Yvonne H.: They did the same to me at Squamish. Refused to repair a bike that was three months old. Instead they wanted me to pay 100.00 to repair the bike.
 
Well, I really did think this topic was wrapped up for winter - but there are some serious cyclist out there!


OK, back to our ever-growing collection of (try to guess!) "Canadian Tire Complaints on facebook"!


Shannon B.: Talk about BAD service, I bought a CCM 26" "Vandal" bike from Canadian Tire this past spring. My back tire wobbles on the axle now. Was told to bring it in within the year for any repairs/adjustments. Called today in hopes to arrange that-was told "our bike guy is gone for the winter-SORRY!". I start a new job on Tuesday & RELY ON MY BIKE TO GET EVERYWHERE. Canadian Tire SHOULD NOT SELL PRODUCTS OR SAY THERES a WARRANTY ON A PRODUCT IF THEY ARE NOT WILLING TO FUFILL THEIR OBLIGATIONS?PROMISES TO CUSTOMERS. I WILL NEVER SHOP @ CANADIAN TIRE AGAIN!!!!p.s.-anyone want my saved up CanadianTire $?
 
Late December isn't a typical time for bicycle complaints, but I suppose some kids are getting them as gifts:


Swapndeep S.: Dear Team, I had a very very bad experience with you guys in all my years of relationship as an loyal customer. I bought a Tempo Cycle from one of the stores at Fairview Street, Burlington. After spending 2 hours in installing the cycle when I reached the last step of putting the pedals on the cycle, the left pedal refused to come on. All my two hours went in drain. Then I drove all the way to the store and was given another pedal to try on. When that did not work, I had to haul the whole installed cycle to the store with much difficulty as I have a small car. No doubt I was given a replacement but I reach home and try to install it and again after spending the two hours again, guess what happens... This time both pedals are not getting on... In all my experience as an Canadian Tire Customer, I never came across such a bad product...Now I have to haul the installed cycle to the Canadian tire store... One product can be faulty but what about the second one ???? I suppose the whole lot is faulty and that is why they have to put on sale... I want the same cycle as I did not want to spend a lot of money but if Canadian Tire is trying to pass off bad stuff putting on less price then that is shameful... No doubt if I go back, they can give my money back or give me another replacement but what about the time wastage and the harassment I have gone through and not to mention the gas I spent and with what difficulty I took the cycle back to the store and now have to take it back again... I want the cycle and as I mentioned as I don't want to spend a lot of money, the same one... I hope I get aptly compensated for the time wastage and harassment I suffered so as my trust in Canadian Tire retains as one of the best retailers around


Swapndeep S.: Done that...Now have to see, how long you guys take to give me a satisfactory resolution...
 
'Nother:


Verna W.: I will say this...I had a VERY bad experience with Canadian Tire on a bike years ago...something similar to your Swapndeep...needless to say , I vowed to NEVER buy another bike from C.T.as their bikes are Crap...



Verna W.: I bought a bike for my nephews grad...the bike was at C.T. more than he used it...( in & out because the chain kept falling off) they kept it in the whole summer till the warranty expired. ..needless to say , we chucked it & put it down to a lesson learned. ..Bought one from Costco, havnt had a problem since...its been 3 years...
 
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Mia S.: I got my son a bike there for his bday last May. It has had issues big time, especially with the handlebars, has a warranty & brought it in TWICE already to be fixed. The warranty ends this May. Then what? Piece of junk.
 
David S.I.: Bought a Schwin bike from ctc, junk! Back in the day they were a good brand ctc should look into what they buy so they don't sell crap to the customer.
 
Not many bicycle horror-stories in February, but the Olympic Spam brought out this one:


Pauline F.: used to shop at Canadian Tire, don't any more. My husband went there and bought me a bike as a surprise. He told the sales person it was a surprise gift for his wife. When he gave it to me I was so excited, but then found out it was too big for me, the front tire was not true and the handle bar turned but the front wheel did not. We took it back to the store where we were told they do not return bikes. and they wouldn't repair it either. I sent an e-mail to their head office, it has been 3 years and I still have not gotten a response. I bought a second hand bike that works great and still have a brand new unused unsafe bike in my basement. Bottom line, I'm just a regular person so I don't matter. I will never shop there again and tell everyone about my new bike. Go Canada!
 
Ah, spring!

Time to pick a bicycle shop ...

Colleen T.: We tried to get fit today. We got our son a new bike for Easter and the rims are both warped and the inner tube blew before he even got to ride it once! Not impressed. We'll be returning it this week. Not a nice thing to have to explain to an 8 year old.
 
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Stephanie T.: It's true Colleen! My husbands bike was rode by him MAYBE 5 times. He rode it down the street last week and the back tire twisted and he fell off the bike! Called customer service and they are saying they won't do anything about it! Saying WE have to buy the replacement parts out of our pocket! $200 bike... and it's useless. I'm furious! Good luck with your sons bike but I'm thinking all of us are screwed and now going to just be out the money!
 
