Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Let's Go Shopping Boys! I'm Feelin' Like A Game Of 'Guess My Price!'

... or - Did Canadian Tire FAIL in customer service? YOU Decide!

Last week, the boys and I ran into Canadian Tire to pick up a pump for the basketballs.

We only had a small window of time, because we were on our way to Adam's basketball practice. An 'in and out' kind of pit-stop.

Ran in, found the pumps.

They were hanging at the end of an aisle around sporting goods.


There were approx 3-4 hooks across with 2-3 pumps on each hook (a couple of larger ones were also scattered further down below).

There was a price tag at the end of the hook(s) for the hand-size pump I wanted.

$6.99

Perfect.

Let's go!

Get to the cash, the cashier has to call to the back for a price on something for the person in front of me.

Lineup starts to form behind me.

My turn.

I give the boys each a loonie and they run to the side doors, to the coin/toy/frustration machines to see what piece of junk treasure they were going to get.

Cashier rings it in and says "$9.99"

"But the tags on hooks where they were hanging all said $6.99", I replied.


She picked up the phone.

I checked out the lineup.

Just as I said, "Don't worry about it" there was someone on the other end of the phone.

"Yeah. You wanna check the price on the basketball pumps", and rattles off the number that will magically attach it to the price at the other end of the store.

Insert elevator music here.

I lean over to make sure the boys are still trying to figure out if they want the tiny ceramic hockey mugs, or tacky Bling.

Quick look over the shoulder and a 'sorry' to the dude behind me.

Back to the cashier just as she says "Yeah, OK. Thanks."

"System says $9.99"

Which tells me one thing. The person who answered the phone didn't actually go and LOOK at the pumps. They simply punched in the number, and regurgitated the price they were fed.

HARRUMPH!

OK, I really hate to be holding up the line, but if the person in 'sporting goods' who answered the phone is already back in sporting goods, couldn't they have taken the ... MINUTE, to check the actual price hanging on the HOOK?

So what if the 'system' is saying '$9.99'. Why would I argue that if I hadn't SEEN it on a price tag somewhere.

Oh ...I don't know ... maybe on the hooks the pumps were ON?

Sigh.

I wasn't going to argue for the $3.00 with a lineup behind me.

I also didn't want Adam to be late for B-Ball practice.

I paid the $9.99, took the bag, and receipt, gave the boys the finger, ... no, not THAT finger, the 'I'll be right back, stay there, stay together and DON'T MOVE', finger! and headed back past the lineup behind me.

Back to sporting goods.

I couldn't let it go damnit. I KNEW it said $6.99.

Sure enough ... there it was, little black numbers on a small white tag ... $6.99.

All over the place, $6.99.

There was a guy stocking shelves at the end of the aisle.

I called him over, quickly explained to him what had happened and he says "Oh. Yeah, well see, this number ends in 02 and yours ends in 01 (or something like that) so these pumps are actually all priced wrong."

I just looked at him and said, ' ... but ... that's not MY fault you guys put the wrong prices on all of them. It SAYS $6.99 right there. And there. And there. And ...

That's not really fair now is it?'

Nothing.

I got a blank stare and a, 'Uh, yeah, well, you'll have to go see Customer Serve about that.'

CRAP! Again, not what I wanted to hear.

I threw a 'Never Mind!' over my shoulder as I walked towards the front of the store, the boys and Customer Service.

At this point, I was beyond pissed, but knew I didn't have time for anything more than a quick word with the young customer service chick, who simply stared at me wide-eyed as I said,

'Just so ya know ... you have to change the prices on all your pumps back there, so the next customer who goes to buy one doesn't end up paying more than they thought they would, because the prices are all WRONG.

Not quite fair to the customer is it?

Just so ya know.'

Her reply?

Blink.

Blink. Blink.

'I'll be sure to tell my Manager as soon as she gets off the phone.', pointing to the woman behind her.

She didn't offer to reimburse me the difference.

I didn't bother to ask.

We left. With our $9.99 pump.

The boys are happy.

The basketballs inflated.

My opinion of Canadian Tire customer service, deflated like a whoopee cushion under a four yr old's butt.

Sigh.

Did I expect too much, when I expected to pay what was on the price tag?

Did Canadian Tire FAIL in customer service? YOU Decide!

Let's go shopping Boys! I'm feelin' like a game of 'Guess My Price!'

K

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm so with you on this BUT...at least you found the pump right where it was supposed to be--in the sporting goods dept.

...I'm just saying.

Kim's Korner said...

Danie - LOL! Very true! Very true :-) I wonder where they kept the Buffalo Balls???? ;-p

CraftyLzrd said...

DUDE! That's like one of my biggest pet peeves EVER! Talk about Customer NO Service! GAAH!

Anonymous said...

OK I'll fight to the death in situations like that at whatever store I'm in and if they don't cooperate, I go home and call the manager. One day I was at Superstore and the WHOLE front window display was all 2 liters of Coke and it said 88 cents ALL across the front window visible from the parking lot. So I bought two since I was having company over. Got to the cash and they charged me $1.77 each. I got her to call back and they said oh no that pop sale ended yesterday. OK I could see if it was 8am and they hadn't gotten around to taking the signs down yet, but it was 3pm!! They would not give it to me for that price. I didn't buy them. WHen I left the store, the guy was taking down the signs and I asked him how many other people he screwed over with his false advertising. When I got home, I called the manager. LOL Buggers.

Jack said...

I don't blame you for being pissed one bit. In fact, most stores have a policy that states you get the item for what the sticker says, even if it is priced wrong.

I just had this happen at Superstore with their shredded cheese. They forgot to take down the sale price from the week before, and when they rung it in it came up as the actual price not the sale price. Well, I told the girl about the sign, she sent someone to check and to make a long story short... I got the cheese at the sale price + a free bag because they made a mistake when they rung it in.

Go back when you get a chance and speak to the manager, maybe they will do the right thing and refund you the $3.

Ps. I've got a long list of beefs with Canadian tire.

Kim's Korner said...

LZRD - Yup, one of my huge peeves too! Right up there with Crappy Drivers! UGH!

Bon - They absolutely should have honoured their price! I could understand if maybe *one* sign was still up, but if they were all along the window ... yeah, crappy customer service on Superstore's part!

Jack - Thanks for the comment :-)

You're right, I SHOULD go back to see the manager, but ... it most likely won't happen. It'll just be abother hassle trying to explain to the manager that 'I was in over a weeek ago and ...blah blha blah'

Glad your experience was a bit better at the Superstore.

I got small feeling of satisfaction knowing that *someone* at the Canadian Tire corp read my post ... according to my statcounter ;-)