By Ave

I’ve used the Groupon app a few times for the Now Deals. It is very convenient as long as I have a credit card linked to the account. I can just click “buy now” to get a Now Deal (usually I get restaurant ones) but if I don’t end up going to the restaurant Groupon refunded the money to my credit card on the same day. If you have a smart phone I suggest hitting the Buy Now button when you actually arrive at the restaurant that way you know you will be using it within the time period. I’ve also had a few questions about the deals and Groupon replies very quickly.

By Hurtful daddy

Today is Father’s Day. After having a wonderful breakfast with my wife and kids ( 4 & 7 yrs old), we went to RCS Store, Highland & Fisberhallman, Kitchener to exchange a clothing  item for my wife. When we are at the  Joe Fresh cashier’s desk almost at the same time two more customers (most likely rep’s acquaintance ) came there with 20+ just grocery items. Cashier was ringing those items and was chatting like people do at home. We were three customers waiting in line with just clothing items. Since she was talking and ringing her friend’s grocery items, so I requested her if she can call for help and she called for help. The lady who came told me that she can’t ring for return/exchange as other girl was using for ringing grocery items. Before I say anything to her, she called for the next customer. I have not moved from in front of her when she called next person. Lady behind me also felt that new rep just ignored me and requested if they can switch the register. I, then aske
d the lady why is she calling other customer when I am not done. The customers who were getting their groceries (rep’s friends) started saying like…I also work in the retail and I know there are some bitchy customers like you ( pointing me). I felt more upset and humiliated in front of my family, so I just said…excuse me you are crossing your limit…besides, I am not talking to you ( customer - rep’s friend). My 7 years old son felt so bad seeing this that he hide behind clothing rack and started crying.

I thought I should report to this store manager and requested if she can call her manager/supervisor. The supervisor of Joe Fresh came to me and asked what my company is. While I was talking to her , store manager also came and I explained the whole situation. Store manager and Joe Fresh supervisor both agreed that represent should not be doing what she did with me. Store manager also told me that she will make sure Joe Fresh rep doesn’t ring grocery items while keeping their primary customers (clothing customers) waiting in the line.

I am not sure what she will do as I’ll not go back to RCS in future. I have PC’s many services (mastercard, Banking, & mortgage) for last 7/8 years; not only that, I’m their one of those valuable customers specially with their banking division according to the PC Financial.

I felt like I was treated like that because I’m an immigrant and those reps and their friend’s are not. So, I am not expecting to many changes on RCS side but I will first cancel my mastercard and the other services slowly. I just needed to express my feelings so that others don’t have to…

Sorry for writing such a long story.

Thanks,

Hurtful Daddy

Happy Father’s Day
June 17,2012

By Doug

After a very long and early morning doctors appointment, my husband and I went to Tim Hortons to grab some breakfast.  The workers were terribly confused and slow to begin with, but hey, it was early morning!  Upon receiving our order, my BELT was missing the egg and my husbands coffee tasted like it has been burned twice over.  So, I contracted Tim Hortons Head Office, they were so apologetic, and immediately sent me a 10$ Tim Hortons gift card to rectify the issue.  I alos had similar experience at McDonalds, who promptly fixed the issue (I had to return to the same McDonalds and I was on a list to be given 2 free meals)

The moral here is- if you are genuinely not happy, let the Head Office know!  In this day and age, there is so much competition, and everyone wants to keep your business.

By Sandra5

In general the staff at this store are super-nice , but this recent great customer service surprised this jaded shopper, so I think it’s worth posting about.
I was out of diet Pepsi-decaf in cans, and these had just gone on sale so I went down. There wasn’t any on the store shelf, so I asked someone on the floor to
check their stock if they had any more. This fellow came back and said he couldn’t find any and I told him too bad since I had walked all the way down with my
little trolley especially to pick this item up as I had completely run out. About 10 minutes later as I was still browsing the store, he came back and said he found some
way in the back on some slats that had not been unpacked and how many did I need. I said two, and in five minutes more he brought me the two cases I needed.
That this guy went the extra mile to double check really surprised me since so often when an item sells out I’m used to being told sorry, that’s all we have.
His special effort really made my day!