More:

Stephanie T.: Ways to get fit? While I'll tell you and I'm not pleased with the customer service of this company!
My husband purchased a CCM bike for $180. He was riding it to work and not even 5 houses down from ours, the back tire gave out, twisted and he fell off the bike! We called the customer service desk at the store it was purchased from and they are REFUSING to do anything about it! My husband rides down a huge hill every day to work what if, god forbid, it happened on there? It's along a small highway so if it had of broken along there he could have rolled under a truck and died. Your customer service is saying that it's not covered and that we need to pay to replace the parts. We looked into it, and the parts would have to be switched over by professionals (new wheel that would have to be re-spoked and re-installed) and it would end up costing almost as much as the bike is worth. So here we have an almost $200 bike in our shed, that looks brand new, that is totally useless to us while you have 2 (we checked the stock on line) sitting on the floor at the store!
Is this how Canadian Tire operates? The UPC is still on the frame of the bike for crying out loud. It can be scanned still! We don't want our money back we just want an exchange for a bike that's not broken. One that's not a danger to my husband when he rides it to work.
I WILL make sure that everyone in our area knows what happened. I WILL make sure people know that Canadian tire doesn't stand by their products and refuses to take care of the customer!
 
I love it when Crappy runs these "Write a Positive Review and Maybe Win Crap" contests.

I'm always so proud when my fellow Canadians forego their chance to win, in order to post the truth about how Crappy this place is!


Kelly E.: I also would never buy a bike from Canadian Tire ever again. As Shawn Kelly said above they fall apart. Very disappointing.
 
I see this thread is getting more popular as spring gets going.

Here's hopin' people see these warnings in time:


Pete S.: Bought the $99 supercycle bike and the gear by the back tire folded into the spoke on my first ride half way down my street. That was on Thursday and I am still waiting for the replacement bike to be built. Ya for good costomer service!
 
Oh-oh - here's another guy who didn't get the news in time:


Jim E.D.: Last year I purchased a bike from Canadian Tire. The steering was not tight and as a result, I fell on my face when I didn't turn the way I expected. The store manager wouldn't even come down to talk with me and I got no result from them when I requested information about what they stated as "ready to ride".
 
It just occurred to me, that the Crappy People might have been trying to do customers a favour, by making it hard to buy these non-returnable bikes?


Jamie S.: Amazing Store!! Waited 30 minutes on Saturday with almost 20 other people in the bike section, who buys bikes on Saturdays anyway? Not a staff member to be found in the entire sporting goods department. And when ONE did make eye contact and I tried to approach him, he quickly ducked down a different aisle.
So I grabbed the ladder, climbed up and grabbed the bike for my adorable, quickly becoming impatient little girl who's first bike experience was such a great one. Especially when the streamers fell off in less than an hour.
Keep up the good work!
 
Nope just lazy and/or cutting corners on staff:


Jamie S.: Actually the entire point of my comment was that they were hesitant to sell anything!!!!
I was not willing to go to the back warehouse and search for the bike in a box. I would have had 0 problems or issues putting one together myself, I enjoy that stuff. The issue was that no one was willing to help. I just wanted my day with my daughter to continue, not drive around to other stores all day.
 
Timely:

David M.: I wanted to go for a bike ride but the bike I bought three weeks ago from you needs to be fixed and you won"t honour your warranty
 
From https://www.canadiantiresucks.net/n...-store-144-60-elizabeth-avenue.html#post12187 :


Is Canadian Tire Putting Consumers at Risk and What You Can Do About It

Every year Canadians purchase bicycles from Canadian Tire Stores. But exactly who is putting these bicycles together and exactly how safe are these bikes once they leave the store?

STORY

I purchased a 29" Phantom Super Cycle from the Elizabeth Avenue store in St. John's on May 21st of 2014. There were two bikes on the rack high above the store aisle and one of the sales staff took one down for me to purchase. I asked if it was ready to go and the clerk insisted that it had been assembled by their bike technician and it was ready to go. I took the bike and began to go towards the cash when I noticed that the handle bars and other features were not secure on the bike. So I asked the clerk to take down the second bike.

The clerk looked at it and assured me it was fine. I took the bike and noticed that the handle bars were slightly loose and didn't line up with the front wheel. So I asked the clerk to have it adjusted. He had the bike adjusted and returned the bike to me. I asked him if he was sure that everything was fine to which he replied that it was fine. I also asked him if there was a problem could I return the bike for a refund and the clerk told me if I returned it in a week or so and there was no wear or tear that I could do that.

