I have just been watching CBC, a Canadian TV company. I was flabbergasted at what I saw. This is true - certainly not a joke, and down-right dishonest if you ask me.
If you have a return - Canadian Tire, like 99.9999999% of companies have a returns policy. But in their returns policy you have to return the funny money or you will get that amount deducted in real money. Make sense? It didn’t to me either - but it is displayed on the back of the receipt and at the cash registers - when was the last time you read the back of a receipt?
When you buy something from Canadian Tire, you are given Canadian Tire money that you can spend in-store. Good enough. But if you have a return and want your cash back you are asked if you have brought their money back with the return - if not then they deduct that amount, say 20c from the real cash - and they claim that this is legal!?
So, if you are shopping at Canadian Tire - remember that, even though Canadian Tire money is not legal tender, they will take your real cash if you don’t return theirs!
All Images designed by Alison Rhodes (LastingExpressions)
13 responses so far ↓
David // December 6, 2007 at 2:05 pm
http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2007/12/05/is_it_coupons_or_is_it_cash/
Read the comments section. So far it is 100% unanimous that people who hold the same opinion as you on this are ridiculously mistaken. Count me among those who also think your slant on this is bizarrely off the mark
Will Rhodes // December 6, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Firstly, thank you for the comment, David.
What I would like to draw peoples attention to is this: If Canadian Tire money is to be returned with the product, this is fine - but it should be much more prominently displayed and to add to that people should have the option NOT to take the Canadian Tire money if they so wish. That would be a red tape nightmare, I agree. But there is no option such.
If they are a coupon as many have said, OK - how many more shoppers paradise’s require their coupon returned with the product? How many companies ask that you return ‘Loyalty points’ which are added to swipe cards when you return the product or lose a legal tender amount?
I have been to Canadian Tire and bought several things - and on many occasions not even taken the Canadian Tire money, what happens to that amount? Do I say that I want the accrued ‘discount’ on a later date? They could, as a suggestion, instead of paper money, go down the route of plastic cards which many retailers use, that way they can keep a closer eye on the CT money in circulation.
Loyalty bonuses are part of the retail business and are passed onto customers at the retailers cost - that is how it always has been - and I cannot see any change in that policy in the future.
David // December 7, 2007 at 8:29 am
Thanks for the reply.
As for the need to more prominently display the terms of return, a mitigating argument to this is that I would think that the vast majority of CT customers are not new customers. They have in all likelyhood grown up with CT and CT money has been around for many decades. Of course this does not apply to everyone.
I think you defeated your own argument regarding the option of taking the money or not. The red tape would be an unworkable nightmare.
You suggest getting away from the funny money and moving to plastic. Canadian Tire does promote a Brand Mastercard that does accumulate CT money. They would probably love moving all their customers to it as I am sure the cost of administration of the CT ‘Money’ plan must be significant.
“What happens to the amount” of CT money left behind? I do not know if there is a corporate policy on this but I know that in some places it ends up in the tellers pocket as a ‘bonus’ at the end of the day. Maybe some stores have a policy of donating it to charity and maybe other individual store owners actually do end up recording this unused money as revenue.
One sore point with me is that the whole debate attempting to define Canadian Tire Money as Cash or Coupon or Loyalty Bonus is a pointless one. Canadian Tire Money is what it is. It is all of the above and none of them as well.
The following will be my last word on this as this is not really an issue of significant importance in any way, more of just a pet peeve I have latched on to. The key is that even if I did concede that you may have some point to your argument, I think for Marketplace to take this and twist it into some kind of evil corporate conspiracy is unfair. More than unfair - malicious.
Will Rhodes // December 7, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Again, thank you for your eloquent reply, David.
I can understand that you no longer wish to debate the issue, and I fully respect that. It is a pity others who have read this post/blog have not commentated, but that is the world of blogging.
