Guest-0556

Posted by an unregistered user
I recently (Aug 16th/11) took my 2004 Infiniti G35 in to Canadian Tire on Douglas Street in Victoria, B.C. so it could be checked out for both Provincial and Federal Inspections. I purchased the vehicle from the USA and in order to have it legally registered in B.C. I had no choice but to go there as they are the only automotive places that you can get the Federal Inspection done through. Having only just acquired the vehicle I was not familiar with the security system but did make them aware that the vehicle had to be in neutral with the clutch depressed in order for it to start. The keys were left with the service technician at the counter and I left.
About an hour later I received a phone call from the same technician (Ken) who advised me that upon their mechanic putting the vehicle up on the hoist the vehicle's windows went up and the doors locked. I advised him to use the key fob to open it. Ken promptly advised that the keys had been left in the ignition so this wasn't possible. I did not have the spare keys so had no way to open it either and advised of this.
Ken then asked me what I'd like to do? I was a little taken aback as there seemed to be very little choice in the matter; I needed the inspection done and what else was there to do but get the vehicle opened?? Ken then told me that a tow truck could be called to open the vehicle but Canadian Tire would not be responsible for the costs involved. After some discussion he advised that he could not change this as he wasn't the manager and the manager had gone home for the day. When I went to pick the vehicle up at 5 pm the only thing that had been done was the Provincial Inspection as they'd run out of time to do anything else. The daytime running lights had not been put in and as a result the vehicle failed. In addition they told me a new wiper blade was required for the driver's side and the brake light on the rear window deck wasn't working and needed to be fixed. Due to these reasons it failed the Prov Inspection. I was left to pay the $51 tow bill due to the keys being locked in. Needless to say I didn't want them touching my vehicle again. What type of professionals leave keys sitting in the ignition, particularly when they don't seem to know what type of anti theft devices the vehicle may have? After speaking with my brother inlaw who runs a Kal Tire I learned that his staff always leave keys on the windshield due to this very reason. In his words, "You never know what system is in a particular vehicle so why would you chance it?" I had to take my vehicle into a different Canadian Tire and when I told them to make sure the keys weren't left in the vehicle they advised that they never leave keys in due to this very thing. When I spoke to the manager of the Canadian Tire on Douglas Street he stated that they always leave keys in the ignition because, "If there's a fire in our shop and we need to remove the vehicles quickly we need to know where the keys are." I wonder when they last had a fire in their shop?? Further, wouldn't you be more concerned with evacuating the building rather than the vehicles inside? This response was nothing short of insulting as it made no sense. I asked them why they wouldn't leave the keys on the windshield as they'd be easily found to which they fell back on saying it was their policy. In short, I had no satisfaction from dealing with the management of this location. I would encourage everyone who reads this to think twice before parting with your hard earned dollars in this location. The Broadmead location was astounded to learn about my experience and couldn't believe that I ended up paying the tow bill to get the keys out. It's not like I had any choice. My parting comment to the manager of Douglas Street Cdn Tire was that they were going to recieve $51 dollars worth of grief from me by way of the social media sites. Please forward this to everyone you may know and hopefully save another poor fool from being ripped off due to the incompetence of the staff at this location.
Thanks!
 
Anyone else here having a real problem trying to figure out what is being said. (ie. LACK OF PARAGRAPHS)

Why so grouchy, CT-underscore-MANAGER?

You used to be somewhat sympathetic to customers who've been mistreated by a store.

Now you are suddenly stooping to ridiculing customer's formatting?

Are you really that annoyed that someone is posting b.s. as CT-space-Manager?

What's next: making funny of spelling errors?
 
shhh. He's at the Crappy Tire University for dealer training. He's paying attention to all the rules, anything that looks funny to him means that he doesn't need to help.
 
Whiner cry baby. It's not CT garages fault that you don't know anything about your own car and that it acted funny. If I had a nickel for every whiney complaint then I'd be even richer than I am now. How's 9 to 5 treating you? Working for the man getting you down?
 
So typical of Crappy Tire to blame others for their own incompetence.

The Crappy People locked the keys in someone else's car.

Did they get one of their 'highly skilled' mechanics to get into the vehicle? Of course not!

Did they just go ahead & arrange for a locksmith to promptly fix their own error, without bothering the customer? No way.

Instead, they chose to annoy their customer about it, and even made the customer literally pay for Crappy Tire's own mistake!

Due to their sloppy work and delays in getting the issue resolved, the work was not done on time.

Did they then waive any of the charges for the half-baked work they managed to complete, and to make up for all the inconveniece they had caused?

Of course not - they just continued to invent lame excuses, and to blame others for their own failings.

Way to Go, Douglas Street Crappy Tire!

Another fine job!
 
Somethings rotten in Denmark again....

They had time to complete a Provincial Safety INspection but not a Federal Import inspection? I suspect there's more to the story then we're being told on here.

The Federal Inspection aka RIV is about an 8 minute process~!
 
