have the effect of compelling or inducing a reseller to observe a specified resale price is unlawful.”

          Hampo had told its retailers that it must not grant discounts of more than 10% off its suggested retail price. And it warned in a circular that “those who do not observe our pricing conditions will not be supplied at all.”

          At the time I obtained irrefutable evidence that manufacturers and supplies of anything from cameras, mattresses, furniture, electrical appliances, toiletries and pantyhose either would not supply discounters or stopped supplying any retailer that did not abide by their pricing structure.

          Pick n Pay’s chief buyer at the time phoned some firms in my presence and asked for stock. The head of the firm that was the agent for a well known brand of men’s toiletries didn’t mince matters when he said Pick n Pay could not be supplied because they did not allow their toiletries to be discounted. He couldn’t afford to antagonise chemists and some other big chain stores by allowing Pick n Pay to cut the price.  

Another one in the same type of business said he could “never permit” any price cutting of his product because it could cause his firm an enormous amount of trouble.

          Apart from Hampo trading I named six other firms that were clearly in the business of price fixing, but no action was ever taken against them to my knowledge. I haven’t identified them in this post because I don’t know whether or not they still fix prices. In all probability they don’t because they would have been out of business by now.

          The Competition Commission that I rate as possibly the best Government department has really been making up for what was not done in my day as a newspaper investigator.  

          The impressive way it has been tackling the furniture removal firms (dishonesty) recalled another of my Sunday Times investigations all those years ago. Companies that have been having a collusion field day for decades are now finally being made to pay serious money for breaking the law.

The Commission also fined South Ocean Electric Wire Company R13-million after it admitted price fixing and collusive tendering between 2003 and 2012. And what was possible a record was the R98-million Tiger Consumer Brands had to pay for fixing bread prices in the Western Cape from 1994 to 2006.

Smeg was nailed because Save, an eight supermarket family business based in Pietermaritzburg, had the guts to take a stand by reporting it for price fixing when Smeg tried to stop it unduly cutting the price of Smeg’s products.

          Three years ago a Hirsch's customer complained that it was selling a Smeg gas stove for R17 999 when Save’s Hyper price was R14 999. Then, according to reports, Hirsch's took this up with Smeg.

          Hirsch's is another family business founded with R900 by Allan and Margaret Hirsch in a tiny showroom in Durban in 1979. It now has 17 appliance and furniture stores all over the country making it a lot bigger than Save, which is confined to the Northern KwaZulu Natal area.

          Smeg told Save to cease rocking the boat by selling its products at such low prices that they were upsetting its other retail customers. When Save refused to comply Smeg stopped supplying its main store a Pietermaritzburg Hyper.

          Save took this up with the Competition Commission and that’s when the fine was imposed and Smeg was ordered to lift its supply ban on Save, which had lasted for almost two years.

          A Commission spokesperson commended Save for its stand against Smeg.

                       Dolce & Gabbana might be great creators but they 
                                 lack a sense of humour (bananas).

          In an email I told Margaret Hirsch her firm’s Chief Operations Executive that the reports could have given the impression that Hirsch's use its buying power to stop competition that under cut it.

          She replied that before she commented she would rather get her attorney to do this as it was a “sensitive issue.”

          Meanwhile her Chief Executive Officer husband Allan told me in an email exactly what happened and it was clear that Hirsch's never tried to stop Save selling Smeg because it was cutting the price so drastically.

          Smeg was contacted to find out if it was giving any special deals to retailers which Hirsch's would obviously have liked to be part of.

          “The bottom line is we buy a gas stove from Smeg at R14 600 plus VAT,” Allan said. “We add 8% and we sell it for R17 999. Save was selling it for R14 999 including VAT. That’s why we queried it with Smeg as we were unsure how they could retail it at R3 000 below our price at R1859 odd below our cost.

The Hirsch's first team

          “Smeg advised there was no special deal and they would speak to Save.”

          What happened hasn’t put Hirsch's off Smeg. “We are trading very well with it,” he said. “Our customers love it and we love it.”

          On the phone he told me that Save’s main business was in grocers and every now and again they had these very special deals like the Smeg one on which they would not have made any profit.

          I then emailed his wife saying: “Not to worry. Save your attorney’s fees. Your husband spoke to me and he cleared up everything as far as I’m concerned.”

          Regards,

          Jon, who has been a Consumer Watchdog since before the Boer War so he knows a little bit about the subject.

P.S. The Save Group was founded by Moosa Noorgat in 1987. And apart from sorting out price fixers its charitable side lived up to its Save name by giving R100 000 worth of grocery vouchers last year to help feed the 82 children at the Salvation Army home in Pietermaritzburg. The previous year it donated R2 500 monthly. Smeg might like to do something like this instead of harassing its customers or wasting money on a fine.

ARAMEX COURIERS SETS WORLD DELIVERY RECORD THAT NOBODY WOULD BE PROUD OF

Dear Consumers,

Andy van der Velde Aramex's
illusive CEO

          In my daughter Mandy’s experience the South African arm of Aramex, the international courier service, couldn’t be trusted to honour the refund undertaking it gave.

          This is also a tale of two CEO’s: one incredibly efficient and the other one, well you be the judge.

          In what it describes as a first for South Africa Aramex provides a store-to-door service at selected Pick n Pay branches nationwide.

          For R299 documents can be sent anywhere internationally.

          But as Mandy found out the staff didn’t know what their own requirements were when she tried to send a T-shirt to her brother-in-law in Australia.

