Coles Supermarkets Australia
Reviews and Complaints

I recently purchased a box of Coles branded bone shaped dog biscuits from ‘Coles Gatton' and found a peice of wire Embedded in the end of one of the biscuits. As I would normally just take the biscuits out of the box and give them to my dogs without looking at them I'm extremely concerned as to how many other contaminated biscuits my dogs may have consumed! The piece of wire is approx 11/2 - 2 cm long. I would expect that this complaint should be cause for a product recall due to the fact that a piece of wire like this could certainly cause a serious injury to the intestinal tract/ gut of any pet that consumes the product. I have purchased this product many times but due to this issue I will most likely not be purchasing again & would like to warn other pet owners of the serious/potentially deadly outcome should they feed this product to there animals. I would also expect a response from Coles with regard to this matter.

I went into coles tuggeranong last week and woden today to get your half price lindemans wine 1litre and none in store both times. Its happened in past as well whats the use of having good specials and then having none and getting customers angry. I also wasnt offered a raincheck, not happy. Coles says it has good customer service and it is always the same when you have half price specials

Hi, my name is Heike Leech, and I have entered several of your competitions for Vouchers. I keep getting a message that I've won a $150 but when I hit the claim here button it takes me to another page to answer questions and then claim diet pills or hair pills etc and I don't get the $150 voucher this has happened several times now, it says I won $150 voucher but it always redirects me. I just want the the $150 voucher it keeps saying I won.

Sincerely
Heike Leech

I recently purchased a new jar of Coles breakfast marmalade noting the new style of jar. I presumed this was just to allow for the reduction from a 500g to 480g jar. However next morning when eating the two products consecutively I realized there was something else different. Upon checking the label, I was dismayed to find out that this product is now made in Poland, my previous jar states Product of Australia. The ingredients list is different too, resulting in an inferior product. The consistency and taste is not up to the standard of the previous supplier and I find it hard to believe that you have approved this product as an acceptable replacement. I will be sorcing a new supply. Also noted my jar of Coles strawberry jam is now made in Poland. Extremely disappointed, why the change?

Today 5/7/1/, I [censored]ed my finger on a 3 corner jack that was in the salad mix. I put my hand in the bag to get the salad out and felt a sharp [censored] on my finger. I emptied the contents of the bag and there was a 3 corner jack in amongst the salad mix. While the [censored] did hurt, I was relieved because I hate to think about the potential danger and risks if that 3 corner jack had ended up in our mouths or throat! I am extremely frustrated and I am not confident about buying this product again, which is a shame because we use it all the time. I have attached a photo of the three corner jack.

I placed an order using Click and Collect and selected the time for pick up. I received a confirmation email that my order had been received and would be ready at the allocated time. When I went to pick up my order I was told that it hadn't been received (even though I had a confirmation email). The person in Click and Collect phoned the central point who also said it hadn't been received. When I explained that I had received a confirmation email, the response was "Oh Well things sometimes get caught up in the system" . At no point was I offered an apology, and no point were any solutions to the problems offered, just a shrug of the shoulders which said to be, who cares. I know things can go wrong but a respectful attitude and offer of a solution would go a long way to easing the situation. I fully understand that my $200 a week isn't going to impact on your sales, but it gives me great satisfaction to know that you will not be getting my business again. I have always shopped at Coles but not again.

Hi,
i regularly have coles brand tuna tins for lunch, i find the price and quality great, however today i opened a can i was disappointed to find a fish bone included in the contents (refer attached pics)
I picked the bone out and discarded of it, my concern is that this could be a choking hazard to a child and or an unsuspecting customer, let alone compromising product quality.
this needs to be fed thru to the supplier of the tuna range for a review of their quality processes to avoid potential claims on the company.
i look forward to your feedback.

regards
Matt Fletcher

Good morning

I wanted to advise you that these bottles are consistently filled right to the brim of the top of the bottle. Every time you open a fresh bottle water leaks from the top down the sides as they are simply to full.

I buy two 8 packs of these a week yet am considering changing brands even if they are a little more expensive as I'm really over spilling water on my legs or sheets or table or my car when I open these.

It's worse when they have been in the fridge for some reason.

I hope you maybe able to have these levels adjusted down by a few mls it would truely make a load of difference to the consumer.

Thanks in advance

Michelle
[protected]

Hi
I know why plastic bags are no longer given out.
Tonight I went to Coles Belmont, after forgetting my bag l bought one. The Team member threw all my groceries in the bag.
As l got to the car l noticed that my milk was laying down flat instead of being packed upright. It had just started to leak.
Maybe your team members need to be re- trained how to pack different shaped bags.

