reviews The SM Complaint Thread

[Typoun]

tanong lang..

bakit walang mercury s SM??

yung kase pansin ko e..

watson lang..

 

Henry sy used to work for mercury. and rumors are he wasnt treated well there.

[stlukes69]

Henry sy used to work for mercury. and rumors are he wasnt treated well there.

 

 

This is definitely untrue, Henry Sy Sr. never worked for Mercury Drug or any other company except his own business (ShoeMart) which he started in Avenida selling shoes (obvious ba)...... the most believable reason with regards to Mercury Drug was when the SM Group tried to invest or buy into Mercury Drug, the pricipal stockholders (Mercury Drug) refused their offer..... as a result, SM developed Watson instead, which was just a small drugstore at their SM Iloilo branch, into what it is now... and Mercury Drug is not anymore invited to set up a store in any SM branches

[chinmord]

I had an officemate who dined in shakey's sm north. After one minute, he noticed that his bag (packbag or laptop bag

containing his laptop)was missing so he immediately informed the guard of the incident.

He requested that all exiting customers to be checked because the brand of his bag is

very rare here in the Philippines. But SM did not do anything... The guards were inutil...

[chinmord]

I had an officemate who dined in shakey's sm north. After one minute, he noticed that his bag (packbag or laptop bag

containing his laptop)was missing so he immediately informed the guard of the incident.

He requested that all exiting customers be checked because the brand of his bag is

very rare here in the Philippines. But SM did not do anything... The guards were inutil...

[takusaako3]

watson is originally came from hong kong may he just buy a franchise of it.

[mister_mahilig]

WTF english is this?

 

"watson is originally came from hong kong may he just buy a franchise of it.

[tamago]

Some public service announcement people. And this ain't no joke.

 

This was written by my mom to make people aware of the thievery that SM has secretly engaged in for quite some time. You may not know it, but you could be losing a few pesos when you shop at SM/SaveMore/Hypermarket. And what more if you multiply this by the tens of thousands of people who shop at these places? Imagine how much SM steals from the consumers each and every day when they are unaware that they have been shortchanged. Please forward this message to your family and friends. This information will help save you a few pesos whenever you head towards SM. And keep checking on your receipts. Thanks.

 

And as of this writing, as I expected, we just received probably the 1st of many harassing phone calls. So I guess we rattled the cages of these thieves. So that's why I deleted our address and phone numbers here.

 

 

 

 

From NEOMI OLIVARES

 

 

 

Dear Friends,

 

 

 

I have previously written about anomalies that I have both personally experienced and heard about at SM stores. Almost unbelievably, I recently was victimized again by the same modus operandi at an SM establishment. Invariably, the anomaly consists of having a lower price tag on an item and the same item punched at the cash register with a slightly higher price, usually unknown by the consumer. Following are some episodes that relatives and I have personally experienced:

 

 

 

Episode 1, SAVE MORE, P. Tuazon St., Cubao, Quezon City, Aug. 1, 2010

 

I bought at this grocery store over a kilo of bacon-sliced pork tagged at P207a kilo. When the female server weighed my purchase, it came out as P220 per kilo. After I complained about this, she, assisted by other servers, manually worked on the scale, punching it several times, until they successfully came out with the price tag of P207 per kilo and the total amount of P215.69. So I continued with my shopping and went home. Later in the evening, I casually looked at the short grocery receipt before I was about to throw it away. I was dismayed to see that the bacon-sliced pork that had a tag of P215.69 had registered instead on the receipt as P229.24 at P220 per kilo. Furthermore, another item in the same list, Magnolia Butter Gold Lite, which had a tag price on the shelf as P78 had registered instead as P88!

 

 

 

Early the following day, I returned to Save More to complain about the anomaly. I saw that the tag price on the bacon-sliced pork had already been changed to P220 a kilo, but the tag price on the butter remained as P78. (I have proof in my possession: the P215.69 tag price on the item; the receipt of the same as P229.24; a digital shot of the P78 price on the shelf dated 8/1/10; and the same cash receipt showing P88 for this item. The supervisor at Save More admitted there could have been “negligence” on the part of the store. She said that daily memos from SM “Main” re price changes came daily, so that it was possible that employees had failed to catch up and update the tag prices. She offered to give me the difference between the tag price and registered price. However, I refused to accept the money, because it would have meant that I had accepted to accept their explanation.

