Thread: Canadian Tire Sucks at Tires - Stock, Sales, Installation, Service, Warranties, Online, Etc.

J Mark W.: I bought a set of tires from the Preston Crossing store in Saskatoon a while back. Paid extra for the free replacement warranty. Had repeated problems with the tires not running true and subsequently not holding their balance. Finally went back a week ago and asked to have two of the tires warranteed. They inspected them, agreed that the uneven wear on the tires was a result of a defect in manufacture, and warranteed them. Then the tech "decided" my van needed a wheel alignment, and when I told them it didn't they wrote on my service order that I had refused the wheel alignment! I asked how they determined it needed a wheel alignment. The reply was that it was due to the wear on the tires they warranteed! So I asked how it was possible that the tires, which they agreed were defective and caused the uneven wear, could suddenly have wear on them caused by a misalignment on my vehicle! Here comes the best part....my free replacement warranty wasn't free at all! They charged me to mount and balance the two tires they replaced, charged me an enviro tax on each tire, charged me AGAIN for the free replacement warranty on EACH tire, and charged me for "shop supplies" on top of it all!!!! They presented me with a bill for almost $85 (which by the way is MORE than the price of one tire), and even though I was either in the store or in the waiting room the entire time, at no point did ANYONE come to talk to me or explain to me they were going to charge me like this to replace my defective tires that THEY sold me. So they present me with this bill. And then hold my van hostage until I pay it, and conveniently, the manager of the service department was out of the store! Not at all happy about this, have told ALL my family, friends, coworkers, and Facebook friends about my experience. Trust me, not only is this the LAST set of tires I will ever buy from Canadian Tire, it is quite probably the last time I will ever buy ANYTHING from them. The attitude of the people in their service department was they thought they knew everything there was to know about what they thought was wrong with my vehicle, and I was an idiot! I've been servicing my own vehicles longer than most of them have been alive, and I certainly dont appreciate being treated like that by kids less than half my age!

In response to CT's "free tow" offer:


Greg E.: If you didn't hate Canadian Tire before, Here's a good reason. I scheduled an appointment to have new tires installed yesterday, of which I was informed there were 9 in stock. Actually had to go to a store out of town to find stock. I dropped off my car, and 2 hours later receive a call from the service manager that the tires are off my car, but they cannot find the new tires in their stock. There was no solution proposed, and my original tires were put back on... Canadian 'Tire' eh? Well you can be sure I will not be purchasing tires from them now!

Lance C.: Pretty sad when they can't provide a service/product like tires when they are called Canadian TIRE!

Margo O.: make sure they actually tighten the bolts on any tires they work on if you ever actually DO deal with them. We`ve had incidences in town here where they were only HAND TIGHTENED!!! Wrecked everything!

Chad H.: Took my car in for a simple nail removal from my tire and they said it was too close to the side wall, according to their 19 yr old mechanic, argued for a bit with customer service as they tried to sell me a brand new tire. Drove to the nearest tire shop, explained what happened, guy laughed and fixed my tire for $20. Thanks for being there Canadian Tire, your kid mechanics are awesome!

Recently, Crappy Tire spammed Canadian Facebook users, promoting a "free tow" during the recent long weekend. This isn't the first time such an offer provoked a huge backlash of complaints about Crappy Tire's horrible automotive service. The bulk of these can be found here:

https://www.canadiantiresucks.net/ge....html#post9146

But the stories about tires in particular are going here:




Tim O.: For a company called Canadian Tire they sure DONT know what they are talking about.
Its a long weekend and my fiencee's tires need to be rotated so I figure since we live next to one I will give them a shot (despite the horror stories I have heard)
I go in yesterday to make an appointment, was quoted $95+tax to remove, rotate, replace balance and re-mount 4 tires. Sure, a bit on the expensive side but I wanted to get them done ASAP.
Go in this morning and give the fellow all the information about the car ect. Then I am promptly told that a 205/45/16 is a low profile tire and they will charge more money to swap it due to the hard sidewall.

Tim O.: Thats a 92mm sidewall height, and is no where near a LOW PROFILE tire.
The reason I am told is that there machines may damage the wheel with such a low profile tire....... with a business that is CALLED Canadian Tire you would figure that they would lead the way in tire maintenance equipment....I peared in the back and saw that they have the SAME tire machine that I used in highschool over 10 years ago.....the same machine that my father used when he went to that school over 30 years ago.
I will NEVER visit your stores again after this joke of an experience with you. Wasting my time and money, providing a CSR that know little to nothing about the vehicles they are working on and using sub standard equipment.
I will be sharing this experience with all of my friends, and in my case that also includes well over 500,000 youtube subscribers, another 500,000 who subscribe to my blog and another local 60,000 car club friends I have.
For such a large company that prides themselves on customer service you guys lack the basic knowledge and equipment to complete something as simple as a tire rotation for a fair price.

Justin G.: I would rather walk after they almost killed me by over torking my lugnuts, ctc is the last place i would bring my car ever. Horrible work, zero customer service, stay far away from them.

Mike Y.: Waited 4 hours to get new tires installed, and the final cost was not what I was quoted.

Glen S.: Hope they put your wheels nuts on right. David had a wheel bearing done 6 mos ago and they did not tighten the nuts properly. Now the bearing is done again as we'll as the hub $300.00 plus and it was their mistake. So much for CTC.

