Since 2010 is almost over I decided to start an annual “contest” where we nominate and vote for Canada’s Best and Worst companies of the year! I’ve noticed a significant drop in customer service over the past couple of years so I’m sure nominating the worst through 2010 will not be too hard.
Post your Worst Company nominations and the reason for shaming the companies in the comment box below. You can nominate absolutely any company as long as it operates in Canada. You have till Wednesday Dec 29th, 2010 to nominate the worst companies of the year after which we’ll have a public poll to choose the Worst Company.
I’m just curious, what is the point of this besides causing drama and anger? Also, it sounds like a really good way to earn another lawsuit from a big company.
Just saying, I prefer to focus on the good things, rather then worry about “shaming” a company.
I vote for Shoppers/Pharmaprix
I nominate Shaw Cablesystems for Worst Canadian Company of the Year!
Shaw has recently introduced Usage Based Billing for their Internet services — which means they have *increased* their rates, while *decreasing* (and now enforcing) monthly bandwidth caps. Go over the cap, and extra bandwidth is “just” $2 per gigabyte! Extortionate…
All this, while ISPs overseas offer greater speeds, higher (or no) bandwidth caps, and much lower prices!
Aisling, why not? Why can’t we express our opinion freely as long as we have a justified reason behind it (hence the “reason for shaming the companies”)
I’ve always tried to make sure SmartCanucks is not censored or affected by large Corporations. I really love my blog, SmartCanucks, and I’d like to think that we can at least discuss our opinion about different things in an educated and positive environment.
melsprag, why do you nominate Shoppers? any story behind that?
I’m not sure if its customer service lacking or just more people complaining about every little thing, or if somethin doesn’t go there way.
As like the best company I’ll have to think about this one.
Black’s photo. TERRIBLE new ordering software and there is no longer an option to pick-up prints you’ve ordered online without pre-paying by cc.
Rogers gets my vote, they have had the worst customer service for years now.
I don’t like the idea of negativity to end off the year…..
I just don’t understand why you should use your blog to focus on negativity. Because all this is going to turn in to is a big rant about different companies that has no real reason.
I just think your time and energy could be put to better use. But if this is how you’re choosing to expend it, then I wish you luck and hope you can find happiness in your anger.
I dont think Boo is an angry person at all! Hes a pretty happy go lucky person most of the time and I usually talk to him everyday.
I posted both:
Best Company in Canada 2010: Nominations and Worst Company in Canada 2010: Nominations
I didn’t mean to be negative, I just thought it would be fun to read people’s comments and maybe have a good laugh at some of stories. Sorry if you thought I was intentionally being negative.
Its hard to think of a company as a whole that I have a problem with, it’s usually more location specific then anything. Our Zellers here is messy, the cashiers are rude and everything rings in wrong, but I know another Zellers in the next town isn’t too bad. So I would feel wrong nomintating the company as a whole as “the worst”
But in that breath I’ve decided to nominate Bell Canada, they just seem to be getting worse and worse in all areas. From breaking the do not call list (they were recently fined 1.3 million for that) to having horrid customer service call centers, and of course being overpriced they get my vote.
SaskTel-all about stats and not knowledge
When the link to this appeared in my twitterfeed, it just made me sad to see it. like momof5boys said, negativity at the end of the year just isn’t my cup of tea. I’m all for the best company of the year post, I just fail to see how a post eliciting negative reactions and rants serves any real purpose.
I think it is good to hear other people’s stories and experiences and if this is your blog, you are able to discuss whatever you feel interesting. If it is too “negative” in your view, read something else 🙂
Definitely has to be “the source”.
Aisling, well let me give you an example of how I think sometimes negativity might be useful.
I’m not sure if you are aware of this, but Bell has been trying to convince other ISPs and the government to support throttling and shaping of the Internet for a couple of years now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=210jV3r0ZZ8
If it wasn’t for consumer awareness ( http://openmedia.ca/blog/letter-supporters-will-we-save-unlimited-and-affordable-internet ), smaller companies like TekSavvy and cities like Vancouver ( http://openmedia.ca/news/city-vancouver-calls-out-crtc-behalf-its-residents ) fighting against this, all the ISP giants would have united and screwed our Internet. So the end result was actually very positive in this case. Sometimes speaking out helps create something positive 😀
But that is a completely different animal than just ranting for rant’s sake. Speaking out against a particular actual issue is far different from asking people to list and “shame” companies for the hell of it.
Anyway, I have better things to do, I just wanted to bring it to your attention that this post may strike people as needlessly negative and unnecessary. Hope you enjoy the rest of your holidays and find something to celebrate happily.
Sears home center has really upset me with not dealing with a shingle problem for the last 4 years
Rogers
and BEll lol
BC Hydro…already has a 2 tiered system that charges you on two different tiers depending on your usage, however doesn;t take into account those with large families…I feel we are already being “punished” enough as it is on this, and now they want to increase rates 30% over the next 3 years, at an increase of 10% a year…my bill is already about 180.00/month for a family of 6, and I turn off all my power bars at night, my heat stays at 72*, our lights get turned off whenever no one is in the room and the small appliances and odds and ends are unplugged when not in use…
THAT is why I nominate BC Hydro as THE WORSE business in Canada!
Cake Beauty – their customer service is horrid!!!
RCSS
My beef this year is with two companies who are making ‘food’ for our nation. Chapman’s ice cream makes their ice cream and frozen yogurt with a deadly amount of sugar. It’s not just sugar but the other sugar equivalents in their recipes which are dangerous to people’s health.
Ingredients In Frozen Yogurt (which you would expect to be healthy): Mac Nut flavour:
Modified Milk Ingredients, Milk Ingredients, Sugar, Glucose, Dulce de Leche Flavour sweetened condensed whole milk, glucose, glucose-fructose, natural flavour, potassium sorbate,Praline Macadamia Nuts (sugar, macadamia nuts, butter, salt), Shortbread Cookie Pieces (wheat flour, butter, sugar, macadamia nuts, glucose, water, coconut oil, salt), Mono and Diglycerides, Locust Bean Gum Guar Gum, Carrageenan, Bacterial Culture
There are five sugar ingredients in a row. The taste of this icecream is sickeningly sweet and even for people who don’t have diebetes running in the family, this is a dangerous food which we allow to be sold in this formulation in this country. All of their ice cream is sickeningly sweet, so sugary that you can’t taste the fruit in the fruit flavoured ones, it’s so SUGARY AND DISGUSTING and IMO, dangerous for peoples’ health, adults and children alike.
Secondly, Michealina frozen food entrees. I got a few to try when they were on sale. I thought, what the heck. It might save me from cooking every now and then. Well, they were disgusting, inedible and not at all like the photo on the box. I really don’t know how they stay in business. I wrote them to tell them how disappointed I was and instead of offering me a refund, they sent me coupons to try more entrees. How silly is that?
(For lack of a better word). I would not feed it to a dog. They make crap, that makes them bad.
I think the food supply in Canada could use some serious people handling the job better than they are doing.
I dont expect ice cream to be healthy. Why chapmans? Ben and jerry’s haagen daz, Laura Secord, Marble Slab etc are all considered treats and desserts…. I’d rather have real sugar in items then fake artificial crap.
Bell Canada is, hands down, the worst company ever of all time. Their customer service is appalling. Recent news headlines show that they have been fined (something like 1.5 million) for violating the national ‘do not call list’. They offer inflated prices for standard services, it’s impossible to get ahold of a real person when calling for help and, when you do, there seems to always be a very significant language barrier. When I finally decided, as a customer, to leave Bell Canada, they were suddenly able to offer me better rates, etc. Three years letter, I’m still getting junk mail from them begging me to come back.
No contest – Rogers – their billing is often incorrect, the employees are not taught how to treat customers respectfully and when a complaint is made to the head office, they argue with you and tell you that you are wrong. I’m just waiting for my contract to finish.
Also – I disagree about Chapman’s being the worst – they are a loyal Canadian company who took care of their employees after their factory burned down – I would vote for them at the top of the best list – honesty and loyalty are rare in business – congratulations on a great job Chapman’s
Old Navy / Gap / Banana Republic Canadian operations. Every single time I have chosen free shipping, my order has always arrived more than 9 business days after shipped from warehouse. I know it’s free but if you don’t follow through on your promises, why bother?
BC Gov do-gooders and China Creek Internet services:
High speed wireless a tier cheaper than satellite: $10 per gig for going over six monthly gigs!!
The BC gov set it up for us rural folks with a clause that no competition isps are allowed for SEVEN Years. So its 7 years of couldn’t care less!
That tops my worst list as I endure yet another year on dialup.
PS Greg, from here, Shaw looks almost FREE! |:-(
Superstore. Brutal customer service when you have an issue or question.
Rogers.. just tacky how much you have to hassle them and play ‘the game’ to get a good plan.
I LOVE Chapmans…it is the only ice cream my 4 year old daughter can eat because they are the only ice cream I know of in Canada with a dedicated peanut-free line! (and gluten free)
My wo9rst company this year is “What on Earth” they sent me twio tiny stocking stuffers worth $12 in a HUGE box full of paper with a $28 US shipping charge.- when I responded with a question of why they chose to ship a huge box of air at my cost they replied by giving me a $5 credit- YAY! Oh well, lesson learned.
And I don’t know if Aisling is reading but I appreciate a post like this because it helps the good businesses stay in business and weeds out the bad businesses or ones with poor service. Honestly- word of mouth is everything. If nobody ranted about bad service- then all we’d get is bad service- there would be no barr to raise.
Thank goodness for twitter and facebook for changing the way of advertising to focusing on positive reinforcement of the good and word on mouth for the bad- we will see more companies focusing on the consumer do to it!
Sears Catelogue Canada
Worst because they started charging a $3 shipping and handling charge for every order, and don’t tell you about this when you order.
They dropped this charge over the busy Christmas season, but refused to credit it back on an order I made just a day before they dropped the charge. I can order products from many US web-sites without a charge.
Their website is difficult to navigate.
All around poor customer service!!
@ MrWillabie: Ouch. Sounds like that should be ruled anti-competitive and monopolistic and struck down! There still might not be any competition, but at least the possibility should exist.
So… the story so far seems to be that Bell, Rogers, and Shaw are high on the leaderboard for Worst Company. But what’s going to happen — even if they make it to the final vote — is that everybody’s going to vote for their local ISP/cable/phone provider, and some other company is going to sneak in as the worst. But the reason these companies are all so strongly in the running is *exactly because* people will only know the bad service from their local providers — it’s their monopolistic (or, at best, duopolistic) mindsets that make those companies not care about competition and customer choice.
