Spar International
Reviews and Complaints

Spar supermarket in my area is located at 3 minutes walking distance, so we go there on a daily basis. We wish it would be a woolworth's, so we could receive better service and higher standards, but unless we want to drive 10 minutes to get to the closest woolworth's, this is the supermarket chaon we have to deal with.

It's the first time i am writing a comment on this board, as i have enough of this lazy spar. Too often, the dates at spar on hobart road are expired. When it is only by a couple of days, you can assume that it was overlooked and a "honest mistake", but when it is by more than two months, there is a major problem.

The product was i&j light & crispy haddock, with a best before date from the 6th of august, and bought today, on the 4th of october. I have to admit that there wasn't any problem to change them, but the official excuse was: "sheppard (The frozen food manager...) was sick for a week. The problem is that the expiry date is 2 months old...

I only noticed the bad date when opening the box, as the fish portions were covered by a 2 centimetres thick ice, showing the problem os condensation, a constant and serious issue with this particular store, on their ice cream and other frozen food.

The problem comes from the fact that their freezers are the same as in the 60's, without doors, so the products are always exposed to hot air of the store, and the freezing source. The result is condensation, affecting the quality of the products.

This typical culture of south africa, of always trying to save, to take decision based on cheap and nasty greediness, instead of adopting a vision based on consumers satisfaction and business ethic is the norm throughout the country.

But when management can't notice that these old freezers are affecting the product quality, it's being called ignorance and disrespect for the consumers. Selling ice cream in an opened freezer, even petrol stations don't do it, as they have covering glass windows everywhere.

So with the volume of clients a supermarket like spar hobart has, it is inadmissible to see that degree of negligence and dumbness. Yes, standards in south africa are rock bottom, but this type of carelessness is beyond belief.

I understand that i can't use abusive language, but you can easily imagine the ones that i would like to use, and the strongest ones.

If the management doesn't know how modern-day frozen section looks like, i have attached a visual reference.

Spar meyersdal... Prices difference for products! I just find that overtime I go to spar meyersdale I will be over charged on a product. If this was to happen now and a again by all means, but I have gotten wise to them I check every item and make sure this was the price advertised on the selves. Today again r44.99 for 10 black bags where as it was priced in the selve for r26.99. The otherday r75.99 for 18 medlemons, as to the price in the selve for r39.99. You have to scrutinise every item when paying at the teller otherwise you will be the one that will come short, that is a promise to me. I really don't feel to support them anymore this is not a pleasant experience for me as a consumer, ask yourself how many other customers is being over charged and they don't even know it.

I had purchased few items at 18:37:06Hrs from sales girl ID: [protected] Mrs. Jayamrutha. After billing and while carrying out a cross check, I could find that the T shirt(Bohemina Dreams) costing Ra's. 99/- only is mentioned in the bill as Ra's. 549/-. I checked with who asked me to meet the customer service officer in on of the office situated inside.

I was in a hurry as I had to catch a train leaving within another half an hour. She was insisting for the same which I denied and asked her to call the concerned at the spot instead of me running around in search of the office and refund. Later one person visited the premises after my continuous appeal. He took out all the items and cross checked and got satisfied himself with my claim.

The issue had happened due to overlooking of the item as She had been damn tired and exhausted. There was no one to place the items in the carry bag and Aircondition or even a fan was not provided at the premises which clearly shows that there is a administrative failure happening with the rostering leading to the customer becoming scape goat by paying more. Had we not checked the bill, we would have paid Rs. 450/- extra which can be put in any account as the Accountant feels.

Kindly let us know what the action will be taken to reduce these types of conflicts happening due to mismanagement of resources.

On 24 June 2016 I went to the Spar in Umdloti. I took a bottle of tan lotion, marked R49.99. At the till I was charged R129.99. I then said the price is incorrect and walked with an employee to the shelf. She called another employee who said oh ja we are moving shelves. We went back to the till where the Manager was called who said I must pay the R129.99. I said no I should pay the price on the shelf. They then said I will have to speak to the Owner and called him. The Owner came and said it is because they are moving shelves, I said that is not the customer's problem. He then said I can pay the wrong price if I can LIVE WITH MYSELF and I said I can. He asked me if I could not see they are moving shelves and wanted me to walk with him so I could see for myself, which I refused informing him that it has nothing to do with the customer. As he walked away he said I HOPE YOU GET SUNBURNT. RICHARD DUNNING is this child's name. The reason why I refused is because not one employee APOLOGISED. The exact same thing happened about two years ago at the same Spar, same excuse and no APOLOGY. Please take this up with this Spar as this is done in front of all the other customers and Mr Dunning tries to humiliate the customer to get his way. This is BAD customer service.

