Ralphs Grocery
Reviews and Complaints

Went to meat department and ordered 10 pounds of Chicken backs. They didn't have but said come back in two days. Did so, but no record of order. Made a new order. Returned in two days. New person behind counter. No record of order. Made a new order. Came back two days later. Same story. Went to manager, he didn't care. They don't give order receipts so you can prove anything.

The Ralph's store in Santa Monica on Cloverfield and Colorado as well as the Ralph's on Washington Blvd in Culver city have both overcharged me more than once in their self check out line. I have had to get the manager to explain to me why this is still happening and how many others have the same problem but do not bother to report it. I cannot stand to be ripped off by anyone. Ralph's prices have jumped sky high and I switched from Albertsons to Ralph's and now I am going to have to rethink where I will shop next. I do no like having to worry about every thing I check out that I am not getting the sale price or any discounts. This problem is happening more and more lately and I think Ralph's/Kroger should be ashamed of themselves! We have enough to worry about day to day with this economy and I do not need to worry about a market ripping me off!

Ralph's super service center located at 2805 n hwy 89, Chino Valley, Arizona is a HUGE HUGE RIP OFF! They will stick it to you if you take your vehicle to them! There are only three things they really know, LIE, CHEAT & STEAL! They replace what is easiest for them and most costly for you! They do not know how to repair the problem nor do they stand behind their work! They claim the manufacturers specs are wrong, that they know better (ha ha ha)! What a bunch of *** *** people! BEWARE of Ralph's Super *** RIP OFF Service Center!

On one occasion a checker made repeated snide comments to the bagger because I requested paper bags. They never send rebate checks even after numerous phone calls. Today I saw in their ad 4 boxes of Kellogg's cereal "17.6 Oz to 25.5 OZ for $10.00" I shopped for various items and after waiting in line for 10 minutes finally paying and getting my receipt, I noticed I was charged $16.74 instead of $10 for 4 boxes of cereal. I returned to the same checker (whose name tag proclaimed her as a manager) and showed her the ad and pointed out the mistake. She first loudly denied the mistake, then after I showed her again where the ad specifically said "25.5 OZs" she yelled that I had the wrong size, at which time her current customer called me "A rude son of a ###" drawing the attention of the entire store! Finally the manager "Gary" showed up, I showed him the ad and waited for him to walk to the cereal aisle (for what reason I don't know?) Upon returning he refused to honor the printed ad and tried to talk me into accepting smaller boxes even though he acknowledged the ad saying 25.5 OZs. At this point I demanded a refund and left.

On one occasion a fat checker made repeated snide comments to the bagger because I requested paper bags. They never send rebate checks even after numerous phone calls. Today I saw in their ad 4 boxes of Kellogg's cereal "17.6 Oz to 25.5 OZ for $10.00" I shopped for various items and after waiting in line for 10 minutes finally paying and getting my receipt, I noticed I was charged $16.74 instead of $10 for 4 boxes of cereal. I returned to the same checker (whose name tag proclaimed her as a manager) and showed her the ad and pointed out the mistake. She first loudly denied the mistake, then after I showed her again where the ad specifically said "25.5 OZs" she yelled that I had the wrong size, at which time her current customer called me "A rude son of a ###" drawing the attention of the entire store! Finally the manager "Gary" showed up, I showed him the ad and waited for him to walk to the cereal aisle (for what reason I don't know?) Upon returning he refused to honor the printed ad and tried to talk me into accepting smaller boxes even though he acknowledged the ad saying 25.5 OZs. At this point I demanded a refund and left.

After almost 40 years, I was terminated due to exceeding the allowed time period for medical leave. That's fine, since I can't do the work any more.

The problem is they didn't formally tell me I'd been terminated; no letter, no phone call, nothing. It came up in conversation, when I called the main office for some information and it was casually mentioned that I was terminated. I called human resources, twice, and wrote a letter asking for a simple letter stating my last day of employement...they never responded. I slaved for this company for many years, and had to endure numerous surgeries on my body due to repettitive motion injuries, I didn't rate the courtesy of a letter telling me Id been let go?

The other day on [protected], I visited four different Ralphs grocery stores and discovered many products which were expired or out of code. These items ranged from kid snacks, deserts, dinners, diet foods, soups, and common dry groceries. Each store had some where between 15-30 different items which were out of code. Some of the items had just expired, where as others expired in November of last year. I spent about a half hour in each store and only purchased half of what I found. I am going to bring this to the attention of the food and drug administration and to the public. Be careful of the products you buy and always check the expiration date. These large companies are too concerned with saving money on labor and not public safety. There is no excuse for this to happen in such a large company other than the lack of concern for their customers. I'm sure once I visit more stores I will find the same results. So if you shop at ralphs in Southern California, beware!