Maybe these companies should be lumped into the monopolistic bloc they seem to wish to be, and voting should be for “Bell/Rogers/Shaw – Internet/Phone/Cable” as Worst Company.
Primus.
It’s between Zellers, Wal-Mart, and Rogers for me.
Home Depot on Henning Drive in Burnaby. The customer service there is less than adequate to be polite. I tried to return strings of their Christmas lights that THEY had the recall on because they sold a cheap and inferior product and I was told that they were not from their store and not even made from this year and icicle string lights are not WHITE!! They said all the lights they sold were green, what icicle lights do you see that are green??? The girls at the customer service desk are rude and unhelpful. I went to the Coquitlam location and they gave me my money back with no problems and couldn’t believe what had happened at the Burnaby store. They also confirmed that my lights were purchased this year since it was on the tag still stuck on the lights.
Burnaby store Home Depot, horrible attitudes, mean reps and they don’t even know their own products and make me feel like I was trying to rip them off by bringing in products that don’t belong to them -stupid!
Zellers, Shoppers Drug Mart.
Telus is the worst company!
ROGERS has the worst customer service, and billing is more often incorrect than correct. just HORRID.
Rogers is the worst company, I have a $45 cell phone plan but somehow my bill every month is $80-$90 and I barely use my phone. Also BC Hydro has the worst customer service, long waits and very rude representatives.
I’m going to have to go with American Apparel! Not a Canadian company but they do operate in Canada, and I just feel their customer service has gone way downhill over the last year. I’ve been waiting almost 3 months for items from various orders on backorder, and when you try to contact them it takes weeks to get a response despite the website guaranteeing a response within 3-5 business days. I have friends who have had all the same issues with them, which is a shame because I love their clothes!
Best Buy, in store is ok but ordering online is bullshit, the inventory is always wrong, they cancel your order after the fact cause stock isn’t available and they don’t respond to all their email or facebook customer inquiries…unacceptable in my books!
Bell Canada…Don’t ever have a problem, you will find it impossible to find a live agent to talk to! Hands down the worst company I have ever had to deal with!!
All cell phone companies are horrid, Rogers edges it though.
1. Sears. For a jacket with a broken zipper, they offered 10% off, but *we* had to pay to get it fixed, plus buy a new zipper. How ridiculous. Oh and for the record, all other jackets there had the same problem — we tested. Hope everyone else has fun with there little offer…
2. Bell Canada, of course, because of them starting this usage based billing BS, and because their rates and customer service are a joke.
3. The CRTC for allowing greedy Bell to have their way, proving once again that they don’t really care about consumers at all.
sorry, worded the Sears thing a bit strangely, meant that if we were to take them on their offer, we would have to pay, not that we did. Of course, we refused and went elsewhere.
ROGERS by far. I can’t wait to leave them in Feb 2011. My bundle is supposed to cost me $99/month and I haven’t seen a bill close to that in months. Am sick and tired of having to call them every month to complain about my bill and then they screw up again by giving me the wrong amount of $ credit.
I’m going Mobilicity for cellphone and ditching TV altogether. Am signing up with Teksavvy cable internet as well.
Canadian Tire – they changed my brakes, I left the shop, less than 5 miles away my car started making weird noises. I called them to get an appointment, I got it the next Saturday, I got there, they told me the mechanic doesn’t work on Saturdays so I had to get another appointment. Third time they “fix” my car and charge me over $500.00 for problems they caused earlier on. At the same time I wanted them to change my windshield fluid cables because one of them was leaking. They decided not to change them but tape them for $35.00!!!! Even with the tape on the right one doesn’t work at all.. I’m never going back.. unless they have another scratch card promo where everyone’s a winner (I wanna get my $500 back and still have $400 to go)
I am going to say The Brick. I ordered a table from them, that never came in so i had a voucher that expired in 30 days to use, and my couch came one piece in the wrong color, and that model was discontinued, so there were no more so they gave $ 100.00 off, then when I went to buy children furniture for my daughter’s room, the lady was a complete jerk to me. Overall the brick just sucks…
I definitely go with Rogers on this one…I was a customer with them for 6 years before I had to terminate service with them. Customer Service sucked any time ya wanted to get things done well speak with a manager because you get a run around with the agents. Oh even if you call be connected…wait for it…wait for it…oh they hang up on you then on your next statement charge ya for calling the call centre what a bunch of help that was.
BC government isn’t really a company but since they have privatized all the support services for Health Care I give all those companies a Failing Grade. They are willing to feed something freezer burned/rotten/mouldy from a box to the oven to the plate all they care about is their bottom line or dollar and forget about that there is a human line behind that bottom line or dollar. Also they make the employees take short cuts look at how many outbreaks there is hospitals or care homes of different strains of bacteria from poor sanitizing jobs.
ROGERS! for their stupid billing, horrible customer service, and changes to internet usage just because netflix moved in in 2010! awful awful and i can’t believe how much they get away with charging for their crappy service!
Sears – customer services is a joke. They have a call centre to send technicians out for service. Our technician did not show up, twice, to fix our dishwasher – called Sears back and they had no record of our call for service – this was 2 calls within 2 days. At then end of every service call for my dishwasher they tried to sell me a product to freshen and clean my NON FUNCTIONING dishwasher – – seriously !??!!!
Bell Canada – charged me $50 to for free service, I did not get $100 credit for upgrading service, spent 2 weeks at Christmas without internet service (promised pro rated refund), etc. It took me almost 2 years to get the $280 refund Bell owed me. When I fired them, they sent me an invoice for $3 for 6 months and threatened to put our account into collections. Turns out it was their error and they ended up owing me money, again.
Well it has to be Bell for me. You call customer service and when you do actually talk to a agent each one tells you a different story. I think theirs policies are the most oddest I have ever heard but at least all the agents should all have the same answers to the same questions. Sad sad. Also in our area Zellers the messiest store I have seen, not once do they have everything on my list priced correctly and so disorganized it seems as if product is just put wherever it will fit even if its wrong….serenity now serenity now!
zellers!
Sears. Complete absence of any service, especially not for customers.
I thought Rogers was bad and so I switched my tv to Bell only to learn that they are equally horrible. An honorable mention (in useless) for Sears Canada and their loyalty points program
HydroOne –overpriced two tiered service changing to time of day pricing–so do all your laundry, cooking, cleaning, (or anything else that uses power) in the middle of the night–or pay a higher rate–but don’t worry no matter when you use the power, you still get to pay an addition tax (thanks HST) and a DEBIT reduction charge–to pay off those big buy out packages they gave their exec. (I really want a wind turbine, and solor panels)
Explornet Internet Services–promoting themselves as the only service for rural custommers–charging more that any other ISP and downtime now higher than 50% of the time. No custommer service–often an automated service saying they will call you–never happened.
And lastly, the Staples store in Cornwall, Ontario—what can I say–they really nice clerks–and good policies–but managers that think the policies are just for show and well ‘old boys club’ comes to mind. (When the last time an manager told you no stock–checked his stock levels and two minutes later a friend walks into the same store and buys the out of stock product… well they ‘know’ him–so they hid some stock in the back!
Ah, I feel better–my last vent for 2010…
Zellers….
Sears by far. They would not exchange my son’s jacket for another one even though the zipper on it broke. After going to the store manager we got a new jacket. A few days later the zipper on the new jacket broke and they refused to give us a refund. I vowed from that day to never shop at Sears again and it has been 3 years now!
Failure Shop (Future Shop) and their fake price match policy. Or more how the managers like to make up their own rules until you call them out and ask to see a copy of head offices policy and procedures manual. Or how they lie about and try to sell everyone, who buys a TV there, those $100 Monster cables and extended warranties.
Hands down, it’s Bell. I have had nothing but trouble with them for eight years, but I won’t sign up with anyone else because I have not heard one positive thing about any of the others. I do have to agree with Sally though – just because you don’t like your local Zellers, don’t assume that the company as a whole is terrible – it comes down to management.
Zellers, Shelves untidy,staff not friendly. Never will go again.
Rogers, hands down followed by Bell. I have canceled my Internet Service with Bell, but stupidly renewed my phone contract with Rogers. I have 2 more years to go, and I am counting days till I can leave them.
Every bill is like opening a mystery envelope. You just don’t know how Rogers will surprise you.
SEARS is on top of my list. I had terrible experiences both online and in-store. It makes me so upset to even think about this company.
Shoppers Drug Mart. Hamilton locations only. They make up different rules everyday about coupons. Other Shoppers Drug marts take no problem as I have read on here. I have to say Walmart even though they are terrible because we know how they get their prcies so low would be best. They take printables, price match and never a problem with any coupon.
Rogers for raising rates every year and having horrible customer service and software.
Telus for their lack of ability to help over the phone and new $2 charge for your bill to be delivered to your house.
Swiss Chalet…learn to cook chicken. When it’s pink it is not done!!!!
Zellers is a nightmare. You can never find staff when you need assistance in a department and the store itself is extremely dirty and not well kept.
Bell…….poor customer service, billing is ridiculous. After my husband died and I called to have the account put into my name, I had to fill out credit applications, provide ID and send a death certificate to get the account out of his name. I’ve never been so poorly treated in my life by a company while I was trying to do the right thing. I could have just ignored the bills and not paid them because they were in his name. I spent more time yelling at Bell for their lack of empathy during this time,and I would never go back.
I’m sorry but for those who thought Rogers had issues, I’ve never been happier with cable/internet/wireless provider. I have never had a problem with them. They completely understood what I was going through when I switched to them, and I never had a problem. Kudos for Rogers understanding people actually do have feelings.
Sears…..my dishwasher broke…..what a disaster it took too many phone calls to get a repair man into the house. They cancelled on me more than once and when I had to reschedule due to a family emergency they were going to charge me a service fee. They suck!
As a shopper and as a former employee I would have to say SEARS. I worked there while I was finishing my degree so I lasted as long as I could but the things I heard from top management was just horrible. The Carlingwood location in Ottawa was particularly the worst of the 3 locations I worked at. Short staffed and the manager does not care because the mall is surrounded by retirement homes and the store manager knows customers will continue to shop regardless of how they are treated. I left the store after two months as the staff morale was at the ultimate low. The call centre is located overseas so head office can save a mighty dollar. Save your money and sanity and shop elsewhere other than SEARS especially the Carlingwood location!!!!
Once one of the ‘better’ companies, now one of the ‘worst’, namely
The Bay. Customer service terrible.
