CT Challenger

New member
As we close in on the 200th report of a Canadian who has pledged to "never buy from Canadian Tire again", we should consider the implications of the number of such pledges.

For instance, this thread is being populated by just 1 or 2 people, and only for a couple of months. So, the relatively small number "200" shouldn't be taken as an indication of the total number of Canadians who have taken this pledge.

It is well-known in retailing, and in other failure analysis circles, that the number of reports drops off rapidly as one moves up the escalation chain.

This means that, for each person whose pledge has been reported on this site, there are easily 10 times as many Canadians out there who have made the same pledge elsewhere on the internet, but are not recorded here. So, there are likely to be at least 2,000 Canadians who have posted their pledge to boycott Canadian Tire somewhere on the internet.

But lots of people don't use the internet, yet still would have taken the same pledge, but announced it through other means, such as a written letter to Canadian Tire, or even just telling their friends. There are likely about 10 times as many such people, which would mean roughly 20,000 Canadians who have written about or spoken about their pledge.

And let's not forget that we Canadians tend to be a polite group, who are more likely to keep our upset and alienation to ourselves. It would be well within the norm for a Canadian who is treated badly by an identifiable brand, to simply 'suck it up', and privately vow to never darken that retailer's door again, without making a public announcement. Typical numbers are between 10 and 25 'silent complaints' for each verbalized complaint. So, it is not unreasonable to assume that roughly 200,000 Canadians have already vowed to 'never buy from Canadian Tire again'.

And all this is based on the small sample of Canadians who have been identified in the last few months. The actual number keeps rising sharply, which bodes ill for this once-venerated retailer.

Could there be a million Canadians who boycott all Canadian Tire stores?

2 million? 3?

Sure, the Crappy People who post here might try to hide from these numbers, and dismiss this as 'only 200 people who didn't even bother to post on Canadian Tire Sucks Dot Net'.

But if they were at all interested in "strong customer service", they would surely be taking every single one of these boycott declarations very seriously.

And they will only hurt themselves and their employees if they continue to bury their collective heads in the sand.
 
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CTH8R

New member
Inching closer to the 1 million mark:


#200:

Sarmen S I just wanted to let you know that I, a proud Canadian, have recently celebrated my 4 year ban from Canadian Tire. The customer service was atrocious and I swore that I will never step foot in another store again...thank you.
 

Owner 1

New member
Inching closer to the 1 million mark:


#200:


That's a heck of a milestone you made there. I still served that many customers long before lunch today. and it's Tuesday.
I wonder how many Canadians rediscovered Canadian Tire today. Ones that hadn't been for years for whatever reason. Or maybe customers that had never shopped a CT, or moved to a new city and tried a new store.

Probably a few
 

CTH8R

New member
The CT'er still haven't caught on to the implications of these numbers.

That's OK - they don't need to heed the warning signs - it's their problem to deal with, or ignore, as they see fit.

But at some point they'll be all surprised - "Gee, where did all my customers go? There were only a few hundred whose boycott delarations were captured on that one web site. How come a million people are boycotting us?"
 
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CTH8R

New member
Do you suppose Jimmy W. will soon "rediscover Canadian Tire"? Maybe "move to a new city and try a new store"?

Nah, he's one of the ever-growing army of brand-new, once-loyal boycotter for life:


#202:

Jimmy W.: i certainly agree with you randy !!! yorkton sask. is another idiot place. i bought a new riding lawn mower there this past friday. paid $1100 cash with taxes plus about $100 of instore items. mower wouldn't start - they said battery was dead. i told them to go and get a new battery off the shelf and send that one back to get a replacement. they wouldn't do it so i got my money back and told them i'm never dealing there again.how stupid can the manager be as to lose a sale of $1200 just over a new lawn mower battery.

Jimmy W.: all you have to do sir is call yorkton sask. store and ask them for their story.it won't make a difference what they might tell you. i was telling you the truth. i also mentioned to them that i would never buy or even visit any canadian tire store ever again and i meant it. i bought a snow blower from them last year for a $1000.00 and had no problem with it - however, i was very disappointed to drive 50 miles there and 50 back without a machine. wasted my time and gas which i can hardly afford as i am an old age pensioner. you just lost a customer for life. there are many other stores that sell lawn mowers who would bend over backwards for a customer so as they would be satisfied and have them return and continue to purchase their products. nothing you could say or do will change my mind. -- best to you and your company in the future.
 

Owner 1

New member
As we close in on the 200th report of a Canadian who has pledged to "never buy from Canadian Tire again", we should consider the implications of the number of such pledges.

For instance, this thread is being populated by just 1 or 2 people, and only for a couple of months. So, the relatively small number "200" shouldn't be taken as an indication of the total number of Canadians who have taken this pledge.