By Thrifygirl

Recently I went to walmart to shop for diapers and wipes for my newborn baby. As I was shopping I found a bag of opened diapers. So I placed them in my cart and figured I could possibly get a good discount on them at the cash. When I got to the cashI asked the red headed cashier  to ask the supervisor to came to see if I could get a discount on the opened package of diapers.She  started to gab about the coupon restrictions and how there told to never give away anything.After all I was paying for it . She continued to say how stupid people were because even if something was broken people would pay for it.She explained how at Halloween Walmart sold a skid of broken black cats at no discount at all. I was trying so hard to pay attention to the prices on the display to make sure everything was  at correct price. I love the Scanning code of practice! So I finally get a word in to ask for a supervisor to give me a discount. She arrives almost right away and looks at  the diapers and says well we usually don’t give a discount but you can have 10% off. So Iam happy with that because I have a coupon to use with my purchase so I am going to save $3.50 now. So the supervisor leaves and the cashier continues to scan all my items.I wait patiently for my savings and dont see her make the change so I ask” did you take 10% off? No , She says Its up to me she says and we arent giving you the 10% off. Iam like what did she just say? I am being told be a Walmart cashier that shes not going to give me my discount. So I tell her that ” Yes”  the supervisor  just said 3 seconds ago to give me the discount. So she plays stuipid for a minute and calls over another walmart employee. She asks her if its okay to give me savings of 10%. The Walmart employee agrees to give me the discount.

By Couponcountrychic

I’m a fourth year Business student, so I’m always in need of affordable, yet classy business casual clothes. About a year ago, the Smart Set in the Pen Center closed, which left Dynamite as the only viable age appropriate option for students. Just recently I discovered the Smart Set on Fourth Avenue. This store is very spacious, and airy. It’s not crammed full of clothes like most stores, and has a long change room hallway, which is excellent for checking out your outfit from different distances. In addition, there are always lots of salespeople to help you, which is important for when you’re shopping on your own. Kudos to Smart Set!!

By Megan

Just a few days ago I finally cancelled my cellphone with Bell Canada. I have to pay over $600 to cancel it because I’ve only had it for a year and a half.

The final straw that led me to cancel with them is the fact that I just can’t trust their customer service representatives at the call centre.

Back in August, I called to change my plan. The representative I had told me I needed to add on a $20 bundle so I wouldn’t get charged for breaching the data contract. She sounded sincere so I told her that was fine as long as I legitimately needed it. She assured me I absolutely did, and made it seem like she was doing me some big favour.

Fast forward to a few nights ago when I once again decided to change my plan. This time I used their online chat option, and I talked to a really nice girl on there. I wasn’t able to get a cheaper plan (my current one with that added bundle from August was $90.40 a month!) but she happened to mention that I didn’t need that bundle. In fact, the bundle that had been added had no data properties whatsoever!

The next day I called Bell’s client care hotline, and told the man I got that I wished to make a complaint against the first CSR that I spoke to back in August. We had to wait a while for his supervisor, so in the meantime he asked what the issue was. I explained to him that I had been paying $20 extra for 10 months on my bill because an employee had lied to me, and told me I had no choice but to add the bundle. He proceeded to make up a bunch of excuses for why the employee was right, and how the girl I had talked to online was wrong. He then asked if I still wanted to speak to his supervisor, I told him I absolutely did.

After being put on hold for 20 minutes, a supervisor named Roxanne came on the phone. She also didn’t seem to believe me at first, but after persisting she went through my account details and admitted there was no data involved in that bundle. She then said she could only compensate me for 3 months worth of the bundle. I asked her how it worked out that I was only being reimbursed $60 when I had been cheated into spending $200. She told me it was too bad, and that she wouldn’t do anymore. I told her to immediately transfer me to the department that processed cancellations.

The real issue with me isn’t the money I spent. The issue is that I spoke to 3 different customer service representatives AND a supervisor, and they all had different answers for me. The only one who provided decent, TRUTHFUL information was the one I talked to online. How do they expect me to stick with a company that doesn’t have employees available to answer questions? These employees are lying and tricking customers into spending money they don’t need to spend. Its ridiculous.

I refuse to pay $90 a month (for 19 more months too!) to a company that lies to its customers, and isn’t even sympathetic about it afterwards. I’d much rather pay close to $700 to get out of my contract then to continue supporting the idiots at Bell.

I sincerely hope anyone considering going with Bell Mobility reads this and chooses not to.

