Yes I want to bring this up again.

[Robimus]

Originally Posted by gagagalvatron

But either Thomas or one of the other associates should have known that Thomas was going on break, and should have made sure the customer got help from someone. Having a customer wait for an employee who went to lunch is inexcusable. I'd never go back to that store. Ever.

What if there is no one to cover him? Does he then just not go on breaks?

I just don't think its on this Thomas fellow, at least not without more info. Thomas is not a a mind reader, he likely has a scheduled break that he has to take around that time, which someone is suppost to cover. Its not like he walked away from the people and told them they had to wait. He was away, couldn't know what was happening and thus imo shoudln't have been publically laughed at.

To me its on the company, not the individual, in this case.

Originally Posted by gagagalvatron

It's a little odd, yes. But according to Ellen Roseman, it's the law. (That sounds...abusable, because they have to take your word for it.) What stood out for me is that based on multiple accounts here, Zellers seems to have a habit of knowingly putting used, broken, or defective merchandise back on the shelves. Their customer service departments have to know this.

Lunch and coffee breaks are the law too

None the less I know that both Zellers and Walmart have done this, and yeah its terrible. That said sometimes common sense has to apply. Zellers did make some attempt to help the customer by offering to replace or give a gift card, it wasn't as if they flat out refused to help.

[Dark Rage]

Honestly, some of their expectations were a bit too much. Like the Thomas/coffee maker issue. CSRs in these store make barely above minimum wage (AFAIK), so you can't friggin' expect them to be experts. The whole twitter 15 mins thing too, also a ridiculous expectation IMO. Maybe a day or two.

It's probably the jaded person/customer in me, but most of the results found in the episode weren't new to me. CS sucks, it's all about the profits, and the large companies have so much leverage in this equation, it's quite sad.

I've blacklisted Canadian Tire for everything though, I'll never shop there again (unless I absolutely have to). Most of their stores pretty much say "final sale", especially since each store is franchised, and most of those owners wants no refunds at all (greedy, anyone?). Also, they use their dumb-ass "Canadian Tire money" as a loophole to cash in on 2% of your purchase, because if you don't have that "money", you must have it deducted from your refunded money back or store credited back. It may not seem a lot, but they literally make probably a few million every year with this policy. Next time, just staple your CDN Tire money to the receipt if you're unsure of what you bought IMO (that is, if you can even refund/exchange it at all).

As for the used coffee maker, they really should have just refunded/exchanged it ASAP. If you purposefully wait past the 30 day return policy, you're just risking to be stuck with that lemon. You'll just appear to be suspicious to the customer service desk when you attempt to refund it -just- after the return date. They're not going to care what Ellen Roseman says, law or not. Not many people are going to spend that much money on a lawyer just to fight that issue. Better off to do a purchase swap or take the HBC gift card and sell it to someone or cardswap.ca

The most saddest thing I found, is that Walmart was the only company willing to see Marketplace in person to discuss and address their concerns. All this pride of Canadian-operated/owned companies doesn't mean squat if they suck-ass. Yes, I know Zellers is essentially US-owned now too.

[Goaliebot]

Originally Posted by Matrix_Holder

Just watched Marketplace, that guy with the lawnmower... I had almost the same thing happen to me. I bought a lawnmower at Crappy Tire on appleby line in burlington and the first time I used it (7 days after I bought it, thats when the lawn needed cutting)...the power supply burst into flames and scorched my shirt. I brought it back and they refused the return, I argued with the manager said they sold me a deathtrap and I could have been seriously hurt..no apology for that at all. told me that lawnmowers had their own policy, I asked to see it and they pulled a binder from under the CS desk and showed it to me. the binder was about 6 inches thick of policies not included on the receipt. I argued for half an hour and got nothing, I even got to the point of screaming in the store in front of all the customers that they sold me an exploding lawnmower and that they didnt even care...I also threw in a bunch of profanity at this point (don't remember ever being that angry up to that point). I took my Lawn mower and told them that this isn't over and that they should F themselves in the butt. I went to the Crappy tire by the burlington mall and showed the girl at the CS desk my scorched shirt and said what happened...I was nice and polite and did not say that I had been to the other shitty store. she apologized profusely and got me my money back right away, that was the last thing I bought at Crappy tire (except for the classics prime and megatron 2 pack ) and I wont buy anything of importance there ever again.

Sadly, Canadian Tire horror stories no longer surprise me. They are a source of constant rage over on RedFlagDeals. The biggest problem is that they have corporate policies, but the actual franchise owners do whatever the heck they want and corporate doesn't stop them. So some owners treat all returns as attempts to steal their personal money, while others understand it as part of retail customer service.

And I would rather let a trained monkey work on my car than take it for service there. Literally.

So I now hesitate to buy from CT and avoid them, as I never know whether they will follow their own return policies fairly. I never abuse the return system, yet CT can and has screwed me over. Sigh.

[Cheers Ian]

Personally I've never had a problem with Canadian Tire - either with customer service or with returns. I've returned a couple of "defective" products with little to no hassle.