 

 

 

Episode 2, SAVE MORE, Riverbanks, Marikina, Aug. 3, 2010

 

My son who had been my companion at Save More Cubao on August 1st, purchased a 550gram pack of Skyflakes at Save More Riverbanks which bore a price of P34.75. However, this item registered as P35! My son immediately complained about this, but Customer Service refused to return the difference, saying that the item was actually P35, but the tag price had not yet been changed.

 

 

 

Episode 3, SM MARIKINA, July 19, 2010

 

I bought two pairs of shoes, one of which I was tagged as P1,295. However, the cash register came out as P1,495. Naturally, I complained. The cashier explained the bar code showed P1,495. The sales rep of Outland shoes was summoned and asked whether the shoes were indeed P1,295. She confirmed this price, so the cashier had a supervisor come to adjust the amount that had appeared in the register.

 

 

 

Episode 4, SM CUBAO, sometime in June 2010

 

My daughter-in-law purchased a piece of illustration board tagged at P26.80, but the cash register marked this as P28.80. When she complained about it, she was told that the tag prices had not yet been adjusted, but she was given the P2.00 difference.

 

 

 

Episode 5, SM MARIKINA, Dec. 26, 2009

 

Below is my Jan. 16, 2010 reply to Ms. Cora Guidote, Vice President of Investor Relations Department of SM Investments Corporation, which relates an incident that happened to our nephew.

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Ms. Guidote:

 

 

 

Thank you very much for writing me to respond to my claims of cheating that is going on at Makro and at other SM stores.

 

 

 

Well, please know that my husband and I personally witnessed the aftermath of another apparent cheating incident--this time, at SM Marikina.

 

 

 

On Dec. 26, 2009, we happened to see our nephew, Mr. Chito Olivares Caluag, complaining at Ace Hardware that his receipt had been apparently padded by P2,000. Before Christmas Day, Mr. Caluag had purchased from Ace Hardware several items and, although he was surprised then that his purchases totaled P7,000, he did not check the items on his receipt. When he got home, he did check and noted that one item worth P2,000 was something he had not bought and was missing from the items he had brought home. So, he returned to Ace Hardware after Christmas and asked to be shown what that P2,000 item was. To his great surprise, the item was a huge plastic trash can that he never even thought of, much less bought! He demanded a refund--and to his amazement and ours, he instantly got a P2,000 cash refund with very few questions asked. (As far as I know and based on my personal experience regarding returned or exchanged items at SM, nobody ever gets a cash refund--only a credit memo.) Obviously, there was something fishy in the case of my nephew.

 

 

 

You can get in touch with Mr. Caluag at tel. no. 929 0255 or 0917-532 3118 to get the details.

 

 

 

Yes, by all means, the management of SM should investigate what's going on. Thank you.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

 

 

 

 

 

NEOMI T. OLIVARES

 

 

 

 

 

Following is the email of Ms. Cora Guidote to me:

 

 

 

 

 

On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 5:51 PM, <cora.guidote@sminvestments.com> wrote:

 

 

Dear Ms. Lopez and Ms. Olivares,

 

Your emails have been forwarded to me and I have, in turn, forwarded them to the head of the Food Retail Group of SM. They might contact you directly about this to check what may have happened in the store while you were there. Please feel free to email me anytime should you have any concerns about the service of any of our businesses and we will be glad to address them.

 

Thank you and wish you a very Happy New Year!

 

Cora Guidote

Vice President

Investor Relations Department

SM Investments Corporation

10/Floor OneE-com Center

Harbor Drive, Mall of Asia Complex

Pasay City

Tel: 857-0100

 

 

 

NOTE: This was the first and last communication I got from Ms. Cora Guidote. I do not know of any action taken by SM regarding our complaints. –Neomi Olivares

 

Episode 6, Makro, Dec. 11, 2009

 

 

--- On Fri, 12/11/09, Virginia Lopez <veens_lopez@hotmail.com>wrote:

 

 

From: Virginia Lopez <veens_lopez@hotmail.com>

Subject: RE: Cheating by SM and Makro

To: "Mabel Macaraig" <mabelmacaraig@yahoo.com>

Date: Friday, December 11, 2009, 1:36 PM

 

Sharing my own experience....just recently at Makro...

 

I bought "garlic"...4 packs of of them.....Lucky for me, that the "kind and nice salesclerk" noticed when he punched, that the item is tagged as "crabs"....and as well know, the price per kilo of crabs is much, much higher than the garlic. My husband then went back to the area and got instead another pack, making sure he

got the right coding from where he got it and which when re-punched again in the paying counter, turned out to be ok, correctly coded "as garlic"....

