That Money

Here's what happened to me.
And yes - I was the guy on "Marketplace"...

I bought a paddling pool for my little boy from crappy tire last June, inflated it...and it went straight down again.
So - I took it back and exchanged it.
Same problem - it wouldn't inflate. (CBC neglected to include that I'd returned the offending article twice in their piece).

So - realising that there was a problem with the pool model (ie - it was badly designed) I asked for a refund.
That's where the fun and games started and I walked out 30 cents of real money out of pocket and vowing never to shop there again after having an argument with a supervisor because I didn't have their vouchers with me.

Surely, good customer service on the part of ct would have dictated that as I'd been to their store 3 times over this particular item of shoddy merchandise that they should have waived the 30 cents. Indeed - they could have offered me more of their shitty coupons in way of compensation for having a now disappointed child and a trip of several kilometres to boot.

But no - I just got the po-faced "it's company policy" bullshit and the incentive to never shop there again.

Yeah yeah - it's 30 cents, so what...but it's 30 cents that I'd rather have in my pocket than theirs.

My struggle not to shop there has been hard - but I really haven't been near the place since last June. The problem is, I live in a small town with not a lot of choice on the retail front. Nobody has the range that ct offers. There's a W&@%*rt opening here later this year, but that gives me a moral dilemma...

I stick with the smaller stores and although I pay a bit more - no, I don't miss the awful service that crappy tire excel at.

honestly, if they truly pride themselves on good customer service, they should have waived the 30 cents. 30 cents IS NOTHING to them moneywise. They could easily afford to let it go to save a customer. they probably think "hey, it's just one guy, so who cares if we lose his business", but in all reality (which ct obviously doesn't live in), by causing just 1 person to stop shopping there because of a bad experience that they had, they stop a lot more than that by that 1 person telling multiple other people. Those other people decide not to shop there because they don't want to experience similar situations. It just keeps spreading.
I hate Walmart too, (for different reasons), but after my experiences with CT, I would much rather put up with Walmart's BS. Not that I plan on shopping there unless absolutely necessary.
Personally, I try to avoid both places.

Yeah but 1 person here, 1 person there, 1 more over there, 1 next month, 1 next week and it all starts to add up. ESPECIALLY in a small town, where everyone knows everyone and it all spreads like wildfire.