SEARS!! The manager here in Cambridge actually told me to my face that she felt that I was lying about a pair of toddler pants I was trying to exchange. I didn’t have the reciept(yes big mistake) but it was just an exchange to another size and I had just been there 2 days earlier. She was yelling at me in front of the people in line. The pants were cold cause they were in the bag overnight in the car and she was yelling that I had WASHED them and was trying to return them. Who trains their managers?? What kind of customer service is that?? Everytime I’ve had to make a return to Sears it’s like the person behind the counter feels it their money and gives you a hard time. I shop at the Bay now.
It has to be Bell Canada. They lie, steal, and set industry standards that rip off customers industry wide. They have no conception of “customer” in any way shape or form. If you’ve ever called them for any problem, be sure to take your blood pressure after to be sure you’re not in need of medics! Their customer service reps even admit that they think Bell’s policies are really wrong! They should be going through an ombudsman review and get their management’s house cleaned out!
I nominate Smart Canucks. Still waiting for my cashback money.
Roots online – ordered an item which came with a freebie, got the freebie, but not the item I ordered. It took over two months (emails not responded to, phone customer service sucked, no one called back, I’d call again, yadda yadda) – then they finally sent the product I purchased as though they were doing me a favour!
Worst is bell and their billing, my daughters cell bill should br $24.45 a month and every month it is wrong and after an hr trying yonget a live person the finally fix it
Also the Brick simcoe We bought a tv and we were told that we had a 30’day return policy (we weren’t sold on the picture in the store as they had on satilite running 30 tvs), dh tried to exchange it on day 8 and we were told nope, 7 days only, salesman wasn’t working that day. We were looking to spend $600 more on a different tv and dh tried and tried, he called a neighboring store and they did it no problem and delivered it and picked up old one, 30 minutes away for free (local wanted $50 to deliver)
Bell…. By far the worst.. A year ago I took their famous Fibe10 service, which was confirmed as available and working 100% in my neighborhood.. Only to find out by one of their techs that it didn’t; while they advertize “fibre optics” it isn’t since most lines are still copper and will not be changed over soon. 1. for their lies;
While I had Fibe10, my line kept dropping like crazy, 3 service call later one tech said that their was so much static coming in on my line that for me to have no more drop issues I needed to top my service at 8mbps; which I agreed since I was paying a good price for it. 2. for wasting my time with so many service calls by idiots that don’t know their jobs (twas said by the last guy that 1 out of 5 techs don’t actually solve anything because they don’t know what their doing..Nice to hear that).
For the next year I had to call the Bell Client Executive Office because my billing was never what was promised, EVERY MONTH a different amount and wasted time over the phone because they could not give me what was promised to me over the phone. 3. Unethical Billing Service that is never what they said and try to tell you “oh well that’s what it is” until you let them have it and tell them that the phone conversations are also taped on your end and that Consumer Services (Office de la protection des consomateur in Qc) will have this in their hands.
I finally resolved my billing service 2 months ago.. Then the dreafull letter saying that my Internet contract was up and I needed to contact them if I wanted to keep my prefered customer price for being such a good client of Bell.. Well.. the idiot on the ther end of the line located in whatever country they have now outsourced to tell me that for since I was such a good client I would see my bill go up 3.95$ per month for the same service. Euh sorry buddy, but I get 80% of the signal and you want me to pay up more??? I told him no way! And not to change anything. I hang up. Suddenly two days later I receive this email saying my service was being transfered to the FIBE7 as per my request, and that I would be billed the amount the idiot said. WHAT!!?? I called them back to stop the switch, but this time I sent an email to the higher ups and Executive Service; They stopped the switch over but the idiots on the switch boards did something and busted my line. Ever since I get a max of 7mbps for FIBE10!!!! This is a freaking nightmare!!! I hate Videotron with a passion because of it’s owner, but for the first time of my life I’m actually considering doing the switch!
4. The worst service by idiots on the line who decide to change your contracts without your approval; the idiots that do something that changes your internet speeds and that now you have less than 70% of the line you should be getting!!
Today I switched my 3 cell phones to Telus; I’m planning to switch my tv; home phone and internet to Videotron; I’ll probably pay more, but in the end I’m tired of fighting with Bell every single month!!
Rogers
Zellers because I was treated like a criminal when I wanted to return something.
After reading the bulk of the messages here, I see Bell; Rogers, Sears, and Zellers coming back alot.. While Sears is customer services, Zellers just seem to be dirty in almost all of their locations, including our Zellers in Gatineau. But that’s mostly management’s fault.
What I do feel like is that the CRTC seems to be the worst Cie of them all since both Rogers and Bell are mentionned so much. Aren’t they supposed to legislate them? Aren’t they supposed to go out there and fine the hell out of them when they don’t respect their contracts??
They did give them the 1.5Millions fine for calling people on the do not call list, but what about the incredible amounts of mis-billings, the wrongfull service calls, the lies they post in their highly paid commercials??
The CRTC should just close those two giants down or just take control and fire everyone at the top! While the customer service is crap, it all comes down to the higher level asking for bigger profits thus reducing the customer service!!! I even heard that Bell was to move their Customer Call services out of India and into two other crap country that don’t speak both our official languages and also to Texas because “They know about snow”! WTF!?!?!?
But of course, CRTC is governement based so we can bitch and compain to them but nothing will get done in the end.. CRTC is not acting to get them to be honest with their customers and get their billing software working properly and actually stop giving out incentives that they don’t honour at the end of the day!
So I think the outcome should be 1 – CRTC; 2 – Bell; 3 – Rogers; and so on..
I think it looks like Rogers probably wins…while Zellers is dirty and you can’t find anything and the other stores have their flaws…Rogers seems to repeatedly go out of their way to rip off the customer. Everyone I have personally spoke to have mentioned the billing “mistakes” of being overcharged. It’s funny how they never accidentally undercharge. 😉
I would nominate Black’s and Canon. We purchased a camera from the just over a year ago for a trip we were taking to Australia for my sister in-law’s wedding. She had asked me to take the pictures for her wedding. We had decided on a Canon after looking at Consumer reports and on the fact that I had previously owned an SLR from them and was looking to upgrade to a digital version.
Once we got to Australia the camera just stopped working (the lens would not focus and at other times the camera body was not reading that there was a lens even attached) one day while I was taking pictures. I was then without a camera for her wedding and the rest of the trip.
When we got back to Canada we brought it into Black’s to get it fixed which we initially had to pay for to get it sent off. If nothing was found wrong we wouldn’t get our money back we were told. Luckily they found something wrong and we were reimbursed. However about a month after we got it back from it being fixed (which also took well over a month) the camera started doing the exact same thing. Of course now the camera is not under it’s warranty and after letters to Black’s (which we got no response back from) and a letter to Canon (which pretty much just told us where to take it to get it fixed and that we would have to pay for it) we are left with a broken camera or having to shell out even more money to fix it.
I just find it sad that you pay so much for something and the companies that make it and sell it will not stand behind their product. If you pay over $500 for something it should definitely last more than a year.
Ilovewinter; did you buy it with a credit card??? If so check with them, they’ll normally extend the warranty for another year or up to 6 months.
That’s why I buy everything with my Amex or Visa.
Aisling,
After reading through the posts, I must say that there doesn’t seem to be much point to this, especially when individuals name specific stores or companies without substantiating their complaints whatsoever. For those with griefs, I can’t help but wonder if these are isolated incidents, or are in fact endemic to the entire organization. Having worked at many jobs, I realize that I’ve had bad days, and don’t doubt that the service I provided was affected. I also know that customers themselves can be the ones to initiate or exacerbate problems. As far as Boo’s valiant defense of free speech, I know of several individuals whose comments have not been posted on this site, presumably because the content was critical of it. I love this site for informing me of deals, freebies, etc. but the direction seems to stray much too often for my liking.
IBM – For forsaking employees welfare while boasting how great a company it is.
For forcing employees to work overtime (as much as 70 or 80 hrs a week) without any compensation. For calling all hours of the day and night and scolding your spouse for you not answering your phone. For management that ignores you when they walk by your desk. For asking you to complete personal development plans that they don’t ever look at or meet with you to discuss.
Just a company that has no respect for their employees.
I have to agree with a few posters here: hands down, Rogers is the worst company in Canada. I had a $45/month plan, with ZERO overages, and yet somehow my bill was always in the $80 range. Many phone calls to the laughingly titled “customer service” centre ensued, and yet, despite promises from all the reps I spoke to, nothing was ever done to correct the errors. A letter, carefully written & strongly worded, mailed to the Roger’s head office resulted in a letter being sent to me, informing me that my cellular service had been terminated, and I owed XXXX dollars for “early termination of contract”. WTF? Rogers is horrid.
Aisling, if you’re still reading, I personally believe that if Boo is going to ask for opinions on who is the BEST Canadian company of the year, he’s almost duty-bound to ask for opinions on who we think is the worst company as well. Otherwise, it would be like watching the news, and getting only one side of every story. Sure, it’d be a fluff piece, but it would also be wildly biased, and grossly inaccurate.
How lovely it would be if we could all live in a fluffy, cotton-candy world, where nothing was ever unfair or just plain wrong, and people were always happy with stores/people/products/services. Sadly, such is not the case, and I believe it’s of vital importance that we have the opportunity to share not only our good experiences, but our bad as well. As another poster has said, word-of-mouth is some of the most important advertising in the world.
Wouldn’t you rather know about the shoddy practices of a specific company BEFORE you started doing business with them? Think of this post as a Smart Canucks consumer watchdog entry, perhaps.
Arf!
I forgot to mention that Sears lost my moms stereo when she sent it in for repairs. THEY LOST IT. What was supposed to take 1 week to fix, took 6 months of phone calls, arguing with the managers as to who has the stereo(at one point they said we never left it there!)and finally emailing Ellen Roseman at The Star for help. With her help with finally got through to a customer service agent who credited my mom for the full value of the stereo.
Guess what? The new one stopped working 2 weeks later.
Stay away from Sears.
I nominate Aritzia for worst Canadian company and clothing retailer. Aritzia’s boxing day advertisements were completely false advertising and misleading – the flyer clearly indicates that all items are to be 20 – 50% off, however, that is not AT ALL the case. Even in the store windows it says “EVERYTHING 20 – 50% OFF!” but when you actually go in the store, they have things marked down like, 5 – 10%. I’m not joking, their $300 jackets were marked down to $285. You call that a sale? I e-mailed their corporate office to inquire about this false advertising and still have not heard back from them. Worst company!
Believe it or not Danielle, American Apparel IS a Canadian Company.
“American Apparel was founded in 1989 by Canadian Dov Charney, who had a long history with T-shirts and a fascination with American culture.”
