Canadian Tire — Local services in West Jasper Place

UPDATE - After the below review, I got the standard "call this number, we'd like to help you further" response. I did call and they gave me a reference number, nobody called back. I followed up a week later and they said they talked to the same person at the store I had been dealing with and then they reiterated all of the same information that he'd already given me. So here's my further feedback - I had already paid my "repair" bill and towed my car home. I understand that this generic reply makes it look like you actually care and want to help, but there is no actual "further help" you are willing to offer, then it's inappropriate to add this response, and unethical to make it appear to other customers that you are doing anything further, in addition to wasting my time with another attempt for you to tell me why you are right and I am wrong.

ORIGINAL REVIEW:

Recently I took my vehicle in to Canadian tire Westpointe. My vehicle had been running perfectly up until one day when I was leaving work and it would not start. No error codes popping up, no shaking or noise, ec. prior to this. They said I need a diagnostic and that would determine what was needed to fix it. I got a text message a while later with an estimate for new spark plugs. That made sense – I replied APPROVED.

After a few hours I got a call. “We’ve finished your spark plugs but want to let you know that you also need a new engine. It’ll be about $10,000 and we don’t think it’s worth it. Your engine is violently shaking and it’s undriveable”

I was in a bit of shock because I was told the spark plugs would fix the problem. These new problems had never been there before and didn’t appear to have anything to do with the starter system of the car. I asked for some time to think.

I talked to a couple of people, fighting through phone system that was down for that day, who would read verbatim what it said in the file and provide no further info. I wanted to understand how my engine went from running perfectly fine to completely destroyed, and it seemed unusual.

I finally got a manager who said he would look into it. After a couple of discussions and waiting about 36hrs for a call back he explained they did everything right. He does elaborate a bit that when the car doesn’t start it can get flooded and gasoline can come up into the spark plugs and tear away the cylinders or something like that. Nobody had mentioned this possibility.

He says they couldn’t know the engine was destroyed and I can pay my repair bill and have my car towed. He refers several times to fine print that says “possible other issues”.

I don’t know cars and maybe they did everything right. But here’s a few pieces of feedback for Canadian Tire Westpointe;

Instead of putting “possible other issues” in small fine print, put “There could be other issues, up to and including your entire engine being irreparably damaged and we cannot determine that unless you first pay for the below work” in very large letters You are “experts” on cars, I am not. If you can’t tell that an engine is destroyed without first replacing all the spark plugs, say that. There’s know way for me to know what you can and can’t do. Consider your customer – I've been bringing my cars there for 20 years. You’ve made plenty of money from me. Maybe you did everything right, but a long-time customer is towing a car home with a repair bill to be paid for “fixing” it. That's a terrible customer experience. Help out a customer when they are leaving unsatisfied. Don’t hide behind the fine print. Yes, we all know it’s there. There’s a difference between using the fine print to properly protect your business and using it to avoid all accountability whatsoever. Communicate – A broken call system, a text messaged vehicle estimate that is difficult to see or read on a phone, waiting days for call backs, no understanding or empathy, and a complete lack of clarity about what your work will actually accomplish, if anything. These things do not make for a good...

Incompetent or worse. Brought truck in to fix tire. They held it for more than a day and dinged me $40. Only thing changed was the steel tire air cap was now a plastic one. Within 24 hours the tire had quickly lost half of its air. I returned two days later to ask for my money back. The service clerk said she was not authorized to return my $40 and that I had to wait four hours for the manager to arrive at work.

She did tell me that she could get my truck in to look at the tire. I assumed that meant by looking at it she would then be able to confirm the tire was still not fixed and then be able to return my money. Unfortunately, my dog was in the truck and I had no leash so she told me the dog must not be in the vehicle when they looked at the tire. I was then given the 1-800 customer service number to call.