I normally do my shoping sunday after church. Last week sunday i went to spar nongoma for my shoping and find that most of the yoghurt were already expired. I took a pic of the yoghurt in the fridge and reported this on my way out to one of the supervisors. She blamed the machandiser and said they will immediately attend to it. I was suprise today(05/06/2016) when i visited the same store to do my shoping as ussual. The same expired yoghurt is still there, and the best before dates goes back as far as 15th of may.

This is not good for customers especially after this has been reported.

So I went to Spar in Robertson, WC to buy a few things. After taking what I needed and made my way to the tellers, I was attended by a lady that was very unfriendly, while I was in a process of paying I discovered that I was R1 short so I asked the lady to wait for me as I had to quickly fetch that from the car which was parked right in front of Spar. So coming back to the shop I went back to lady and waited on the side as she was still busy with a customer (she saw that I was back though), but after that customer she just continued with the other customers that were in the queue and gave no attention to me (which I thought she would). Seeing that so I kindly said to her I was back and she said '' yes I can see that, you can take your things and queue''. Imagine the store was quite busy that evening and I was carrying my heavy baby (5 months old) having to stand in the line again. To cut the story short she didn't want to take my things, she even suggested that I go to another till if I didn't want to pay by her because she wont take my things if I don't queue first. I thought of going to the kiosk as I had 2 items but they said the lady there is on tea so I asked for the supervisor (Candice) and she came and I told her what had happened and she said '' mos you can see the store is busy, so you must queue again'' I mean I went out for like a minute and now I must stand in a long queue again. To cut the story short the lady from the kiosk came while we were still arguing and I just took my items and went to the kiosk where I asked for the Manager (Christopher) and he came and said yes I should have stood in the queue again and not expect special treatment, if I want i can write my complaint there, he was basically very defensive of his staff. and he was very loud when he spoke rudely to me, other customers heard as well and one old white man spoke in my language (bad xhosa) saying ''hamba- go away, mlomo mkhulu - big mouth, zumas daughter'' and others were laughing and the manager just stood there as well smiling. I have never felt so small in my life, I would like if Spar to sort this out and I'd like to know how they sort it out.

good day

this is not the 1st complaint against this spar, I was even called by the owner I went there to see the owner but still nothing has been done the person that was rude to me in front of my son didn't even want to apologies, the owner said sorry on his behalf. now I go to spar every day of my life I promised myself after that or deal I will never go to spar again, on sunday the 24th I decided let me try them again... AFTER THAT I WILL REALLY NOT SHOP AT SPAR NOR WILL MY FAMILY EVER IN OUR LIVES! I went in with my wife son and brother, did my shopping it added up to R702.18 if I can remember correctly I also then asked for 3 packets of camel double action purple, response very rudely we don't have! the people cant even look up to great you nicely they look down start ringing the stuff while busy with that it gets asked looking down plastic bags!? As they told me that there is no camel purple I asked them doesn't the bottle store have ignoring me talking in their langue's, I then asked for a manager again I get ignored, a bravo female then went and apparently going to see on her time if the bottle store has camel purple after a long wait I sent my son to go see whats taking so long. Again I asked the lady for a manager I then get ignored, I asked her for her name I get ignored ? then I screamed HELLO CAN YOU TALK? all of a sudden the manager BETS was there asking her were is your name badge it was under her clothes? Nothing got done about it accept the guy that I had a complaint with the 1st time came and said it didn't take that long im going to right to the paper as well so everybody can see how spar treats their clients they get classified under spar name, i left the trolley and walked out, a bit later i went back to get cold drinks 2 cokes and a Fanta then i saw that lady again that took her time with the smokes i wanted her name she pulled her Jacket and screamed me her name ! now this is how spar treats their clients ? i will be wrighting to the papers about this to as the 1st time nothing got done

On Saturday 27 January 2016. When i was paying for R 1 812.6 groceries at Spar Meyersdal, the lady didnt bother to tell me why the card bounced and when it bounced the 2nd time she said there are insufficient funds but when i has deducted from account, i went to the Atm close by to check, the balance was low. I went back to the shop to ask for the manager who told me to go withdraw more cash to pay and that my money will return in 24 hours. I told that it came off from my account and there is no ''return message''. I left and waited as advised

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday came and passed, still nothing. Today is Thursday and I still have not received my money back and my debit orders have ran on negative because I had to go draw another cash and buy food for my kids.

