Well done Canadian Tire (this is me being facetious)

The snow is coming, the snow is coming!

Now that I commute to work in my car I need snow tires and so, yesterday, I drove down to Canadian Tire to buy some. My brother had recommend Nordics and so, because I do everything that he says, it was Nordics that I was after.

The service counter was dead and a gentleman asked how he could help me and I said I needed snow tires. He said there was no way he could fit me in today because they had had "forty cars" come in that day as everyone was trying to get their tires before the snow started. That was fine: I know they a) don't take reservations and b) I was rather anticipating having to leave my car overnight.

He asked me what size tires I needed and I said I didn't know, but I gave him the make and model of my car and he punched it into the computer and looked at me and said "I have tires for $100". He didn't tell me what kind of tires they were or how many kilometres they were good for or if he had cheaper ones or more expensive ones. He just had tires for $100. I asked what kind they were and he said they were Nordics which I was after, so I said fine and gave him my keys and my phone number.

At this point Michael remembered there was a package in the car and, since it was going to be sitting on the lot overnight, thought it best to run over and retrieve it. I asked the sales person for my car keys back and he handed them to me and then, simply, turned and walked away from me leaving me standing at the service counter totally alone as he went into an office and started eating his lunch. He didn't say: "I am going on my lunch break now so someone else can help you"; or "When your boyfriend brings the keys back flag me down and I'll take the keys from you"; or "Thank you for your business". He just walked away.

Michael came back with the keys and I asked another customer service person if I could give him the keys and he asked if someone else was helping me and I said that I was being helped by someone earlier, but apparently they weren't helping me anymore. He took my keys and confirmed that they would call me when my car was ready.

Michael and I walked home.

I waited around most of this morning and then, around 1pm I called Canadian Tire to ask when my car would be ready for pick up. I was told that the car was in fact ready.

So we walked back down to Canadian Tire and I shelled out $543.55 for the tires, retrieved my keys and asked where exactly my car was in the parking lot (they didn't really know) and then, upon studying my bill I was rather displeased to see that my car had been ready for pickup at 4:17 yesterday afternoon.

Fuckers.

Now, I did fill out an online survey about my shoddy experience at Canadian Tire today and they asked for suggestions on how to make things better and what they could do to make me shop there more often. I relayed my story (it was a little more succinct, naturally) to them and further advised that if they wanted me to shop there again they could send me a gift certificate to make up for the whole unpleasant fiasco.

I worked for four years for a company that made customer experience management software. I am very interested to say what they will do with my feedback. If they take steps to rectify it I will be very pleased and I will be happy to update you with any positive development.

If, however, they do nothing?

Again: fuckers.