New here, have to agree that Canadian Tire Sucks!

Tintin

New member
Last weekend saw CT's flyer, some OE Plus brake pads on sale, 20% off, thought it was not bad. Went to the store nearby during the weekend, want to stock up a whole set of front / rear brake pads for my car. They told me there's no stock of the rear brake pads, but can order for me, and will phone me the next day to pick up.

Two days passed, and no phone call. So I went to the store, talked to a guy, was told that the item is ready for pick up. Fine. Paid for it, went home.

Opened the box, four pads are in a opened plastic bag, no accessories like brackets, etc. The box said 'Made in India', however the pads have some print says 'Made in Canada', there are no OE Plus logos. It doesn't look like the original OE Plus ceramic pads that I've paid for.

(Just to confirm, I opened the other box that I got earlier, can see everything there -- front pads with OE Plus logos printed, sealed bag with brackets, etc., and there's a nice foam cushion covers everything in the box.)

Now I can be 100% sure that the rear pads are NOT the original OE Plus parts, as the packing is so different and missing something there.

Today I went to the store, the same guy there. I told him that the pads are not what I paid for. He told me that the 'Made In India' on the box means 'the box is printed in India' --- Duh! I couldn't believe what I heard -- R U Kidding me?! Well I told the guy that I don't buy it, and that I've never heard of anything like that.

Anyway, returned everything, including the front-pads.

My recent experience, once again told me that Canadian Tire sucks, because:
A. They failed to keep their promise by calling their customer to pick up the stuff ordered;
B. They failed to deliver what the customer ordered, and they are happy with all sorts of crappy excuses;

Lesson learned: Shopping at Canadian Tire can be a waste of time. It might be a place for 'casual' window-shopping, however if you want professional and quality service, try somewhere else.

For auto parts, go to professional auto parts stores.
 
You are even more lucky that you didn't let their untrained 'technicians' work on your vehicle.

Stories like yours are all too common.

Also beware the Part Source store, which is really just a CT parts counter under its own roof. Same crappy parts & policies (although they sometime seem to know a tad more than the morons in the stores).
 
Unfortunately, CT doesn't hire experienced automotive people for their parts departments. They hire mostly kids, or anyone else who will work for minimum wage and not complain about it. They also don't provide any training. Don't blame the employees. They are just trying to do the best they can, given that they are treated like they don't matter.
 
Agreed, theses things are the fault of the management, and not the individual employee. Indeed, part of the bad attitudes of staff are surely the result of poor or absent training, inability and lack of experience (i.e., youth).

Then again there are many reports of incompetent people being retained or even promoted. We've seen many examples on this very site of confessed employees, or even managers and owners, who display appalling ignorance overtop of open hostility towards their victims/customers.

It's systemic, and bad people get rewarded. So wrong!
 
Until consumer laws are changed in Canada and favour the consumer rather than businesses, this won't change. It is a lot more profitable to deliver as little as possible and charge a lot than actually give good service or good value on a product. Much money is spent on creating an atmosphere of consumerism and satisfaction by buying, not so much for customer service (a way to fend off complaints and have customers give up rather than deal with them).
 
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