I went to the front cash, paid for the bike and went home. My plan was to take it to a local bicycle tech and have it looked over in the next day or so. I talked to my local teach guy and made arrangements to drop over in a day or so. Meanwhile as some of you may know, the weather in St. John's as you may know has been terrible so I only rode it a few times from my home to the gym which by the way is about 5 minutes away. On my way home I noticed that the handle bars had come loose and as I reached my home the entire disc brake assembly started to make some noise. I brought the bike to my local tech to find that there was only one screw holding the brakes and there appeared to be no thread lock on the screw that was there. I had been extremely fortunate and could have had a major accident. The bike tech described the bike as crap and poorly assembled and I decided there that I would return the bike and have the money put back on my credit card.

As strange things happen, eBay got hacked as we all know and so I changed my account passwords, cancelled my credit card and ordered a new one. The credit card would take 4 days to arrive and so I decided to wait until it did thinking that Canadian Tire would take back the bike.

On, May 28th my credit card arrived and I walked the bike into Canadian Tire and requested a refund. I spoke to a guy name "xxxxx" and explained my story to which he informed me that Canadian Tire's Policy had now changed and that they didn't take back bikes but would repair it. They would only issue a refund if nothing could be done. I was stunned by the response and told him about my experience, how the bike had problems before it left the store, how I was told I could return it and so forth. The conversation went on as he tried to side on behalf of the store and how the clerk didn't have authority to say the bike could be returned etc. At the same time the young girl there was interjecting saying things like "Well, we probably could take it bake if it had just been a week or a gift....blah blah blah. (I later realized that I had only had the bike for a week as of that day).

The long of the story is that "xxxxx" said that only the manager could make the final decision. To which I asked to speak with the Manager. Eventually a female manager came out and it was obvious that she had very little time for me. She stated with an authoritative attitude saying " As I sated to xxxxx (other store manager) we don't take bikes back, that we would assess it and make a decision. It was obvious to me that the conversation was going nowhere even though I tried to explain how the bike was not put together properly, left the store unsafe and put me at risk and that regardless, I didn't feel safe or confident enough in their product.

At one point I asked her "Do you have a qualified technician assembling the bikes?" She would not answer the question and said "We're not required to have a certified technician". So I pushed harder and asked "Yes or No, do you have a certified person assembling the bikes". I even said that I would take a store credit rather than a refund and tried to work things out with her. Eventually she said, "I said all I'm saying". She then just walked away from me. In my opinion extremely unprofessional with no regard for my concerns.

I eventually left the store after getting some information about the owner and contact details. I made up my mind that in the event that I got no satisfaction that I would file a claim in Small Claims Court and so I went to the Provincial Court in Atlantic Place to get information on proceeding with a small claim. However, I decided before continuing that I would contact the owner of the store.

Contacting the Owner

That same afternoon I called the store owner and got a voice message. I left a message, explaining who I was, what had transpired and that I was going to file a claim but wanted to give him a chance to rectify the situation. My message was polite and left an opportunity for Canadian Tire to contact me. They didn't.

Around 5pm the same day I called the manager again, introduced myself and asked if he had received my message; to which he responded, "yes". I then said to him, "Just so I know we are on the same page could you please tell me what you know about my situation". He started to speak and it was obvious that he didn't have the full picture. I then told him to ensure that there were no misunderstanding could I have some contact information. I asked him for:

1) Name of the Corporation. He responded that it was his name and that I could look it up. In other words it felt like he wasn't giving me the information that I had requested.
2) Mailing Address - He told me that I could look that up too.
3) I asked him for an email address and he started to give me a hotmail address. I asked he for a proper Canadian Tire address but he would give me one.

He then went into a rant that "I had already threatened him". I immediately cut him off by saying "Wait a minute now.." I then informed him that I would begin to record our conversation. He immediately hung up.

Contacting Canadian Tire Head Office

I later called Canadian Tire Consumer Complaints and opened a case. I recorded the entire conversation (notified her and she agreed) which I will post later if needed.

Contacting Manager 6:10PM

I called the manager again to try and resolve the issue. I got a voice message again and left a message. I informed the voice message that I was recording the call and I left a very detailed message.

Conclusion

I will give Canadian Tire a few days to rectify this situation. After that, I will take them to small claims court. If you have problems with bikes from Canadian Tire I urge you to also take them to court and write letters to the media as well as your ombudsman.

This has been my experience and fortunately for me it did not end in tragedy which stresses me to the max thinking that I could have fallen off my bike on a busy street or ended in a disability or death.

A Closing Note

One might wonder why am I reacting so strongly about this? Why not suck it up and move on down the road? Well, oddly enough I am coming up on a June 6th anniversary at 3pm when my bike struck a pothole on Elizabeth Avenue in St. John's and wrote off my old bike and ended up in Emergency with a fairly beat up body and months of pain and physiotherapy all because the city didn't address ongoing pothole issues. Oddly enough it was the bike that I had damaged that I was replacing.
 
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