Lee K.: forgot to mention when I had my tires installed before my issue with warranty that I paid for. I called the day prior since I live an hour away and was told its first come first served and no appointment was needed for tires. So I showed up early the next day at 8, when they open. Was told by the manager that I'd have to wait till 11am since there was an appointment for tires made at 10am. I Looked in the back and 3 techs were sitting around drinking coffee. I asked him what about now, it's 8 am and you've got guys siting in the back, was told its super busy and I'll need to make an appointment for 11am. Crazy, crazy, crazy. So ya, about 4 hours to get my tires as well. Wonder how long it'll take to get a "real" reply from customerservice@canadiantire.com

Lee K.: In regards to my above post, I'm talking about the Kamloops CT location on 8th street. Went in for tire warranty after only 2 months of owning tires (10,000 km) and a rotation since I paid for the road hazard warranty, was told no problem, two new tires coming right up. 30 mins later was told by same person that the manager wouldn't honor the warranty. I asked to speak to the manager and apparently he left the building to take care of personal matters. I was not impressed to say the least especially after being told the tire issue was due to under inflation. I checked those tires every week and not once did they get under inflated. Anything to get out of a warranty hey CT. To top it off, 1 hour and 30 mins later I get my truck back and the tires haven't been rotated, even though the work order said they were. Apparently the manager told the tire tech not to rotate them and left. Real professional. This isn't over, by any means. Make it right CT, Facebook is a powerful means of advertising.

Lee K.: So you can what, screw me over again with your horrible customer service from your so called professional service managers ?? Right, never again Canadian Tire, NEVER AGAIN !!!!

Mike B.: Had my summer tires put on at CT this year because my garage was being used for storage. Got home and re-torqued the wheel nuts and found only 3 tight enough (or maybe over-tight) out of 20.

Rob B.: the guy wanted $38 to change an f'n brake light bulb, a 2 minute job.

Rachel L.: no way , my car's wheels well never be the same , i don't know what they did but i had to get them fix .... so keep your FREE tow

Pat S.: My car broke down at portcoquitlam ccanadian few years back I asked the shop manager if I could leave it for a few days till payday then will get a hem to fix it. I come in on payday the car is gone. They had it impounded....now that's class

Derek W.: They changed tires on my moms car and stripped and broke some studs and also charged her the labour and parts to fix all that

Tammy-Trevor S.: after 2 bad experiences NO way would I get a repair or even a simple oil change there! Some idiot didn't tighten the lug nuts on our car and my hubby could have been killed the tire flew off! I had a tow bill and a repair bill and CT only gave half our money back??? Before that they over charged me like 80$ on a repair, they charged for nuts and washers and crap but it was easy to tell the reused the old ones, my hubby went in and had to get pissy and demand a refund for parts they reused (they nickel and dime everyone that way) plus I had a friend who the guy working had an oil change done and they forgot to put oil in, you can imagine outcome and KIA was pissed as it was a leased car!!! Nice offer CT but fix the issues with your repair shop first and fix the way you handle a bad situation that was YOUR fault, for me to even get half my money back I had to fight for it by going to head office, and for me to get my money back for being charged for using my old nuts and stufg my hubby had to argue with them and prove they were reused! Not cool!!!!!!

Bill S.: I had total incompetent service just on changing a couple of tires over this weekend, the service writer on duty blew me off and didn't even read the installers report that a rim was bent and unsafe yet charged me full price and did not inform me of any defects at the time of payment. Lucky for me the young man that did the install saw me leaving and ran out to inform me. I home the service manager at the west side Canadian Tire Saskatoon will take my complaint seriously tomorrow!!!!!

Brian D.: Worst service at the Kelsey Dr location in St John's Nfld. After 2 buying sale tires that the service dept put on in May 2013. Upon returning for my car they recommend I get 2 more for the other worn tires. Thinking about it I returned to make the purchase the next week. When I picked up my vehicle the service guy took me to a quieter location to inform me a bolt was stripped on a tire and that it just fell out when removed. He informed me that what ever mechanic was at it last did a terrible job. I then produced a receipt to show their mechanic was the terrible one he spoke of. Denying responsibility he informed me they would order a part and call me... They didn't order the part and never called me as was evidenced by my 6 weeks of calls to the service dept. at each phone call I was told by different people and sometimes the same person that there is no order for that part on record. Even moving to a higher power like the part Manger was fruitless as he never return my calls either...... The word Service is obviously lost on your organization and my confidence that the person in your Marketing Dept who will respond to my post with " Customer service is very important to us, please contact our customer service dept" does even get it. After 50 years as a customer I am done

Chris C.: I have had to replace more stretched wheel studs after visiting canadian tire shops than any other place in the world! Do you guys believe in torque wrenches at all? Not just one CT either, I've tried nearly all of them in Winnipeg.

Nicole J.: Already done. And spoke to service manager at original location - his response was that they installed a tire like I asked - refused to take any responsibility that its a different size.

Bina C.E.: last long weekend tried to buy just a tire at the store and after going to customer service and waiting for about 20 min, the lady there was able to find an employee that was willing to sell us a tire (We knew the size and everything) not sure WHY they would not sell us a tire on a holiday - even she was quite concerned about that