There are thousands maybe even millions of dollars in unclaimed pet and wine rewards at Ralphs grocery stores in Southern California. If you are a Ralphs club card member and have purchased pet or wine products over the last years, you may have unclaimed rewards at your local stores. If you go to this link http://www.ralphs.com/ralphsclub/ralphscard_petclub.htm you will see how their program works.
They make it sound so great and simple to earn these rewards. All you have to do is use your club card every time you shop and purchase a certain amount of either pet items or wine in 750 ml. bottles and you will be earning money towards future purchases of like items. When you use your club card when you shop and purchase $100 in pet items or $200 in 750 ml. bottles of wine, you will receive a coupon for $9 off your next $9 purchase in pet items or $10 off your next $10 purchase in 750 ml. bottles of wine. It's that simple! When you check out, just look at the bottom of your receipt and see how much money you've earned towards your pet club or wine club purchases. Once you've accumulated $100 in pet purchases or $200 in 750 ml. bottles in wine purchases, they will automatically give you a pet savings certificate or a wine savings certificate. You should already be aware that they went from earning money, to a coupon, to a savings certificate all in the same page, all referring to the same item. Each one of those descriptions carry a different meaning in the world of business and each one of them have different guidelines and laws attached to them. Once the customer has earned a certificate, there exist a new contract in how the certificate is to be redeemed. The provisions of the new contract requires the customer to purchase an additional $9 in pet products of $10 in 750 ml. bottles of wine and in return the certificate will take $9 or $10 off their purchase. On the certificate it states that the customer must use their club card to redeem this certificate and a minimum $9 pet purchase or a minimum $10 750 ml. wine bottle is required. Once the customer has met all the conditions of the certificate, nothing is taken off the customers order. These certificates continue to accumulate on the customers club card every time they meet the requirements in earning the certificate. A friend of mine had earned over 30 certificates and never knew he was entitled to them. He had spent over $3, 000 in pet items at Ralphs and never once received a single $9 off his order! There are few things you should know about which are not told about these certificates and how to redeem them. First Ralphs will not automatically redeem these certificates for the customer, even after the meet all the requirements for redemption, it is the customers responsibility to notify the cashier once they have spent the additional amount. Second there is an expiration date of less than a month on these certificates, which isn't true. Every certificate issued to every customer has the same number attached to it, so how can one expire and not all of them expire at the same time. Plus this is an ongoing program which doesn't expire. Finally they tell the customer that they must have the paper certificate in order to redeem it. This is also not true, because in the state of California there are consumer laws which state that an electronic record of an item satisfies any law where a paper record is required. You can find this in Cal. Civil Code section 1633.1-1633.17. So to see if you have any of these abandoned or unclaimed certificates, you can call the RALPHS CLUB CARD HOTLINE at [protected] and give them your club card # or phone # and they will be able to tell you how many you have and how to redeem at your local store. If they are not able to help you, you can contact the consumer affairs dept. in your white pages. So call today and find out how much money you have earned towards pet or wine purchases!

Recently, ralphs grocery stores have terminated their pet, wine, and senior rewards programs and have replaced them with a new rewards program. No one can be sure of why they did this, some might guess that it was the result of the way they rewarded their customers, or didn't reward them. The biggest concern with this termination of these reward programs is that their still exist millions of dollars in unclaimed or abandoned reward certificates which belong to the customers who earned them. What is the company going to do with all of these reward certificates which represent millions of dollars worth of product? Is the company going to give these customers the rewards they promised them, or are they just going to act like they never existed and brush them under the carpet? Most of these customers have no idea that they are entitled to these certificates which will save them a lot of money.

I guess what the customer doesn't know won't hurt them. They have already given ralphs their money to purchase pet and wine items, where they should have used the certificates which they earned instead. Not only does the company have the customers money, they also have the customers certificates and once they end this program, what happens to these certificates?

If the company wants to keep their good name, they should give these certificates to their customers who earned them. It will be interesting to see what the company decides to do with these millions of dollars of certificates.

I purchased items at Ralphs. The Lady gives me my receipt and says thank you. The amount was $24.54 I gave her two twenty dollar bills. She opens the cash drawer and lifts up a ten dollar bill and said it was a ten. That is wrong, but even if it was a ten she still should have given me $4 and change, she only gave me the change, or the change machine did. Is Ralphs in such dyer straits that it has to rip off its customers ? I have been going there for years, I will only go into that store to go to the bank now, you just lost a good customer.

I've been trying to place an order.But it get to check out and stock right there. I've called, tried to fax to get a phone number so i could speak with some one but to no avail. I need a part that you have and like to purchase

Thanks mike l.C

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Krogers
1014 Vine Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202

To Whom It May Concern,

I have been a customer of Ralphs for many many years and mostly shop at the Sunset Blvd. store in Hollywood, California.

I am writing to voice my strong complaint about the change in your Rewards card. My account was under my old phone #: xxx-xxx-xxxx.

A few months before the change, during checkout I asked the cashier if there was a way to update my account to my new phone number. She said yes and handed me a Ralphs Rewards card form but that I should NOT use it because I'd lose all my points so it was best that I stay with my old phone number. Yes, I was told this.

Several months later I purchased some wine and having never used any of my many points from years gone by and had no idea how to redeem them, I asked the cashier if my points could be used toward the purchase of the wine I was about to purchase.

That's when I learned that there was a new program and my past points had expired. I was shocked and found a manager who told me the same thing and that there was no recourse and my points were gone. He also told me that they had promoted the change by having a table with signup cards on one of the entrances for a month before the expiration.