Also if your saving all this money by not purchasing bags are you going to reduce prices further. Can we get help to bring groceries to our car?
You can actually fit more products in these bags making them very heavy. This now becomes a health a safety issue for us as we are leaving your stores.
Regards
Lucy
[protected]@live.com.au

I searched Coles website for Kefir based products and found the following: https://shop.coles.com.au/a/a-national/everything/search/kefir

Therefore, I visited Coles in East Victoria Park, Perth, on July 3, 2018 to purchase one or more of these products as I am very keen to try them. I couldn't locate them on the shelves so asked a store worker to point them out to me. He had never heard of kefir so asked a nearby co-worker if she knew the product's whereabouts. She didn't but responded that another customer had also enquired recently and left the store disappointed. At my request, the male employee searched Coles website and viewed all three items but then responded (not very convincingly) that his store must not have as yet acquired them(?) (a common 'defence' at this store!)

This is not the first time by far, that I have either received a Fly-buys email or performed and on-line search and then attended this store to receive some excuse as to why the store does not have the required product/s in-store.

I rang their customer care landline but got little joy from Zoe (who answered) with her simply replying that she would 'pass along my concerns' to both the area manager and store manager. Firstly, I am disbelieving that this will in fact happen and in any event, will/does management take any notice of complaints such as mine?

Coles never offer any form of compensation to disgruntled shoppers who have experiences such as mine and disregard the time and expense (vehicle running costs etc.) when shoppers like me relate their experiences to the so-called Customer Care phone line.

The standard of customer care is severely lacking!

Coles have had the poise overnight pads I went to campbelltown mall on the 29/06/18 and the shelf was empty for the next 3 days and again today 2/07/18 on two occasions the person who was looking after asked me to come with them to show them which pads I wanted. Now this customer not satisfied. Can you get back to me on this matter. Thank you. How much more information do you need the complaint speaks for itself so let's try again ok.

