The Consumer Complaints Blog

I don’t usually take the time to verbally complain about being ripped off, but in this case it is hoped others won’t fall prey to the scum that is out there.

To start, I have done alot of business over the internet. I have bought goods from Canadian and U.S businesses. I have never been stung until now.

The business is Cycle Shop USA. It operates out of Florida in as it turns
out a backwoods village surrounded by swamps.

I ordered some parts from them on October 19/2009. I paid by Mastercard $79.00. It took 1 day for them to debit my account which is really fast by comparison. I waited 2 weeks to get my parts. Nothing showed in the mail. I e-mailed the companies contact many times. No reply. I phoned Cycle Shop USA. Got the answer machine stating, ” Due to high caller volume we are unable to take your call……” Did this all hours of the day like 12:00 am to 12:00 pm and always got the same B.S response. So, I Google Earth the address to see if this is legit, thats when I see at street level its just a house. I have written BBB in Florida to complain, informed Rip Off Report to let them know as well.

Cycle Shop USA is nothing more than a broker business.Very flashy. Uses extravagant means to dupe the public into thinking it is a huge retailer by catalouging millions of items it personally does not carry, but “can get you”. Does not allow you to contact them by any means to find out where your order is, even though they give you all the contact means. I have contacted MasterCard and am attempting to get
the charges reversed. The business looked legit online and the prices so
low, that’s what hooked me.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

Toyota Canada demonstrates what a terrible company they are.

I have a 2001 first generation Prius. We bought it new, are the first and only owners, and keep it serviced at Toyota Dealers-first Richmond Open Road Toyota and then Granville Toyota, near our home.

Except for the car’s odd over-sensitivity to set off engine warning lights if the gas cap isn’t quite closed, and a tendency to fire off all the alarms during a cold spell, we have been happy.
But not so with Toyota Canada. Our car was re-ended in downtown Vancovuer in August 2009. It sustained quite a bit of damage-suprisingly, and my daughter and her partner were knocked about. The collison repair people removed the bumper to discover that the bumper was simply a hollow shell. The bolts were clean, indicating no rebar had ever been installed, nor had foam to absorb the impact. The insurance company paid for the repair costs and injuries, but would not pay to repair the bumper’s missing parts-rebar and foam -since they weren’t there to begin with. I contacted the dealer, Open Road Toyota, and they told me to bring in the paper work when I picked up the car and they would contact Toyota Canada. I did and then proceded to be jerked around by Toyota Canada for months.

First, two weeks after I contacted the dealer and Toyota Canada, they wanted the bumper (despite the insurance and collison repair photos and my early contact with the dealer, they wanted the old shell of the bumper. the repair shop had recycled it and neither the dealer nor Toyota Canada had indicated that the bumper should be kept. )

Second, they had to run it all by the legal department.
I reasonably asked that they check into the car and examine it for safety/. Was the car properly built-for example, was the front bumper complete with the specified rebar and foam? the door panels? Toyota Canada replied that since my 7 year purchased full warranty had expired, they had absolutely no obligation to look into that. If I was concerned about the car, I would have to pay to have it looked at. Presumably, I was to guess whether it was safe to drive. After a few weeks of pointless conversations with Toyota Canada and “Mike” at 1-888- Toyota 8 local 3361 should anyone wish to call Mike from Toyota Canada-I called Open Road and the service manager offered to take off the door panels and bumper to check that the car was safe. He seemed suprised Toyota Canada hadn’t immediately arranged that, and agreed the concern was valid.

Second, Toyota Canada via Mike informed me they would reimburse me for the costs of the rebar and foam in my new bumper (800 plus dollars) as a good will gesture if i would sign a release absolving Toyota Canada of any future claims by me or by anyother party. In essence, this meant that I would be sued by the Insurance corporation should they decide to pursue the incident because the car itself was unsafe and shouldn’t have been on the road.
Mike agrued that Toyota couldn’t proved (substitute my name here) that the bumper was a Toyota bumper. This despite the photographs taken at the collison repair shop, the insurance appraisers’ reports, the unblemished service record from Toyota dealers who presumably can’t tell a toyota bumper and paint job from a fake bumper in all the year the car, the tires, and even the battery have been subject to their service technicians ministrations.
Even the service technicians, both Prius trained, were stunned by Toyota Canada’s attitude and refusal to check over the car.