“In a November 2010 ad running in Canadian alternative weeklies, the company describes itself as “a majority-owned Canadian company, founded and operated by Dov Charney, a Montrealer”. The ad goes on to say, “in the end, one of the important things that makes American Apparel special is its Canadian heritage””
-wikipedia
worstcompany: greyhound
best: amazon
ROGERS! But the grass isn’t any greener on the other side with Bell or any other provider really. So I still have my service with Rogers, but I have to watch my bill every month!
You know I have read many of the entries listed above and have noticed that most of the issues do not stem with 2010 but earier or on going issues. I agree with Aisling…. we should be writing about how great some of the business we deal with are. I can walk into a store as my daughter says “Bitchy” but have a different experience then the next but still would not rant as the person on the other side might have had to deal with someone like me 5 minutes earlier…
Things made by humans break, what are the chances that if you have been waiting to get something fixed on your car that once you get it done maybe something else maybe going…There are alot of people out there trying to make a buck by ripping companies off… they have to look out for themselves just like us…. anything can happen….Next time someones rude to you, turn the table around… where you just as rude as them???
Anyways.. im done ranting…. merry christmas and Ba humbug!!
Rogers-was trying to contact customer service by email (because what is said over the phone is never available to refer back to) Still awaiting a response after 5 mails sent about 4 months ago (btw I have stopped waiting)
Future Shop-because of the horrible salaried sales people.
Swiss Chalet-for ruining what were once my favorite fries, and shrinking all the foods they serve.
Sears-horrible customer service, ordered a stove and they never once contacted me or responded to my emails asking when the delivery would be they simply showed up one day.
Thank you Boo for starting this and as for Aisling and Themomof5boys – I’d really like to live in your world with no negativity. Get real. I’m sorry that your comments are the first that people see and not the others that follow. If I needed cell service I would certainly think twice about using Rogers and Bell BECAUSE of the experiences that other people have had. The more BAD publicity the corporation gets, the better the service will be in the future – or so we hope so!
Thank you again for this Boo and I’ll be watching for the results of the voting.
Have a great New Year everyone and please be safe!
I rented an apartment in Southwest ON from them in early 2000s… was told it was a quiet building and no nonsense would be tolerated. Had to move out this year b/c they didn’t effectively deal with bedbug infestations (they did not evict a tenant who brought the bugs into the building TWICE and caused immeasurable uncompensated stress to other tenants); they refused to evict a tenant who’s incredible noisiness bothered, angered, stressed out, and interrupted daily life for other tenants daily; they refused to evict a psycho who shouted incredibly loud obscenties and crashed into walls (he was obviously insane) causing me -the tenant below him- incredible stress/duress; and when notified of these things daily/weekly, the BW area co-ordinator lied to me saying he’d help find a solution to make me happy but then merely passed me off to their local paralegal (::insert snicker::) told me *I* was the problem tenant (me: quiet, doesn’t bother anyone, told I was one of the cleanest/neatest in the complex) who was harassing others and interfering with THEIR daily activities and if I did not stop complaining, I would be evicted. Unbelievable! I moved out BY CHOICE shorrtly after… Was not going to give these people my money any longer. DO NOT rent from Boardwalk!!! They are a JOKE!!
BCE-Bell Canada, No Doubt..I work for a company that has about 25 accounts with Bell. Every week i have to call and complain, customer service the worst, ask for a supervisor they do not supply, instead they say they will call in the next 48 hours, NEVER do, we have a representative that i leave min. of 5 messages and he never calls back..
When you post date the check, instead of entering that info in the computer, they first bring the cheque to the bank which takes 3 days to pass, then they enter you in the computer but by this time you are charged a late charge, they try to blame everyone but their bad accounting system.
They had last year alone 3 times more complaints then all the other cell phone suppliers combined, they have false charges on their bills, when told to pay back the customer, they opt to give it to charity instead which is a tax write-off for them, they were recently fined 1.5B. for using tele-marketers calling opt out lines..
I also stopped their service at home and still receive junk mail that is not labeled Bell but another company but when opened its junk mail of Bell.I have send back these letters to be removed, have talked with numerous people on the phone to demand no send, half the people told me not their job..
Not a single person who works for them can blatantly support them..That shows when your staff dont support from the inside.. who should then support outside..
They have used more money to buy from stadiums,TV stations, to anything but invest into phones..Your a Phone Company not rule the world in anything and everything..
Time for this company to implode and die..And remove the name Canada because you are far from a representative of the Canadian people..
FRONTLINE explores the relationship between U.S. job losses and the American consumer’s insatiable desire for bargains in “Is Wal-Mart Good for America?” Through interviews with retail executives, product manufacturers,
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6281757350710695719#
Rogers Wireless! Poor service, greedy prices, and the back-door tactics that they constantly use (renewing your contract another three years without telling you if you make a tiny change to your plan, putting early expiry dates on ‘bonus’ services without notification, etc.) are SERIOUSLY FRUSTRATING! Can’t wait until the new services in the country start servicing the Northern areas!
Walmart Is Quietly Raising Prices – Up to 60%
http://morichesdaily.com/2010/08/walmart-raising-prices/
reverse rollbacksReport: Walmart Jacks Up Toy Prices Just In Time For The Holidays
http://consumerist.com/2010/12/walmart-jacks-up-toy-prices-just-in-time-for-the-holidays.html
Bell Canada is my vote for hiking the internet usage fee as of Jan 2011 to 60 from 30
Jon Lehman worked for Wal-Mart for 17 years, managing six stores in four different states before he left the company
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/interviews/lehman.html
“… What is the opening price point? Why is it so key to Wal-Mart’s strategy?
OK, it’s lawn-and-garden time. Your grass is getting high. Your lawn mower is broken from last year, or you need a new lawn mower. You’re going to go to Wal-Mart. So you go to Wal-Mart, and you’re looking for a lawn mower, and to your delight, you walk in, and you see this $99 lawn mower. You may not want a cheap, basic lawn mower, but you see that price point on an end cap or a big display stack base, and you say, “Wow, what a great price.” And it draws you in. It lures you into the department, and you form the perception immediately that “Hey, Wal-Mart’s got the lowest prices in town. Look at this item right here. How could they sell it for $99?” …
But as you walk into the department and look for that $269 power-drive lawn mower that you really are after, they’re not losing money on that item. And it may not be the lowest price in town. Wal-Mart used to advertise “Always the low price.” They don’t do that anymore.
Because?
They got in trouble. Some of the other competitors sued them, tried to go after them and say, “You can’t say ‘Always the low price,’ because you’re not always the low price.” They did a study — a very critical study, very thorough study — and found that Wal-Mart was not always the low price. And Target and Kmart got a little miffed, and some other competitors that [said], “How can Wal-Mart advertise this and it’s not true?”
Wal-Mart’s Shirts of Misery from Bangladesh
http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Business/2006/03/06/01005.html
“When you purchase a shirt in Walmart, do you ever imagine young women in Bangladesh forced to work from 7:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., seven days a week, paid just 9 cents to 20 cents an hour, who are denied health care and maternity leave; screamed at to work faster; with monitored bathroom visits; and who will be fired for daring to complain or ask for their rights?”
This week a student sent photos from her summer travels. This one, of the closed Walmart in Jonquiere, Quebec, inspires her to remember what people working together can do. In this case, the reports go that the workers unionized, and Walmart promptly shuttered the store, a story well worth remembering. The photo shows that apparently even Walmart couldn’t resist memorializing these events.
http://graciemeadow.blogspot.com/2009/07/inspiring-e-mail-from-jonquiere-pq.html
Bell.
It took over a week to send a technician to come when my landline stopped working. It started with me sitting at home waiting for the tech… so I called and I guess he wanted to go home early, because he logged it as though there was no answer at the door. Grrr. (later proven the problem was outdoors so even if he had come, he could of, and should have checked out the box outside as that’s where the problem was. I didn’t even need to be home, even though I was!
The set up a new appointment, where I waited and waited, only to be told on the new day that the appointment was cancelled by them as there was no one to service the call…. and believe it or not, it happened AGAIN. That’s right, three appointments, three no shows!!!!!
Over the phone, they kept pretty much blaming me for the problem, even though in the end it was proven it was a Bell problem. No land phone also meant no house alarm, and it meant racking up my cell phone bill.
In the end they offered $27 in compensation…um, that doesn’t nearly cover the ADT fees that weren’t used during that time, or my cell phone bill!!! So I escalated the issue, and a month later, they offered a total of $120 compensation….but only as a $10 credit per month, so it basically will take a full year to get compensated!! GRR! How stupid!!
Rogers, hands down, all other companies I have dealt with seem to have time for their customers, yet Rogers provides poor service, expensive premiums, and almost 0 support. If you call them it takes you at least 30 minutes to get to someone, and if you go to the store they tell you to call, if you go on the website it constantly fails.
ROGERS! TERRIBLE!
The RICHEST family in America
http://hubpages.com/hub/TheRICHESTfamilyinAmerica
“The four children of Sam Walton are all worth over $19 billion each, adding up to a total net worth of over $78 billion.”
Walmart’s Reign of Terror
http://goodmenproject.com/2010/12/06/walmarts-reign-of-terror/
“The Supreme Court will now hear Walmart’s appeal to a ruling in a class-action sexual-discrimination suit that began back in 2001, when plaintiffs argued that female employees receive lower wages and fewer opportunities for promotion relative to their male counterparts”
Virgin Mobile.
I praised Virgin like the saintly name they carry – until the past year. They switched and are now basically being operated by Bell.
First problem when they switched? I never knew there was a swtich. Apparantly they sent an email and a text with info about the change/switch over… I never got either. Seriously.
I realized only there was a swtich when my husband got a message about it, so I called. They told me to reprogram my phone, I did so, and it all seemed okay…..
….Until I lost all ability to text and to upload pics from my phone to the internet like I always did. I also had no web access. They kept saying I didn’t program my phone correctly when the change happened, but I did. They even talked it through with me over the phone, and I did everything right. Finally they admit SOMETHING’s wrong – though they didn’t know what.
Then I got my first bill. For months, I was paying about $40-60 a month based on my usage. Suddenly, I got a nearly $200 bill for one month!! WTF!
I called and they said with the switchover, plans changed and you have to change your account settings. WHAT?! Why wasn’t I told this?! So I made the changes they suggested – web plan, my5 plan, etc… and credited me the difference. Great!
After about two months , I finally got a call saying that my “phone number” as well as other users across the country got locked into some mysterious messed up program in Virgin/Bell world where many abilities were lost. They were able to somehow fix all of us and apologize for any accusations that we were dumbarses since it was their error, not ours.
Next month… a $150 bill! WHAT!!! Oh, this time it’s because I sent pics from my phone, and I need a plan for that! WHAT?!