          Earlier this year when he was in South Africa to compete in the Port Elizabeth Ironman, he ordered a commemorative T-shirt to be sent to Mandy’s Johannesburg address in the hope that it would arrive before he returned home. And when that didn’t happen she went to the Randridge Pick n Pay branch to courier it to him through Aramex.

          She used this Aramex service because on four previous occasions her daughter, who made tutus for kids, had successful sent samples to England without any hitches. She was given an international bag and told that because the T-shirt was so small (139g) it was acceptable. A member of the staff even helped her put it into the bag.

          It was sent, or so she thought, on 24 April 2017 and she paid the R299.

          “An entire month later there was a knock at our door in nearby Eagle Canyon,” she told me. “And there’s the courier with my parcel that was meant to be in Australia.  

          “I was told that as it wasn’t a document it couldn’t be sent. No one had contacted me via my email address on the package to tell me there was a problem. And they hadn’t made a special trip for me as they were evidently delivering something else a few houses away from ours.”

          Mandy asked a woman called Ayanda for her money back and was told this could not be given because it was Mandy’s fault. It was made clear to her on the bag the item was sent in that it was only for documents.

          When I tried to complain to Andy van der Velde, the CEO of Amarex South Africa, all I could get on the phone was an email address for his PA Andi Ungerer.  She evidently doesn’t bother him with complaints like mine, because without any explanation I got a reply from Tsholofelo Mosala to my email, addressed to him. She is described as the National Corporate Social Media Executive.

Was he perhaps on another adventure like
this when I was trying to contact him?

          She began by apologising for the “inconvenience cause by both Pick n Pay and Aramex staff,” as this was not “how we do business.” She went on to blame Pick n Pay’s store manager for not properly training the ladies who helped my daughter “hence they gave incorrect information to Mandy.”

          Her blame game did not end there. She repeated that it was actually Mandy’s fault because the leaflet on the sleeve states the service is only for documents. “The onus is on the user of a service to familiarise themselves with the terms and conditions when entering into a legal agreement with a service provider,” she added.

And Mandy had signed a document confirming she had read these.

          She conceded however that Mandy had trusted people who supposedly had a better understand of the service than she did.  

          Ayanda, she went on, had left their company so they could not get her side of the story but their policy was that “prior to returning a parcel, we make contact with the sender to advise of the outstanding requirements” and if they don’t get this information the sender “will be advised again that the parcel will be returned to them.”

          Nothing like this was done in Mandy’s case.

          Mosala asked for details of the tutus samples sent by Mandy’s daughter, but as this was some time ago Mandy no longer had any record of these.

          Her firm’s project manager would be asked to visit this Pick n Pay store to ensure that its manager was training their staff sufficiently to deal with the Amarex customers correctly.

          “As a gesture of goodwill, and a once off because of the individuality of this case, we would like to refund Mandy,” she stated.

          But instated of telling me that Mandy could go to the branch and collect the money she made it as difficult as possible for her by saying, “If she can please provide us with the letter from the bank confirming her affiliation with the bank and her bank account, we will have this processed and resolved.”

          Mandy then had to go to her bank personally to get this unnecessary letter which cost her another R21.50.

This is how my email conversation continued:

4 August

I sent Mosala the letter and Mandy’s bank details. She replied the same day saying she had sent it to their accounts team with this rider that showed that payment would not be at all quick. “Refunds take 7-14 working days to be processed.”

25 August

I told her 16 working days had now elapsed since she said payment would be made and nothing had come through. The same day she undertook to “inquire with accounts and await their feedback.”

2 September

Is my daughter ever going to get the money? I asked her. This is getting beyond a joke. You keep saying you are going to find out about it and what happens – absolutely nothing. Your 7-14 days must be the longest ones in history. It’s a terrible advertisement for Aramex.

P.S. I presume the R21.50 she had to pay for that bank letter will be added to the refund.

5 September

She apologised for not responding earlier and once again told me she had contacted the accounts team, but she was unable to say when this would be resolved or what was causing the delay.

Referring to this email I attempted to contact the CEO Van der Velde once again through his PA’s address. I told him it was deplorable that Mosala was still unable to find out when his firm was going to pay this “piddling amount.” In keeping with his record up to that stage he never responded.

6 September

In desperation I sent an email directly to Richard Brasher, Pick n Pay’s CEO asking if he could get somebody to sort this out as I was getting nowhere with Amarex. I included my first email to Van der Velde and Mosala’s initial reply.

7 September

Mosala sends me proof that R320.50 has been paid into my daughter’s bank account. This is a world record for a 7-14 working day delivery. It actually took 25 days.

It needed two different people to approve payment of this small amount. Hopefully Amarex’s creditors don’t have this much trouble getting paid.

Below is my email conversation with Brasher. Note how quickly he replied.

That’s what you call a very special CEO – somebody who is not only prepared to deal with big business in a 770 store empire, but who still has time to help solve a customer’s problem.

Richard Brasher

Andy van der Velde, if you are anywhere around, please read how a CEO should be promoting his company’s image.
                           After this post appeared Andy sent me this

Last word from Mandy: “Thanks to PNP Aramex delivered on its promise. I will of course return to PNP, but as for Aramex that ship has sailed.”

                                                                                       

Regards

Jon, a Consumer Watchdog of longstanding.

P.S. A very ugly snarl to Andy van der Velde. He is also a teacher on the social video learning platform Learn It Live that powers online education around the world. But perhaps he should brush up on his customer relations at home first.