This pharmacy on Sturt Street, Ballarat is fabulous. It has your usual prescription service, over-the-counter drugs, cosmetics, baby needs, vitamins & minerals & a great range of trendy personal gifts & home decor items plus more. This store is always open... 24 hours. Very handy.

I purchased some pain relief medication recently, after dental treatment & I was given UFS (store brand). These tablets were hard to swallow due to their size & I nearly choked on a tablet several times. I broke it in half but the rough broken edge got stuck in my throat. The tablets need to have a polished coating which makes them easy to take, without incident. I took them back to replace them with tablets that were easier to swallow. But they wouldn't replace them, free of charge, which all their products need to be guaranteed. You pay enough for each product. 100% satisfaction or replaced/refunded. I am very happy with UFS Dispensaries usually but most of us are on a budget & they need to stand behind all their products they're selling with a100% satisfaction guarantee. More people will shop there also so they'll gain a better reputation.

Approximate cost: $60

I had purchased a frypan at Coles Ballarat Central, that said it works with ceramic cooktops but it doesn't. So I when to the service desk to do an exchange. I went to the aisle to see if the Tefal frypans worked on my cooktop but they didn't either. So I returned to the service desk. I had to wait until the store manager Trevor, was finished chatting to the customer service team member & neither one of them even acknowledged I was standing there waiting. I have several outstanding customer service awards & the customer gets your attention before another staff member. I could overhear that the manager wasn't talking about something trivial that could have waited. I had an appointment & my time it important. Serve your customers as they approach the counter & not chit chat. Very poor.

Approximate cost: $11

I recently broke my compact mirror & when to UFS in Bridge Mall. They had a bling dual compact mirror in pink & black. I chose the black one & upon arriving home, I realised it had bling missing of the outside. Very disappointed. Now I have to make a special trip back as I'm out of town. They are very friendly & ultra helpful. They have trendy handbags, scarves & home decor items, as well as their usually pharmacy needs. I love that they have a discount store card that you can use at any UFS pharmacy. Having the Sturt Street UFS Pharmacy open 24 hours is so handy. Thanks UFS.

Approximate cost: $5

I love my skinny milk mocha cup of coffee & dashed into Treloar's Cafe recently. They were closing but willing to make my mocha (takeaway) & I was happy with that. Unfortunately, the mocha side of the coffee was hardly noticeable & I was really looking forward to it as I hadn't had a mocha coffee in months. Use good quality chocolate powder such as Vittoria in your coffee. The coffee was okay but not great. But I noticed the great range of savoury & sweet selections to have with coffee. I'll try the food next time.

Approximate cost: $5

This Big W store always has friendly staff. I usually check out the great weekly specials & there's always seasonal specials right across the store. And with lay-bys, if you have a pension card, you only have to leave a 5% deposit (as opposed to 10%) & you get 12 weeks to pay your lay-by off instead of 6 weeks. Very handy.

Approximate cost: $200

I decided to get multi focal eyewear this time. I previously had a pair for reading & a pair for long distance. It has taken me no time at all to get use to the multi focal eyewear. The optometrist with the curled up moustache ends definitely know his stuff. [redacted clinical content]

I'd say the only annoyance I have is that the eyewear range don't seem to have many colours & yet on the SpecSavers web pages, there's more colours.

Although it was very expensive to have eyewear with transitional lenses, ultra clear & multi focals, it's cheaper than getting 2 pairs with the all the treatments I need. Luckily I received $150 saving.

It's very important that staff help find the right pair of eyewear for each customer, according to their face shape.

Overall a great store but it would be great to have a budget range for people on welfare payments that need to be budget conscience.

Approximate cost: $619

This Hungry Jacks store at Bakery Hill was closest to where I lived. The signage seems to be under repair, at every visit along with unavailability of burgers, drinks, which are a regular menu item. Someone at that store is in charge of ordering ENOUGH stock so this doesn't happen often or at all. How hard would it be to get stock (on busy nights Thursday-Sunday) from the Wendouree store, which has never run out of there popular menu items, when I've ordered there. I now travel the extra 3-4kms because I'm tired of the Bakery Hill store frequently running out of their regular menu items. Let's face it, what's a burger store without burgers. Then there's the cashiers who get the orders wrong too often & then tell me that's what I asked for. Once I realised they'd given me the wrong order before I left the drive thru area. The amount I paid was more than the order I finally received. The manager jumped in (a man with darker skin) & fix my order but then the cashier didn't refund the extra money she had charged me & I had to prompt her. Her comment was, 'It was only $1 difference' & she was happy that I would leave being overcharged; I had to ask for my refund, much to her annoyance. They replaced my order but the queue of customers behind me were glaring at me & not the staff member that got my order wrong. Until Bakery Hill become the efficient store they should be, I'll be getting my food from HJ's Wendouree, where they get my order right & have regular menu items available.

Approximate cost: $27

Rented two properties through Ballarat Property Group now. But we’ve noticed since being in the second rental property, the staff are very unfriendly & don’t enjoy working at this company. I’ve had staff be rude, condescending & disrespectful over the phone. They don’t pass on the correct information when reporting a fault or repair. Then the tradespeople are confused when they come out to check out a problem, to find a different issue altogether. No respect or the level of customer care from a company that has been awarded with ‘Agency Of The Year 2018’ ... I’m very disappointed with how I’ve been treated by this real estate agency. Only 2 staff members that I know of, have treated me with respect. And one of them has left the company.

Approximate cost: $600

I love this Target store. It's not too big but has everything you need. Easy to find your way around. The only complaint I have is, recently I had to return some items & the service desk at the main entrance is no longer available. You have to walk all the way to the layby department, for exchanges & returns, which seems ridiculous when a returns counter still exists at the entrance. Just another cost cutting idea from the head honchos, but a real inconvenience for all customers. Customers are what keeps Target in business, so it would pay to do a survey about the new location of returns/exchanges, to see how happy customers are about the new location. I'm sure I'm not the only customer unhappy with this change. We all have mobility limits, that also needs consideration. Please bring the returns/exchanges counter back to the front main entrance. Thank you.
Overall, a great store to shop in.

Approximate cost: $250

A great little store to visit for that something special no one else has. Very helpful, friendly volunteer staff & everything is easy to find. A boutique style store that's easy to shop in & you're not overwhelmed with too much choice. A visit to this store is well worth it. I love the smaller op shops just as much. The store is located opposite Coles & Woolworths near UFS Pharmacy.