So I want to be clear I am not out of pocket-ICBC will not pursue a law suit against me-the Richmond Open Road Toyota Dealer service department was lovely and checked out the car for free.

But I find the treatment by Toyota Canada and their complete lack of concern for whether their cars are safe despite what was an obvious manufacturer’s defect astounds me.
There comment that the warranty had expired in 2008 and so they had absolutely no reason to look at the car was shocking.

My only consolation is that among my family, my adult children’s families, my brothers, sisters, inlaws and cousins we own 23 Toyotas-camrays, priuses, echoes, Rav4s, two vans and even a convertible.

And as a close knit group with a shared sense of outrage, none of us will buy another, despite a fondness for the cars (dating, in my case, back to the early Tercel). We vow to become a Honda family, extended.

I believe Toyota makes good cars, that Mike (at local 3361) is a pleasant human being, but that Toyota Canada doesn’t take any corporate responsibility to make sure their cars and their consumers driving the cars, are safe. They are a bad company.

My advice is, buy another manufacturers’ product. or if you buy a Toyota, realize you are on your own.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

This is a lesson in how not to do customer service.

Okay so say you’ve never stolen a thing from anywhere in your entire life. And say there’s a store where you’ve been a regular for 7 or 8 years, spending thousands there in that time. And say they take your full shopping basket and say you can’t buy your products, in fact you’re banned, and they treat you like a robber. Isn’t there a communication/conflict resolution step that investors might prefer? Doesn’t common sense come in somewhere?

I am in my local Shoppers Drug Mart every two or three days, and spend upwards of $100 a week there.

A couple of months ago I was there buying concealer. There was no colour indicator on the package, no testers, and no colour indicator on the display, so I opened the package to check the colour. As I did, a store employee – with the name tag Aris – came up and began yelling. He was correct that packages are not meant to be opened, and I indicated that but also explained it wasn’t possible to know the product colour. He continued raising his voice and demanded the product, I explained that I was buying it, which I did. At the makeup counter, I said that I was shocked by the aggressiveness of the employee – and the behaviour, that immediate accusation with no discussion costs a business customers. I explained that I am a regular. The checkout person explained that there have been problems with thefts in the store, and so staff are very sensitive and angry about anything that might be understood as such, and the staff member therefore reacted inappropriately.

Later, I filled out the Shoppers Drug Mart survey online based on a till receipt with a survey URL. On the survey, I explained the incident and explained my extreme dissatisfaction with the situation. I recommended that staff training include better preparedness for situations like this. In my view, approaching a customer immediately with ‘Can I help you?’ at least allows for the possibility of a miscommunication and not losing a customer. Checking the Optimum card and seeing how much a customer spends there could be another recommendation before deciding that a regular customer is a thief.

I had no response to my online complaints.

Today, perhaps two months later, as I entered the store I saw the employee with the furious temper, whose name is Aris. I was surprised, I had not seen him and thought he may have been been suspended based on the previous incident and his people skills. I had a basket and went around the store getting things from my list, when a security guard identified himself and asked if I had ever been banned from the store. I was baffled, and said I’d never been told that I was. He was persistent. I was extremely offended. This is a dreadful way to treat one of your regular customers. I asked to speak to the store manager. The store manager Vincent Yeung asked for personal ID. I was puzzled, as I was there to complain, but passed it over. The staff member with the past-visit furious temper entered the pharmacy and spoke with the manager who then curtly informed me that I was permanently banned from the store, and could not make my purchases. No willingness to discuss, to look at my store card to see that I was such a regular, or to explain their situation.

The message suggested by staff, security and the manager was ‘the customer is wrong if we say so’.

I’m someone who’s never stolen in my life. I was escorted out by security and treated – well, as though I’m a robber. I was quite shaken, and I still am quite stunned and enormously disappointed that a customer could somehow be treated in this way and at levels up to manager treated as guilty.

I sent the company a complaint with my optimum number encouraging them to look both at my purchasing history, and the amount that not having me as a customer will be costing at this location.