It is well-known in retailing, and in other failure analysis circles, that the number of reports drops off rapidly as one moves up the escalation chain.

This means that, for each person whose pledge has been reported on this site, there are easily 10 times as many Canadians out there who have made the same pledge elsewhere on the internet, but are not recorded here. So, there are likely to be at least 2,000 Canadians who have posted their pledge to boycott Canadian Tire somewhere on the internet.

But lots of people don't use the internet, yet still would have taken the same pledge, but announced it through other means, such as a written letter to Canadian Tire, or even just telling their friends. There are likely about 10 times as many such people, which would mean roughly 20,000 Canadians who have written about or spoken about their pledge.

And let's not forget that we Canadians tend to be a polite group, who are more likely to keep our upset and alienation to ourselves. It would be well within the norm for a Canadian who is treated badly by an identifiable brand, to simply 'suck it up', and privately vow to never darken that retailer's door again, without making a public announcement. Typical numbers are between 10 and 25 'silent complaints' for each verbalized complaint. So, it is not unreasonable to assume that roughly 200,000 Canadians have already vowed to 'never buy from Canadian Tire again'.

And all this is based on the small sample of Canadians who have been identified in the last few months. The actual number keeps rising sharply, which bodes ill for this once-venerated retailer.

Could there be a million Canadians who boycott all Canadian Tire stores?

2 million? 3?

Sure, the Crappy People who post here might try to hide from these numbers, and dismiss this as 'only 200 people who didn't even bother to post on Canadian Tire Sucks Dot Net'.

But if they were at all interested in "strong customer service", they would surely be taking every single one of these boycott declarations very seriously.

And they will only hurt themselves and their employees if they continue to bury their collective heads in the sand.



Wow, that's definitely the most telling story yet, thanks for enlightening me. Enlightening me with ridiculous humour and statistics that is.
How is it that your crazy math has turned 200 into 2-3 million?

Also in regards to math, looking over to your comparison of Walmart Canada's Facebook to Canadian Tire's, well yah, there's no surprise there. Walmart is massive compared to us. Grocery is a giant part of their business and draws huge customer counts daily.

Keep grasping at straws buddy. The mighty triangle will always be here. Will always turn a profit. Will always have millions of loyal Canadians. Will always generate very wealthy entrepreneurs in each community we serve.

ALWAYS!!!!
 

CTH8R

New member
What the Moaner really meant to say was, "Blah, blah, blah, I don't really suck, so keep buying stuff from me, even though I won't stand behind anything I sell, and I will rip off people who come to me looking for a real mechanic".


And now that it's been shown that Walmart Canada is almost 3 times as popular with Canadians than the Crappy 'Canadian' chain? (Based on Likes per day).

What are we supposed to believe?

We are supposed to conclude, "Nope, that doesn't matter at all".

And why?

Because, "Gee these big bad US companies are just, like, really friggin' huge, eh"?


Gimme a break!

Number of CT stores? More than Walmart Canada (around 500 compared to only 370).

Number of years in businees? More than Walmart Canada (1922 compared to 1994).

Number of unique products sold? More than Walmart Canada (CT carries about 55,00 SKUs just for auto parts alone. But WMC has only about 100,000 in a typical store).

Is Canadian patriatism working in their favour? A big "Yes" to CT, but a definate "No" to WMC.


But, heck. We all know what this is REALLY about, now don't we?

The Moaner wants to protect his own precious 'brand', by trying to conceal just how much his Crappy store actually sucks.


Not a chance! It's now very clear that, every day, more and more Canadians are catching on.

- A barrage of daily compalints on CT's Facebook 'fan' page - faster than they can delete them.

- Three times as many facebook Likes, despite the 'home-town advantage' and Canadian knee-jerk patriotism.

- A steady of stream of new Canadians who take the pledge to ...

Never Shop at Canadian Tire Again!
 
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CT Challenger

New member
Wow, that's definitely the most telling story yet, thanks for enlightening me.

You are most welcome!

Be sure to share your new knowledge with all your fellow owners - it sounds like CTC has been keeping you in the dark about basic Customer Service principles.
 

CT Challenger

New member
It's been noted that Crappy Tire will have garnered about 900,000 facebook "Like" by the end of the summer, and that the number of recorded 'Boycotters" is only about 200 (as recorded over a couple of months, in this little corner of the internet).

This could be construed as possibly indicating that Canadians are actually fond of Crappy Tire.

However, there are a number of factors to consider:

- CT has been recording Likes for many years, while the Boycotters have only been tracked for a couple of months (so there are sure to have been many boycotters in the past).

- There are likely to be many, many times this many Boycotters recorded elsewhere on the internet, and even more go unreported.