 

 

 

The kind salesclerk however, requested the assistance of another salesclerk, to go back to the area and have the other packs properly labeled. He returned, with the packs of garlic, supposedly with the right price code ..but, again, it's still priced and tagged as CRABS !!!! Nakakaloka ang sabi ng "good" salesclerk sa paying counter !!!! How is this? How come my husband got it right ??? Two labelling machines?

 

I ended up just getting just that one pack properly labeled as garlic....and even jokingly said to the nice clerk (who's also as surprised as I am and wondering

why this is so !!!!] "I didn't know garlic's name has been changed to CRABS and still surprised that crabs look like garlic nowadays !!!

 

Where is the price quality control then ??? Nobody checks????? Had it not been for the "kind" and watchful salesclerk who still checks on what he punches, then I would have been paying for a garlic for the price of crabs !!!!!

 

Lesson.... be sure to check the item as they are punched !!!!!! Do watch as they are keyed in !!!

 

 

 

 

Episode 7, Makro, Cubao, 2009

 

 

 

Dear Friends,

 

 

 

I got this email entitled "Too Much Cheating at SM".

 

 

 

I have encountered exactly the same problem several times at Makro (Cubao). On two occasions, I happened to watch the monitor on which one can see the items electronically entered by the cashier. Since I had been enticed to buy certain items (specifically, potatoes, lemons and french fries) due to the low prices on their labels, I had sort of memorized the said prices. I was shocked that the amounts electronically registered were not simply higher but actually double the price that was on their labels.

 

 

 

I explicitly manifested my displeasure and demanded to speak to the manager, but predictably, when such things happen, they say the manager is out, and so I was able to talk only to the supervisor each time. The excuse? They said that the prices had been increased but unfortunately their staff had not yet adjusted the labels. Tell that to the marines! The most I could do for was to return the anomalously marked items.

 

 

 

Think about how many thousands of consumers are fooled in this manner!

 

 

 

Feel free to circulate this warning about MAKRO and SM (which, by the way, belong to the SM Group of Companies).

 

 

 

 

 

NEOMI OLIVARES

 

 

_______________________________________________

 

 

 

 

Episode 8, SM Hypermart

 

 

 

Subject: Too Much Cheating At SM

 

 

 

I want to warn you about TOO MUCH CHEATING at SM - and that includes their supermarkets and their department store.

 

Almost every time I purchase something at SM supermarkets, the price the cashier rings up for one or more of the items I purchase does not match the tag price on the shelf. This happens CONSTANTLY. Yesterday, for example, I purchased a liwanag candle at SM Hypermart in Tiendesitas which was tagged at P29.95, and just noticed this morning that I was actually charged P91.75. A few days ago the same thing happened with two different items.

 

Sometime ago, I purchased a blender from SM Department Store at the basement of Megamall for around P1100.00, and then walked to the department where they sell TVs, etc., and saw the exact same blender for just over P800.. I complained and asked that they give me a refund for the difference since it was just a matter of minutes (yes, just minutes), and I was refused with the reason that they are two different departments and run by different management.

 

My maid just told me that this happens to her also constantly. When she recently bought achuete that was tagged at P10.00, she noticed when she got home that she got charged P15.50 instead. And then a can of Canola oil tagged at P129.00 got rung up at P131.00

 

I have complained many times to customer service, and all they tell me is "sorry sir", but do absolutely nothing to return the difference, and instead give f#&king excuses.

 

This is nothing but BLATANT CHEATING.

 

So next time you shop at SM, PLEASE BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR MORE CHEATING.

 

Manny Manapat

 

 

 

Conclusion

 

What conclusions can we draw from the above?

 

 

 

Clearly, there appears to be a pattern of anomalies occurring at different SM stores. I do not know if the supposed daily memos of price changes are intended to confuse both SM employees and customers alike, but the end result is that thousands of SM customers are duped daily and that SM is the one reaping huge profits from such anomalies.

 

 

 

WARNING: From now on, closely monitor the prices registered on the cash register as they are punched in by the cashier, and check your grocery receipts vis-à-vis your individual purchases. More importantly, speak up against these evil practices!

 

 

 

PLEASE PASS ON THIS MESSAGE.

[roadkill69ph]

from what I heard ....... management collects around 15% of gross sales OR a fixed rental fee (whichever is higher) from the tenants.

