Due to unforeseen delays to receive the bill of sale, I ended up having Canadian Tire at Sheppard and Leslie perform 3 safety inspections for a company car I purchased. A safety is valid 36 days only for licensing.
The first two safeties passed. First Safety certificate included a report showing there was 70% wear on the front brakes and 60% wear on the rear. Some rust on the rotors - to be expected since the vehicle was idle for a few days. First inspection was done at approx 56, 000 km.
The second safety did NOT include a check sheet so it was not possible to know how much wear on the brakes was indicated. It was a pass.
Did a third safety today, Sept 10, 2009 after having driven less than 4, 000 and was presented with a $993 quote for replacing front and rear brakes. Add insult to injury, quote included an adjustment for the emergency brake - over $100 parts and labour. Shouldn't this be included with the rear brake job?
To pass safety, the brakes have to have at least 20% wear remaining - this implied a wear of more than 10% on the front and more than 20% on the rear brakes between the first and third inspection!
Pointed out to the service advisor this was peculiar since the first inspection passed and with less than 4, 000 km driven and failing the third safety inspection, implied the brakes had a life of 30, 000 km. Most (85%) of the 4, 000 km driven between the first and the third safety was highway, and included a trip to North Carolina. Advisor had a ready answer, saying the reason it took so long to report back to me was he also found the need for a brake job a bit early and he had reviewed the situation.
A somewhat snarky attitude of another service advisor who overheard our conversation was this is required to pass the safety. I had to leave a deposit as I needed the vehicle and would have to return to get the brakes completed.
This one smells. I need the safety to license the vehicle under my name. Canadian Tire has me hostage. This is not the first time I have had done work at a Canadian Auto Service and ended up paying for more than I bargained for. Sometimes problems showed up after having work done. Last experience, Nov 2008, was the installation of a muffler. Within a month it was leaking and very noisy.
Its no wonder we call this place "Crappy Tire". Today I am of the opinion it has evolved into "Crooked Tire".
They have a website and an e-mail for any issue of a questionable ethical nature. You can be sure when I get my vehicle back, they will be receiving a posting.
Here it is:
Canadian Tire Business Conduct Web Reporting
https://www.integrity-helpline.com/canadiantire.jsp
Think twice before getting any type of auto servicing at Canadian Tire! You might regret it!
0 comments