Coles Supermarkets Australia
reviews and complaints

Hello, just to say I not a happy shopper. Mirrabooka, Perth store has once again let me down. In this week catalogue there is Coco dvd on special for $20. First they said it not in catalogue (p.37) then they said they have not got any. When asked why, was told they a small store and the catalogue is Australia wide. This has happened more then once at this store, always the same excuse. Staff member shrugged her shoulders when told this always happen (she did say sorry). But why have items on special if not every store has them. Like I said this has happened more then once, and I getting just a tad fed up with the whole thing.
J Gardner Nollamara Perth

My partner and I went to the Coles Collingwood Supermarket to pick up a few groceries when we were harassed by the rudest of cashiers. It was 5 minutes to midnight when we were making our way to the register when as soon as we put our basket down and parked our trolley to begin unloading the cashier by the name of Pratiti proceeded to snarl at us, "can you hurry up and go to register! We close at midnight and I want to be finished by then." In which in I stated, "excuse me, but we have just put our basket down and are actually starting to unload if you haven't noticed. Don't you dare use that tone with us." She then began to keep making rude remarks and comments to us which we were very appalled by. We have never felt so harassed and mistreated as a customer by any employee of Coles until this experience and are deeply disgusted that this person even has a job in customer service.
We shall be taking this complaint up with management of the Collingwood store and will also take it to social media unless this Pratita employee is dealt with accordingly.

Brought from Coles Caversham 03/04/2018. served by Rachel checkout 003 receipt 502. 1 Coles Creamy Pumpkin Soup $3. just like water with no taste at all. Have bought many times and is usually beautiful. 1 Weight Watchers Creamy Tuna Bake 3/4 pasta, will not buy again. 1 Healthy Choice 97% fat free Honey Stir fry Chicken which was 3/4 rice will not buy again. I know you are not responsible for the McCain and Weight Watchers recipes but can you please pass on my complaint as I will not purchase these goods again and as the market is saturated with other brands products they should improve. Now the Coles Creamy Pumpkin Soup, it is a disgrace, I have bought many containers from the diary case before, all Creamy Pumpkin and have never had any bother. The number on the lid is P 813061 103 14:58:50 use by 16/04/18, Please can you look into my complaint asap, as pensioners we spend a lot of money in your stores and live quite close to a Woolworths which we could easily visit. Mrs F Dunning

purchased four packs of Jeffs unsalted butter, use by 14/6/18 from Coles Pakenham.
First pack opened was completely rancid. Second pack also.
Have not opened other packs. Noticed another complaint six days ago about same product, use by 16/6/18, from Coles Caroline Springs, so it is definitely a problem with the product, not the storage.
Am holding product til it is further investigated.
Think you may have big problem here, its not just a case of refunding the money and you think everything will be ok.
Will appreciate response asap.

Hi coles,
While i was about to buy a food, I saw a mosquito flying inside the box which contains food and it is lying on all the items and I dont know why coles are not maintaining quality in food.
They should also concern about peoples health
I am raising a complaint about this and took a video of a mosquito which was lying on all the food.
Please take a serious action on the people who are managing the food.
Thank you

Hi,
I have just returned home from Coles @ Chisholm ACT 01/04/18. I was there around 15:00. I had a small amount of groceries ( 2 bags), so decided to use self serve. There were two young men behind me the whole time. They worked at the store. I had a problem initially with the scanning and one of these men moved over to correct it...not a word to me. He just appeared. They were gossiping together, until one started slowly sweeping just behind me. I looked around as he was too close. He kept going. Then another issue with the scanner. They hovered behind me the whole time I was there.
I felt intimidated, made sure my wallet was in my bag and couldn't wait to get out of there. I understand the importance of observation to prevent theft, but this was over the top. They were actually hovering!
I have never shoplifted in my life, so really felt I was being profiled here because I'm an older woman?!

Over the five years I've lived in the Fadden area, my household has literally spent thousands of dollars at Cole Chisholm. Never again!

Young men need education regarding their approach to customers and especially women. They should NEVER stand so close behind women. You may need to teach young men in your stores to be quietly observant. I do it every day in my work as a nurse.
Regards
Kathleen

why has the price of 24xColes bottled water gone up from $6 to $8.40. I know you are going to say it is the bottle tax but I just went to one of the earn and return and there is no barcode so you cannot claim this back.
that is a joke you have put the price up due to this but no one can get the money back. I am in NSW.. You should be putting the price back down until you fix this situation. I am going to go to consumer affairs as this is false price rises

Delivery Date - 29/03/2018
Not sure of our Client Number however we are from The Message Centre
Order Number - [protected]
I ordered Bananas from Coles on line expecting them to be edible on the day of delivery however I received very green frozen bananas with black marks on them. I would like a refund to our credit card for the value of the banana's.