So ya got a plan for that, and they credited me the difference.
I called Virgin so many times, and no one seemed to know what the problems were, or who could fix it. Everyone there is “friendly”, but seriously, they don’t know what they’re talking about. Just because they’re nice doesn’t make up for lack of knowledge and ability to help.
In the end, I have worse phone reception than I ever did before. I never EVER had dead zones or dropped calls, now it happens all the time. That, and I’m paying about $75 a month now instead of the lower $40-60 I used to pay. Gee that’s great. If we hadn’t bought a new phone just before all of this happened, there’s no way I would still be with them.
Then just now, they had a Christmas promotion and I won a free ringtone. Awesome! Only that didn’t work, so instead they sent an iTunes credit instead, which would be great if I used iTunes. Grrr. I’d rather the free ring tone!! >:(
Wal-Mart Caught Using Child Labour
http://www.mfl.mb.ca/a15.shtml
“In early December, CBC television exposed Wal-Mart for using child labour at two factories in Bangladesh. According to the CBC report, children 10 to 14 years old were discovered working in the factories for less than $50 a month, making ‘Simply Basic’ and other Wal-Mart-brand products for export to Canada.”
Walmart Took Secret Life Insurance Policies Out On Employees, Collected After Their Death
http://consumerist.com/2007/07/walmart-took-secret-life-insurance-policies-out-on-employees-collected-after-their-death.html
” Walmart has been secretly taking out life insurance policies on its employees and cashing them in when said employees pass away.”
Take a pill Alex, we get the point, you don’t like Walmart.
Kaldirris… I’m standing up right now applauding you. Wonderfully worded and eloquent. 🙂
Alex is giving me an ulcer!
Holy Alex…u sure do have a hate-on for WalMart. I totally agree what WalMart does is totally ridiculous…and it makes me sick that most people don’t even care…as long as they save a $.
Best Company = Shopper’s Drug mart (customer appreciation goes a long way with me and my Shopper’s is fabulous to me!)
Worst Company = WalMart ..no need to explain…I think Alex said it all!!
How Wal-Mart Works
http://money.howstuffworks.com/wal-mart1.htm
Power and Controversy
Because of Wal-Mart’s massive size, it wields incredible power. It has driven smaller retailers out of business; forced manufacturers to be more efficient, often leading these suppliers to move manufacturing jobs overseas;
Bell
Hands Down the WORST customer service that I have ever received… ever.
They are the kings of fine print that coerces customers to buy into their product and then they jack up rates, don’t keep promises, or change contracts on a whim.
They also bombard former and current clients with advertisements and tele-marketers, even after repeatedly asking them to stop.
They don’t care about their customers, only their bottom line.
i just have to say… If you don’t agree with this posting topic, don’t click on the link. If after reading a few posts you don’t agree with what’s being written.. move on to another topic. the world if filled with things we don’t agree with, but we move on! like seriously you don’t have to be on this site – no one is making you.
there now that i got that off my chest – lol – i’m not pleased with RCSS or FIDO. i’ve learned to call people on their crappy behaviour i’m not taking it anymore especially when my hard earned money is involved.
thanks! 🙂
Renaud-Bray: they’ve put the wrong price on their website for a book. I ordered one at that price. When they noticed their mistake they cancelled my order, then increased their price on the website. It’s the second time they do this to me this year.
Also:
Bell
Future Shop
I’m not sure why anyone would say Chapman’s? lol They are a fantastic CANADIAN company! And p.s. 12g of sugar per 1/2 cup serving is not a lot really. And in addition, no one is forcing it down your throat.
Anyways, I’m going to go with the company that, although I have not dealt with them in several years, was nearly a proximate cause to me having an aneurysm…Bell!!!!!!
I paid 600$ to get out of 2 cell phone contracts with them and it was the best 600$ I ever spent.
i’m just going to put this out there.. but alex i’m guessing you’re not a fan of walmart? 😐
I agree with Sally (no.13)…..its hard to identify one company as worst- zellers in one place is neat, tidy, customer service being great n all….while another location might be the opposite.
Worst company in stores category would be Shoppers Drug Mart- cashiers are the least helpful, full of attitude. (atleast 3 shoppers in my area are like that). And they are always over-priced compared to other stores!!!
Worst in service providers: BELL..big time….always calling people despite our name being on Do NOT CALL LIST. Very very poor customer service!!!
Hands down, it’s Cogeco. I moved to Cobourg, where the only cable provider is Cogeco. When I moved here, I didn’t receive a bill for 2 months – when the bill finally came in, I owed the company over $400! Since I wasn’t prepared for this, my bill got a little bit behind. I guess that they were calling my cell phone to let me know, but not leaving messages so I didn’t know it was them (I don’t pick up my phone unless I know who it is). Then, they decided to cut off my home phone in an effort to get me to phone them. Now, if I didn’t have a cell phone, how the hell would I call them without a phone??? Also, my service wasn’t working for my first 2 weeks, and yet I still got charged for them. Terrible company, terrible customer service.
…continued from post.113
True that its hard to identify one company as worst, but nothing can beat Shoppers and Bell in this category 🙂
I vote for Superstore as the best company as they sell various products with great prices and I second London Drugs for coupons stacking. I will put Staples as the company I avoid by all means and the worest company in Canada. They always advertise OOS products and they have very bad customer service especially in Calgary NW Market Mall .. they are rude and provides no help.. I would not go there if they advertise products free not only because bad customer service but also it is for sure OOS.
l’Occitane gets my vote in this category. I had a problem with a product I bought and was shocked that such an upscale store would not address an issue. They didn’t even reply to my follow-up email. I was a good customer but they lost my business.
FAIRWEATHER
Is by far the worst company ever! My husband bought me a sweater from them for christmas with a huge tear in it. I try to take it back just to exchange for a new one and they are extremely rude to me and will not let me get a new one as they say It couldnt have been torn when he bought it. Really a horrible company to deal with.
I vote for shoopers/Pharmaprix because they have their own “selection” of what product is on sale, and the way they do not accept coupons or the problems that arise from them.
I just want to say that I actually find this post quite helpful in the sense that we were considering going with Rogers but there is alot of feedback on Rogers that they are not good so it has helped me avoid another disaster like with Bell. So if you don’t like this post-don’t click on it or read it and just move on to another one. 🙂
Now I want to nominate BELL!!!!! Oh my word they are the worst I have experienced hands down!!! NEVER an accurate bill EVER! hours and hours on the phone trying to get it sorted out and they never knew what they were doing and we often wondered if the beavers (that used to be their mascots) were running the company. lol we finally paid the cancellation fee to get out of the contract and that was the best thing we did! but it didn’t stop them from phoning us a few months later saying we had another bill to pay when we were not even a customer anymore. gee wizz they are awful! plus they continue to call us over and over despite the do not call thing. But I know not to go with Rogers now also so THANK YOU!!! I really appreciate that this thread was created so that concumers like me who have not dealt with Rogers before find out what they are like and I can avoid a nightmare and losing money to them and my time.
I have found this comment thread to be helpful as well. Unlike some, I didn’t click on it because I wanted to complain about its existence. I am surprised to hear about Rogers/Bell/Zellers etc. It makes me feel better about my cell/cable service, since I’ve never had a real problem. However – I have consistently found Shoppers’ customer service to be exemplary, which might sound funny coming from a Winnipegger!
I do think the worse service I had all year was at The Brick. Holy moley, are the staff at the Polo Park Winnipeg location ever rude!
SuperStore would have to have my “Worst Company” vote. Their customer service is non-existant and especially their coupon policy. I use many coupons and they treat coupons as if the customer trying to redeem them is stealing. I’ve even emailed them twice and athough they did respond the first time they talked gobblie goop! Not responding to my complaints at all. I am so disgusted with their attitude and treatment of customers that I haven’t been inside their store in six months.
BOO BOOO Bad Atlantic SuperStore!!!!
Some times in life we like to jump to the conclusions that there is negative out to harm others…but when we learned in high school science that negative and postive get together there is a reaction. But one would think without either one of these the world would be run by major cooperations who only in effect cared about their bottom line and never had someone to come up to them to tell them that them without the consumers or customers buying their products they would not have that bottom line or dollar. We Consume their products everyday obviously they would want us to buy from them or else they wouldn’t make commerical after commerical or tell us there is a deal on something until ya read the fine print. Give us free things or send out letters telling us they “they appreciate our service with them” or “their loyal customer”. I looked at it always grumbled and thought where is a company that is right for me…that I don’t pay high premiums to make a call that if i am standing in my house is long distance to my home phone but its the same area code…huh?
Awhile back I was in the local Zellers here it was midnight madness I bought stuff from the Source in the mall. I went through the security gate leaving the store and I beeped the woman at the cash waved me on through. Then this store employee came out of nonewhere grabbed the back of my purse and yanked me back. She told me she had to look through my bag and I immediately went into my back and took out the recipt. It wasn’t good enough to her she still searched through my bag dumping it on the floor. Picked it up then put it through their security thingy on the cashier place. Then after she proceeded to do that she looked at me and told me to open my jacket she said i was hiding something… I looked at her appauled. I opened up my jacket its fuzzy lining makes me look huge I suppose she looked up and down like she was convinced she was going to find something. But it was my source bag that beeped it was ahead of me when i went out through the security thingy not my body. Then after I was like nice and loud “are we done assaulting me can I leave now with my bag from the source that I bought with the items I paid for using my money that I earned from working at job?” She promptly appologized then proceeded into the mall as well but then went outside of the mall to smoke…so she was going on her smoke break while inside the store was nuts with only 3 tills open near the mall exit/enterence. I still shop at the store its the only thing in town thats a department store but I found that experience very uncalled for.
We remember experiences that are either good or bad the bad ones are to tell us to put our guard up and look out for something to protect us. The good experiences show us that this companies do actually care about our well being that they think we are making an impact upon them not us making an impact for them or on them. And some times we get blind sided by either just remember to have a balance to both.
Lululemon. Too important to take your call now. If you leave a message for a call back, you’ll be waiting for a very long time. Boo…:(
After I have read all of the comments that Alex has posted in the Best Company Section, I am lead to believe that Walmart is the worst company.
I believe that Canadian Tire is a bad company. I have read numerous complaints about Canadian Tire in the Smart Canucks Reviews section. I have had a bad experience with Canadian Tire. I took my car to Canadian Tire to have them fix an oil leak. After the “repair” my engine blew because there was no oil in it.
I also nominate all of the internet service provider companies who charge for band width usage.
