On Smart Canucks new Store Reviews section Koala posted a helpful article on how to avoid getting cheated at Canadian Tire’s Scratch and Win Events. Here’s what she had to say:
First I will post the correspondance and then add further comment:
To Canadian Tire Customer Service customerservice@canadiantire.egain.net
Customer:
Composed Sept 16/08
I am writing to you to comment on your recent Birthday Bash Promo. On Sunday Sept 14/08 I shopped at Canadian Tire, Barton Street, Hamilton. I presented my scratch ticket to the cashier. She scratched it in a fashion that the results were concealed, and she said after she threw it in the garbage that there were no more cakes left.
Now my concern is, I did not witness the reveal, nor she did not show it to me. When asked to see it, her reply was “too late…it’s in the garbage.“
Was the prizing actually a cake or $5 or whatever. It would been easy to identify the ticket as the back was completed with name and the answer to the skill testing question.
I am very disatisfied in how this was handled, and do not appreciate the rude mannerisms of the cashier.For your convenience
Store #***
Time: 13:54:44
Trans: #115
Operator # ***
Float: ***I would appreciate a response to this. This will affect my future shopping opinions and habits with Canadian Tire.
I can be contacted via email or phone
Email Reply:
Reply Sept 19/08
Thank you for contacting our office regarding your shopping experience at one of our Canadian Tire stores.
We are sorry to learn about your dissatisfaction with Canadian Tire. Our general managers and store managers are always interested in hearing your feedback. We invite you to please contact the Canadian Tire store directly to voice your feedback. The telephone number for the store in Hamilton is (905) 549‑1336.
Providing your feedback about your personal experience directly to the store will help them understand where they can make improvements. Your feedback has been logged and will be forwarded to the store for review. When contacting the store, kindly ask for the general manager, John Cunningham or store manager, George Cerqueira.
We thank you for providing us with the opportunity to respond.
Corporate Customer Relations
Canadian Tire Corporation Limited
1–800-387‑8803
Follow up:
A telephone conversation with the store Manager Sept 24/08 (they called me)
Received 2 vouchers for McCain’s cakes Sept 26, 2008
Included a letter:
Dear Mr & Mrs. ******
As per our telephone conversation, I would like to apologize again on behalf of the management team and the cashier involved. I hope this matter has been resolved and that you do continue to shop at Canadian Tire-Centre Mall.We did receive more cake coupons and I mentioned to you that I would mail them.
I hope you enjoy and have a great day.
Sincerely,
Carol Copeland
Conclusion:
When lodging a complaint please include store receipt numbers and as much detail as possible. I found this benefited our complaint.
On a second note, when these stores have these events, I become tired of them “running out” and I took a stand on the issue.
Hope this helps future experiences for others.
Honestly 2 cake vouchers are very nice, but I will be keeping a watching eye on these stores and these so called events.
How “Consumerist” of you. Anyway, I too attended our local Canadian Tire’s event, and even though it said “one ticket per person”, I had two (found one on the road by the mailbox), and they let me scratch both. I won $5 and a cake coupon. The cake was awesome, and I saved $5 on wiper blades.
My take on all of this?
Western Canadian Tires are more lenient than the Eastern ones.
Kaola: I am sorry this you had this rude experience from the CT store cashier. This kind of experience makes us spoil our day! I had someone take my quarter from a shopping cart when I asked for helpat another location in Hamilton and it mad me quite angry as well… Thank you for posting your advise. Couponmom
koala..that woulda made me so mad, I woulda demanded to see a manager right at the store. NO excuse for rudeness. If they run outta cakes, they can subsitute something else. NO one would complain if they gave a $5 g/c instead.
Yeesh sounds like Canadian Tire needs some customer service training, I find them hit and miss at out local ones. Sometimes there great other times you wonder why you even stepped foot inside of the building.
Im glad they responded to you quickly.
Funny. The same thing happened in the store in Edmonton, as well. They “ran out” of cake coupons. Either they lied about being out or they are completely incompetant with promotions. At 4 pm on Saturday (Still 1 1/2 days left of a promo) they are out. There were a set # of winners and each store/region should have received an allotment of winners. It should not be that difficult to figure out how many coupons that they would have needed. At least in a reasonable estimation. Very typical of CT and there service over the past several years.
I went to a Canadian Tire store in Ancaster, ON and I also won a McCain Cake. They were currently out of the vouchers (it was Sunday afternoon) so the woman offered to call me when they came in. I live 40 minutes away from Ancaster and told the woman that I didn’t live there so she offered to mail it to me when they came in. She just filled out my information on a rain check slip. I received it the other day. My birthday is coming up so I will be celebrating with a chocolate McCain cake, yum, I haven’t had one in a long time. Anyways, it sounds like none of the CTC stores got enough McCain vouchers, and I don’t think that not having any more vouchers available was a good enough excuse at the other stores. Those store also should have offered to let you know when they came in but the clerk probably didn’t feel like going to the trouble. So if you ever experience it again I would ask to have them contact me when they get them in and if they won’t then you should ask to speak to the Manager. I think the person I got served by was the manager and she was very courteous about it.
