Loblaws reviews and complaints

I bought 27 food items at curb side pickup from Zehrs in Welland, Ontario, Canada. These 27 items were placed into 12 PC bags., which is an awful waste of plastic bags. You can easily put 3, 4, 5 or more food items into a bag, depending on the size of the product. Fruit products, which have a natural thick skin (oranges, avocados, kiwis etc. were put into a separate plastic bag, which then was placed into another plastic bag. The plastic industry loves it - and the environment cries out!

Our no frills store on George Street in Peterborough runs out of advertised specials regularly. One day early and sometimes the items 'never get shipped' according to the floor staff. Sales run for a week, get in a weeks supply, overstock can be run as lost leaders or hourly announced specials. This is poor customer service and an insult to our intelligence.

I purchased a gift card on December 9, 2010 at the Loblaws Glen Erin in Mississauga. I sent it as a gift to a friend out west. When my friend received it and went to register it, they found that it was empty. They called Visa who told them that the card had been used 4 days after I purchased and that this was clearly fraud. Visa claims no responsibility for the card and said to go to Loblaws and deal with someone there. When I was finally able to speak to a manager almost a week later, Stephen Agnew, listened to my story and made a photo copy of the receipt I had to show when I purchased the card. He told me that 9 times out of ten the card is reloaded but that it would take five days to investigate. A week later he called to tell me that Loblaws was not responsible for the cards, Loblaws just sells them. He was sorry but there was nothing they could do for me. I asked for the name of the next person I could speak to and he gave me a 1-800 to call. I called the 1-800 and a rep took all of my information and said a specialist would call me back. Two weeks later, Ana Chaplain called me back and said that Loblaws is only responsible for PC cards and that this is a Visa card which is distributed by Blackhawk Communications. I asked her to give me contact information as I wanted to take it to the next level. She said I could contact Blackhawk and contest the charges but that at this point there wasn't much that could be done. There was never a point at which anything could be done so I am not sure what she was talking about. I emailed Blackhawk and I am still waiting to hear from them but from what I have been told they will also pass the proverbial buck on this matter.

So, beware when you are buying gift cards, if there is a scam involved as there seems to be in this case, you are the only one who will lose. The way the scam works is that everyone gets paid but you get ripped off for however much the card is worth. Next time I will just send money and not bother with a gift card, at least that way I know they will get it.

What is really disturbing is that this must happen quite a bit to people, as I could not possibly have been the only one ripped off, and yet all of the companies involved could not care less and have allowed it to continue to happen. There are no signs at the Loblaws stores where the gift cards are saying, Buy at your own risk, but there should be as that is exactly what happens.