I live with 2 people who both work at coles, corio, and i'm absolutely disgusted in the way they are treated by the managers of that store.
I don't know how you can allow such horrible people to run a team the way they do in this store. There is none stop bullying and name calling from the managers towards their workers, one of the managers by the name of mat calling 2 workers [censor] (excuse the language). Not only that but there has recently been a case of bullying by a manager, tommy, towards a kid that was 17 at the time when he wasn't even working. Not to mention a new person who was brought in to be trained as a manager, tom, let a worker who showed up an hour late to his shift go home early so he could go to a party.
And this person is being trained to be a manager? What a disgrace.
They have been told that they are not allowed to have drinks out the back in the stock room, this was during 38 degree heat!
Not to mention I know for a fact that one manager in particular has hired his girlfriend and aunty even though managers are not allowed to hire family.

For the last 8 months one of my house mates had be promised a duty manager contract, even being trained in all areas and having done numerous duty manager tasks within the store to the point of running the team and being given codes to let them out at the end of the night, only for them to turn around and bring in someone new who has no manager experience and isn't trained in any of the other sections of the store, this being the person who let someone go home early so they could go to a party. My house mate was asked to help train him, bit rude don't you think? If you ask any of the other workers they will tell you that my house mate is one of the best workers the store has and he takes care of his team but still maintains the boss position so as not to be a pushover. Now they are spending more money giving this guy shifts to train him when they don't need to because they have someone who has been at the store for over 3 years and knows it like the back of his hand and is already trained in the other areas of the store and knows how to run the team and set up the night ahead.
I guess that's one way to spend the companies money isn't it? Training someone who allows late arrivals with no punishment, lets workers go home for parties and doesn't know how to run the team or where stock goes.
Good job coles!

I stood up for one of my house mates that works their after he received a rude and disrespectful text from one manager, mat, and the store manager, charlie, told my other housemate that if I do it again I will be banned. This unacceptable as I wasn't rude, I didn't use abusive language and I made sure to keep my voice low so as not to make a scene. All I did was ask for an apology as my house mate was treated wrongly and was upset about it, but couldn't say anything because if he did he would have his job threatened for standing up for himself, as it has happened with others in the past. I said that the message was uncalled for, rude and disrespectful and the matter it was regarding had nothing to with my housemate but actually another worker and it there for was not my house mates fault and he should not have been spoken to the way he was.
I'm not sure what your standards are but this is utterly disgusting and this isn't even the half of it.
Not only that but there has been many cases of jobs being threatened because workers try to stand up for themselves.
The workers do not have a voice because if they stand up and say this is wrong they get threats from the managers saying they will be fired.
So I am going to be there voice because the way coles is letting this store be run is foul.
This store doesn't follow oh&s policies at all and i'm more than happy to contact work safe as things I have seen could have potentially ended in serious injury and the managers and supervisors did nothing to fix the problem.

I'm happy to elaborate on other issues that the workers and customers have faced at this store.

Might be a good idea to fix the issues (asap as you could have many law suits, work safe inspections and police involvement if not), regarding the managers lack of care and safety for their workers, as I know for a fact there are a few people who are thinking of going to the union, some even speaking about taking it further.

I expect to hear back from someone either by email or phone or I will be taking the matter further and getting police involved and getting charges of bullying laid as well as legal advice on the matter.

Hi, i had bought the brand sunrice medium grain rice about 2 months ago. I emptied most of it into a sealed container and the rest stayed in its original bag. Weeks later when i come to use it i realise that there are worms in it. I check the sunrice bag to see if there are any in there and there were also some in the original bag. I went to coles and took it back they gave me a refund and i was arguing the fact my pantry is infested with moths and she said that they couldnt do anything about it. She gave me a new sunrice medium grain rice bag so i went home did the same thing. A week later i go to use the rice for soup and realised after ive finished making the soup, there were a few worms in there. I was very disgusted i didnt eat for about 2 days. I had to empty out most things out of my pantry because of this. I went back to coles again with the same complaint and they said i would need to fill out a complaint form and they will get back to me with some solution. Its been over 2 weeks and i have not heard anything yet. I am not tolerating this something needs to be done as I AM STILL DEALING WITH THESE STUPID MOTHS. They wont go away ive done everything.