5 1/2 year auto service advisor speaking
It is really surprising to hear that they locked the keys in the car and made you pay for it. While i'm not going to disclose which location I work at, I can tell you that if the same situation happened at my location we would have covered the cost as we were at fault. It has happened before just due to a simple mistake, but again, we covered the cost of unlocking.

As for the keys being left in the ignition, it's partly a fire policy which does sound kinda silly. I won't fight against that point. It also has to do with always knowing exactly where the keys are for vehicles in the shop. Putting them on the windshield is fine, but they can be moved or knocked off easily. In the ignition however, they stay put.
 
I agree, when we make a mistake, we pay what it costs to fix it/get it right. 500 stores, lots of good operators, but some bad ones too.
 
I agree, when we make a mistake, we pay what it costs to fix it/get it right. 500 stores, lots of good operators, but some bad ones too.

I agree, you make a lot of mistakes.

But Crappy Tire has a reputation for not fixing the problems they cause.

Lots of examples here, and on other similar sites.

A few CBC and APA investigations, too. Similar results every time.

Glad this site is here - more people need to know what really goes on, and not just read 'press releases' by dealers.
 
I agree, you make a lot of mistakes.

But Crappy Tire has a reputation for not fixing the problems they cause.

Lots of examples here, and on other similar sites.

A few CBC and APA investigations, too. Similar results every time.

Glad this site is here - more people need to know what really goes on, and not just read 'press releases' by dealers.

Well, when you serve millions of customers a year, then there are bound to be some that are not satisfied, were treated poorly, or just simply can't have their expectations met. Unfortunately for faker advocate, he doesn't like the math that indicates millions and millions of satisfied customers too. Yep, that darn math thing again.
 
I agree, you make a lot of mistakes.

But Crappy Tire has a reputation for not fixing the problems they cause.

Lots of examples here, and on other similar sites.

A few CBC and APA investigations, too. Similar results every time.

Glad this site is here - more people need to know what really goes on, and not just read 'press releases' by dealers.

Are you referring to the investigation of 12 garages where 6 failed and 6 passed? Yes yes you are
The same investigation, and same question that you dodged about a month ago and couldn't answer.
If Canadian Tire was sooooo bad across the country, and everyone else is soooooooo good in contrast, then in theory all CT garages would have failed the test, and all others would have passed. I wonder why that didn't happen?

Happy Sunday

Hey let me save you some trouble

Don't feed the troll.
He has more information about how CT operates, more questions that might cause you to think instead of react and speak, and a pretty realistic view that perfection is not possible. The troll could cause this site to go silent for days on end becuase the haters run out of material.

Don't feed the troll
 
Recent investigations of auto service:

CBC Vancouver, 2010, Investigation of Crappy Tire auto service:

CBC News - The National - Go Public - Canadian Tire store sells questionable repairs



APA, Calgary, 2011, various garages:

CTV Calgary- Auto repair rip-off - CTV News

Of the 4 Crappy Tire centers tested, only 1 passed (25%). For non-CT garages, 40% passed.


Same investigation, with additional results for Toronto:

W5: An undercover probe of Canadian garages - CTV News

Of the 4 Crappy Tire centers tested, none passed (0%). For non-CT garages, 12% passed.


Overall APA results for Toronto and Calgary:

- Crappy Tire passed 12% of the time.

- Non-CT garages passed 30% of the time.

The explanation is obvious: Canadian Tire Sucks, especially for auto repairs.
 
ahh round and round we go!

One thread on a topic dies because nobody's interested, start another one and post the EXACT same topics.
Your site is failing, dying a horrible miserable death.

You say don't feed the troll, and the site goes silent for days on end. Further proof as we all expected, that there's only a couple of you posting. If this was a hitting the masses type of site, it would be busy with posters every single day. new topics, new information, new posters. Nope. none of that happening. Same topics, same few posters with a grudge against CT.

Disinformationalist LOL
You've lost.
 
In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory,[2] extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response[3] or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.[4]

Please don't feed the troll!
 
Recent investigations of auto service:

CBC Vancouver, 2010, Investigation of Crappy Tire auto service:

CBC News - The National - Go Public - Canadian Tire store sells questionable repairs



APA, Calgary, 2011, various garages:

CTV Calgary- Auto repair rip-off - CTV News

Of the 4 Crappy Tire centers tested, only 1 passed (25%). For non-CT garages, 40% passed.


Same investigation, with additional results for Toronto:

W5: An undercover probe of Canadian garages - CTV News

Of the 4 Crappy Tire centers tested, none passed (0%). For non-CT garages, 12% passed.


Overall APA results for Toronto and Calgary:

- Crappy Tire passed 12% of the time.

- Non-CT garages passed 30% of the time.

The explanation is obvious: Canadian Tire Sucks, especially for auto repairs.

I noticed that the two reports on Calgary have slightly different results.

The W5 report listed 19 Calgary garages, but for some reason the CTV report only lists 12 of those.

In the W5 report, the 9940 MacLeod Trail SE Calgary garage is included. It failed, too.
 
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