I visited the Canadian Tire store on Queenston Road in Hamilton, ON. After the cashier scratched my card, she showed me that I had won the cake. She explained that they were all out of coupons, immediately wrote a raincheck and suggested I return in several days or at the latest by early October (due to the expiration date of the coupon.) 3 days later, the employee at customer service told me they had not yet arrived; she suggested I phone in a few days. On September 23, I finally received the coupon.
It’s unfortunate that some people had difficulty with this promotion.
(Personally, I assumed that this Canadian Tire store would not be receiving any more coupons, so I was pleasantly surprised to receive one.)
Overall I find CT’s customer service is above average, especially Mark’s Work Wearhouse (excellent at responding, they DO care)
I luckily didn’t have this issue and won $5 from the scratch card
I hope the above incident was more of an employee individual rather than the store or the corporate policy. Maybe the cler was in a bad mood, or the training wasn’t enforced strongly enough
Me still a frequent CT customer (way more than I thought I’d be)
I have had wonderful experiences from Canadian Tire.
Very few times have I had to wait in long line ups like some other places. The stores are well stocked and neat. The employee’s have been helpful overall. I don’t doubt that even in the best run stores like Canadian Tire you will have a few bad apples but other places have them by the bushel.
all that work just for a cake???
I went a store in BC and of course they ran out of coupons, but they offered me $3 off my purchase so that was cool.
Keep in mind, that CT stores are franchised so I guess employees are only as good as the owners manage them.
Just to let you know, the matter was resolved and they attended to the matter in a respectable amount of time
The store apologized and I received 2 cake coupons.
It’s that that I wanted to have cake, I just have become tired of these gimmicks stores use to lure you into their stores.
I took a stand.
same thing happened to me! They ran out of the cake coupon, took my address and said would mail it out to me. Nothing yet and couldn’t bother to call up the store for just a cake.
Again, the customer service there is quite poor.
I worked at a Canadian Tire store in Alberta for 4+ years and can tell you all from my experience working there that these types of things happen all the time. Most of the time you can’t really blame the employee or the store for running out of coupons or whatever is is that is being given away. The reason being is that the stores are given a certain amount of coupon/product from the Canadian Tire Corporation, and once they are gone that’s usually it, they are not ordered in, they are sent to the store before the sale begins with the thought that what they receive is a sufficient amount. The corporation as a whole doesn’t seem to really care about the stores a whole lot. They kinda let them fend for themselves unless the consumer gets involved and then they make it seem like the local store is the one to blame. So next time you have a complaint think about that. I am not condoning the behavior of the employee, but they may have run out early due to a large amount of customers receiving the coupons before you.
On the first afternoon of the event, I won a free cake at a Mississauga Canadian Tire store. The clerk said there was no more vouchers and told me to call the number in the back of the coupon. I was disappointed that the store cannot supply enough vouchers to last throughout the event. When I got home, I found out there was no phone number to call so I tore up the coupon. It was not worth the effort for a piece of cake full of calories. I think it was just a gimmick to get more customers to shop at Canadian Tire.
Don’t these McCain cakes go on sale for like a dollar every other week?? Just sayin…
Good for you Koala!
You got your cake and ate it too!
I probably would’ve done what you did and taken it a step further and contacted McCains too!.
Companies that are involved in promotions take them seriously.
I have found this out from experience.
you guys are just ridiculous! you cause these under-pide Canadian tire employees all this trouble, just to get a ‘cake’ or to satisfy your own need to ‘take a stand’ when really, all you’re doing is making someone else’s life miserable!!
they are just employees trying to make some money to pay rent, live life and there you are, the difficult customer who is not satisfied with their life so yu gotta go make trouble for someone else.
seriously, think before you go and cause all this gimmick for someone. be thankful that these promotions are put up and that there are websites like smartcanucks to tell you about sweet savings … but dont abuse it! dont take it for granted and just take every opportunity you can to ruin someone elses day!
thats my 2 cents
*paid
I work at a canadian tire in manitoba and I remember that event it was quite busy throughout the whole weekend but surprisingly we just slipped by with our vouchers. We finished with one stack left some of the employees got to take some home (like me). My mom was pleased. I am a cashier there and I cant remember who it was but it was rude of them not to show them your coupon I usually offered the customer to scratch it and if they didnt want to I would scratch it in front of them. I guess I was just lucky I didnt have to tell any customers that we ran out of vouchers, I hate to dissapoint someone