When I tried to unsubscribe from Coles emails, the link came up with an error. So I kept trying every few weeks to see if a Coles had fixed the issue. They didn't. So I sent them an email advising of their link error & demanded they unsubscribe me (which they did within 48 hours). A few months later my husband mentioned he could not unsubscribe from Coles emails either. The error link still not fixed. So I told him to send a threatening email to unsubscribe as it was against the law not to allow him to unsubscribe. Then I starting enquiring with friends & family & sure enough they were having the same problem with Coles. So it became obvious to me that Coles is not complying with the Spam Act 2003. They have the obligatory 'unsubscribe' link that they know full well doesn't work. They are counting on people being apathetic in spending precious time pursuing them to fix it. Despite being told their link doesn't work many times - they are doing nothing about it - for monetary reasons.

I've given Coles plenty of time to 'fix' their unsubscribe link but they haven't. So I have sent a similar email to the media & hopefully shaming Coles will get a reaction. Failing that I will report Coles non-compliance with the Spam 2003 Act to the relevant bodies for action.

It seems as if the upper staff of coles go through training to be as horrible as possible to people. There is a complete lack of respect for anyone and everyone not wearing a white shirt, people are talked down to, undervalued, underappreciated, insulted and made to feel had on an hourly basis. This is a joke. These people are incompetent [censor] who are running this dump further into the ground. Workers have to spend most of their time cleaning up other peoples incompetence before being able to start their work and are then yelled at for taking too long. Never work at coles.

I have to tell you how your staff treating your customers. On 23th Mar 2018 I and my friends parents were buying 4 bottles of infant baby formula for my and my friends' baby. As my friend's parents don't speak English so I have been asked to took them with me to buy the formula together. We know the rule for "2 bottles per customer" set by your company and fully support that. So I only took 2 for myself and my friend's parent took 2 for their grandson.
I have scanned the baby formulas at self check out counter and tried to pay 4 together, as my friend has transferred money to me before. However the error message came out says limit is 2. An female staff approached and explained the reason. I politely explain to her we have 3 person here and only bought 4, it should be within the rule. She then stated it is a system setting per transaction. Then I have to ask my friend's parent to check out on another machine and I will pay that one again.
However, the female staff rudely stopped us and said we were from the same family and can only take 2 maximum. I was shocked but still politely explain to her: Firstly your rule clearly stated 2 formula per customer, not per group. Secondly, we are not from same family, I took my friends' parents to shopping together because they have language barrier. But she still insisted on that we can only take 2 on the day.
After discussion this female staff called her manager coming, I heard she call the manager "Amanda". I explained the same thing to Amanda and trying to convince her we were the local family who need the formula not investor. Otherwise we would not just take 4 with 3 people, we only need 2 for each family. Amanda was a bit impatient and saying 2 formula per family is the rule not per customer as printed on the notice. She even said some people just wanna make advantage of the rule. Finally she said if you pay separate I will let you go then she just left. I felt so shocked and upset when she described us as "some people making advantage" with even not listening our explaining at all.
Despite the negative feeling, we still trying to cooperate with Amanda said so I asked my friend's parent to pay her 2 formula on another machine. But they found that they only got $50 cash and not enough for 2 formula. This is understandab as they were not supposed to pay anything on the night. As it was so embarrassing I lent $20 note to her to pay the full amount. Then the "Lovely" female staff coming and start shouting "I saw you pay for her, you are the family". I totally can not tolerate anymore and agrued "you forced her to pay, she only got $50 cash on hand, I cannot even lend her $20?" But she refused listening anything and showed us the abusive facial expression.
Finally, when we leaving the store, Amanda came out again and simply said something like "you guys pay together, you cheated us and don't let me see you next time". I took it offensive but could not even explain anything as Miss Amanda disappeared quickly after her ridiculous present.

The whole case was unbelievable and ridiculous. Your staff can not explain why the rule is different with what it has presented. They treated us with no respect but discrimination. Non of them even wanna listening to their customers. I have shopped in this store frequently, but this time was really a hurt. We are fully support the limit rule but your company, or your staff, should never block those people who actually need baby food to get it, simply by telling whether they are a family. To prove we are not the person described by "dear" Amanda, we are happy to refund all 4 formulas and shop in Woolworth or other retailers, who knows how to respect their customers. But in the meantime, I request an apologize from Amanda and the female staff who working in self checkout on that night.
Transaction time: 8:55pm 23/03/2018

Hi,
I always received a message from Coles telling me that I won something... gift cards, etc... and when I open the link, it just shows crap like urging me to participate in a survey or else letting me to click an option for the prizes which are CRAP!
Can you please tell your marketing people to stop this kind of strategy, its annoying! Else, replace your marketing people, their brains are rotten!
Don't message me again with all those crap things please.