 

So I guess, the bigger your sales, the higher you will be paying in rent.

 

15% for food, 20% for non food. on short term spaces like carts and kiosks. Basic rent - whichever is higher.

[roadkill69ph]

I had an officemate who dined in shakey's sm north. After one minute, he noticed that his bag (packbag or laptop bag

containing his laptop)was missing so he immediately informed the guard of the incident.

He requested that all exiting customers be checked because the brand of his bag is

very rare here in the Philippines. But SM did not do anything... The guards were inutil...

 

Guess who runs the security agency?

 

There have been suicides, bank robberies (with high powered weapons) and carjackings inside SM malls for years. But you don't really hear about it in the news. Police stations near these malls will tell you that whenever these things happen, they are the last to know since SM's security people will clean up the body (in a suicide) even before SOCO gets there.

 

My suggestion to all victims of petty crimes while inside SM is that you report the crime with the police and not just the security guard.

[rxv]

The thing I don't like about SM cinemas are the sticky floors

[sandy51]

Guess who runs the security agency?

 

There have been suicides, bank robberies (with high powered weapons) and carjackings inside SM malls for years. But you don't really hear about it in the news. Police stations near these malls will tell you that whenever these things happen, they are the last to know since SM's security people will clean up the body (in a suicide) even before SOCO gets there.

 

My suggestion to all victims of petty crimes while inside SM is that you report the crime with the police and not just the security guard.

 

 

Sorry to hear that but hindi lang sa SM yan problem with security guards. You have to understand though na ang alam lang nila is tumingin nang trunk nang kotse, bag nang babae and kumapkap ng beywang nang lalaki. Now, hindi naman siguro tanga yung mga may masamang tangka so bakit ganun? Ano ba natapos nang secu? Kaya lang, o sige, walang natapos? E what about yung supervisor nang secu? And the supervisor of the supervisor?

[lomex32]

Shootings in SM MALLs beware

[Fiz]

The thing I don't like about SM cinemas are the sticky floors

 

hehe same here.

 

But to stop that maybe they have to ban "baon" in their movie-houses,

[Fiz]

Guess who runs the security agency?

 

There have been suicides, bank robberies (with high powered weapons) and carjackings inside SM malls for years. But you don't really hear about it in the news. Police stations near these malls will tell you that whenever these things happen, they are the last to know since SM's security people will clean up the body (in a suicide) even before SOCO gets there.

 

My suggestion to all victims of petty crimes while inside SM is that you report the crime with the police and not just the security guard.

 

Who run's the security agency?

[fordvipe]

Medyo gahaman sa kita, alam naman ng nakararami na talagang may bayad ang parking fees nila pero kung puno na anu gnagawa ng mga open spaces nila????? abala masyado sa shoppers ang pumila ng matagal..option naman nila mag papark sa open space pag talagang ala n available!!! Puro kita sa parking iniisip sana shoppers din!!!! :angry:

[sinchan]

ako naman ninakaw ung helmet ko na nakalagay sa motor ko sa sm parking sa harapan pa ng guard house well buti sana kung ninakaw lang ung helmet ang masama na slice pa ung body nung motor dahil dun sa pag cut nung lock nung helmet eh bago palang ung motor ko wala pang 5 months non f*ck sm nag email ako sa complaints nila after 3 days wala paring reply ang gnawa ko nagpunta ako sa main nila sa MOA ung head ng complaints nila nakausap ko alam mo ba kung anung sabi dpat daw sinabi ko dun sa guard para matulungan nya ako makapag report sa pulis f#&k anu yan abala abala abala as if naman mahuhuli ng pulis un ang dami nilang cctv dba nila kayang tignan at sila gumawa ng paraan para mahuli. and guess what sa pagtatanong tanong ko marami na pala nanakawan dun sa sm park na un and alam mo nagbibiruan nalang sila kasi wala silang magawa ang sabi nila isang araw wala ng gulong ang mga mag papark dun. sana man lang mag compensate nalang sila tutal sila naman may kasalanan nun secured parking pala ha. and alam nyo tnakot ko pa ung head nila on complaints sabi ko so pde ko na ipublish e2 since head nga cya at un snabi nya. ang banat nya sakin hndi ako ung head pa sakin lang ang official sabi nya anu snasabi nya si henry sy? f*ck siya head ng complaints at yun sinabi nya sakin ngaun sinasabi nya hndi official un ahahhaha

[OmegaSupreme]

May modus talaga tong mga to. Parati na lang walang barya. Its either that or tamad magpabarya mga kahera. Just imagine kung lahat ng customers nila nahuhuthutan ng cents pag pinagsama sama e malaki din aabutin. Tax free pa! Agree din ako sa post sa taas na iba yung price na nakalagay sa item mismo compared pag punch na nila sa cashier. Lalo na sa mga tinitimbang timbang kuno. Natuklasan yan ng friend ko nung tinignan niya yung resibo pagka uwi but didnt bother to complain dahil hassle pa. I hope dti can look into this big scam.