I then called Canadian Tire customer service as directed by the service clerk at the store. A friendly lady from the toll-free CS asked if it was okay to put me on hold while she tried to call the store and the original auto service clerk's phone then began to blink. She then stepped away and let it continue blinking. She returned when another customer arrived and continued to ignore the flickering light of the incoming call from Canadian Tire customer service. CS eventually told me there was nothing they could do differently than what the store clerk originally told me.

I went back to the store clerk who said they would look at it but only to try and fix it again, and that there was absolutely no way she was authorized to refund my money for not fixing the tire and that I would have to wait four hours for the manager to arrive since only the manager has the authorization to return my $40.

I asked the CS store service clerk to review the accuracy of this text before posting it, and she accused me of harassing her and began to yell and swear at me and told me she would call her manager over if I didn't leave (even though she told me earlier her manager would not be there until the afternoon). I then started to audio record her words to me and this appeared to make her even angrier so I left so as to not make her even more angry.

I later replied to CS a second time as they asked me to in the response below and the second CS phone representative read back to me the store clerk's recorded version of the events above. I then discovered in that version that the store appears to never return money for work done under any circumstances. Although I may not like that policy it would have been better to have been told that at the start rather than waste everyone's time.

After finally changing my tire in the Canadian Tire parking lot to the spare it was now almost noon so I went in to the regular customer service counter (the store part and not the service center with the angry auto service clerk) to find out if I it was possible to get my $40 returned. The very friendly CS store clerk called over a manager who took one look at my concern, said "I am done talking with you" (even though we had never talked before) and walked away.

I have to say because Canadian Tire appears to have an absolutely-no-money-back policy for work done incorrectly, or in this case not at all, that this is so unjust that I strongly recommend people seek auto service elsewhere.

Please note that when reading the reviews of this store there is a pattern of poor reviews for tire service so my experience appears to be a common one. I hope things change with Canadian Tire's tire service, but until then forewarned is forearmed.

Reply to Customer Service response below: I tried calling Customer Service already. They said I had to work it out with store. The store clerk's yelling and swearing at me make it...

As someone who has multiple businesses , I know firsthand how crucial good customer service is to maintaining a loyal customer base. Unfortunately, my experience at this Canadian Tire location was the complete opposite. From the moment I walked in, I regretted going there.

Right away, I noticed a security guard in plain clothes giving me a suspicious look. He didn’t even try to hide the fact that he was following me around the store, watching my every move. It was unsettling, especially since I was dressed professionally in the same outfit I wear to meet clients. I couldn’t shake the feeling that the only reason I was being treated this way was because of my race.

I tried to ignore it and focused on finding what I needed, but the store was a maze, and nothing seemed to be where it should. After wandering around for a while, I realized I needed some help. But when I looked around for an employee, I couldn’t find anyone who seemed remotely interested in doing their job. Most of them were just standing around, talking to each other.

Eventually, I spotted a young female employee who appeared to be stocking shelves. As I approached her, I noticed an older man, who wasn’t wearing a uniform, staring inappropriately at her as she worked, particularly focusing on her when she bent over to stock items. The way he was looking at her made my skin crawl. Despite feeling uncomfortable, I approached her, hoping she could assist me.

She greeted me with a smile, and I started explaining what I was looking for. But before she could even finish listening to me, the same older man rudely interrupted. He barked out directions to an aisle and then ordered the young woman back to stocking shelves, continuing to ogle her as she worked. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her—she seemed so young, probably underage, and she didn’t deserve to be treated like that. I hope she finds a job in a more respectful environment.

By that point, I’d had enough. I didn’t want to give this place a dime of my money, so I walked out, glad to be leaving. I ended up going to Cabela’s and Home Depot instead, where the customer service was far more professional.

I’ll never go back to that Canadian Tire, and I urge others to avoid supporting a business that treats its employees poorly, has racist undertones, and offers terrible customer service. And to the management, don’t even bother with a generic computer-generated response asking me to call you—I have no interest in dealing with you again. The only reason I’m sharing this is to...