I currently have a Coles Mastercard and I have been trying to get an emailing stating the pay out figure since Wednesday 14th March 2018. I had been told it will take 24 hrs. I have called back every day to see where this email is and just keep getting told another 24 hrs. I feel like I am just getting palmed off to the next person the next day. I wanted to pay off my credit card 10 days ago and it is just impossible to receive this email stating my pay out figure.
I spoke with Coles master card again on Wednesday 21st March and I was told it will be another 3-4 days before I receive my request.
Now I will have another 1-2 weeks worth of interest I will have to pay and it is no fair. I am extremely distressed about this issue. I can't believe the service I have been provided. I am very unhappy and when I pay off my card I will now be cancelling it.
The March Statement on my online login is not available also, that was due on the 18th March 2018.
It is now Friday 23rd March and I called Coles MasterCard again and they said there were no notes taken from my calls between 14th-20th March. The staff I spoke with just palmed me off with no help.
I am still waiting for the Statement of my pay out figure & Monthly statement. I have never been treated so badly.

Coles Supermarket Johnston Street, Fitzroy.
22 March 2018 @7.15am
Description - Complaint regarding poor and rude service by staff member called Kim (female). A long line of customers at staff check out, so I tried to check my groceries at automated checkout. All were closed. I asked why they were closed told "it too early" despite supermarket being open and multiple customers waiting at checkout with one staff member. A man also waiting in line also complained asking why the automated checkout system was still 'asleep" when the shop had customers wanting to pay for goods. When I complained to Kim (staff member) that the automated check out should be opened she dismissed it saying "too early" when I asked to speak to the Manager she said somewhere in here (waving her hand in multiple directions) then she said not here. I then said "not good enough this poor customer service" she said "get a life you only had too wait 2 minutes". After paying transaction she walked away without putting goods into a bag. I asked her if she good put my groceries in a bag (as I had multiple number of groceries) and said "do it your self it will cost you 15 cents". This was a very poor service at two levels. One, the automated checkout should have been open (the store was open and there were multiple customers waiting to pay for groceries with one only staff member). Two, more seriously Kim's attitude was rude and unhelpful. Coles states "we're just as passionate about greater customer service as we are about quality food and great value. On this incidence the service was passionately rude and offensive. It was completely against what the value set of Coles stands for. The desirable outcome is that the staff member called "Kim" is addressed by her manager regarding the poor service and that I receive an apology. As a customer of Coles was bitterly disappointed by the quality of service I have received at the Johnston Street Fitzroy Supermarket. Thank you for your consideration. Marcus

I shop at Coles Joondalup WA, and have done so for many years.
Out of the last ten or so cartons purchased (full cream) the screw-on cap has been in place, but the tamper-proof foil inside has been missing. This of course means that anyone can unscrew the cap, and inject or insert anything into the carton. Very dangerous!
I informed the duty manager last night of this fact, and he said he would investigate. Rang the store manager late this afternoon to see what had transpired, and he knew nothing about it, didn't seem overly worried, but he would ring me back. Am awaiting that call.
This is a matter that should be treated in the most serious way, as you will be aware you should not sell anything that presents a danger to the public. Should this get into the social media, there would be hell to pay, and very quickly. I await your advice.
Peter Sawer ([protected]/[protected]@gmail.com)

Went shopping at Pinjarra Coles and brought a pack of werthers original and they where out of date. My daughter started eating them and I had to stop because of the expiration date. I have sent photos for proof of purchase and to show you the werthers originals are clearly out of date. I will monitor my daughter for the next 24 hours incase she gets sick from the Werthers Originals. Thanks Steven.

Hi,
We purchased a Coles brand premarinated Grill Chicken Breast Souvlaki yesterday. We cooked it up tonight, and as I bit down I felt something really hard between my teeth. When I pulled it out of my mouth, it appears to be piece of white coated metal, like a nail or something. I have attached photos.
It is a small piece, so I am grateful at least it was me and not my young kids who got it - it's definitely a choking hazard.

Today at @16:30 my partner and I where eating Coles Saluted Pistachios. As I proceed to crack shell off and place in my mouth, I noticed a maggot. I'm sicken and very distressed over my discovery.
I have now placed into plastic bags, taken photos (see attached)
I will consider taking this matter further after I seek legal advice.
I look forward to your response in relation to this incident.