Canadian Tire — Attraction in Victoria

I have spent - hundreds of dollars - at this Canadian Tire store, over the past 6 years. On Tuesday, October 26th, I went to this store to buy some specific items. The total of my - attempted - purchases came to $60 (Sixty) When I got up to the cash, I noticed they still had plastic covering their debit/credit machines, even though all other retailers have removed it, several months ago. I don't know if that was the problem, but their machine would not accept my credit card. When I asked if a staff person could just input my credit card number, manually, I was told the "manager" - refused - to allow staff to do it. I didn't have any problem with the staff at Gardenworks in Oak Bay, doing this for me a few weeks earlier and they're a small, locally owned company, as compared to being a huge national chain like Canadian Tire. A few minutes later, I went to Shoppers and used the - exact same credit card - with no problem at all. Later that day, I also went to Save On Foods and again used the - exact same credit card - and - again - I had absolutely no problem with it. NONE! It's nice to know that a huge national chain like Canadian Tire is doing so well they can afford to blow off a $60 dollar sale and irritate a long time customer all at the same time. Perhaps it might be an idea for the Management to have all of the plastic removed from their debit/credit plastic and make sure they are actually working - properly. Hiring staff who are capable of thinking for themselves, paying them more than a "barely surviving" wage and giving them a much more thorough training system, might actually solve these kinds of problems - before they happen....

Thievery corporations feel no way about making you feel like a criminal. I tried to self check out with a tote today. For some reason, the weigh scale didn't register the weight of the tote, which was rather clunky and couldn't sit on the scale properly. The check out set off the notice to put the item on the scale. Rather than come up and give the tote a little shake to try to get it to sit properly, buddy just assumed I had something inside the tote. His knee jerk reaction was to come up and open the tote to see what I had taken. He might have been surprised to have opened the tote to find it empty, but I was even more surprised he would have the audacity to that. I looked him in the eye as I was walking out. Made sure he noticed that I glanced at his name badge. Thievery corporation must love the fact that their staff and customers police each other.

Thank you Ron for your response below. It's not my intention to attack any local business but I do have to refute the checking of purchases -- including totes, bags, suitcases and coolers -- at the POS self checkout as an industry standard. I have not had this experience anywhere else, yet. Perhaps if there were concerns about inventory theft, another less invasive, possibly friendlier, good customer relations approach can be considered, rather than just harsh assumption that all your customers are thieves requiring that level of scrutiny, suspicion and invasion. It does not make for great customer relations and might even lead into...

I upgrade to five stars after an amazing bit of customer service from Gary, Auto Parts Manager. He walked me through the process of getting the proper OEM parts match on my shocks. Sounds simple but the specs have changed a bit over the years and we needed to do some database hunting and even added some extra-long bolts for the lower flange. Gary was patient, conscientious and attentive. If anyone is paying attention, make Gary your VP of employee-training. You won't regret it. Jennifer in customer service is also a champ for listening patiently to my story. And on the way out with additional purchases Shane was as chipper as a spring sparrow. I actually left the store in an upbeat mood. Overall it's an enormous, bright, clean store with room to navigate. The tool section is actually properly stocked. My original review lamented the lack of service bays (which are still back at the old University Heights location) but you know what, I've changed my mind. Considering what an epic bad reputation Cdn Tire auto technicians and front-end staff have for incompetence and dishonesty, I wonder whether the corporation and its franchisees wouldn't be better off severing their relationship with the service bays and just focus 100% on being a retailer. I do my own vehicle work these days so I'm happy being able to find auto parts at a reasonable price, and if I can help it, I will always return to this location for help from Gary (Zack and Juan are good guys up...