I have been a loyal Canadian Tire Options Mastercard customer for over 10 years. I have only been late 1 time and it was only a few days late on my payment due to being out of town.
A few days ago I travelled to Tampa Florida for a vacation. I booked my hotel, flight and car all through expedia.ca and with my Canadian Tire Options Mastercard. Everything was paid in full. The web site also advised that you need to have $100 available credit on your Mastercard when you pick up the rental car. I paid $5000 through my bank 2 days prior to my trip to ensure I would have the available credit. Well I finally got to Tampa and went to pick up my car and Budget told me that my credit card was declined as there was not $100 available credit. I thought, no problem I will call Canadian Tire and they will sort out the problem and I will get my car.
Problem #1- Canadian Tire is too cheap to have a 1-800# that works in the States. It says to call the 905 # collect if you are out of Canada. Okay fine I try calling collect. The US phone company in Florida is automated - and Canadian tire phone centre is automated so I never get to speak to anyone. I even call the operator and she tries but says it is taking too long to get through and I will have to call direct. So I have to use my credit card to call Canadian tire mastercard and they charge me for the call??? Okay now after 30 minutes I finally have a woman named Perri on the phone and I explain my situation -how I am stranded in Tampa on vacation and cant pick up the car because the rental company says I dont have the available credit on my card. Well Perri tells me that i have $80 available credit and they have no way of knowing I just paid $5000 2 days ago. Hello I have been a loyal client for over 10 years with a $10, 000 credit limit. She even talks to her manager and comes back and tells me there is nothing they can do. Okay in this day and age can you believe that Canadian Tire cannot give me a temporary credit limit increase of $20 to help me out -it is not like I am unemployed and cannot afford this - I make close to $100K per year. She suggests that I speak nicely to the rental company and see if they can just take $80 off the card. Canadian Tire financial services' key phrase is customer's for life. Sorry but I just dont see it. If they really cared I think they would have done this for me as there was 0 risk for them and it would have made me a loyal card holder for many more years. Due to this horrible disservice they have done to me I will be passing on this information to all of my friends and posting what happened in as many forums as possible. In this day and age where credit companies are crumbling i would like that companies like CTFS would do everything they can to stay afloat and be competative with the big banks.
Okay I am done with my ranting, I am know going to cut up my card and burn it. Long live AMEX!!!
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