Worst – Shoppers Drug Mart for giving me the wrong prescription, then trying to blame my GP! When I got upset and loud I was told they were sorry they lost my confidence and asked me to leave.
All cellphone companies in Canada for the outlandish charges for every
single thing that you have to use your cellphone for. Overseas cellphone
rates and charges are a fraction of what we pay in North America. Watch out guys……. you just might be the next huge corportions whose business goes South……………….
Hallmark Cards. I had purchased cards 10 years ago for their “write to the future” promotion. You’d write on cards, then send them to Hallmark, where Hallmark would store them for 10 years, then send them out. I sent in the change of address slips, but we never received the cards. I phoned and they said they had received the C.O.A. slips but they didn’t have the cards. $10 cards, and 10 years of anticipation. Nothing, NADA. My mom worked at Hallmark for 25 years. Do you think I’ll ever purchase anything from them again? You are correct if you guessed no!
ugh definitely have to go with Canadian Tire. What a bunch of scam artists! They’ve tried 3 times to charge me for things they never did. Once they tried to charge me for an engine shampoo which I didn’t want in the first place. I guess they figured a woman would never check! As soon as I got outside I checked the car and whammo, thing was still soaked in oil. Went right back in and demanded a refund. Luckily they gave it to me..
Another time I had to get the BBB involved and the manager LIED to the BBB over and over and over. Head office swore at me on the phone and called me a scam artist and hung up with me. All because they tried to make me get a new alternator and battery when there was NOTHING WRONG with them. I wouldn’t take my microwave to them.
I agree with most about rogers. I will never open an account with them again. However the WORST would be Primus. I was so excited to be getting unlimited high speed and all my phone services for a very low price. Well I paid my connection fees and was supposed to be connected with 7 days. 4 MONTHS after it was finally hooked up. I wasted countless hours and cell minutes trying to talk to someone only to get a different answer which was usually “by the end of the week.” I stayed on for a year until I had a phone problem. Was told a tech fixed it but it was still not working. Had an electrician friend over who confirmed there was a short on my line. Horrible company. Beware!
Rogers, hands down. Can’t wait to get out of my contract and go with someone else. There is absolutely no advantage to being a long time customer and having multiple services from Rogers. They still treat you like crap.
Mobilia
To many bad companies can operate long term successfully ” hidden” within a large group of good companies .
If we choose not to alert others to their poor antics or behavior, then we are just supporting them. Ignoring bad behavior is the same as supporting it.No more, no less.
Focusing on a few good ones and not discussing the bad ones will only allow more to join the “dark side”.
Shoppers Drug Mart!
I don’t know what their fat executives are thinking but
all this cutting number of staff is ridiculous to the point where many employees are working without less than legal minimum break time.
and they are like “if you don’t like, then leave. We can hire another one with minimum wage.”
No care, no consideration, no respect for their own workers.
Sears because of they’re $3 shipping charges as well they deduct sears points you’ve earned if they’re not redeemed in time.The Bay for having discounts only if you use your credit card.They really push you to use they’re card.Zellers at Oakridge is messy,unattractive,and are always out of the specials,if your not there on the first day.
Old Navy used to be my favourite, but since they’ve stopped selling plus sizes, they are now #1 on my worst list.
Telus. My husband and I actually gave the company nearly 2 weeks to get our internet hooked up again. It went down, inexplicably, and we spent hours on the phone trying to get their departments to understand and fix the problem. It was so frustrating, but laughable. So completely inept—there were 5 different people my husband talked to in one of his many phone conversations. WE JUST WANTED OUR SERVICE BACK and billings and technical couldn’t get on the same page. Anyway, we switched to Shaw.
Is there a good company out there for Internet/Cable and phone???
Bell!
8 years of problems with them – I will not get conned into staying with them again when my contact is over. Poor customer service representatives, poor service/reception, crappy plans, etc.
Real Canadaian Superstore. When I return a defective or inferior product to them and want my return to be exactly they way I paid, “CASH” Instead they refuse to give me anything else but a Gift card/credit voucher. Why should I have to carry around another piece of paper every where. Just another of their many inconveniences. Not customer friendly at all. They make you feel like a crook or you might not be worth the trouble.
I’ve had lots of issues with Telus and found their customer service sub-standard.
Ive got to admit too Walmart Alex went a little overboard… remember to only count his as one vote lmao.
Zellers without a doubt.
I have officially vetoed the store after showing up for opening day of a sale- only to find, as always. There big sale items aren’t even in stock. Sorry no rainchecks. Wasted 45 minutes in the store and walked out with nothing but a sorry hon from the manager.
I agree with other voters the stores are messy, disorganized and the staff are often rude.
Bell- for rewarding all the people who leave the company with lovely win back offers. Let’s work on keeping the loyal customers happy, instead of trying to win us back when we leave.
U-Haul is definitely the worst
Safeway. Calls itself Canada Safeway – bah! They are overpriced, rude and pretend that they are better than the rest. I would shop at Sobeys anytime over pretentious and rude and uncaring Safeway. I know some of their employees and they are not happy campers despite their union trying to do their best. I am told that staff members are berated, talked down to, and are not happy. But does this mean that they have to be rude and nasty? I am not saying that they are ALL rude and nasty (I know of very nice people who work there too), but on the whole that store gives me the creeps and I have boycotted it for years now. Yes, and they give Airmiles. Yup – loss leaders – give airmiles, then get you in and overcharge you for the rest of the stuff. Also, their attitude towards coupons makes you feel like you are living in Poverty Gulch. All around ZERO for this company from me.
Thanks for letting me vent and express my opinion.
Thank you Boo – it is said that when you vent in writing you feel cleansed and do not simmer. Many a psychiatrist has made their patients write down their feelings.
This idea is great! Mental therapy for free! What a SC way to go! 🙂
ROGERS MOBILITY
There are never enough staff, usually there are price tags missing on items so you have to wait for someone to figure out the price. Dirty, unorganized store – yuck.
Sorry, I put the name Zellers in the Title and it didn’t show up.
http://www.motherofasale.com
Horrible Customer service, what seems like a good deal becomes a waste of time and money when you don’t get things you order. If they even bother to answer your emails they never make much sense or provide a solution
Telus and Rexall
For me this year, the worst was Petcetera as they sold me faulty products (flea and lice treatments that didn’t work whatsoever and could not be returned as you have to put the stuff on your pets to find out it is ineffective – this ended up costing me $$$ and a whole lot of time as I had to treat everything in my house TWICE when I got a new, effective treatment from a vet), are often out of stock of merchandise and have long lineups even when the store is not too busy. That, and they need to more carefully enforce owners’ behaviours with pets in their stores – most owners are responsible and okay, but a few need to be asked to leave because of the behaviour of their pets.
I would nominate wal-mart, but I stopped shopping there years ago (due to poor service, rude employees, faulty products and unfair labour practices) so I can no longer offer a valid assessment of the stores.
My problem this year was with Sears.ca, I decided to do all my holiday shopping online and dealt with quite a few companies with no problems. I placed 4 orders with sears and was notified after palcing my order thta 1 item was backordered but i would receive it by dec.23. Because ti was so close to christmas I called to verify that it would be delivered in time. On dec.23 I called again as I had not received it, only to be told that THEIR warehouse had cancelled my order on dec.5 as they no longer had stock?? No one ever notified me and they really didn’t care. I had to argue with them just to get a credit for it on my c.c. and I was stuck 2 days before christmas to try and scramble to find a replacement gift for my nephew.
Their customer service is horrible!! And by searching online I see that I am only one of many people that had the exact same situation this holdiay. I will never shop at sears, online or in person, again.
SHOPPERS DRUG MART is the WORST!!! They NEVER have anything they advertise in stock! I show up day 1 of a sale, 15 minutes after the store opens and they tell me they are sold out! B.S.! They are trying to scam people into coming to the store and spending money on other items which cost double that of all other retailer!
Air Canada – terrible service and non competitive rates
Sears Credit Card Services – been trying to cancel this mandatory 0.30 a month insurance off the stupid card. I couldn’t do it so I cancelled the card, which they didn’t cancel and constantly try to convince me to get fraud protection. I have been things to do than to use a Sear credit card for my purchases.
@ Justme – thank you very much for the kind words. It’s especially nice to hear right now, as I just started writing for Examiner.com (I hope it’s not against the rules for me to do this, but here’s the link to my first article, if anyone cares to read it – YES, I know this isn’t really the right place for it, I’m sorry!!! http://www.examiner.com/step-parenting-in-glendale/so-now-you-re-a-step-mom ) and am actually getting paid for it! OMG – can you say “lifelong dream fulfilled”??!?!?!
Anyhow, thanks again for the lovely compliment – I tried to rep you for it in the forum, but I wasn’t sure which “Justme” you were … 🙁
No question about it. Bell Canada!! After 25 years with them. I finally quit them . It’s been 5 years I’m still piss off with them. It will be over my dead body if i ever become their customer again.
oh well, where do I start?…..
I could join the complaint party regarding All the cable/phone companies, BELL, ROGERS, COGECO, actually Fido is probably the best of them all (in my experience)
SEARS.CA is absolutely horrid, however I haven’t had too many bad experiences about the Sears store itself. (granted I don’t shop there much)
SHOPPERS DRUG MART has to get honorable mention for sure, though they do have good specials (mostly food), the rest of their regular prices are hugely inflated and customer service sucks big time!
CANADIAN TIRE – Please, NEVER get an oil-change or get your car “fixed” there (and I put fixed in quotation marks quite deliberately), everyone I know (in-person or online) has the same horrible experience (i.e. the car is worse after you leave) and this is for Canadian Tire stores in 3 provinces I ever lived in – I doubt it’s a coincidence… and their horrible exchange policy – a huge hassle (clearance stock is final sale – always!)
ZELLERS is a huge hit and miss…some stores are incredibly messy, understocked and disorganized, others are very nice.
I get it Alex- don’t let anyone discourage you… all it takes sometimes is one person to make change and even if you discourage one person to reconsider purchasing their cheap plastic crap at Walmart then good wins over evil one more time.
I as well nominate Walmart for worst company ever of all time not only 2010. I am not so much worried about whether or not their customer service as bad as I find those experiences to be VERY subjective.
Alex stated everything and missed a few things, every economics professor I had in university loathed Walmart and what they stood for (undermining local businesses, no pensions, no union, underpaid workers, coping out of responsibilities for workers) they have the ability to destroy an entire local economy by driving local business’ under, forcing those people to get jobs at walmart and then halving their wages, thus forcing them to only be able to shop at walmart-making a destructive cycle… phew…
Also Old Navy for the same reasons… there is no way they can afford to pay decent wages for their garment workers AND sell shirts for $5. It’s shaming that we are such an over consuming society. If anyone wants to watch a video-this is the best one I’ve found on the internet:
http://www.storyofstuff.com/
oh I will also state McDonalds, even though I LOVE their coffee… their insistence on advertising their fatty, sugary, cancer causing food to children is disgusting.