I, personally, didn’t look at Marketplace as making CT out to be evil. Let me explain. I am from the UK, England to be more precise and a program there called Watchdog. It is a consumer affairs program that really does go for the jugular - and with good reason. It would have ripped CT a new one if it thought it fit to do so. But I think that Marketplace just brought things to peoples attention in a quintessential Canadian way.
When I now go to CT what I will do is ask the store checkout clerk to staple my CT money to the receipt, as I do keep all receipts, so I looked at it as more informative than an attack.
Just two different ways of looking at things. Of which I respect that you have a different one to I.
Lee // December 15, 2007 at 2:27 am
Hi - I’m the English guy who appeared on Marketplace complaining about being ripped off the (whooo!) 30 cents.
Just a couple of points that the programme missed out on regarding what happened with me:
- The pool I returned was faulty. I had taken it back twice - the first time I exchanged it, the second time I asked for my money back (the same fault was present on the second pool, so I guessed at a design flaw). Surely good will and good customer service should have dictated that they waived the 30 cents on account that I had made repeated journeys to buy/return their crappy product. But no - I didn’t even get so much of an apology.
- Of course the responses on the Marketplace “comments” section are all pro-CT! I knew when I agreed (after much persuading by CBC, I’ll admit) to appear on the programme that I was going to incur the wrath of thousands of Canadians to whom Canadian Tire is an icon and a way of life. Sadly, many can’t see that they are being ripped off by them because of this flawed policy. If Walmart had have been the culprit then I’m guessing things would have looked a whole lot different on that comments section!
Funny that you should mention “Watchdog” Will. The Marketplace production people are in awe of Watchdog and what it achieves for the consumer. It gives the little man a tool to wave at the big companies who steamroll over good practice in the name of profit. Consumer Rights have come a long way in the UK in the last ten to fifteen years, in part due to anger over poor customer service and in part thanks to European legislation and I was shocked upon moving to Canada that “Buyer Beware” is very much the norm here.
I have had half a dozen other bad experiences, worse than my Canadian Tire episode with other organisations and retailers since being here that make me somewhat paranoid when making a purchase nowadays! It’s obviously just me who attracts this kind of behaviour!!!
Will Rhodes // December 15, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Well hello, Lee and welcome to my blog - I hope you enjoy/ed it.
I can sympathise with you with regard to CT, and I still cannot get my head around how they can deduct real cash for CT cash, it is plainly wrong to me.
I remember Watchdog with Anne Robinson, on this program she laid into a guy from BT (Britain’s largest telephone company with over 12 million subscribers) she pulled this guy to pieces and BT changed their policy after the show. I think that Marketplace are aiming for that and I commend them for it!
But please do remember - we British didn’t know how to complain at one time, Canadians will learn once they know they have an avenue to travel.
Again thanks for commenting and I hope you do call back.
Debbi // March 10, 2008 at 11:10 am
The way I look at this issue (being a “stupid Yankee” who has never set foot in a Canadian Tire store) is this:
If you buy something and then later return it for a refund, the store will usually require you to return all of the packaging and paperwork (owner’s manuals, etc.) that came with the item in order to get a full refund.
If you buy a printer for your computer, take it home, cut the UPC symbol out of the box, and mail in the $100 rebate form with the UPC attached, you shouldn’t then expect to be able to return the printer to the store the next day and get a full refund of your purchase price! But that is what you seem to be arguing for here…. ???
Every “swipe card” rewards program that my family belongs to does, indeed, deduct any bonuses earned when something is returned. It’s just standard policy. If they DIDN’T have this policy in place, what would keep people from making large purchases on a regular basis, just to earn the “CT money” or “loyalty reward points” and then turn around and return the purchased items for a cash refund?
And the “when was the last time you read the back of a receipt?” comment was beyond ridiculous. If they printed it on the front, you’d be complaining that the receipt was too big to fit in your wallet, or that they killed trees unnecessarily by not utilizing the blank space on the back of the paper, and they should be more environmentally responsible!