Obviously there are a number of problems here. First is that having a table for just one month is a passive form of outreach and depends upon the customer finding or noticing the table.

There are 3 entrances to this store. A front right entrance, a front left entrance and the elevator from the roof parking lot. If you use the left or elevator entrances you couldn't possibly see or know the table on the other side existed. Even if you use the right entrance where the table allegedly was, how many customers are preoccupied with other things like finding a cart or finishing a cell call or looking at their shopping list or just people watching as your Hollywood store is full of unusual characters, etc. Or if you are a long time customer, with shopping on your mind, what if you just weren't paying attention. Do you realize how many tables of all kinds of things await us as we enter your store? Are we responsible to stop at each one to find see if there is a new store policy. This single table, it's location, short time and assumption it would be seen or paid attention to is absurd.

My address hasn't changed in years. Why wasn't a mailer sent advising us of the change?

Why didn't the cashier tell me about the expiration when she handed me the card several months earlier? Why? Because she obviously wasn't trained in the matter and gave me false information.

Why didn't your corporate offices make it mandatory that every cashier mention the expiration to every customer and make the information an active promotion rather than a single passive table in a store with 3 entrances and lots going on and for just one month?

Why? I would venture a guess that Kroger was all too happy to have people's accounts expire without cashing them in. How much money did you save by customers like myself miss out on cashing in? Lots I'm sure.

I can't prove this of course, but whoever is reading this knows what really happened and the motivation behind keeping the expiration a virtual secret except for a single table for just one month.

What if someone didn't shop at a Ralphs that month? What about those that were out of town? One month after decades of being a loyal customer is a MAJOR insult and a major rip off. Is this the REWARD I get for being a loyal customer? I see it as a form of theft and you owe me. I spent thousands of dollars on food and alcohol over the years.

I am demanding a substantial accommodation to cover the loss that I have experienced because of Kroger/Ralphs not properly and substantially promoting and advertising that the old program was expiring.

I am now Googling you on the internet and see that I am not alone.

Shame on you, Krogers!

/URL removed/

Regretfully,
Name Withheld

Ralphs/Krogers had in place a rewards program whereby customers got discounts for shelf merchandised goods and accumulated rewards points for purchases including alcohol all for redemption toward other purchases by the customer at the customer's request.

Ralphs replaced this program on or around January 2009 without ample notice to existing old program members and all accumulated points were terminated.

The extent of Ralphs notification to the public, at least at the Hollywood store where I shop, was apparently a table on the right side of the store with new applications for one month. There are 3 total entrances to the store: one where the table was and one on the other side and an elevator that came from the upper parking lot.

None of the cashiers ever mentioned the program expiration, there were no fliers or written documentation at the check out or on the receipts or any mailers to our home addresses or emails that Ralphs had from our signing up to the program.

I found out about the termination in February when I attempted to cash in some of my wine points to buy some wine and learned I couldn't and that my points were gone.

A very disconcerting point here is that back in October or November 2008 before the cut off, I asked a cashier if I could update my file because I had a new phone #. She told me that if I did I would lose my accumulated points and that I was better off just remembering and using my old number so I did.

While I can't prove it, I wonder how much money Krogers and Ralphs saved from those that didn't or couldn't redeem their points prior to the expiration. I could have easily redeemed had either the cashier told me the truth and/or there was ample notification in the store, or verbally by the cashiers.

Ralphs food stores advertise in weekly phamphlets availiable at the store in and in their newsprint ads in 1 inch high print and on a 3' x 6' banner over the front entrance "Double Cupons Every Day".

HOWEVER, manufacturers discount cupons over .50 do NOT get doubled and there is a limit on one cupon product. Only the cupons UNDER .50 get doubled. This policy IS spelled out in print .060" high (practically unreadable) in their BACK PAGE of the weekly ad phamphlet.

I have contacted Ralphs and the parent company Kroger Stores 4 times in the past 3 months (since they started this policy) and they still have not added a caveat in READABLE SIZE print below this ad. This is blatantly dishonest as folks think that all cupons are doubled.

Every get a grocery store club card? Is your telephone number and address correct on the card? Do you even know how to update your info? Well you might want to make sure you do or your information could be routed to someone else's card. I have had a grocery store club card for many years possibly as many as 12 years. Recently I need to get a copy of some receipts and thought wow! I can use one of the benefits of my grocery store club card! NOT! Because I did not update my telephone number all my transactions were being routed to another customer's club card and since they are on the wrong card I am not entitled to my own transactions, this is to protect my privacy. Does this make any sense? I asked that my transactions be transferred to my card, the CORRECT card and was told that this would violate the company's privacy policy. I asked, to what part of their policy they were referring. I was told that they were not familiar with what part of the privacy policy or which part applies they just know that something in there prevents them from correcting the situation. Now if they don't know how do they expect their customers to be better informed than they are?! The bottom line is that they are protecting my privacy by allowing my transactions to remain on another customer's card/account and that not even I am entitled to my transactions. Does this sound like protection or more like!@@#$!$!. Spoke to Shelly Landers and Yvette Young both on May 8, 2008 and both gave me the same spheel.