I have attached a screenshot of the message. Bank statement is available on request.

Good morning

We buy daily groceries from the spar in queensmead / umbilo and this really was disappointing and frustrating. On the monday the 1st we went and got some groceries after a long day at work as we (Family and i) got home I looked at the till slip to discover the bacon we bought did not match the price displayed on the pack. The promotion price was r 28.99 and on the till slip was r 37.99. My partner went there yesterday and had the same problem only this time she informed the manager so she matched the price displayed. We buy most of our groceries from the spar but I feel very cheated and now I must double check my slips every time so I am considering changing supermarkets and taking this further. I have photos of both days as proof. Hope to hear from the spar group.

Regards
Anthony hutton
083.280 1668

Mkn Recruitment supplied staff/candidate to Spar HR(Thuli Tabudi) Pharmacy sector.Also management sitting in WR to the interview process was Michael Nell, Roelff and Wayne.Interview took place June 2014, and 2nd interview again in 2015 May-June. Candidate was appointed and HR(Thuli Tabudi) refuses to acknowledge the candidate was presented/owned by MKN. SPAR SA refuses to settle monies owed/due to MKN for placement. All evidence in hand WR to emails back and forth, also company profile was sent with terms & condition, but Thuli does not acknowledge. Mkn wants shareholders, and top management to know about the manner the incident is handled by Thuli Tabudi, as HR / SPAR refuse outright that there is any form of agreement. After sending Thuli the company profile, she acknowleged by replying to Mkn with the job spec & details of vacancy. SPAR interviewed 3 Pharmacists of ours/Mkn and yet SPAR refuses to settle the placement fee, as no contract in place, but email/paper-trail is available as evidence. This is a group/Spar that refuses to acknowledge, but they are wanting to enter the Pharma sector this way. Really bad/unethical workmanship from Thuli Thabudi/Spar. Management PLZ help us

On Friday 20 November 2015 I was in SPAR Lichtenburg wanting to buy BEEF sausage (with NO Pork). However I found that all the sausages (except the clearly distinguishable chicken sausages) had labels that only stated : MEAT xx% - it specifically DID NOT state whether said meat was Beef, Mutton or Pork etc. Does this not violate the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act 1972 (Act No 54 of 1972) with updated Regulations governing the composition and labelling of raw boerewors, raw species sausage and raw mixed-species sausage published under Government Notice No R.2718 dated 23 November 1990?

I had the most humiliating experience at a SPAR shop in Senekal, Free State. One of the employees, was very rude and unprofessional. When i went to the counter i gave him the wrong card, when i realised my mistake i quickly took back the card and apologised, while i was looking for my other card in my bag, he was facing the other way. I couldn't see his name tag at the time, so i lightly tapped him on the shoulder, . He yelled at me in front of people and said not to touch him. I was horrified by his reaction as i had barely touched him, i was nothing but courteous. As I waited for him to finish my transaction, still startled by his reaction, he then talked to one of his colleague and said how disgusting i was. I have never felt so humiliated like that in my life. After the the transaction, my father came over to pay something else (cigarette). He just did the transaction and refused to pass it over to us. The other customer who was on the other side had to give it to us. And as we walked away, he kept making bad remarks. I got a glimpse of his name as i was walking away, his name is Fish.

This store is supposed to be a convenience store that supplies to the local community. There are many people that rely upon the Bultfontein Spar, for various reasons . Many spar shops that i have used have a very extensive range of foods and other items, however this store in Bultfontein is very poor with not even the basic items ie pepper in stock. When walking into the store all you are greeted with is empty shelves and I am sure you will agree that this is not acceptable. The management is very poor- Items on promotion are not even in stock half of the time. The fruit and veg are past the best before date> VERY VERY POOR. Today my 1 year old son accidentally dropped a glas jar, I was treated as if where trying to steal the product. I did offer to pay and did pay but when I asked the manager whether they are not insured for incidents like these she replied with a very bad attitude that in this store when you break something its your responsibility end of story. I literately spend thousand of rand every month in this store . This is not the kind of treatment I deserve

I would like to make an extremely serious complaint about my experience of shopping at Spar, Port St Johns, Eastern Cape, South Africa. This Spar has a humiliating policy of checking all receipts and contents of bags at the exit. I have never experienced this policy at any other Spar so I can only presume it is a policy reserved for people who live in poor areas, are disadvantaged and do not have the education or means to protest. It is a humiliating policy and treats customers as if they are all thieves. I will be researching as to whether this policy is even legal.
I regularly spend thousands of Rand at this Spar, today when I objected to a member of staff going through every item of my 6 shopping bags which I had already purchased, and I attempted to leave the shop I had my shopping trolley aggressively pushed back into my stomach not once but several times, if I had been injured I would be taking up this matter with the police. This policy which appears to be reserved for poor areas is shameful for such a respected brand such as Spar.

