Canadian Tire

Canadian Tire as a brand has ultimately been sliding down my rating scale. As a frequent shopper at many of the locations this location I find to be among the very worst due to their lack of organization, slow restocking and poor customer service.
My Father has always been an avid shopper at Canadian Tire so it has forever been embedded in my mind as a household name and Canadian company, But after years of making a variety of purchases I have gradually lost my respect for the company as a whole. I have had several instances were the company changes or even creates new policies without giving consumers the right to know in turn setting up certain «consumer traps» I call them.
The last situation being one I just experienced were I purchased a $ 200 tent (10person Outbound) which I was not allowed to open or inspect before buying. So I took it on my bday camping trip this weekend only to find that the zipper was defective and snagged irreversibly the very first time I tried to unzip it to enter the tent SO the tent had a gaping hole we could not close that got larger and larger letting every flesh eating insect in. Not only this but the tent itself was completely see thru… Not even during the night and with any lamp on inside the tent you could literally see every detail on an outfit, freaky!!! Needless to say we ended up using it for mostly storage as that hole was pouring in the Mosquitos, my body is still riddled with terribly itchy red bumps.
I know from experience that my cousin returned a tent after something similar happened with the zipper and received a full refund however this time it was not the case. I attempted to return the tent with all pieces undamaged, minus the zipper of course, however I was told by the customer service rep at the returns counter (because they don’t seem to wear name tags anymore I asked to find out her name was Chanice) that they no longer accept any returns or even exchanges for tents. I was shocked as I was never informed of this and my receipt also mentioned nothing about it however she insisted this was the case. Any other retail outlet at least stamps or verbally notifies the customer upon purchase that the sale is final. But she claimed she empathized with us however there was apparently nothing she could do and was not very accommodating once we asked for management who took a very long time to even turn up only to avoid the issue like the plague.
This confused me further as I had just been to another location who told me they could offer me store credit but that was all as they did not have that particular product on their shelves. Leaving me to wonder how their policies are implemented on a store level… Can 16yr old cashiers use personal discretion to decide how this business runs?
Kind of ridiculous to be frank that they are selling products you can’t even see before buying then not informing the customer that the sale is final and implementing different store policies based solely on the discretion of the individual dealing with the matter.
Not good business in my opinion so to be safe I would suggest avoiding all larger purchases here as it seems the company can not only change policy without warning but you will likely be dealing with different company policies and even standards depending on which staff member and location you visit.

Improved service! Was looking for an item for my Dad for Father’s Day. I didn’t see it on the shelf. I looked around and the closest guy was from the paint section. Usually if you ask them they will say something like that’s not their department. But this guy was pretty nice and told me he will call someone from the corresponding department. He waited around until he saw I was being taken care of. This lady came with a scanner and but we were interrupted by a phone call on her headset. But she quickly came back to us.
She scanned the item and told us immediately that they should have it in the back. She said it might take up to 10 mins to get it cause she had to get her managers permission. But she was back in around 5 mins and we left happy customers, ! I’ve had bad experience with Canadian tire before but this time was an A+!

I went early morning to get the pros scan on sale! They told me I’ll check the back if theirs some and the worker came out and said their is no more! How can it be I just got here, this is false advertising. It’s 2 days later and I see it again on sale on the flyer again. You guys are a joke and good at false advertising. You just want to bring people in to buy other stuff. The hell with you guys and the owner if the place. A little more money I’ll go to best buy.

If I could give no stars I would. Just wasted 2 hours (most of it watching my car through the glass) trying to get a Drive Clean test done.
They lied to me at one point claiming they were waiting on results from the Ministry… then when pressed they claimed there was a battery problem with their equipment and they were trying to fix that… THEN when that didn’t work and after talking to the ministry they said they couldn’t do the test because of a problem with the light pen on the machine… THEN the same guy that initially lied about just waiting for results tries to tell me there is no problem with the equipment… after 2 of his staff already told 2 different lies!
Avoid this location at all costs… they’re inept… have zero customer service skills (never even got an apology)…and are just all around a MUST AVOID for anyone getting their vehicles serviced.

