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.

By Stephanie

I went to Pottery Barn Sherway gardens with my baby stroller and toddler in hand - during the day when it is not so busy.  I tried to ask a salesperson  - politely - for help to find a lamp.  She looked at me and looked over at another older lady, much fancier dressed than I (of course I have 2 kids in tow) - she didn’t even say anything to me - she held her hand up to me and then walked over to the other lady to ask her if she needed help. WELL EXCUSE ME!  Just because I am with two (very quiet I may add) children and I am not dressed to the nines, does not mean you give me the “hand,” and go to another customer that LOOKS like they may spend more money.  She didn’t even SAY ANYTHING to me just the hand.  I almost started to cry!  I just walked right out of the store and went home.  WORST. EXPERIENCE. EVER. I am never going there again.  EVER.

By Shwa girl

Recently, I have not been too thrilled with shopping at No Frills. The Oshawa stores were restricting the number of coupons that can be used and each store manager was making up their own policy on coupons.

The Dole bagged salad was on sale (Thurs. June 7) for $1.  As usual, there were none on the shelf. I talked to the produce guy telling him that I had been in on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. He apologized for the lack of stock.  He then searched me out as I continued shopping and apologized again, telling he that he checked stock in the warehouse and that there was none for him to order.  He told me that I should see him next week and he will mark down some bags for me, for my inconvenience. What a refreshing change from my recent No Frills experience.

I would recommend the Cobourg store — this is not the first time they have provided good customer service.  Also, when there is a a big line up, they will call for another cashier and someone will open until the long line has decreased. I wish that Metro would learn this lesson in customer service from this No Frills location.

By Rene

This location has some of the most helpful sales people ever! I have really sensitive skin, and have had allergic reactions in the past that took months to heal. I didn’t realize they gave samples of products, but when I told them my story, they were so helpful in explaining about all the products and even giving me multiple samples of the line I was interested in so I could test out for myself if they would give me a reaction or not. When certain products were out, they also called other stores to hold products for me for upto 2 days because of my work schedule. My story has been told to future would-be customers, so that other people know it’s ok to be forthcoming about skin woes! A+ for customer service.

By Lisa
Is it just me or have other people had less than favorable experiences with Team Buy? I am batting 0 for 2. Both services I bought from them were either unreliable (no show house cleaning) or no longer in existence (or maybe never really did exist). I used one of my ‘credits’ to purchase a product from them and that was over a month ago now and nothing. So maybe I am 0 for 3….
Team buy offers me credits back on my account which I do not understand..I paid MONEY for these non existent services and got credit in return from a website that has unreliable vendors. I do not understand the logic…The credits are no good if their vendors can not provide the services that are paid for. I am really unimpressed and want to know if any one has had success in getting their money back from TEAM BUY or if they are also stuck with these useless credits….

I called several Canadian tires in my area for an electric grease gun, the one on the website shows a black one with the name UST the product number is 28-2700-8, the one at trinity in Brampton I called the employee went to check for me, and he said he had them he went to check and everything, he said yes it’s the same one, then I drove for an hour to that particular store, and they show me a totally different product, it was red, and had a different name brand, but it had the exact product # that was on the Canadian Tire web site, but a diff grease gun. They were very rude to me, I was not happy about this at all, they did not know what they were doing, and could not help me, this was a very upsetting day.

By Customer

Be careful at Save-On-Foods.  They often make mistakes in pricing.  I bought fish recently that had a price for 2.29/each, but when I went to pay the price was higher.  This has happened more than once.  Their excuse was “Oh, the computer was programmed to read …”  How on Earth would a customer know what the computer was programmed to do?  The customer can only read the prices that are attached to the items!!!!
No apologies for their mistake whatsoever.
I truly wonder now if stores do this on purpose hoping that customers won’t notice that they were charged a higher price than what was advertised.

By Dan

KEEP AWAY BY ALL MEANS…..
I went to their store to have an estimate made on a coach and loveseat that where damaged in a flooding because my insurance adjuster needed the approximate replacement price.
Once I got there the sales rep. was polite and made me an estimate according to the specifications of the damaged furniture as asked and I told her that I would come back to purchase the items once I get the approval from my insurance company.
Both loveseat and sofa where very high grade leather, which was mentioned to the saleswoman, but once I got back to buy the items, she told me the price was much higher and the model chosen was not made in this grade of leather!!!
She would NOT ADMIT that she made a mistake, did not offer to call my insurance to clarify the ‘huge difference in price” and did not even offer some type of compensation … no need to mention that I was furious and told her I would need time now to clarify the mistake to my insurance company.
By the way she did make sure to tell me that when I come back to be sure the sale is in her name or to check to see if she works the day I would come back!!!
Once I got home I wanted to check out the written estimate before sending it out to my insurer. Again, the price written down and price mentioned in store where different, a new mistake (she wrote down the total difference between a grade 3000 leather versus a grade 6000 was 50$ total…. which is in fact over 2500$ as mentioned in store… now again I couldn’t give this new estimate to my insurance…
I got fed up of going there so finally bought the set and extra furniture elsewhere and now the downside is I have to assume the price difference which is over 3000$ total having nothing to present to my insurer whom originally wanted me to go shop at Brault & Martineau, store that I do not shop in (Cheap, Cheap, no quality and horrible service type of store!!!) and if you ever have to deal with an insurer it is a real hassle to try to tell them that the price you had given them as an estimate suddenly doubled!!!