On 27th of May, 2014 at around 9:15 am, I have gone to purchase some basic products from my local Spar Shop. On my way out I have by mistake, damaged a beautiful flower bouquet. The manager ran after me, scared me greatly and very abusively took me back to the store in front of many people. I have requested him to let go of me and not to touch me again but he was pulling me towards the store!

After the event, I have been trying to call Spar Ireland headquarters to lodge a complaint but the receptionist, Tracy fails to take the complaint and only redirects me to a voice message system. I have as well contacted Spar Netherlands as the main headquarters of the company.

I am an expat living in mauritius.
I went to spar near Beau Bassin Mauritius & did some purchase. The cashier took my card and did the billing twice!. I noticed this later one month while looking at my bank statement. I went to spar and talked to cashier & met the supervisor gave the details (account number, date & amount of transaction). They asked me to comeback later they will have a look at it. I went back again, this time they told me to get the receipt otherwise they cant do anything !.
I am surppirsed, , how should someone keep all the receipts, especially 1 month old stationary bills expecting that they make mistake!. Again I told them, , its not my mistake & why u hassle me this much for the mistake you did !. Its just matter of checking the information on their side!. I was a regular customer.. not anymore!

Sudeep..

Went to Westville Superspar this morning to purchase some items for our office, one of which being Baby Soft Toilet Rolls (9's). There was a banner on the shelf advertising them at a special price of R39.99, and upon getting to the till they rang up as 49.99, so I told the cashier that they were advertised as being on special, and she went up the aisle and returned saying that I was wrong and the price was 49.99. Didn't argue further with her, just paid and after taking the parcels to the car went back to check.

The banner which had the special price was removed, presumably by the cashier. Now I KNOW there was a specials 'banner' on the shelf, I never would've purchased 2 packs if they were in actual fact R49.99 - when they are normally cheaper at other stores. I bought 2 specifically because of the cheaper price.

If the special ended the day before that doesn't matter. I looked at all the other 'banners' on the shelves advertising special prices and none of them had the dates that the prices were valid for. So the advertised prices is the one that should have been paid, not simply have the cashier try and hide it!

This is the kind of service that loses customers...

I live near the Spar at Atturbury Value Mart in Faerieglen, Pretoria and almost all the times I have gone there, I have found a discrepancy in price. The manager always claims that they have increased the prices on the computer but not yet on the shelf. This is of course because I notice this discrepancy.

This week my collegue told me how out of 13 items she bought, she found 7 mispriced, up to a difference of R30. It took an effort before they could refund her the difference. The manager promised to call her the following day to clarify the matter but never did. She has swore never to go back.

Above all this, this shop seems to have the most poorly trained staff in the whole of Pretoria east. They seem to employ them on a very casual basis such that they don't put an effort in showing them what to do. They are so uninformed, uncultured and have no clue how to treat a customer. The management itself seems to be poor.

This store really needs to come clean and improve its performance.

Late sunday afternoon I went to spar to buy some fruit for my little on for school the next day. The spar usually has the strawberries on ice as you walk in. I grabbed a pack and saw that it was full of mould! I then put it back and looked for another pack. All of the packs were full of mould, I then looked at the paw paws, grabbed the best looking pack, paid and left. When I opened the pack at home 3 out of the 5 paw paws were rotten and had to be tossed into the bin. This was the 2nd time that I have seen rotten fruit at the ruimsig spar. A friend of mine also shops at that spar, she to has bought rock hard banana loaves that on the label claim to be baked the day before? What is going on? People dont have money to waist on food! I think it is disgusting. I will never go back there again! They will start to lose customers if it carries on like this.

Spar at West Rand retail crossing is probably one of the best Spar's in the country. It is completely out of my way, yet I kept returning due to the nature of the store, the quality of the goods and most of all the service I received. There is one manager in particular by the name of Jacques Grobelaar. I have never received such outstanding service. He always greats you by name and even takes the time to have a chat with our children. This is invaluable to any store as it makes customers feel special and so we all keep going back. On my daily return this week I found that he had transferred to another branch. PLEASE bring him back as it is just not the same.