How do you rate 262 Erie St S, Leamington, ON store?

Rate this Canadian Tire store?

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The auto repair at this location are scam artists. My mother brought in her Chrysler PT Cruiser to get an estimate on a leak in the water pump. The printed estimate was for 3.5 hours labour at a cost of $387. She made an appointment for the next day to have the work done. The appointment was at 10am, she dropped the vehicle off at approx 9:50am. At 10:28am she gets a message on her phone stating that there had been an error in the estimate. They call back again at 10:45am to tell her that the estimate was wrong due to the fact that they had looked up the wrong vehicle in the labour manual, apparently someone doing the estimate looked up a Dodge Neon instead of a PT Cruiser. She had already taken a cab home from the Canadian Tire location, now they tell her the labour is going to be 6.5 hours and going to cost $789 instead of the original $387 estimate. Luckily I was there to catch the play and told her to tell them not to touch the vehicle.

I called the Canadian Tire complaint line and they tell me there is nothing they could do. I explained that she had taken a cab home and they didn't seem to care. My concern is that they didn't touch the vehicle in any way during the approx 1.5 hours that it has been left there. I called the store to ask them what went wrong, the guy I talked to was fumbling his words and not making much sense as he went on about how they had somehow mistaken a PT Cruiser for a Dodge Neon. The written estimate clearly specified that the vehicle they inspected was a PT cruiser, how the heck does ANYONE, let alone a trained mechanic, not know the difference between these two different types of vehicles?

I do not recommend Canadian Tire auto service to anyone, especially women. The obvious intent was to get the vehicle in their possession, wait for about 30 minutes, call the owner (who has most likely left the area of the store), then tell them about the "misunderstanding" and more then double the price of the original estimate. Nice touch guys!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

They call back ... to tell her that the estimate was wrong ... $789 instead of the original $387 estimate.

This is a blessing in disguise:

1 - Your mother very nearly left her car in the care of people whom you now know you can't trust. It appears you dodged a bullet.

2- There are numerous stories about Canadian Tire's general incompetence in auto repairs. You are lucky you got it away from them before they did any serious damage.

3 - Your Mom is lucky that the price was doubled right away, and not later, when they might have claimed they did the repair, and refused to return her vehicle unless she paid $789.

Also I'd say that readers of this forum are lucky that they tried to scam your family, and not someone else who might not warn others about a possible scam.

It's too bad about her time & cab fare, though.

All in all, I'd say she was a very lucky lady.

And lucky to have you on her side.