When was the last time you actually read a company’s End User License Agreement before clicking on “I accept” when you were installing software on your computer? Does that mean that it’s the software company’s fault if they disclosed something that you didn’t know about simply because you were too lazy to read through the thing before you clicked “I accept”????
Get over yourself already…..
Will Rhodes // March 10, 2008 at 12:09 pm
I agree.
Nope - I argue that CT is taking cash off you, if you did what you describe there that would be dishonest of the purchaser and the store would have every right in giving you the difference between the purchase price and the discounted price. The UPC is not legal tender, it is a discount collected through mail-in. I would simply discount the price at source ending any ambiguity.
I refer you to answers I gave earlier. I agree they should take the CT money back, but I also said they have no right to deduct real tender because you have lost, or not been given CT money. They, as I have said should move to a swipe card system and they can deduct at the clerk. The company cannot prove you have been given the CT cash, I would also refer you to Lee’s post ^^^ - up there.
I take it you don’t have long receipts in the US? As the receipt is electronically produced and they can put “Have a nice day” - “Please call again” or another advert - your argument doesn’t hold water.
I read it every time. If they don’t disclose something I would then have recourse to take action. I thought everyone did that - but you have proved me wrong.
Thank you for the comment, please call back soon.
And have a nice day.
thebeadden // March 12, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Wow! I had no idea about this policy. Though I can understand why they do it. But as you said, it should be better advertised. I haved shopped there my whole life unaware of it. Mind you, I don’t think I have ever returned anything from CT.
Oh, but I do love my CT money. I save it up for years, then put it towards my growing supply of tools that I rarely use but think there just might be a day I need that one. I love tools
I know paper CT money can’t be good for the environment and I shouldn’t advocate it, but if they ever do decide to switch to a “points card” I’ll opt out. I can’t stand the thought of having all my purchases and information floating out there in some cyber system. Points aren’t more important than my privacy!
Will Rhodes // March 12, 2008 at 5:16 pm
As a gimmick, I like them - I would like the option of saying no, but when I last when into CT the clerk insisted I had to take the money - I put it in a charity box and I won’t return the item.
I am a man - and my tools, no matter how broken stay in my shed!
raincoaster // March 24, 2008 at 2:03 am
I grew up with Canadian Tire and still love them. Now, I’m on painkillers and liable to be easily confused, but it seems to me that CT’s legal position here is that the discount coupons they give you when you make a purchase are exchanged for legal tender when/if you return an item. That would be fair if you could also exchange them for legal tender when you are NOT returning an item, ie here’s my $25 in Canadian Tire money, give me Canadian Dollars. I will pass this on to a couple of good-humoured lawyers I know who work near a CT and see what they say about it.
Will Rhodes // March 24, 2008 at 11:03 am
Please let me know, raincoaster - it will be interesting to see what they have to say.
To add to this, I went to but a new shocker at CT just the other day and was given no CT money - to give them chance to chase me down so they could give me it I stayed in the store for a while looking around. But no.
Where does that leave them and I on a legal basis?
thisguy // June 21, 2008 at 6:58 pm
If you dont want to take the funny money, put it in the donation box, which is at every til in the canadian tire store! this money goes to the foundation for families, or other local charities in an effort to offset purchases they must make (i.e. a youth shelter needs light bulbs, sheets and a microwave) etc…. the money goes to the foundation, and is essentially converted into real dollars when the foundation provides funding to these organizations. and another thing…. thats the most you ever got back in c.t. money?? if you get saaaaay 5$ you probably spent a few hundred. In the grand scheme of things, whats the worry? and my last point, let me remind you that the goal of this money is to get you to USE IT AT A LATER DATE… this gets you back in the store, and youll likely put more than just CT money towards your purchase. Soooo, when you go to CT gather all those pesky 5C and 10C bills, and drop em on the cashiers till and watch the people behind you get frustrated…gotta love it…. you can also put the ct money on a gift card, ie. buy a gift card with it… you can use gift cards at the gas bar… thats my suggestion these days!~
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