A South African supermarket company has come under fire for their “no prize” scratchcards, leading them to begin offering vouchers as compensation.
To celebrate its 50th birthday this month, Pick n Pay gave shoppers free scratchcards for every R200 spent in the store. Prizes ranged from R5 in airtime to R10,000 in shopping vouchers at the store.
However, most shoppers felt frustrated when they were left with “no prize” scratchcards, prompting complaints on social media.
This Pick N Pay scratch card is a scam nje.. I havent seen any person win something.. heck even the tills dont display prizes u might win???? pic.twitter.com/unkRDLCYpB
— Yem – Yem (@Simphiwe_Chef) August 29, 2018
These pick n pay scratch cards are a waste of time , I don’t even take one anymore
— Mike (@mike_superb) August 29, 2018
Pick n Pay scratch card is the biggest scam ever in the history of scratch cards! ????????
— Papa Rea ???????? (@JustKB_ELO) August 28, 2018
Has anybody actually won something on the Pick n Pay scratch cards??? Kudlaliwe ngathi la???? #GirlTalkZA #GirlsTalkZA pic.twitter.com/ikLqyQnVif
— Siya Nonoise® (@CeeYaNonoise) August 27, 2018
Several customers even called into Bongani Bingwa’s show on Radio 702 to point out they had not won any prizes with their scratchcards.
To tackle the rising number of complaints on social media as the scratchcard campaign ends, Pick n Pay announced this week they’ll offer every customer who spends R200 in store this week a R20 voucher in addition to the scratchcards.
Customers will only have this weekend to spend the scratchcards in-store.
John Bradshaw, the Marketing Director at Pick n Pay, stated that 350,000 winning scratchcards had already been claimed but the store has around 12 million customers every week.
He told Business Insider SA: “So that’s still plenty of people that are getting scratchcards and are not winning. The scratchcards are given free to customers, which is a bit of fun on top of the great value we already provide.”
While many South African shoppers aren’t winning with Pay n Play’s scratchcards, there has been a surge in scratchcards wins from Wales including a shop manager who won £100,000 and a railway worker who won £70,000.
