We switched from Checkers Sixty60 to Pick n Pay Asap — and it’s been disappointing

We have been using Pick n Pay Asap! for two months and have had more issues with the service than in five years of using Checkers Sixty60.

As FNB customers, we bought groceries at Shoprite Checkers and used its Sixty60 service to earn eBucks starting in 2020.

With eBucks switching to Pick n Pay as its main retail partner from April 2025, we began using Asap as our primary on-demand grocery delivery service instead.

Before the change, we had only ever used Pick n Pay Asap for a test at MyBroadband’s offices, comparing its performance to Shoprite Checkers.

In that instance, Pick n Pay Asap was slightly slower than Sixty60 but delivered all our products in good order.

For our first personal use, we decided to give the service a first test for home delivery with a small order for a DIY project in early April 2025.

We ordered three packs of insulation tape, each with four rolls. While the delivery happened within the estimated time, we only received one pack.

We understood that there may have been a stock issue, but we considered it peculiar that the store had just one left and had not warned of a stock shortage on the app.

We suspected the picker may have thought we made a mistake by ordering the three packs and that we only wanted four rolls of tape.

We reported the issue via the app, but never got an acknowledgement from Asap support that this was received.

Fortunately, the invoice was amended to reflect the change to one item, and the difference was credited to our Asap wallet for future use.

We placed our first fairly large grocery order on the app on Saturday, 26 April 2025.

The order was confirmed at 15:25 with the initial time of delivery estimated to be between 16:00 and 16:30.

By 17:26, the Pick n Pay Asap app had finally updated to show that our order was being wrapped up. The delivery driver arrived at 17:32, over an hour after the original estimated time.

Cheesy surprise

On the positive side, all of the items we ordered were delivered with no substitutes required. However, we noticed quite a bit of mould on our Lancewood 600g cheddar cheese.

Upon closer inspection, we discovered that its best-before date was 20 April 2025, nearly a week before the delivery.

We reported the issue on the Pick n Pay app three days later, on 29 April 2025. We did not receive any acknowledgement or response until 4 May 2025.

An email from Asap Support stated that they had received our request and created a ticket. “One of our team members will respond to your request asap,” the message stated.

However, on 12 May 2025, we received a fairly confusing email:

Please accept our sincere apologies for the feedback delay on your query due to higher than usual email volumes received. Kindly note that we will be closing off this interaction.

Should your complaint still be unresolved, please feel free to reply to this closed ticket with your order number and we will be happy to assist.

Needless to say, we responded to the email because our issue had not been resolved. On 20 May, a call centre agent tried to reach us by phone, but the call was missed as it only rang for a few seconds.

They then emailed us on 21 May and asked for the delivery address, order number, and a photo of the expired product.

The next day, they confirmed the amount paid for the cheese would be refunded and apologised for the inconvenience.

Selling expired food a serious issue

In all the years we have used Sixty60, we have never received an expired product. The only issues we’ve had are items shown as available on the app that were out of stock.

Selling expired food products in South Africa can have significant consequences for businesses, so we expected a bit more urgency from Pick n Pay.

The initial turnaround time from its support team was poor, and it was unacceptable that it wanted to close the issue as resolved without attending to it.

Although many other people may have had more positive experiences with Asap, MyBroadband has received similar reports from other FNB customers who recently made the switch.

One in Pretoria said they had probably reported more issues in three months of using Asap than they had in three years of using Sixty60.

In addition to receiving tomatoes that were already rotten upon delivery twice, six boxes of PnP brand milk they ordered on the app had gone sour in the past week, well before their expiry dates.

They said although Pick n Pay refunded them for the expired items, it could take very long to receive a response from its Asap support team.