By Missxhillary

was in Dollarama shopping for a few things recently. We went through each aisle of the store looking for stuff we may need or want. There were ladders with boxes on them in a few aisles yet no one was tending to them. This making it very difficult to squeeze by with a stroller. We got everything we needed and it came to about 24$ not much. When we got to the cash we only had a $100 bill but there were no signs anywhere stating they did not accept them. The manager was at the cash to get the change for us. She rudely says to us “next time you have to spend at least 50$ to use a $100 bill”…. I was appalled. I should have spoke up and said my piece however I didn’t want to be rude… So we went on our way. I am in disbelief that she would tell us how much money we have to spend in order to use a $100, when there was no signs posted ANYWHERE in the store. Wasn’t impressed.

By Netterbetter

Customer Service
Last weekend I went to the Whitby location after googling wardrobes and finding one on their site that looked great and was on sale. All of the sale staff was 20 or younger as far as I could tell. Ordinarily I wouldn’t mention age but I think it relevant as they were huddled in small groups chatting instead of asking customers if they required assistance-which we did. That was my first impression.

Stock Availability

When I finally broke up social hour to get someone to help I learned that they were out of stock on the colour that I wanted so I had to wait to weeks or settle for the other colour. I settled. Even though it made me less happy about the experience I wasn’t prepared to wait two weeks. So off to the cashier to pay where I am told to drive around Petsmart at the east side of the building. After arriving I realized that driving around the west side of the building would have been much quicker so I am not sure why I was told to go the long way. Pick up was uneventful but I did ask if any tools were required as this was a two box build it yourself project. I was assured that none were necessary.

Build It Yourself:

2 Door Wardrobe was the item. I have to start by saying that most of my furniture is from Ikea so build it yourself is not new to me. Open the box to find a sheet of lettered stickers fall out. I guess the first step was to determine from the instructions which sticker went on which board. I skipped that step as it annoyed me. The quality of the “wood” was disappointing but not surprising given the price. The build was ridiculous. I wasn’t prepared for loose dowels which caused boards to separate. There was a small bag of glue and I assumed that was what it was for as the instructions made no mention of it’s purpose. There were screws and a tool that did not function well with them. After ten minutes of having the tool slip out of the screw repeatedly as if something was stripped I gave up. I have a tool box full of standard screwdrivers and other assorted tools and was disappointed to find that the screws included with this wardrobe were far from standard and required a trip to the hardware store to buy a new screwdriver that I have never seen or known existed. I am not sure why JYSK chooses to not use phillips, flat head or square screws but it was annoying. The build took far longer than any Ikea build as a result of the gluing (I like the ikea lock nuts) and the odd screws (I like the Ikea standard allen key). For all of the reasons listed about I will not be going back to this store to watch sales associates socialize and I will not buy furniture which is annoying while building. Ikea is the better choice when looking for  frugal furniture.

By Ave

I read many other reviews about the Crest White strips and really wanted to try myself. I got the Professional Effects kit because I really wanted to know if they really worked. It was quite pricey for a drugstore product since it was around $50-60 with tax. I am almost done the box (2 strips left). It’s like putting tape on your teeth and then pulling it out afterwards. It is easy to use but the sensation afterwards doesn’t feel good. After 3 days straight of use, I felt sensitivity from my teeth and gums. There was minor swelling from the gums and my teeth would suddenly hurt for 3 seconds then stop. It is a strange feeling. So I stopped using it for a few days before restarting. I’ve been afraid to use the strips continuously so I would use them for 2 days and rest for a few days to avoid sensitivity. I think it did light my teeth a little bit but the results are pretty negligible. For all the uncomfortableness I will not repurchase this again.

By Confused couponer

I had a $2.00 off coupon for the 425 ml Sweet Baby Ray’s bbq sauce.  So, I was very excited when I saw the Price Smart Foods Flyer had it on sale for $1.47.  I  am new at using coupons as I have only started collecting them, but I do make sure to read the terms of the coupon. When I went to the store and picked up 3 bottles of the bbq sauce (as I had 3 coupons and it didn’t have any limit of usage). At the counter, the cashier was very friendly, but she noticed that the coupon was more than the sale price of the sauce.  So she asked her manager as to what the process was.  I was shocked when the manager told her that since the coupons was more than the sale price, she needs to override the price of the coupons.  So instead of getting $2 off, I got $1.47 off.  I did not say anything, as I am getting the bottles for free, but by the time I got to the car, I can’t help thinking if I got cheated out of my coupons, since the manufacturer will reimburse the Price Foods for $2 but t
hey only gave me $1.47 off.    I was a little bit bummed and confused…