In response to incident;
Coles supermarket store earlwood between 5:30pm - 6:00pm 1 july 2018 customer complaint for wrongly accused of shoplifting and direct complaint regarding behaviour of the duty manager at the time incident occurred.
When phoning coles earlwood at 1:00pm 2 july 2018, I spoke with store manager gavin johnson and was given email address: coles.[protected]@coles.com. Au and had intended on sending my complaint to, which I rephrased on the phone to ensure it was correct. When attempting to send my email it bounced with undeliverable - delivery has failed the email address you entered couldn't be found
On sunday 01/07/2018 early evening between5:30pm & 6pm my trip to coles supermarket in earlwood with my sister turned into a nightmare when she was wrongly accused of shoplifting and unlawfully detained.
I had finished my shopping and was stood by the bench under the community notice board inside the store waiting for my sister who was still purchasing items in the store. She just finished paying at the counter and walked out, when from out in front a tall man of indian appearance, appeared to be security but later was revealed he was the store duty manager, walked up to my sister. My sister is a mare 61 year old woman of about 65cm in height. The coles male staff stood over her saying in an aggressive tone out loud for the whole store to hear "I saw you on the security cameras, I saw you take it from the shelf and open the box". My sister had a look of horror and shock, her eyes open wide as if to say what is happening? Unable to walk forward, due to this (what I assumed was security as he was dress in white shirt and black pants) this man's standover bully tactics blocking her passage to continue walking, she was forced to stop there and then, not actually having been asked to do so though, as though she was being detained. Very politely and timidly my sister replied saying "but i've done nothing wrong, I don't understand?" and again the coles male staff stood over her, aggressively stating and accusing my sister out loud for the whole store to hear shouted, "I saw you on the security cameras, I saw you take it from the shelf and open the box". By this time everyone in the vicinity of the store, and beyond towards the back of the store that I could see, was watching and listening.
At this point I could read from my sister's reaction that there must have been a mistake and intervened asking the coles male staff "what exactly is the problem?" he repeated yet again aggressively looking at me with distain "I saw her on the security camera", he then turned with the same distained looked and said to my sister "you opened the box and took it out", to which my sister interrupted and replied saying "but the box was already opened, I didn't open it, I wanted to buy it and was checking it had all the items inside it". And in actual fact my sister did purchase and pay for the product she was being wrongly accused of stealing that had already been opened but put back on the shelf by someone else.
By this stage it seemed to me that this bullying coles male staff member was wrongly and falsely accusing my sister of shoplifting in front of everyone in the store. Even worse he was dismissing anything my sister or I had to say in our right to reply. We were guilty without any proof and had no opportunity to defend ourselves, it was a disgusting situation to be in.
I then became very angry and demanded to speak with the store manager, and he replied saying he was the manager in a very authoritarian manner. I found this very difficult to believe that a store manager would also take on the role of a security guard as well and felt this person was misleading & possibly lying about his status as being the store manager, which then angered me even more.
By this time another store female staff arrived. I demanded the receipts be checked and produced receipts for items my sister purchased, & gave these to the female staff member. Whilst she was checking I called for this security male to prove his false accusations. The receipts were taken by the female staff, she calmly and quietly checked the receipts and items, and whilst she did this, the security male replied to me saying "I don't know why you have to get involved" to which I responded "this is my sister and, I would like you to prove and provide evidence of the claims you are making, where is your evidence and your proof?, how dare you accuse her without proof and talk to me and my sister in this manner", and to my shock he replied saying "you are not my mother to talk to me, who are you?" he was extremely aggressive, and dismissive of anything we were trying to say. Fortunately the female staff checked the items and receipts stating "it's alright, everything's ok". My sister and I were under no obligation to prove her innocence but we insisted the items and receipts be checked, a humiliating situation let alone to be in.
By this stage a customer approached the area and stated "you are scaring the children" the extent of this situation was a direct result of the coles security guard's aggressive, rude, and dismissive behaviour and he managed to lead the whole situation to point that was unpleasant for everyone in the store.
After the female staff confirmed there was no problem, I stated to the security guard that "i'm well aware of my rights and you should not be making accusations and such claims without proof and evidence, and I find you very rude and aggressive!, is it alright to leave now?" but he didn't answer and stood there and stirred back at me. So again I asked "is it alright to leave now"?. He simply replied with a hand gesture to leave, and shrugged his shoulders saying "yeah leave!".
My sister and I are extremely upset about our treatment at the hands of this male coles store security staff. His behaviour was unjustifiably abhorrent, and there is no excuse to be treated in the manner we were treaded in coles supermarket yesterday evening.
Not only have our civil rights and liberty been affected by being detained by this security guard for no cause at all, we were humiliated and insulted in front of the whole store and it's very possible that there were neighbours and people we knew, or even people we work with in the store at the time this occurred watching this unfold before them. The approach by the security guard was malicious and my sister was unfairly targeted. The hurt and mental anguish perpetuated by the continued insinuations by the coles security guard of suspicions of guilt on my sister are still today being felt, and I can't see when this will subside. There was no apology forthcoming and no admission of any mistake was every taken by either of the coles security or female staff members, which to date has angered me even more.
As per the iccpr, it is our civil right to be considered innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt.
Such a large supermarket store as coles that want to protect against theft and that continue to use this approach need to look at the cost of the negative impacts on individual rights of consumers it is having. It would be far better that coles store losses be counted part of the cost of doing business than that they be minimised at the expense of individual freedom.
My sister is a property owner of what's considered to be blue ribbon real state address in earlwood and frequents coles earlwood on an almost daily basis. I also am a resident and live in earlwood. As a direct result of this incident I personally will never shop at coles earlwood supermarket store, not even to purchase a carton of milk, and will certainly from now on choose to shop at any other store over coles supermarket anywhere in australia.
I will also be posting this incident to as many social media post that can be found to voice my extremely unpleasant experience and unfair treatment by giant supermarket coles. I will also be seeking legal advice on pressing charges.

I purchased milk, polony plus other items such as bread, ham etc on Tuesday 26th June 2018. On Saturday 30th June 18, I went to use my polony and tasted some which I found out to be off and have an awful taste and it got thrown out. I then went to use my milk on Sunday (which was a Coles brand milk) and that was also off (the expiry on BOTH of them said 5th July) the milk had lumps all the way through it when I tipped it down the sink! The state of your Rockingham deli really needs to be paid some attention as meat that has dried up and sitting in the fridge is not good enough. Obviously your milk does not last as long as you state it does on your carton so maybe look into that as well. I was rather disappointed with your goods and I would like either a refund or my products replaced with FRESH produce. I have a copy of my bank statement for proof of purchase if required. I look forward to your response .

This is a general complaint about the phasing out of plastic bags. I shop in Winston Hill and have used recycled bags for years.
I am happy that you have stopped using single use plastic but why are you still selling plastic bags for 80c each.
Isn't that defeating the purpose. It's still plastic only heavier and will take longer to break down.

I was informed by the lasses at the checkout that you can put them into your recycled bin outside the supermarket when you are finished with them. There are some people out there that will just put them into the bin and buy new ones.

