IT Services26.03.2023

Pick n Pay blames load-shedding and staff shortage for licence disc renewal delays

Pick n Pay has blamed load-shedding, reduced staff capacity at licencing offices, and closed periods during the December holiday for significant delays in the delivery of licence discs renewed through its service.

The grocery giant has been offering the service for over a year, allowing customers to apply for a new licence disc via an online portal or till points.

MyBroadband recently received an email from a reader who had applied and paid for a new licence disc via the online facility in December 2022.

According to Pick n Pay’s website, delivery of the licence by courier should be completed within ten business days, although it could take a few days longer if any penalty fees apply for late renewals.

But by early March 2023, he had still not received his licence disc nor received any communication confirming his application.

On 21 February 2023, he opened a support ticket to report the problem.

After not hearing back from the retailer by 27 February 2023, he sent his complaint to the service’s official customer support email address.

He had not received a response to this complaint by 7 March 2023.

Not the only customer struggling

The reader also referred us to several other complaints alleging similar experiences on Hellopeter and Google Reviews.

These were made against Claim Expert, the company that manages the service on behalf of Pick n Pay.

The experience of some users was so bad that they alleged that the service provider operated a scam.

Several said they had been waiting over two months to get their licence discs after applying via the service.

“Pick n Pay offers this service but does not want to assist, and they pass you on to Claim Expert, who give you the runaround,” said one user.

“I have been told my disc is ready to be delivered, which was paid for early December 2022. It’s now mid-January 2023 and they still refuse to create the waybill and have it delivered.”

“This has been a truly horrific experience,” another stated.

“Registered my license disc renewal on 9 January 2023, paid R860.00 on 11 January 2023. To date, there has been zero feedback as to the status of my license disc renewal,” another stated.

“If this is the quality of product that Pick n Pay is selling, then I no longer wish to support them in any way and will not be buying anything from them again,” a third customer stated.

At the time of publication, Claim Expert had not responded to any of these affected users’ reviews.

The delays could leave motorists in a bit of a pickle.

While they won’t be penalised with additional fees if their renewal was processed before or within 21 days of the expiry date, they could be fined if traffic officials pull them over.

Driving with an expired licence disc can carry a fine up to R1,000 in most parts of the country, according to the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC).

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) says that can go up to R3,000 in the City of Cape Town.

MyBroadband asked Pick ‘n Pay if it knew of the complaints and the reasons for the delays.

Pick n Pay pinned the blame on “unfortunate” factors beyond Claim Expert’s control and said it only impacted a handful of customers.

“The recent delays result from various issuing authorities experiencing reduced capacity over the festive season due to higher staff absenteeism, closed periods over the holiday and load-shedding interruptions.”

“Customer queries should always be responded to right away, and any delay should have been communicated. We apologise for any delay and have spoken to Claim Expert so that this improves.”

Pick ‘n Pay added it had successfully enabled “thousands” of customers to renew their vehicle licence within ten working days of receiving payment and necessary supporting documents.

It acknowledged, however, the customer queries should have been responded to and said the issues should have been communicated.

This is not the first time that the grocery giant has faced criticism over its vehicle licence disc renewal service.

When it launched a pilot of the service in January 2022, it charged R350 for admin and R99.99 for delivery, making it substantially more expensive than its rivals.

It reduced the admin price to R250 during the official rollout to all 500 of its hypermarkets and supermarkets.

For its most recent pricing, the admin fee has remained the same, while the courier charge has come down to R79.99.

However, it is still much more expensive than other services, which start from as little as R72, excluding delivery.


Now read: Driving a Tesla from Cape Town to Joburg during load-shedding

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