Canadian Tire won't let me use my Canadian Tire Mastercard

The chip in my credit card doesn't work. I have ordered a new one. Meantime an employee at Canadian Tire refused to swipe my card which she admitted would work. Because ......... that would leave Canada tire on the Hook for the money if I should default on my payments at any time.( those were her exact words ) So I had to either pony up the $7.00 or use another credit card. The chip has never worked since I got the new card but every other store in town honours it. Only Canadian tire will not.

To add insult to injury as I was leaving the store a nice young man came up to me and asked if I would like to sign up for a Canadian tire credit card. I was polite but it was not easy!

Has anyone else ever had this problem? I called Mastercards 1-800 number and they told me that in no way would Canada tire be on the hook for the $7.00 if I should leave the country and not pay the $10.00 minimum payment on my card as the clerk had suggested.

I've never had a problem with a chip card. That's pretty strange.

I had a CT MC briefly, but they signed me up for so many extra I hadn't agreed to, that I got fed up and cancelled it.

It's weird that they wouldn't accept their own card. But I've seen first-hand how many of the CT staff have been whipped up into an extreme frenzy about anything that can be construed into even a hint of the "eff word" - i.e., fraud. Maybe you are yet another victim of their growing paranoia? Seems they'd rather lose a customer, than risk a long-short of losing $7. Nutty!

Actually, it's probably lucky that you didn't buy what ever you intended - they sell lots of junk, then don't stand behind it. You are generally better off not buying anything from them in the first place.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I've never had a problem with a chip card. That's pretty strange.

I had a CT MC briefly, but they signed me up for so many extra I hadn't agreed to, that I got fed up and cancelled it.

It's weird that they wouldn't accept their own card. But I've seen first-hand how many of the CT staff have been whipped up into an extreme frenzy about anything that can be construed into even a hint of the "eff word" - i.e., fraud. Maybe you are yet another victim of their growing paranoia? Seems they'd rather lose a customer, than risk a long-short of losing $7. Nutty!

Actually, it's probably lucky that you didn't buy what ever you intended - they sell lots of junk, then don't stand behind it. You are generally better off not buying anything from them in the first place.

Lmao....another fake poster. Nice try though.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Lmao....another fake poster. Nice try though.

Here we go again. Angry CT Guy doesn't like it, so it must be "faker", LOL.

Originally Posted by Roggy

The chip in my credit card doesn't work. I have ordered a new one. Meantime an employee at Canadian Tire refused to swipe my card which she admitted would work. Because ......... that would leave Canada tire on the Hook for the money if I should default on my payments at any time.( those were her exact words ) So I had to either pony up the $7.00 or use another credit card. The chip has never worked since I got the new card but every other store in town honours it. Only Canadian tire will not.

To add insult to injury as I was leaving the store a nice young man came up to me and asked if I would like to sign up for a Canadian tire credit card. I was polite but it was not easy!

Has anyone else ever had this problem? I called Mastercards 1-800 number and they told me that in no way would Canada tire be on the hook for the $7.00 if I should leave the country and not pay the $10.00 minimum payment on my card as the clerk had suggested.

The only way they would be on the hook would be if it wasn't actually your card. They could have entered the number on yuor card manually then imprinted it.. I'm guessing that store was too lazy to go get the imprinter.

There IS a way they can swipe your card, but it takes longer, and if we are caught doing that we can be in serious trouble..

Chip Cards were brought about to add a level of security by having a PIN number required to make a transaction. I can only speak for myself but if a store refused to use my card because I didn't ahve the pin number i'd probably be happy they were lookign after my security.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Chip Cards were brought about to add a level of security by having a PIN number required to make a transaction. I can only speak for myself but if a store refused to use my card because I didn't ahve the pin number i'd probably be happy they were lookign after my security.

Anybody in their right mind and with a wallet full of photo id would ticked off that the jerks at Crappy Tire were jerking them around about a $7 transaction.

Just sayin'.

I have no complaint with a little added security but really that was not the problem. I went back last week and bought a $230. drill impact driver at CT. I made sure I went to a different sales person. I explained to the very helpful lady the problem that I had had. She said No problem and rang my purchase up. The chip still didn't work and I had to swipe the card and use my pin. She said that is what the other sales person should have done.

I now have my new CT card with a working pin.
For the most part I like Canada tire and shop there a lot.

The reality is most people you deal with when you walk into a CT store is someone making minimum wage. Do you know how difficult it is to get someone to do their job right while paying them them that? The business isn't sustainable paying them more so it's tough to do.

What this example here shows is an incompetent staff member. Every single store has a few bad apples. Most good, but a few bad ones. Situations like this are tough to field as a manager because you KNOW something more should have been done. What tells the tale is if the situation gets rectified, and in all my years at CT, they always do if the customer talks to a manager (a competent one, which 99% are).

So typical of the CT owners and so-called "Managers" to blame everyone but themselves.

Their own employee is "incompetent"? Well, guess whose fault that is? The owner and manager, naturally.

Their employees aren't paid enough? Any guesses who decides how much their staff are paird? Owner and manager again.

There are "a few bad apples", huh? Well guess who hired them, didn't train them, didn't supervise them, and didn't fire them? Yup - owner and manager.

And, of course, some blame has to be passed to the customer, who didn't complain to the manager soon enough or loudly enough or using the correct phrases.

It's very entertaining, how this so-called "CT Manager" has decided that the CanadianTireSucks web site is a good place to whine about "how difficult it is" and "it's tough to do" and that "Situations like this are tough to field".

Well, guess what? The 'CT Manager' is the one who sucks, who is incompetent, and is the real "bad apple" in their own example.

Nice going, Crappy Manager!