This is not the answer and it's not solving the problem.

26/6/2018. Moree. Coles Supermarket. Required help to find products on special. All special tickets had been removed at 2.30pm and store closes at 8pm. I asked where are all the specials and ticketing. The Store Manager replies that he has timing constraints put on him and that's why they had all been removed. Instead of giving me any assistance he just shrugged he shoulders at me at said it was my problem. With this comment coming from a senior member of Coles, I stopped shopping and went to Woolworths and continued to buy $370.00 worth of groceries. As an ex-employee of Woolworths where it was my job to remove tickets, and this was solely done be me over a 3 hour period. I feel that removing special tickets early is damaging to your Coles Supermarkets Company. Until Moree management has been removed i shall not be shopping there. I have told many friends and my family and they too are in agreeance that this manager handled this isuue poorly. I will continue to advertise the poor service I received at Moree and will have many friends and family follow my pusuit in shopping at Woolies

I don't buy any deli from you guys as you are the most expensive I've seen and due to this, as I buy a lot of Deli I don't do any of my shopping with you, the good deals you do have, with what I spend in the deli do not even out. For example, olives etc $5 for a small, Woolworths let me get an amount I want at a per kilo price, so it is cheaper for me to do that, and the Salads are $1 cheaper for the same amount, I know I'm only one person, but I thought I wouls give my feedback.

I buy Diet Coke when it's on special only. When I went up to Coles located in the North Rocks shopping centre, the ticket directly in front of the Diet Coke read $18.90. When I got to the checkout it went through as $32.00. When I challenged the lady at the checkout, she went back to where I had taken the coke from and only then removed the pricing ticket. She told me I should have read the small print on the box. I'm 75 and the small print is extremely difficult for me to read. This situation has occurred more than once before, I'm very disappointed in the way that this was handled. I asked to see the manger and my complaint was just shuffled along.

I was horrified to discover a black plastic foreign body in my cats meat. Please see attached photos.
Given the size and shape of the object, without doubt if the cat had swallowed it, it would have become lodged in his throat.
My cat could have choked to death!
Given the severity of the possible consequences I will be contacting my lawyer and the ombudsmen in the hope that your manufacturing process is checked, and this doesn't happen again.
Pets have a right to safe food too.

This is an escalating problem in the last 2 months I have done large amounts of shopping at the pinewood Coles in Victoria because of the flybuys deals. Basically $170 plus for 4 weeks and I do not like to go to the register, I prefer the self check out. I can control the amount I spent and if it's not anought send my husband in to pick up some other items. There has been a new old gentlemen supervisor at these checkout who is polite but of no help as he probably has not been trained well. A few times I asked for help and in the begging I thought it was a joke, he said to me"can you come to shop after 6.30pm when I finish, I only work Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday" I laughed and walk off. The next time he approached me as soon as I entered the checkpoint and said"large trolleys like this cannot go through self service," I said you can stay here and watch me when I am finished I will give you the receipt and you can check all items have been scanned. He shook his head and was of no help when called he had to go and get someone else. This last time as I got to the self service registers he tried to approach me, as I was scanning the items he kept on coming over, as if he was going to say something, then he changed his mind and went to get a lady by the name of KIM, she barged out and asked how are you do8ng there love? I explained I was doing multiple items and was it possible to scan the box or was each one to be done individual. She began lecturing me on how I should go to the register for the girls to help me, as that's what they were there for, and that I cannot do multiple items by myself she must help me. She begins doing the checkout as if I was a very retarded customer. I said I didn't want her to do my shopping as I would like to pack things in bags by myself, she insisted on helping me and she would put them in bags. I left all the shopping for her to put back on the shelf and went elsewhere. She was polite, but firm as if she was my mother. I am 57 years old and I move like a 30 years old I would do my checkout in no time without her help. She called me love, I guarantee she is younger then me if not the same age, and I am offended. These people should not work in customer service we might be old but not stupid. The self service checkout do not state 15 items or less only. I will not shop at this Coles anymore if I can help it, and if I have to cos it's the only Coles left in Victoria I will still check out myself. I don't need greetings from staff, to be asked how was my day, what exciting things I have done today ect, I just need my shopping, if I need friends I join a social club
Rosie de salvo

I have been buying this product ever since it was available & it's a very reasonably priced $1.15. Now out of the blue you've just removed it completely with no other comparative choices. The only other soy products start at $1.80 or else the Coles brand regular soy milk which as it's regular & not not lite it is not suitable. You obviously have no regard for your customers by just deleting a product with no other options.