Beware of your purchase prices with the SM group or better still, choose the honest & fair stores.

SM treatment to suppliers is fast becoming a big issue as more and more big companies like Colgate & Mercury have backed out from supplying SM with their products because of what thy call shrewd treatment of suppliers and apparently, as can be read below, even with honesty in prices to consumers.
For your info & perusal.


From NEOMI OLIVARES
9 Justice Arellano St .
Industrial Valley Subd.
Marikina City
Tel. 681 8166

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,
Marikina City
Tels. 681 5746 and 681-8166

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 <ナveens_lopez@hotmail.com>wrote:                       |
|                                                                                            |
|                                                                                            |
|                                                                                            |
|From: Virginia Lopez <ナveens_lopez@hotmail.com>                                             |
|Subject: RE: Cheating by SM and Makro                                                       |
|To: “Mabel Macaraig” <ナ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
9 Justice Arellano St .
Industrial Valley Subd., Marikina
Tel. 681-5746
_______________________________________________

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 fucking 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.

NEOMI T. OLIVARES
9 Justice Arellano St .
Industrial Valley Subd.
Tel. 681-8166

“Those whom God effectually calls He also freely justifies, not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting them as righteous, not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone. They are not justified because God reckons as their righteousness either their faith, their believing, or any other act of evangelical obedience. They are justified wholly and solely because God imputes to them Christ’s righteousness. He imputes to them Christ’s active obedience to the whole law and His passive obedience in death. They receive Christ’s righteousness by faith, and rest on Him. They do not possess or produce this faith themselves, it is the gift of God.”

The study of the Bible must be done with the recognition that Jesus Christ, His life, death, and resurrection, is the key to the understanding of the whole Scripture. In Christ, God’s redeeming love is preeminently revealed, the testimony to which is the heart of Scriptural revelation. This is to say that the Bible alone tells us about a God who loved the world so much that He determined to save it through His Son Jesus. We can learn much about God’s power and greatness by studying the natural world around us because He made it and His glory is reflected in it. But God’s grace, His saving mercy toward a lost world is revealed to us only in the Holy Scriptures. In fact, the knowledge of God as revealed in the Christ of the Scriptures is an absolute necessity for the understanding of God as revealed in the natural order.

(Taken from Derke Bergsma’s Redemption: The Triumph of God’s Great Plan, p. 3)