Shoppers Drug Mart. I don’t mind paying extra for ‘convenience’ but many stores are out of stock and don’t have proper staff at their photo booth, for example.
Canadian Tire is a close second for the unfortunate redesign of their stores and ridiculously strict return policies.
My vote is for The Loan Arrangeer, worst customer service and selling a car that has so many repairs that are needed. I suggest to everyone to NEVER buy a car from here. I hope they are in the top 5 if not #1
Okay one more post just to inform everybody of what I’ve discovered over the years:
Air Transat for their horrifying conditions on overseas flights and tiny yucky packages of pretzels.
Air Canada for their lack of food on overseas flights.
WestJet for their inability to transfer WJ credits from flights to WJ Vacations (why not? it’s the same company?)
ALL US airlines for their hidden fees for checked luggage of $20 per piece PER direction (cumulating in an extra $80 worth of charges for two checked bags).
I am willing to pay the extra money to fly European or Asian airlines just so I’m comfortable (own tv screen, free earphones, nobody selling me duty-free every hour on the hour, two meals, free wine, blankets and pillows, warm towelettes, bigger bathrooms, free gum for pressure equalizing for your ears, nicer stewards). It’s a HUGE difference when you travel overseas.
that baby site is completely new and should be disqualified on the premise of cheating. I keep getting blog suggestions for it too, honestly I dont like that approach personally.
Half of the comments left are the same rants on reviews lmao. One bad exeperience shouldn’t make a whole chain of stores horrible imo.
Canadian Tire, SHAW direct satellite!
ROGERS gets my vote for the worst company.. Bad service, no help at all. I’m just waiting for my contract to be over then I’m gone for sure.
Another vote for Bell Canada. I recently had a NIGHTMARE experience with them. I moved from Ontario to Manitoba and since I had previously had cell phone service with Bell went to see them. They sold me a new three-year contract with all the activation charges. I didn’t learn until I was in Winnipeg that there is no Bell service in the province of Manitoba. I had told every rep I spoke with that I was moving to Manitoba. When I called customer service 5 reps believed that Bell had service in Manitoba. Once I got a hold of someone who knew this was wrong they refused to take responsibility and charged me the whole cancellation fee for the contract because there was no written record of their mistake. When cancelling the account I asked for a written record of what I would be charged and when service would end, but they refuse to do that. So you need written record to prove them wrong, but they won’t give you written records, nice.
I’m with Telus now and have had excellent service so far.
Rogers and Bell for worst billing and customer service practices. Leon’s for spamming our answering machine with recorded furniture “sale” messages over the years and for hiring pushy sales people who never let you “just shop/look around” and lastly Air Canada for making it an extreme amazing race style challenge to find a way to contact customer service for issues/complaints.
Blacks
The source
I would have to vote for Canadian Tire. Sure, they have great sales…. but try and take something back to them for a refund? Good Luck. I have never had so many hassles in my life at a store as I have had with Canadian Tire.
Yes, I hate Bell too (as do most!) BUT, after a 45+ min. conversation with 20 different people, at least Bell will help you out.
Canadian Tire is a joke.
Bell Canada.. Even if I added my phone number to the List not to be called by telemaketers, I still received messages from banned compagnies, thank god they were proved wrong and have to pay a fee!
Rogers – very bad customer service!
Staples OOS deals and Staples Calgary Market Mall NW = worst customer service .. I would avoid Staples by all means.
Thank you Boo for putting this contest up on SC. It’s good to hear both the positive and negative experiences SCers have had with certain companies. As for me I think it’s a great way to end the year so we are all a little wiser for 2011 on who we should do business with…OUT WITH THE OLD AND IN WITH THE NEW!!! I nomintate ROGERS for 2010 Canada’s Worst company. Glad to finally at least be rid of Rogers Wireless after 3 years of hell with their price gouging, contract extending tricks, billing errors surpassing $1,500 on our account, useless and plain rotten customer service. Still have to make a move from Rogers Internet (gotta go next) and Rogers Home Phone (so long farewell soon) so we’re looking for good leads on SC for alternatives and learning the grass is not greener at BELL thanks to this contest. My advice: Do not take the Rogers challenge… they always win!
Rogers and Future Shop worst compenies ever.
I don’t understand why people don’t like this conversation. If people didn’t have word of mouth and boycotting and consumer watchdogs then companies could get away with everything. Why do you think the Gap has tried so hard to update their child labour images in the last ten years? International labour laws? HAHAHA I think not. Without conversations like these things would never change. I’ve been contemplating changing my phone service for a year but with all this I’ve read I will avoid Rogers and Bell and stick with Telus…
I vote babyheist for their annoying marketing campaigns but I’m just being facetious.
I think Baby heist can consider themselves disqualified for best company IMO. This was not a positive way for them to try to promote their site. It was a dumb move on their part. I’m never goin to shop there on the premise they have annoyed me now.
I vote for Bell Canada. We switched to Bell Sept 2009 and have been having trouble with their billing the whole time!!! We just received a bill for a one-time charge of $491 for some service fee when they were the ones who called us saying that they MUST coming to do some upgrades and without telling us there’s a fee involved!! Their customer service also sucks because every time I call for a problem I would be at least hung up on once!!!!
I think its a toss up between rogers and bell. But I would say bell cause they make great claims with their network but the service is still bad. their reps can’t fix anything though maybe not horribly rude since they’ve made improvements but their products are bad. and way overpriced compared to everyone.
Rogers for sure. Customer service is crap there.
The worst companies I have found this year are Canadian Tire, Wal-Mart and Shoppers Drug Mart. I know alot of you are gasping at the last one. Canadian Tire gets my vote because I can never find a knowledgable associate to help, they are always out of the sale items, and the folks at the tills are usually really unpleasant. Shoppers Drug Mart should get cudos for their points program. However, their prices are usually double what they are at Wal-Mart, and the folks at the tills are usually really grumpy (especially when you use coupons). Walmart gets my vote because again their customer service is terrible. I usually can’t find someone to help with heavy purchases or unlock cabinets. The folks at the tills are usually pretty rude especially when you use coupons. Their store is usually so cluttered with pallets and racks that you can’t get your cart through an isle.
The worst company in the place on earth is Rogers and Bell that don’t know what good customer service means without giving anyone an hardtime of the bill that you didn’t make. Which I think they sometimes add somebody’s else bill and confuse it with yours with an different amount? Never will go with them again.
Superstore is as dumbest where the customer service needs improvement also management where they should take the time to listen to any issues or concerns with internet coupons.For example;Delissio Flatbread pizza was on-sale for $4.99 and I’ve used the $5.00 coupon to mark that down to free, then the lady supervisor says; it is fraudulant because it don’t have an correct address to send it to,when it says on the box. Sometimes I think they haven’t send it on the correct time-frame from the coupons and this is why it has came back inactive.
My votes for 2011:
Sears – they did resolve a product issue for me this year but it took three full out, sirens-wailing temper tantrums to get there. Unfortunately I knew this was the way to go because of last year…
Bell Mobility – I’ve been (and still am) a happy Bell landline/TV/internet customer for decades but their Mobility division is an entirely different story. Have an issue? If you’re not stuck on a phone in the corner in your winter jacket so you can talk to someone who CAN help, you’re being ignored by the commission-hungry staff. I’ve dropped my service with them and will never go back.
Old Navy – cheap, overly trendy, shoddy disposable clothing and recently in the news for the deaths of workers in a fire at one of their overseas sweatshops. Defines what’s wrong with our consumer culture for me.
Rogers – We won’t go near this company, but this past year they allowed someone to bill their cable services ($1,400) to our address. They would not accept a fraud report from us (despite the fact that the same someone fraudulently applied for welfare at our address as well, take a hint!). Friend of the fraudster subsequently moved in our building and tried to set up the same arrangement. DH managed to straighten Rogers out that time (at the top of his voice and with tense fists, poor installers) but we still got collection agency calls looking for the first fraudster at their “last known address”. Just shows they don’t have a clue.
Zellers – old, crowded, a hassle to coupon at, no stock, messy, ancient food stock, some really righteous cashiers. I save the trip and skip on to the Walmart these days. It’s just got to me.
Direct Energy – cash a $10 “rebate” check and you’ve just “signed” a multi-year contract doubling your monthly hydro rate vs. the competition. Customer service reps are aggressive and will throw an f-bomb at you. An affected friend managed to get away from under them but not before taking an entire George Carlin routine’s worth of abuse from the CSR.
It’s very comical to see people bash this campaign. Especially when they are being supremely “negative” while they boast that this post is “negative”. How about this is doing a service to others who are looking to switch carriers for phones or are trying to purchase appliances but want to know that the customer service representative will be helpful should you have a problem later. Cheers to Smart Canucks for thinking of this!
I would like to nominate Canada Post. They are company that provides a service and as far as being an employer, they don’t treat their employees fairly (RSMCs vs. Letter Carriers) and as far as providing a service, your employees are rude because you’re a horrible employer and that affects the public. My post office was recently changed without notice and I was denied my mail (which is a chargeable offence). There was no notice given and this new location happens to close 15 mins before I get home from work (I commute an hour to work). Let’s hope that these people get raises and become a little more chipper so that we can all live and receive our mail in peace.
I vote for walmart. Whenever i go there, they are out of the sale items. They dont even have a spot to put it! the items were NOT sold out, but just hidden in the back, so you can’t get it! When i ask someone, they always like”im sorry, looks like we’re sold out”. Walmart is a bunch of frauds, they get my vote for the worst store of 2010
I would have to go with all Communications companies…I’ve found over the years of trying different providers that they are mainly the same, @ this point in time until the CRTC opens up the comp in CA unfortunately we are stuck with the companies that monopolize the areas…they prey on the innocence of the public with their outlandish deals that are usually never seen thru and then you are locked into a “deal” and have to pay to get out.. until the big corporations start to realize that keeping a customer is AS important as gaining a customer, people’s like you and me in Canada are stuck with the bill… if I really had to choose between them… I find Rogers to be the lesser of evils.
BELL gets my vote for the worst company ever… to list a few a company that tries to promote themselves as a CAN company but outsources their personal to India is far worse… not even to mention their issues with billing and the additional charges that one receives bill to bill…
Rogers @ least for the timebeing is still Canadian thru and thru…
Shoppers drug mart and Second Cup
Hi, this is Rogers_Chris, part of the Rogers social media team.