- All the "Likes" CT has garnered are recorded at this central web page, but the boycott are scattered among sites, emails, etc.

- There is no reason that CT would never cancel the "Like" someone gave them, but they have been frequently observed deleting critical post from it’s site, including boycott pledges. So, facebook Likes are overstated but facebook boycott notices are understated.

- It is extremely easy for someone to simply click on a button without much investment in CT at all; however, it takes time and effort to compose a post/email describing a complaint. So, facebook likes show a long level of commitment, but a boycott notices show high commitment.

- Consumers are routinely given an incentive to “Like” CT, such as entry into a contest or a coupon of $5-$15. But a consumer who posts a boycott notice often gives up a chance to enter a contents or get a benefit. So, Likes are encouraged, yet boycotts are discouraged.

- Clicking “Like” isn’t completely anonymous, but it cannot easily be determined which facebook users clicked Like. However, by posting to the facebook page a web site, anonymity is broken (the name appears in the post. Again, Likes are encourages; boycotts are discouraged.

- CT Spams Canadian Facebook pages in order to prompt users to “Like” them; but there is no organized campaign to prompt Canadians to “boycott” CT.

- There is no need to (or even opportunity to) state a reason for ‘Liking’ a company; but a pledge to boycott a company is generally accompanied by a detailed list of reasons. Thus less weight should be given to a Like, and more to a boycott notice.

- There is little passion evidenced in a “Like”, which could be fanatical loyalty, or just a ‘sure, why not?’ action; posts announcing boycotts are typically fervent, passionate and heart-felt.


In light of the above observations, it should be clear that the Facebook Likes are not only over-stated, but represent a much lower level of commitment and passion on the part of the consumer.

On the other hand, a impassioned, detailed Boycott Notice, posted with personal effort and possible risk, on this site and others, should be given a great deal of weight indeed.

Not that the Crappy People will every admit that.

After all, we've seen how they respond, both on this web site, and on their own facebook page, where they deal with complaints quite easily:

Ignore or delete? Must be a tough choice ... but certainly easier then actually fixing their clearly-broken stores!
 

CTH8R

New member
OK, time to introduce the Partial Boycott.

First, people who will only buy cheap and simple products:


1# (partial boycott - cheap and simple only):

Steve B.: Canadian Tire sells crap! 3 weeks ago bought some outdoor stuff that came with missing hardware. They won't do anything about that as I have to wait 4 to 6 weeks for parts from the distributor in California. Thats half of the summer! I can't take it back because its a seasonal item and I can only get store credit. What am I going to do with $600 of store credit? Buy some more crap? Lesson learned. Stay away from Canadian Tire unless you're buying toilet paper or nails.
 

CTH8R

New member
Partial:

Stephen H.: My old vehicle, 99 dodge avanger went in for an oil change, they did the oil change but forgot to put the oil cap back on, halfway home my engine caught fire becuz of all the oil on the inside of my hood. NEVER HAVE SERVICE DONE EVER AGAIN! They quoted oh it wasn't us. and took no responsibility for their actions.
 

CTH8R

New member
#204:



Chris R.: Canadian Tire ripped me off charging my wife 99.00 to diagnose a dead battery only one year old even though the battery came with a nine year warranty. Manager was insulting and ignorant of my complaint...and no one at Canadian Tire cares. Never shop there again. Never!
 

CTH8R

New member
A reluctant but decisive #205:


Jackie S.: Never fails @CanadianTire: whatever store I visit in Vancouver, I get horrible customer service from incredibly RUDE staff! EVERYTIME! Clearly, you do not train your staff well b/c nit only are they rude, they're unknowledgeable re company policies and practices. As a CDN born and raised citizen who grew up with CDN tire, I have witnessed a horrible decline. Goodbye Canadian Tire, I've had it
 

CTH8R

New member
#206:


Joelle S.: I had the worse shopping experience shopping at Canadian tire. I will go out of my way NEVER to shop there again!

Joelle S.: I did contact customer service department at the head office and got no satisfaction there. A very hallow apology . It's unfortunate that a Canadian company cares so little about customer's concerns.
 

CTH8R

New member
#207, on this thread: https://www.canadiantiresucks.net/ontario/945-just-didnt-end.html

(A little puzzle: try to fill in the blanks: "N___ s___ a_ C_______ T___ a____!")

