It started innocently enough. A couple weeks ago, my dad called me at work to ask if I could stop at Canadian Tire on my way home to pay for some mirror extenders he'd ordered for his truck.
“They wouldn't take your credit card over the phone?” I asked.
“No. They said you had to pay in person.”
I guess with the chance of someone scamming them, they use a “better safe than sorry” approach. I didn't realise how far they'd take that sentiment though! 
So, although it was a slight inconvenience to get off the bus on my way home to pay for the order then sit around waiting for the next bus to come along, I did as he'd asked with no problems.
Dad had mentioned he'd be away for a few weeks when he placed the order. But I decided to ask how long it would take for them to come in if I got a chance to swing by and pick them up. I was told it would be about four or five days.
So today, when Shea and I decided to take a spontaneous drive out to a lake near my hometown for a picnic with Pace, I decided to whip into Canadian Tire on our way out of the city to see if the mirrors were in. If they were, I could leave them at M&D's house and then they wouldn't have to make a special trip into the city for them.
I went to Canadian Tire and headed to the auto parts counter while Shea went to look to see if any patio furniture caught her eye. I mentioned the order to the young guy at the counter and he said “Oh yeah, I've seen them around. I'll grab them.”
He brought them out but the lady he was working with asked him to go with another customer to a different area of the store and she'd finish helping me. I'd seen her rudely boss the young guy around once already while I was waiting in line so had a bad feeling about how this might go knowing I'd just popped in and didn't have the receipt on me.
“I'm here to pick up some mirrors my dad ordered,” I said “I don't have the receipt but I have the credit card I used to pay for them. Is that okay?”
“You need the receipt to pick them up.” (“Oh-oh, here we go,” I thought.) I explained that we were heading out of town and had decided to stop by to see if the mirrors were in so the receipt was at home somewhere.
“You'll have to go get it.”
“Well, we're already on our way out of town and I was hoping to drop them off at my parents' this afternoon. I mean, the whole reason I had to pay in the first place was because you wouldn't accept my father's credit card over the phone.”
“Well, that doesn't help because we don't have the credit card number with this order.” (What? That surprised me. They just had a copy of the written order they'd taken over the phone, it did show that I'd paid for them but they didn't have the card number connected to this transaction apparently.)
“They're for my dad. I can give you his name, phone number and address if that helps.” I start listing off this info, thinking if she sees that I know all the details of the order, that'll clear up any thoughts that I'm doing some sort of weird mirror stealing scam.
“Just a second, I'll call the manager.”
I only heard her side of the conversation but it doesn't look good…”yes, they have the same last name.”…”No, he says he doesn't have the receipt”…”yes, there's a cell number here.” She hangs up the phone.
“He wants me to try calling your dad.”
By this point, I'm getting pretty frustrated. If I'm sort of a scam artist trying to steal seventy bucks worth of mirrors from Canadian Tire, don't you think I'd be smart enough to give the number of someone in on the scam in case they wanted to try calling?
She tries to call my dad's cell and with how my luck is going, of course, doesn't get an answer.
“I don't understand,” I say. “How would I know there were mirrors in for (dad's name) of (my hometown) if I was looking to steal something?” (I think but don't say that mirror extenders wouldn't be the thing I'd try to steal if that's what I was doing. Maybe some mag wheels or an expensive car stereo or something?)
“Well, I'm not saying this is you…” (“actually”, I think, “you kinda are implying this by not giving me the stupid mirrors I've already paid for!) “…but we sometimes have people who pick stuff up for other people then the original person comes in and claims they never got it.”
“Really?” (I later think of the perfect retort for this – at Wal-Mart when you ask for “cash back” on your debit purchase, they make you sign your receipt to acknowledge receipt of the money. Then, if you later try to claim the clerk didn't give you the money, you have to show the receipt to prove it. I should've just thought to ask if I could sign the receipt to acknowledge that I'd picked them up.)
Anyhow, by now, I know I'm either going to have to go home and try to find the receipt or just leave the mirrors for another time. Shea and Pace have arrived and in my mind, they shouldn't profile people when assessing their risk as scam artists but c'mon, I look even less like a scammer then my shady librarian self normally does now that my family is there with me!
I thought of asking for the manager but she'd already been on the phone with them and obviously, the manager was just going to follow the rules too rather than using a bit of common sense (or come to think of it, even offering to come down and assess the situation directly.)
“So let me get this straight. You're not going to give me the mirrors unless I go home to find the receipt wherever it is. And you're going to get my dad make a special trip in from an hour out of town which will cost him more in gas than the mirrors did, all because that you wouldn't take his credit card that I'm here in the first place? Plus you probably still want him to bring in the receipt to claim the mirrors, even though I've already paid for them and the charge has already gone through on my credit card???”
“I guess so. Yeah, pretty much.”
“Nice customer service!” I blurt and turn to leave. (Needless to say, we didn't buy a patio set either!)
Now, I know I don't have as many Twitter followers as Adam Savage of MythBusters. And I can't write a song like Dave Carroll of the band, Sons of Maxwell. I'm also very aware that this isn't nearly to the level of an $11,000 cell roaming fee or an expensive guitar broken by a baggage handler.
But just like those two examples, I think this was also a case of a company following its rules at the expense of common sense. And I really strongly believe that companies need to be aware that it's no longer the case where if someone has a bad customer service, they'll tell ten of their friends like was the popular understanding before the Internet. Now, they might tell the hundreds who read thier blog. Or it might hit the social networks and be seen by thousands.
So maybe someone at Canadian Tire will see this post and the next time a customer who wants to pick up an item they already paid for AND can name all the details about the order AND they share a surname with the person who phoned in the order but couldn't pay for the order himself because they wouldn't accept his credit card number over the phone, they'll use just a bit of common sense.
(Since this is a big negative rant and I'm also aware that whether we do it online or not, we *do* tend to repeat our bad experiences much more than our good ones, So I will also report that we recently had to make an insurance claim with Co-operators and the service we received was exceptional, the flexibility and understanding given to us went above and beyond and they even had a rule we didn't know about which ended up meaning we didn't even have to pay our deductible on our claim! Yep, all of this from an insurance company – the type of organization that's regularly seen as happy to take your premiums but loathe to pay out anything if they can help it. Meanwhile, Canadian Tire does everything they can to make me suggest Rona or Parts Source or pretty much anywhere else, the next time I (or anyone in my family) needs something! Go figure…)
[Edit: I looked more closely at the receipt after this whole ordeal. There *was* a place you could sign to acknowledge the receipt of goods!]
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