[K20TypeR]

Regarding prestige card.. nde lang na renew kaagad kasi yung owner ng card wala sa bansa... late lang na renew nde na carry over yung mga points namen... back to 0 ulit.. at wala sila masagot kung baket nde pede...ilipat yung mga points na nakuha namen..

[paddy]

Wishing ibalik nila un dating service option of pre-paying your parking ticket inside the mall... haba kasi ng queue lalo kung peak hours sa parking...

[sOin2you]

My Mom likes scouting for new kitchen wares pag mga sale. But after one incident, we became more cautious with their tags pag sale. They put on a yellow sticker over the previous tag para yun yung bargain-price. That time iniisa-isa pa ni Mama yung mga stainless casserole. Nung may napili na sya, I checked the price and noticed na medyo naka-angat yung yellow tag. So yes, umandar kalokohan ko and I looked around first before I tried na masilip yung original price. The I saw na same lang. Ginawa ko, sinilip ko rin yung ibang same item, ganun din, madali lang matanggal kasi yung yellow tag. Sabi ko kay Mama na niloloko lang kami. Kaya tinawag namin yung sales lady. Sinabi namin na same price lang naman, and ang nasabi lang nya is "Ay Mam, sale price po yan. Mali lang yung nasa ilalim..." Ano daw? Kaya na-dismay si Mama bumili. Natawa na lang ako, sabi ni Mama, "Kaya ko naman bilhin ng regular price yan noh... Halika na nga... Babalikan ko yan na regular price at tatandaan ko talaga yung mukha nyang sales lady..." But she meant it as a joke lang naman... But that was one experience that made us cautious in buying items from them.

[bozChips]

My Mom likes scouting for new kitchen wares pag mga sale. But after one incident, we became more cautious with their tags pag sale. They put on a yellow sticker over the previous tag para yun yung bargain-price. That time iniisa-isa pa ni Mama yung mga stainless casserole. Nung may napili na sya, I checked the price and noticed na medyo naka-angat yung yellow tag. So yes, umandar kalokohan ko and I looked around first before I tried na masilip yung original price. The I saw na same lang. Ginawa ko, sinilip ko rin yung ibang same item, ganun din, madali lang matanggal kasi yung yellow tag. Sabi ko kay Mama na niloloko lang kami. Kaya tinawag namin yung sales lady. Sinabi namin na same price lang naman, and ang nasabi lang nya is "Ay Mam, sale price po yan. Mali lang yung nasa ilalim..." Ano daw? Kaya na-dismay si Mama bumili. Natawa na lang ako, sabi ni Mama, "Kaya ko naman bilhin ng regular price yan noh... Halika na nga... Babalikan ko yan na regular price at tatandaan ko talaga yung mukha nyang sales lady..." But she meant it as a joke lang naman... But that was one experience that made us cautious in buying items from them.

 

hindi lahat ng naka sale eh tunay na naka sale... its part of the trick...

 

kaya dapat wise tayo din at alam natin ang totoo retail price...

 

as for the price rule, i remember but i dont have actual proof.... that the lowest price either on the item/shelf or register shall be followed...

[polarz]

Always compare sm appliance prices to ansons or automatic centre, sm appliance charges so mucb more

 

Example:

This stove that i wanted costs 60k in sm appliance as compared to the ansons price of 40k

[omega2959]

meron daw style dito na naka sale nga ngayon pero bukas hindi na. akala mo mas mura sa sm kasi nga naka sale price. pero sobrang dali lang tapos tataasan nya kaagad

[Bronx09]

kulang sa trash bins lahat ng SM malls, ung ang nkakabwisit

 

there are also a period wherein they removed all drinking fountains at their foodcourts, only select SM malls has a drinking fountain. I believe this is a ploy for you to be forced to buy their SM branded bottled water.

[goldrush]

malaki kasi tubo sa bottled water..