I like shopping at Canadian Tire. This location though drives me up the wall.
Once, I was looking for something advertised in the flyer. After looking everywhere for it, I asked someone for help. 15 minutes later, the person they paged came by (Vitto, yeah I know your name buddy) and said that he would look in back for me. I waited. And waited. I was standing by the walkers for the elderly and seriously considered getting it out and doing my best «I’ve just aged 70 years while waiting for you» shuffle when he finally showed up.
He didn’t show up. After waiting 45 minutes (yes I’m a sucker) I finally got fed up and asked the person again to page him to see if he was still looking.
Got back a curt answer when she talked to him that he hadn’t found it in back. Clearly he decided not to tell me and keep me waiting there in the store.
And a general gripe about Canadian Tire… what is up with their inventory? Don’t trust their web site. Don’t even trust their in-​house computers. I went to FOUR Canadian Tires to find the item I was looking for, despite the web site and in store inventory stating that they all had this item.
/​waves cane at their inventory system

Yes, there’s always parking, and yes, it’s Canadian Tire so it sells yummy outdoorsy things, but the service is always the pits. It’s just so hard to find someone to help! Today we asked someone where the work gloves were. ‘Aisle 64′. All the way to the back, but no gloves. We ask someone else. ‘Aisle 108′. Down to the other corner. But there’s no Aisle 108! Gah. Okay we give up on gloves and look for some fuses. We can’t find the exact ones we want, and are wondering if they do have them. Can’t find staff, so we push the ‘customer service’ button on the post, and get a voice message saying staff are on their way. We wait… and wait. Two red-​shirted staff wander into one of the main aisles nearby, chatting and laughing, just lingering. We give them the benefit of the doubt, and assume someone else is on their way. We wait and wait. A young guy joins them, there are three of them now. We keep looking for the fuses, and FINALLY that same young guy ambles to us and doesn’t ask how he can help, just walks up to us and kind of grunts (and to his credit, does know what we need and shows us where it is).
Seriously. Why can’t you train your staff to be excellent! Home Depot is just across the street, and we decided today that if we are going to look for something that HD might have, we’ll go there first.

I really worry for this place. Here’s why…
In the world of big box retail, this Canadian Tire simply does not stand out. ON name recognition and size, it does beckon you in, but beyond that things start to get fuzzy…
1. It does not compete well on price. I saw a spruce at Canadian Tire offered at almost $ 200. Across the street at Home Depot, it was $ 80. Other day to day items are OK on price, but Wal Mart is awfully close by.
2. The place is somewhat big and bright, but a closer look reveals that, like a lot of these places, it is not clean. At the door there is the gum scud covered pavement and overflowing trash cans. Inside you will notice the areas where the floor machine does not reach. Lowe’s would win a clean battle any day.
3. Like any big box place, there is no service. The challenge here is that it is not that busy. Wal Mart could at least use that as an excuse. If anyone of the employees walking around asked you if they could help you on a consistent basis, it would be impressive. This doesn’t happen.
Canadian Tire needs a way to stand out beyond simply having Canadian in its name. While this helps, and it certainly seems more distinctive than say, Rona, much more needs to be done.

My preferred location. Plenty of parking, large store, wide aisles, quick checkout and garden centre always has something of interest.
On the negative often common items are sold out, their car service centre will get the job done but expect to wait. Store service is non existent, but thats to be expected after all this is a Canadian Tire.

Every time I go there I feel the urge to buy things I don’t really need, but that look so interesting or cheap or… I don’t know. I’m not a shop-​a-​holic but Canadian Tire is amazing. This location is big and calm, never seen any long lines, lots of space among the aisles. Good for weekend fun!

This location has the advantage of being large and the aisles are spacious unlike some of their more urban stores. Parking is always easy here, even at busy times.