From now until August 30th 2012 submit a review and be entered into a gift card draw for $50.  The gift card can be of your choice such as Tim Hortons, Shoppers, and Walmart.  Reviews can be about any experience at a merchant/service/product in the virtual or real world.  The reviews can be positive or negative.  Have a great makeup counter girl? Give her a shout out with your review. Reviews must be legible and at least a paragraph long to be entered. Reviews that are just a sentence or two will NOT be published. Remember it’s all in the details.  Fake reviews will not be accepted.  Enter as many times as you wish as long as your review is accurate and true. Please do not forget a title and what store/location you are writing about.

Simply visit our review blog and scroll to the middle to submit your review.

We like to keep the Review blog fairly anonymous so please just use a valid email when you submit your review to be entered.

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Are you a business who wants to featured in one of our giveaways? Email me at Sally@ smartcanucks.ca (omit spaces)

By Channylaf

We live in Quebec and I was shopping for a gift for my husband.  Since he plays golf and loves (like, total mancrush love) Rick Fowler, the golfer, I decided to buy him some of the golf shirts Rick wears.  Well, I knew they were colorful and that they were made by Puma, but walking into Sports Experts with a cranky 13-month old, I didn’t know where to find them in the fastest way possible.  Enter my hero: the most polite, helpful teenage salesman I have ever met.  He knew right away what I was talking about, showed me some choices (I bought both of the loud, colorful golf shirts), walked me to the counter and removed the security tags for me before a girl put them through the register.  He even advised me on the washing instructions (which I thought was cute cuz I’ve been doing laundry since before he was born - I’m 35 by the way). He didn’t rush me, smiled, and seemed genuinely happy to help…a shocker for me since I haven’t had the best customer service since we moved here
.  I got out of there in record time saving both my sanity and my day.  I don’t know his name because he wasn’t wearing a name tag, but he works in the golf dept at the Place Promenades Sports Experts in Saint Bruno, QC.  I will drive the 30 mins just to buy from this store from now on.  Great job young sir!  You have not only reestablished my faith in the younger generation, but you made my day a little brighter and I will tell all my friends to go find you and buy from you!

By Maureen

I was in Sobey’s and I bought wraps.  The sale price was $2.49.  It scanned in at $3.19 when I went thru the cash.  I told the cashier and with the SPC I got the item free.  She just checked that the price was what I said and happily gave me back my money and I got free wraps.  This happens quite a bit so I always try to check the register to make sure the advertised or correct prices ring up.  I have gotten quite a few products because of this.

By Customer with a 2 year old

Winnipeg Safeway on Vermillion. You coupon right? Well so do I.  ;)Safeway had some great deals so I went with my little guy who is 2 and we got 4 bottles of sunlight detergent as it was on sale b1g1, 2 bottles of ketchup on sale, 4 boxes of tea with 50% stickers, 3 glade smellies, one tub baby wipes, and two tubs of yogurt. Fairly small order but a lot of coupons.
I had 2 fpcs for yogurt, 2 fpcs for sunlight, 3 fpcs for glade smellies, 1 fpc for baby wipes and 4x $1 offs the tea. The cashier rang it through I paid what I thought was too much and stopped to check the receipt. Well I stared at it and stared at it and I couldn’t figure the thing out. I took it to customer service and she couldn’t figure it out. She went and got all of the coupons from the cashier and re rang it in and somehow came up with that she owed me $90!!! I said NO you owe me around $10-$12. She did it again $80ish owing to me - NO! (I mean seriously I would love $80 or $90  but its not right) it took 45mins when I finally said look give me a pen and paper. I showed her all the products with fpcs/bogo sales = free and showed her that I really should only pay full price for the ketchup and 1/2 tea price minus the $1 each coupons AND any applicable taxes.  She then gave me $10.12 back. Safeways receipts with their in house sale price then card savings then additional
discounts listed at the bottom separate from the product bought are so confusing that even their own staff don’t know whats going on. Luckily my little guy had just finished a free cookie from their bakery so he was happy as a clam to be given a flyer to “read” while this 45min fiasco played itself out.