The biggest problem I had was when a employee proceeded to open a clearly still factory sealed item and started to tear through the unwrapped packaging to see if all the parts were still there. I just kind of laughed it off though - it was painfully obvious that the item hadn't been opened.

I find Wal-Mart one of the harder places to return something, I think they probably experiece a higher volume of people being "shady" with returning items and they have been given stricter orders about checking returns.

[Nemesis Predaking]

Originally Posted by Cheers Ian

The biggest problem I had was when a employee proceeded to open a clearly still factory sealed item and started to tear through the unwrapped packaging to see if all the parts were still there. I just kind of laughed it off though - it was painfully obvious that the item hadn't been opened.

I remember "getting in shit" at CTC for not checking to make sure all the parts were still in a factory sealed box. I was all like "really?"

[Nomad]

Well, I can only speak to the Kelowna Canadian Tire, but I take my car there all the time because I know I won't get screwed over, and it's not just because I used to work there either.

However when I did work there, I always made it a point to check the contents when it was questionable (key being questionable, not every damn item, especially since I didnt work on cash), and of course to physically go & see something before I told people we had it. Another thing that made shit a lot easier was to tell people who I was over the phone & say to look with the guy with long hair, because even if they were angry as fuck, it was still easier to deal with it straight on instead of having them get even more upset going though 5 other people before actually finding me.

Then when it comes to the stores themselves (not just CT, but anywhere really), I've very rarely been the victim of bad customer service from the people working there, and part of that has to do with the fact that I don't go outa my way to be an asshole. I also don't have unrealistic expectations for random store people to know everything about everything for every single product, nor do I expect the store to pay for my gas money if they're out of stock.

Policies, shitty management, and of course the nature of the beast are another thing, but with exception to a few isolated incidents, I've found that almost anyone will treat you well if you're patient, reasonable & polite.

[Cheers Ian]

Originally Posted by Nemesis Predaking

I remember "getting in shit" at CTC for not checking to make sure all the parts were still in a factory sealed box. I was all like "really?"

Yeah, I figured it was policy or something.

It doesn't take much to figure out if something is still factory packed/sealed.

[Nomad]

Yeah. The stuff that's fresh off of the truck only has minor tears, while the stuff that's been raided for parts or returned multiple times has half the box held together with dirty packing tape.

I learned that one damn near my 1st day.

[Cheers Ian]

Originally Posted by Matrix_Holder

Just watched Marketplace, that guy with the lawnmower... I had almost the same thing happen to me. I bought a lawnmower at Crappy Tire on appleby line in burlington and the first time I used it (7 days after I bought it, thats when the lawn needed cutting)...the power supply burst into flames and scorched my shirt. I brought it back and they refused the return, I argued with the manager said they sold me a deathtrap and I could have been seriously hurt..no apology for that at all. told me that lawnmowers had their own policy, I asked to see it and they pulled a binder from under the CS desk and showed it to me. the binder was about 6 inches thick of policies not included on the receipt. I argued for half an hour and got nothing, I even got to the point of screaming in the store in front of all the customers that they sold me an exploding lawnmower and that they didnt even care...I also threw in a bunch of profanity at this point (don't remember ever being that angry up to that point). I took my Lawn mower and told them that this isn't over and that they should F themselves in the butt. I went to the Crappy tire by the burlington mall and showed the girl at the CS desk my scorched shirt and said what happened...I was nice and polite and did not say that I had been to the other shitty store. she apologized profusely and got me my money back right away, that was the last thing I bought at Crappy tire (except for the classics prime and megatron 2 pack ) and I wont buy anything of importance there ever again.

Canadian Tire has a very weird/strict policy when it comes to Lawn Mowers. They literally have an entire binder devoted to lawnmower policies.

Which I'm guessing they probably don't tell people before they buy them.

I found this out when I witnessed someone trying to return a mower - still looked new, maybe used once. Canadian Tire refused to refund it, however that was mostly due to the customer trying to return it to another store other than the one he purchased it at, which for a big ticket item that he was claiming was deffective (He didn't like how it cut the lawn) he should have really taken it back to the store he bought it at (which was only about 10 minutes away).

[Nomad]

It's the same way with power sports stuff & to some extent trailers, but not nearly as... heavy as the policies regarding mowers. I always hated selling those things because most of the bikes weren't even functional when they were put on display, others would always leaked oil, and the proper paperwork/keys were rarely delivered with them. Then on the opposite side of the fence, the people who wanted to buy these things rarely came prepared with a vehicle that could actually do so (no, a Miata isn't suitable for carrying an ATV), some of them were retarded enough to think I'd let them ride around in the store, and others wouldn't understand the meaning of "not street legal", no matter how many ways it was explained.

Trailers were fun too because even after I was able to get a full chimera together & working (these were often piled up in the tire compound & raided daily for parts), people would come at like 8:30 pm when insurance places weren't open, and this would somehow be our fault.

On top of this, the store made barely any money on this shit (not even when you account for the wasted hours dealing with em), and they were just an overall pain.