I am enormously offended and humiliated that this happened to me in my community, appalled by how these incidents have been handled, disappointed that an earlier customer complaint was completely ignored, and so enormously frustrated. To be clear – I have never stolen anything in my life. I have been a very regular Shoppers customer, and am known to be an extremely honest person in my career and my charity work.

I feel that I have been accused of a crime I didn’t commit, verdict and punishment with just the humiliation and no recourse.

It’s awful business, and it is not fair.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

Auto Dealer Complaint – Whiteoak Ford Deceptive “Bait & Switch” Sales Program

I contacted Whiteoak Ford on Saturday October 31 about an advertised special on the internet. I spoke with Ray Kulchysky, a salesperson at the dealership and went through the line by line financing on the Ford F-150 pricing advertised. Ray said that they had vehicles in stock although colours were limited unless I went with the XLT package (an additional $2K). Ray advised that the price would be available until end of day November 2.

When I called today to make an appointment to view and purchase the vehicle, Ray advised that the vehicle was no longer available. When I pointed out that the vehicle was still advertised with the same price, ($24,995), he said that there were no more available, and the best price he had was $28K for the same year, vehicle, and model. I then spoke with sales manager Ben Cliff, and dealership co-owner Dave McQuillan. All said the same thing, that they couldn’t honour the advertised deal.

I contacted Ford Canada because this “bait and switch” practice is appalling. Ford Canada was able to view the same advertised price on the internet, and also said that there was not too much they could do except contact the dealership and give them feedback. I told Dave McQuillen that I would be contacting Ford Canada and he told me that they couldn’t do anything.

I believe this kind of response to consumer complaint is a problem. It seems to me that deceptive advertising practices are all too common and frankly, car dealerships have enough problems with perceived lack of integrity to perpetuate it in this obvious way. I’ve now done some searches to see if other consumers are having a similar experience and as one consumer says, “Go ahead and contact Ford Canada about the dealership. Nobody will care.” I’m concerned about this dealership and the lack of integrity. It looks like I’ll be buying a GM, which is too bad, because all of my previous vehicles have been Fords. However, if a dealership behaves this way at the point of sale, I can’t imagine how unfortunate the sales experience would be. I wonder how many other people have been jerked around by this dealership and their bait and switch practices. I guess the internet has opened up a whole new way of doing business, where a dealership can post a price for a vehicle and then back out of it when asked to honour the internet price. I’m concerned as a consumer that there is such limited recourse for these tactics. The dealership is not held accountable for their behaviour to Ford Canada. And, despite the millions and millions in advertising from Ford Canada on behalf of the dealership, there seems to be little consequence for advertising deception by the dealership. There doesn’t seem to be any way to address this situation – the dealership and Ford don’t care. How will consumers be treated fairly in an environment where there are no consequences for this kind of behaviour?

As far as I’m concerned, Whiteoak Ford should have a new slogan, “We’re People Too. Sometimes.”

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

The Consumer Complaints Blog is dedicated to providing an outlet for those who have been duped by businesses and organizations. However, as part of our commitment to you, the consumer, we have begun compiling information about how not to get duped in the first place.

Our first post in this section is for anyone out there interested in buying a Persian rug. Sure, you may still fall victim to dishonest business practices, but remembering these points will help reduce the chances of becoming a victim in the first place.

(We talked to professionals in their industry to get these tips.)

1. Don’t be fooled by inflated prices. Chances are, that massively discounted sales price hasn’t actually been massively discounted – the “sale” price listed is most likely the fairest price or the manufacturer’s suggested retail price. Rug stores are infamous for advertising “going out of business” sales. Avoid the hype!
2. Check the exact origin of the carpet, since this makes a real difference in quality and craftmanship. For example, the designs may be of Iranian origin but the carpet was made somewhere else.
3. Related to tip #2, this is particularly true for silk carpets of Persian origin. There is a huge difference between Persian silk and non Persian silk.
4. Thicker isn’t always better. In most cases, the better carpet is actually thinner, not thicker.
5. In general, finer rugs are those with smaller knots and more sophisticated weaves. Beware: an intricate design does not make a carpet finer. Don’t look at the design – look at the weave.