Canadian Tire — Local services in Bedford

Ok, it's really not fair of me to rate the Canadian Tire garage in Bedford Commons, because I've never used them. However, I have used several different locations of Canadian Tire garages and my experiences have all been the same - VERY POOR. So please don't consider this a review of the Bedford Commons Canadian Tire garage, this is a review of Canadian Tire garages IN GENERAL.

They price gouge, they give poor advice and try to justify more work than what is actually required so you pay more, they don't know what they're talking about and they have incompetent technicians.

I'll give you an example. I had my car in for a seasonal tire change a few years back... simple job, right? Anyway, two weeks after my appointment, my new winter tires were ruined. I never checked my tires immediately after the work was done (and why would I?). Anyway, I found out that they seriously underinflated all my tires (like 10-15 psi BELOW what they were supposed to be). When I came back to the garage for compensation, they said there was nothing they could do. Furthermore, the lady who was the service manager tried to explain to me that the deflated tires were due to the temperature difference between the warmer temperature inside the shop and the frigid cold air outside. REALLY?!?! Do you think I was born yesterday?!?! I couldn't believe she gave me that explanation. That's just underhanded and unacceptable and shameful. She had no clue about what she was talking about... or, maybe she did, and she was trying to pull a fast-one on me? Either way, she was the WRONG kind of person to be a service manager of a garage. Shame on Canadian Tire!!

Once bitten, twice shy. I will NEVER take one of my cars into a Canadian Tire garage for ANYTHING. If they can't even handle a simple seasonal tire change, they can't be trusted to touch my cars. So I steer clear of Canadian Tire garages (and I have steered MANY people away from Canadian Tire garages)... they are HORRIBLE!!

But I will tell you this: the retail side of Canadian Tire is GREAT!! One of my favourite stores!! I spend a LOT of money at Canadian Tire (but not on their garages). I also spend a LOT of money at Sport Chek, Pro Hockey Life and Mark's - all owned by Canadian Tire Corporation and ALL great retails shops. I shop both in-store and online. So I spend a LOT of money at the Canadian Tire group of companies (but never again on...

Drove here from the Valley in order to buy some things that according to the website were in stock at this store. The website however did not say what isle, bin etc items would be located at. I went to sporting goods dept. which was a mess! Apparently relocating as well as moving merchandise in this store. After searching for 5 min. for items, I saw an employee walking by and asked for help, was told he was helping someone else, which is fine, however he ne er offered to help once finished with that customer. I continued to look for another 5 min for item when I saw another employee coming by, I asked him to help me. He entered the item stock numbers of what I wanted in his hand held, told me they were in stock room, and he would go get them, which he did, when he returned, I told him I needed 2 more packs to which he replied okay I will be back but first need to help another employee move something. I waited another 15 min. and the guy never returned. I proceeded to the service desk in front of the store and spoke to her about it while also letting her know that I had an elderly woman waiting for me in my car outside which was HOT weatherwise, the girl paged someone from hardware, I told her the items dept was sporting goods then she paged someone form sporting goods # more separate times and received NO ANSWER! I told her that at this point I wanted to speak to the manager on duty (found out later his name was Ryan). She paged him TWICE before there was a reply. FINALLY, when he called, I told her that I at this time wanted HIM to locate the items and bring them up front so I could purchase them. After waiting for a substantial amount of time I was finally able to purchase and return to my car where the elderly woman had been waiting. To sum up my experience at this location, the customer service was totally inexcusable. The woman helping me at customer service did everything she could to get an employee to help and was totally ignored to the point that I requested the store manager. The first employee who didn't offer to help once through with another customer as well as the other one who brought out a couple items, I requested yet NEVER returned with another 2 need a certain crash course in customer service. They apparently don't realize that were it not for paying customers such as I, they themselves would NOT have a job! SHAME on them as well as the trainer if they...

The counter ladies tried everything but the guys let them down. (And store general manager is not interested in feedback)

Purposely I picked a quiet shopping day (even taking time off) to buy a big ticket item of 60kgs to avoid issues during peak shopping hours. I went to the store service counter to buy one item (11 in stock at that moment). The ladies at the counter tried for 5-7 minutes to get one of the store guys to get the item. Guy one told to get guy two. He was on break and could not come out, guy three was also on break and unwilling to interrupt his break. All the time I was there waiting with money to burn (1300 plus hst). The ladies were literally with their hands in their hair how to solve this as no guy was available and you cannot expect a lady to take an item like this from a pallet in the store.

I thanked the ladies for their efforts and told I would come back later.

Annoyed I left the store and around the corner from the parking lot I left a voicemail message for the general store manager Chris Keating sharing my experience and requesting to give me a call. Apparently he is happy with the employees who selfishly chose their break over helping out their colleagues and turnover as he has not called back.

Thankfully I did not promise the counter ladies I would come back, I only told them ad otherwise I would have had to break a promise as I will not go back after this double whammy of customer care excellence.

Update Friday Oct 22

Canadian Tire Corporate Customer Experience Team wants me to call them to provide more details... In my original message I indicated that I left a voice mail message for the general store manager Chris Keating to call me. So far he has not done that. Not interested in negative customer experience? the phone number given to call does not have the option to get in touch with the Corporate Customer Experience Team. response message from owner is probably a bot that based on the number of stars given generates a standard message. Not good Canadian Tire. All your store are locally owned, so why does the local owner not go online and check these reviews? It is their bread and butter to sell and not get...