Interesting comment on the Canadian Tire Facebook page, from a man who says he used to work there:
Edwin Sweet I cant be bothered to contact customer service. Its a waste of time. I usally dont complain, just go elsewhere. I use to work at Canadian Tire and know first hand that they mostly hire apprentice mechanics and yes they do get a commission on everything they "up-sell you" . I just buy there now when I can get a good deal dollar wise and am prepared to bite the bullet.
Destiny continues to try reasoning with Canadian Tire about the impact to ordinary Canadians when they are over-charged for automobile repairs:
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Destiny Hodgins As of today Canadian Tire no one has replied to my concerns. 1000$ might not be a lot to you as a company, but as a Gen Xer (someone who is too busy paying off debt to save for retirement) - that pays off my VISA completely. The money I had saved for a vacation this summer - a trip to Montreal to visit friends, was used to pay for the repairs, so I have gone deeper into debt in the hopes that I can pay off the trip before I go. This may not matter to you - but as a Fransaskoi I live in a province that is predominantly Anglo, and this yearly trip is KEY to maintaining my language skills. If I don't go, I risk losing my French skills, and I don't want to do that, as my second language skills make me more employable. If I didn't have good credit, this repair would have cost me that trip, and made me less employable since I wouldn't have had the same opportunities to practice my skills with native speakers. I am taking all of this into consideration as I deal with your company moving forward.
Destiny Hodgins For the record - I have emailed CS, called CS and posted on your FB page.
This one seems relatively minor in comparison, but is a typical example of the service people can expect from the Canadian Tire auto center:
Hardy Beiner i asked people in kingsway in edmonton to change a windshield wiper and the answer I got was please leave your car and some time in the afternoon we will change them and it was 9 am
A little late to be of any help for Destiny, but maybe the word can spread before much more damage is done by Canadian Tire to innocent people's vehicles:
Franco Cuzzola Destiny Hodgins: I learned never to take my car to Canadian Tire about 15 years ago. lol
More from Lin:
Lin Cripps Don't any of you hold your breath waiting for satisfaction from Can Tire because it is not likely to happen. I had a problem with the Unicity store in Winnipeg on Nov 28th and it is still not resolved, they really don't give a toss.
Update from Destiny! Yeah!
Destiny Hodgins For those following my story - someone from the East store (with a difficult to understand accent according to my family) called my home around 5:30. As previously mentioned, I am a Gen Xer with a lot of debt. I work two jobs to pay off that debt. I cannot be reached before 7:30 any night of the week. I work 12 hour days. Which is another reason why spending my vacation money on car repairs is a huge deal. I need to keep up my French so I don't have to work two jobs. Apparently the guy is going to call back on Thursday. If it is the same rep I dealt with when I went into the store, I see no point in dealing with him, as he provided me with no assistance (and also had a thick accent).
Some moron tried to pick a fight with Destiny. Look what happens:
Destiny Hodgins Benjamin - if Canadian Tire hadn't overcharged me for a 550$ worst case scenario job, there wouldn't be an issue. The problem is they overcharged me. Then they reach out to me, and am told I am at work. Instead of contacting me AFTER I am done work - or leaving a NAME and NUMBER where I can reach them (I called the store three times tonight and NO one picked up) they say they will call later. I work in Corporate Sales, "I'll call her later" means "I will call later when I hope like hell she won't pick up the phone and then I don't have to deal with it". The fact is, the impact of overcharging someone for a repair of any kind has a huge impact on a person's life, standard of living and livelihood. As a customer I TRUSTED Canadian Tire to do right by me. That trust is broken. Based on my family's life expectancy - I should be driving for another 55 years. That's 55 years worth of business Canadian Tire has lost out on as a result of this. The loss of mobility (a Charter right by the way) is not the fault of Canadian Tire per say, rather it is the fault of the individual owner and store that overcharged me for parts, labour and who insisted I needed to replace a battery that didn't need replacing (which by the way is fraud in this country). So I am speaking of the personal problems resulting from systematic incompetence of Canadian Tire Service and Repairs.
Destiny Hodgins PS - Canadian Tire the fact that there was no message left with full name and extension (which is a policy of the multi national corporation that I work for - when asked to leave a message one MUST be left including first and last name as well as number and extension) is another poor reflection of your company. Thursday, when the call is supposed to come, I will be at work again and unreachable before 7:30 CST. I except a VM as a result which includes first and last name of the rep as well as a toll free and an extension
Last edited by CTH8R; January 15th, 2013 at 11:51 PM.
Vague ... but useful!
Josh Heffernan have yet to go to a good Canadian Tire shop... Its like pre-school for mechanics
I think Destiny could have known better than to wait at home for someone from CT to call. It's not like they are known for customer service or anything ...
Destiny Hodgins Per the call on Tuesday night while I was at work - I was to receive a call tonight. It is not 9:20 PM CST. The store is closed, and I did not receive the promised call. I will be calling CS again tomorrow - one week AFTER I was cheated out of several hundred dollars because I had to put in a battery I didn't need and was overcharged for the part and labour.
Destiny Hodgins Oh and I could have worked tonight until 8:30 - I turned the hours AND the money down so I could be home to receive this call. I believe that Canadian Tire east now also owes me the 17$ a hour I could have made between 4:30 and 8:30 - and yes, you can verify with my secondary employer that I was scheduled to work.
I don't have a horror story of C-T service because I've never used them but has anyone noticed the gigantic service interval chart on display above the service counter?
Wheel alignment every 20K kms? Really? I wouldn't let them align my wheels. Any alignment they do is going to have the vehicle pulling hard to the right, just like any other alignment shop. I wouldn't bother doing my own alignments if there was a shop that did them properly and safely.
Look at the intervals for rad flushes, oil changes, brakes, etc. They are so short it's unbelievable. This is not a sign of an honest garage. If my Mom went in there, she might think she needs her entire vehicle overhauled as part of some sort of general maintenance.
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