---

it just didn't end!
Canadian Tire #087 Mon May 27, 2013 at about 1500 hr: A lady staff named 'Heidia' or 'Haidy' or ‘Hadia’ (herein referred to as ‘Heidia’) came to assist my mom and me in loading our shopping cart with a couple of recliner chairs, the folding type that you can use outdoors on the patio. While removing one of these chairs from the shelf, Heidia offset a couple of boxes underneath that shelf (these were also large boxes of similar chairs). I even warned her by saying 'Be careful'. Nonetheless, she continued pulling out our items. I was standing behind Heidia when the two boxes underneath the ones she was pulling 'popped out' of the shelf and fell towards her and me . The boxes injured my right wrist (and her I’m guessing) as we tried to stop them (out of instinct) from falling further. However, they were too heavy for both of us and so they tumbled down to the floor while I scrambled backwards to avoid any additional injuries.
I calmly advised her that she needs to be careful in handling merchandise and that an even worse accident could have occurred. She apologized and then after she loaded the chairs boxes (the two we wanted to buy) in our cart, she apologized again and went away. We picked up a few more items we wanted to buy, all while I was trying to understand the incident and how careless the staff are and how weak the store policies are. We proceeded to the checkout counter and asked the cashier if we could speak to the store manager. She heard a bit of our story and then decided to call the store owner. Jason Hayes, Canadian Tire store owner, came to us and we relayed the incident to him. He appeared concerned and apologized more than a few times. He also said more than once, that accidents happen and that he was sorry about it. I told him that the shelves are so carelessly and forcefully stacked that removing one box on one shelf forced another item from another shelf to ‘pop out’ of its place unnecessarily. To this he answered that items are stacked like this in every store he had been to in his entire life! We even asked if there was another counter or customer service place to go to, and that if there was a form that we could fill out to record this incident, but he said there isn’t anything of the sort. He insisted that he is at this store and that as long as he was there, we could come in any time and speak to him about this. I then pressed for some information of a person I could contact or someone who I could speak to so that I could discuss the situation with, and about the store’s safety procedures. Mr. Hayes then gave me a card with the HR contact. We asked him to write his name on the back of the card. We also asked him to write ‘Heidia’s name also. To this he replied, “I don’t know how to spell her name. You already know what it is.” I must also mention that during this conversation his DOG came into the store and he starts petting it. And then he apologizes for the dog interrupting our conversation!! Absolutely no professionalism or customer service morals whatsoever!
Well we mentioned that I would have my wrist examined by the doctor. When I asked if we would need to take matters further what the procedure would be, Mr. Hayes said that in that case a lawyer would have to be involved. After more apologies, he asked either we take it up with HR or that “we could settle this right now” as he pointed towards our shopping cart. Not knowing what we were supposed to say or do, we said we have HR’s contact number. So we left the store after paying our bill. Mr. Hayes called a staff person (a young guy) to help load my car with our purchased items.
Upon leaving the store, my mom decided to buy some flower pots that were being sold outside the front entrance of the Canadian Tire store. I joined her after our items were loaded into the car. We selected about 6 plants ($2.49 ea +tax). And just as we were about to reenter the store, I got sprayed from the behind by a young girl staff who was watering the plants with a hose!! She was unaware until I got her attention. And that’s when I lost my nerve. We stormed back into the store and asked to speak to Jason Hayes right away. He came and I explained the situation. Again, he was apologetic. I told him that we were completely upset and we will return everything if nothing was done now. He then said, over and over again, “Please tell me what you’d like me to do”. We were too outraged by that point because we couldn’t believe this was all happening to me, not to mention that my clothes were all wet from behind! Instead of him offering us something he kept insisting that WE TELL HIM WHAT HE SHOULD DO. Absolutely ridiculous! Because he didn’t offer to give us the items even though that’s what I had said first after I got sprayed by the watering girl, we thought it best if at least we got a discount. So he gave us our discount, and gave us the flower plants and a few free cucumber seedlings for free. He personally helped carry our plants back to our car saying, “I want to make sure you don’t go through any more than you already have for today!”
I want to say that the whole experience was a learning experience of how never to shop at Canadian Tire again!
 
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1wildhorse

New member
sorry but i usually agree with most complaints on here,but this latest one smacks of guy who lives with his mother,has no life and just wants to bitch at life because of it.humans are humans after all,we all make mistakes from time to time,and im actually on cts side on this one(makes a change but im a fair person).i mean cmon did he not see the chick watering the flowers?
 

CTH8R

New member
Well, that's the beauty of free enterprise.

People are free to 'vote with their wallets', and if they don't like a particular retailer anymore, then there's nobody who can force them to shop their.

Personally, that store sounds to me like it's poorly run, in a variety of ways, and nobody seemed to be taking any genuine responsiblity for any of the issues.

I certainly hope this person's injuries (caused by CT negligence) are only minor.

(There have been 1 or 2 complaints where I thought the customer was asking too much, but this isn't one of them.)

Regardless of what you or I might think, CT is down one more life-long customer, and there are more sure to come, too.
 
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