By Beverley

I purchased an outfit from Winners in advance of a Birthday party my daughter would be attending.  It fit nicely and so the tags were removed so that she could wear it to the occasion.  The next time she was to wear it she noticed that the entire lower seam had frayed so that it could not be repaired.  I searched for the receipt and took it back to the store well over the 10 day exchange policy.  The lady at the counter kept me waiting 30 minutes while her and another clerk searched for the item which of course was no longer in stock.  I shop at Winners a lot and I had purchased a dress for my other daughter at the same price at the same time.  After making me wait for that length of time they entered the SKU on the receipt which identified the item clearly as not the colour or style of the item I was returning.  They told me I could get a gift card if I had the correct receipt.  I have several issues:  They could of entered the SKU right away to confirm if it was the correct  receipt for the item and they should be willing to give a refund if the item is defective…….they should have offered some remedy for the defective clothing including reporting the manufacturer to the buyer at their head office.  I shop at Winners a lot but the way I was treated by the customer service staff at this location turned me off shopping at their stores.  It is difficult to get teenagers to shop at anything but the stores their friends shop at.  After this episode I don’t think they are going to wear anything from Winners again.
I am really disappointed that Winners does not care enough about their customers to try to keep them happy.  Bad Business.

By Dionsia

My husband and I had a very good experience with the store manager of Superstore at Bison Drive in Winnipeg. We encountered an ambiguity in interpreting the 25-item limit at the self checkout and we were publicly reprimanded by a shift manager. Consequently, we asked for a meeting with the store manager, Rod Hill. He first listened to us courteously on the phone, immediately understood our point of view, and then agreed to meet with us to discuss the matter further. During the meeting, he apologized on behalf of the store and assured us that he will take action so that we and other customers would not encounter a similar situation in the future. Interestingly, he opened our meeting by saying: “I’m here to listen”. Overall this is the kind of response one would hope to receive from the manager of any organization.

By Know better now

Future Shop is a total nightmare.

We purchased a washer & dryer from Future Shop online. I have to say purchased because they took our money immediately. We waited a week to receive a delivery Date..not a delivery, just a delivery date. At the end of 7 full days I cancelled the order as we had paid for 2 large items we were apparently not going to receive. We were told it would be 5-7 days before the credit would be posted….standard. Fine, so we waited. 7 days, 8 days, 9 days. all the time calling future shop “customer service” and getting various answers from “call this number instead” to “please wait another day” to “oh, a supervisor will call you back in 30 minutes, or 1 day or within 48 hours” we could not get an answer as to where our money was.
Finally I called my credit card company to seek a resolution. They immediately approved the charge back as we were charged for goods that were not ever delivered and thankfully I had emails from Future Shop saying we were entitled to our refund. (FYI get it in writing, a phone call means nothing!) It is day 10, I threatened them with our charge back and got a response the same day announcing suddenly our credit was issued. Where was that email a week ago? We shall see if we actually get our money back or if Visa has to take it back from them.

What a horrible business with  the absolute worst customer service I have even encountered. I will make it my business to tell anyone and everyone how they took our money, delivered nothing and have up until now not given our 1500$ back.

Its funny, we filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and do you know that Future Shop is calling us everyday now to resolve that issue? Funny when the shoe is on the other foot….

They will charge you and good luck getting a credit when you cancel because they are not delivering your purchase. Buyer be warned. This is not a company you want having your credit card number.

By -Frustrated

Several weeks ago, the doorbell of my house rang. Outside stood a young man, requesting permission to take our number for a lawn care company. Having just moved to this house last fall with my family and unsure whether my parents would be interested I naively accepted. Oh how I regret this decision in hindsight.

Since then, we have been bombarded with phone calls from Weedman. I happened to answer that first call, during which I patiently heard the employee out and asked multiple questions about the products and technologies they use, whether they are environment friendly, their prices. I then said I will present this information to my family, which I honestly did.

Meanwhile I went online to do research, only to find numerous articles, blogs and company reviews about how this company refuses to take clients off their phone list, keeps returning phone calls when turned down, provides unwanted services and bills people for them anyway. The list goes on. After reading such negative opinions, I immediately wrote them off.

So when they called back a second time, I politely said I had done my research and that as a family we had decided not to receive their services.

Weeks and phone calls later, I am stunned by the tactics the company uses: calls from different unlabelled numbers so that they cannot be screened, employees claiming they did not know we had requested to be taken off the list, and just recently, an employee saying he cannot take us off the list until he speaks to the owners of the house! As the adult who has been dealing with them from the beginning I was shocked, not only by his tone but his adamant persistence that he will call back to speak to the owners. Before he hung up on me he whistled his displeasure.

All of which has lead me to write this short, inarticulate article. A feat in itself, since I avoid writing, and write this only in hopes that it will maybe make a positive change in certain people’s lives.

To the staff of WeedMan: I will give you the benefit of the doubt that you do not know we have already been called. So please, improve your internal communication channels and listen to the person on the other end of the line who declines your services. And do it politely to boot.

To the unsuspecting consumer: be smarter than I was and do not provide your contact info to WeedMan. You will regret it.

By MarieFrance

I bought 4 vouchers for Oggi restaurant here in Montreal - 1 for myself and 3 as gifts, late last year.

I myself managed to redeem mine, but when the others tried calling to make reservations, there was never any answer and the voicemail was full. I went there in person and they are shut down.

I emailed TeamBuy to get a refund, but all they could do, they said, was credit me in my TeamBuy account (which does not help me since I do not buy from them regularly and I now have to give 75$ back to the 3 people I bought for).

I called customer service thinking it would be best to talk live - but was told they could not do anything else except put a credit in my account!!!

How disappointing. I cannot believe they won’t refund the customers who bought a voucher for a merchant who shut down - that is ludicrous. I will use up my vouchers (because I have to) - but I will NEVER buy from them again.