I’ve been reading through the comments and thought that I might be able to help anyone who is having specific issues with customer service since that seems to be the main concern raised about Rogers.
Contact me on Twitter @Rogers_Chris or via Redboard to my attention: http://redboard.rogers.com/talk-to-us/
Get in touch and I will do my best to help!
I ordered a dress for NY’s eve from the catalog… When I went to pick it up from the store, I noticed the dress (in too small size) on a clearance rack for about $30 less, so I brought it up to the Catalog Service and asked if I’d get that same price- and I assumed I would. I was told I would not b/c it was a separate entity from catalog sales… I asked to speak to a store manager who said the same thing… but IMO, since the dress was AT the store, they should’ve honoured the lower price. I work retail so I know prices can be over-ridden… but the manager said the computer system would not be able to do this. WHATEVER!!! I left the beloved dress at the store and vowed to never shop Sears again.
Makes complete sense to me why they wouldnt offer you the cheaper price as you said it yourself… the dress wasn’t the same size. For all you know they never even had YOUR SIZE marked down at all. So to me it makes sense as it wasnt the exact same item.
Bell is the worst! The only reason why people are still tied up with this nightmare of a company is because of their exorbitant cancellation fees. Once everyone’s 3 year sentence have been served then it’s definitely moving on to the newer providers like Wind and Mobilicity.
Any company that doesn’t pay a living wage to its employees belongs here. I find it morally repugnant that these companies continue to get rich off the backs of their employees?
Telus is by far the worst. They didn’t get any votes because none of us are dumb enough to use them any more.
Kelsey’s Restaurant : Reason – telling me to tie up my service dog far away from where I sit! Besides being illegal – they put me in an awkward position of having to call more attention to myself and my disability. Kelsey’s: Read up on the laws and show some awareness!!!
Best place I”ve ever been to – a tie between Red Lobster and Fresh. In both cases they brought my dog some water and a little side dish of food – at no charge! Bravo Red Lobster and Fresh!!!! Clearly they are up on the laws and really care about customers.
I vote The Brick as the WORST company ever. We’ve bought a bedroom set and 6 months later the bed rails came off and the bed fell apart. We got a replacement today in which the headboard is broken, completely broken apart. Now I have nothing to sleep on and they will replace it in 4 days…Worst company ever!
Shoppers Drug not so smart. Each and every time I need to have a precription filled, they ask for a 1/2 hour min. I dont want to shop there and pay higher prices than anywhere else, so now I changed drug stores.
ROGERS all the way!
I love the fact that they have a “Social Media group person” on here to help us. Too bad Rogers can’t help us with our problems when we need them rather than have some poor twinky monitoring sites like this to try to do damage control.
I am stuck with the internet only because of the lenth of time I have had me email addresses. Cell phone, long gone. TV going soom…..
THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING ROGERS!!!!!!!
ROGERS!
Called Rogers because internet would not connect ‘Again’…… I was told someone would come to my house in 4 DAYS! to sort it out. When I said ‘4 days?!’ he said I will move you up to the top of the list…………
Glad I didn’t hold my breath…….. Then was asked can I help you with anything else?!!!!! Wonder if I will get reimbursed for those 4 days?!
…… Wont hold my breath……….
I vote ottawa hydro I was one yes one day alte and they cut off my hydro I sent the payment should the guy who came to my house he said too bad I was out a hotel stay 140 bucks at the time i was on public assistance that was my food money I called ottawa hydro who said oh sorry we will turn it back on as long as you pay 300 bucks i said i paid the bill please turn on my hydro finally after standing at a pay phone for almoat an hour they said they would turn it back on friday it was tuesday I asked the lady where I was suppused to stay with my baby she said rudley that was the best she could do i reguest the superivsor after pleading anb beggin they turned on my hydro wothin the hour I called the paper as a result and callingthe media I got my hotel pad for and 1000 hydro credit I nominate them hands down
#1 – Rogers – No doubt! I am forced to have to deal with them because my condo won’t allow me to put a dish up. I have had to complain to Rogers for lack of service (constant problems) to billing problems for years. I have counted at least a dozen angry calls in two years.
#2 – Mazda Canada – UNBELIEVABLY HORRIBLE!!! I took my car to a franchise dealer (Argus Mazda) to get a routine problem fixed. The dealer was completely incompetent and unable to fix my simple problem. 2+ months to fix an issue, nothing ever got resolved—took my car to an independent and it was fixed in 10 minutes. When I complained and notified Mazda Canada what was going on (for future reference) they INSISTED I was wrong and the MISDIAGNOSIS was right. They stood behind their incompetent garage EVEN after another Mazda dealership verified my complaint.
#3 – Bell – They share many of the same problems Rogers does and they act like a bully. Their customer service is atrocious
Its the CRTC you should all be complaining about. Its the one who allows Bell, Rogers and Shaw and others to exploit us.
1. BELL: Goes without having to explain other than 15 fn hours on the phone trying to deal with service people. Pie-in-the-sky winback offers.
2. FACTORY DIRECT: Several products not working or below par when I got home. Return policy that sux. Never have what they show in their flyers.
3. ENWIN UTILITIES: For raising and reraising the price of electricity throughout the years. In cahoots with the governments for adding the HST to the bottom line. For switching us all to Smart???Meters that will save the world from global warming by making us clean our clothes and dishes after midnight.
My vote goes to Rogers, but if I could vote twice Bell & Shoppers would be tied for second. It took me over 4 years to get Rogers to stop charging me for long distance that was not applicable, lost my phone and accused me of being in the wrong store….duh. I did offer their staff a free course in customer service. After asking them to cancel my account 3 times they finally got it right. Calling them is like a nightmare. When my contract is finished I will find another carrier!
The Worst is WAL-MART
My opinion is Zellers… Hello we are now in 2011, way past 1979!! time to update and come into the light!!!
ALEX- pls ensure you are giving WalMart info reguarding Canada WalMarts. Yes, they are related. But Canadian employees are treated better than American. Thanks to our labour laws. It sounds like you have more issues with the company than you are stating!! It sounds like you are a disgruntled employee, let it go , they are not worth it … I know from experience.
I’ve gotta stick it to Rogers! Their service is barely adequate and their pricing is ridiculous. They are a bully with friends in high places (CRTC!) and because of this they get away with gouging their customers. Bring in some competition!
“Shaw” and Telus Mobility ties. I have had problems with them for years and even tried to speak to a supervisor and the “person” wouldn’t put me through.
As to the person asking why do this-you don’t know you need to improve if no one tells you.
I vote for Rogers. I HAD a phone with them and it was the WORST service ever. Prices, customer service, and connections.
I am anonymous because I can get fired for writing what I have to say here. Freedom stops at the door to the workplace it seems. So much for democratic rights in the “Western World.”
I realize this is way out of date but re: the thread that was going with the “negative vs. positive” theme…
I am a citizen of a small third world country where Bell contracts with a company to run a call center, and I recently began working there.
Yesterday, I had to leave early, for becoming physically sick after a week of a steady stream of calls from some of the most abused people I have ever had to deal with, Bell customers.
It is my job to provide customer service. But I can tell you that what I am being constantly urged and required to do is SELL. The facade of customer service and the need for it are used to drive the public into a den of mercantile advantage-taking. That is, because the public needs a number to call for help, sales people have been placed on the other end of the line to generate profits. Another problem is that the systems we use are incredibly complex and labyrinthine mazes which frequently lead in circles and to dead ends… that explains the inconsistencies in how people’s problems are resolved and the interminable waiting and multiple transfers, etc.
The vast majority of my calls are from people who have incredible stories of bad billing, bad service, mysterious items on their bills that they do not understand or want… and I for my part seem to be one of the few who spend the time to listen and in the end, make rebates… all of my colleagues brag about making hundreds of dollars in sales, while I sell nothing… how can I? Most people want to disconnect, or have been owed money for months, or want to get rid of the things that they “bought” the last time they called.
Anyway, this discussion has helped me to understand for whom I am working and how they are actually perceived in their “own country.” I put “own country” in quotes, because today, no corporation has a shred of loyalty to the people in the country where they extract their profits… they use advertising to make it seem so, but think about it… they are supra-national in nature. Their goal is Profit over All.
Thank you for posting this discussion. I want to say that I apologize for my part in participating in the discomfort that many here have expressed. I am paid about $700.00 a month to do so. It is barely enough to survive, and I need a job. Until we can figure out how to replace this mad regime of kleptocracy and provide for each other without the intermediary of corporate entities like Bell, we will see nothing but more misery I’m afraid.
NEOVA TECHNOLOGIES INC – (Abbotsford, BC)
They are able to avoid any responsibilities as the management has no supervision due to the fact that the owners are located 1000’s of miles away.
I’ve been emailed information about injuries being swept under the rug and employees receiving unfair treatment after reporting them.
They are also known for their ability to hide everything from any kind of inspection. Anybody showing up must report to a receptionist at which time warning calls are made to the supervisors who in turn stop everything and get the employees to hide all problems. Whoever is waiting to perform the inspection or audit is held up by being told the supervisor is not yet available. Once everything is hidden then they are allowed in.
I dealt with a woman who worked with them as a 3rd party for 17 years. She had nothing good to say about them at all.
Very deceptive company at the least.
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I thin Air Canada and Telus are neck to neck on this one. Both are so considerate to their customers.
Rogers and Bell and looking from above posts no explaination needed
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Ha ha… I was just online around and took a glimpse at these feedback. I can’t believe there’s still this much attention. Thanks for crafting articles about this.
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1. almost all government companies
2. Bell internet
3. Bell TV
4. Bell phone
Shaw Cable ..No two bills are the same. Even though you have done nothing different. Our bills have ranged from 150$ to over 200$ for one months service. They are the only choice for us in Sault Ste, Marie and they know it. We can get Bell if we want to pay more for 5MBps download speed, but who wants to go back to dial up speeds? The customer service departments are best described as 45 minutes to an hour of listening to elevator music to finally talk to someone who has no idea on how to help you. When they say “we will have a technician there tomorrow” they really mean next week if your lucky.
The number of complaints about this company are to numerous to list. I highly recommend that if you have a choice, choose someone else and save yourselves from a ton of headaches.
Voith Hydro Ontario, I’ve seen first hand how production comes before Quality and Safety, I have witnessed several near fatalities and have been pressured myself to use unsafe equipment so the company could make a buck fully aware that someone could be killed or injured, and seen the poor parts that are installed with the customer unaware if you want to work for a G7 company with 3rd world company ideals this is the company for you !
AllerAir Industries