Top 5 companies you avoid at all costs

frydai wrote: ↑In no particular order:

1. Purolator
Reason: They never actually deliver anything.

On their online tracking, they'll tell you that they tried to make the delivery but no one answered the door. It is a complete lie. Initially I thought maybe they did came by but I was in the bathroom or somewhere and didn't hear the door bell. However after the 3rd or the 4th time of the same BS, I got suspicious. I thought maybe they hire ninjas or ghosts to do their delivery or whatever since they never leave a tag at my door and in wintertime, there would be no footprint or tireprint anywhere near my house. As a result, I actually set up a hidden cam in front of my door to see if anyone actually showed up. Lo and behold, no one did.

What's the most annoying thing about this tactics is the fact that if they are indeed too lazy to deliver, at least tell me that they aren't deliverying anything and that I should go and pick up my parcel at their depot. I would actually be fine with that arrangement. Instead, they lie and force me to wait an extra day before I can go pick up at the Post Office. Pure scumbags.

I've seen this. Just recently I had an NCIX shipment coming into my condo. Well the front desk runs 24/7 and they accept the packages and then individual residents have to pick up the boxes from the desk.

Here is what I saw on the tracking:

2010/12/xx 08:xx On vehicle for delivery
2010/12/xx 18:xx Delivery Rescheduled
2010/12/xx 19:xx Attempted Delivery - Customer Closed

Closed? Suuuure....

At least it showed up the next day, but I really needed the stuff because the shipment contained a UPS battery (no pun intended) that I wanted to install right away!

I thought I'd add a new one to my list today, CRYSTIQUE! My other half bought me some earrings which the girl said didn't come in a smaller size (but it does). She gave him a gift receipt. When we came back not even 40 minutes later, they told us that they don't return or exchange earrings. So why the gift receipt!?! The manager is suppose to phone tomorrow. What a bunch of BS

Gamix wrote: ↑TD bank should NOT be in your list.

Yeah they should. Even though they are highly profitable, they continue to find new fees to charge their customers. It really i a despicable company.

1- Rogers
2- The Shopping Channel
3- Fido
4- Chatr
5- UPS for any shipments from the U.S. due to their ridiculous brokerage fees

Funny so many hate UPS because of the brokerage issues with UPS Ground\Standard
The ones you should actually be pissed at are the US retailers who use this shipping method , as after all being said , they are the one who screwing you and not UPS

Believe it or not , this isn't "hidden" fees , UPS doesn't hide them at all , you can easily find it on their website and it is very clear
However , on the other hand , those retailers who use the UPS Ground\Standard as a shipping method to Canada are hiding this information from you , and believe me , they DO know about it very well


BTW - only the UPS Standard (AKA Ground) is suffering from the brokerage charges
All the other UPS services are brokerage included and the only thing you will need to pay is the actual HST and duties if applicable

There are also some few stores , like Amazon.com for example , that charge you in advance for the taxes\duties and send the shipment cleared in advance so you will not have to pay a cent at the door , even if it is shipped Standard

These days I tend to rememer

(1) Bell Mobility
(2) Direct Energy
(3) Wagjag.com
(4) Bell Everything else
(5) Staples ONLINE .ca

p.s. You know we should consolidate these and have a vote I have a feeling that Bell is going to top everybody's list

My 5 after reading the whole thread.

1.UPS- Same reason as everybody else: outrageous brokerage fees
2.Boston Pizza- Craptastic food and super high prices, although Bf still likes their pizza, I will not eat there anymore
3.Sears- Cuz I like shopping in this century.
4.Subway- prices are too high, sandwiches are crap. They were bearable in the toonie Tuesday/stamp collecting days.
5. Rogers- still with them because of a contract but the plans are too expensive and I got my data plan extended by a year without my knowledge when I bought a phone outright at FS. Stupid CS person did not bother to mention that, I found that out on my own through their precious site. I have so many issues with their site too. I was with Telus before but I left because I want a GSM phone and better selection. 6 months later... Telus is now HSPA....

I did a tally...

1:Bell (this was by a lot too)

2:Rogers

3:UPS

4:MDG

5:Futureshop

The last two were pretty close but nothing else came even close to the top five so I would say my calculations are pretty accurate.


The lesser evil of the big 3 appears to be Telus. The lesser evil of the big shipping stores is FedEx. Although DHL was mentioned, I don't know how available it is to everyone across Canada. So it may be because of lack of stores that they did not rank higher.

Bell
The Brick
MDG
Bell
Bell

1.Staples
2.Bell
3.Rogers
4.Canada Computers
5.Staples

Fixer81 wrote: ↑Funny so many hate UPS because of the brokerage issues with UPS Ground\Standard
The ones you should actually be pissed at are the US retailers who use this shipping method , as after all being said , they are the one who screwing you and not UPS

Believe it or not , this isn't "hidden" fees , UPS doesn't hide them at all , you can easily find it on their website and it is very clear
However , on the other hand , those retailers who use the UPS Ground\Standard as a shipping method to Canada are hiding this information from you , and believe me , they DO know about it very well


BTW - only the UPS Standard (AKA Ground) is suffering from the brokerage charges
All the other UPS services are brokerage included and the only thing you will need to pay is the actual HST and duties if applicable

There are also some few stores , like Amazon.com for example , that charge you in advance for the taxes\duties and send the shipment cleared in advance so you will not have to pay a cent at the door , even if it is shipped Standard

+1
You don't hate UPS, you hate the fact that as a Canadian consumer you can't get items shipped from merchants in a way that avoids fee's.

I have to say UPS has come through for me many times, and just this past week. (this is excluding the internet US retailer shopping experience.)

My example: I shipped 2 gifts by mail this year. One by Xpresspost, one by UPS. The Xpresspost one lost its tracking, and even had us all worried when it said "Returned to sender" and no one at Xpresspost picks up the phone (We are sorry, we are busy right now. Please try again later. <-- not even an option to hold!)
We (Recipient and I) were lost for about a week over this. "Where was the package. Was it being returned. Would it be returned Xpress-like or 2 week snail mail like?"
With UPS, I sent a gift, no brokerage fee's if sent right, and to a UPS store that held it for us for $5 even without a PO Box at that store (I heard from a local UPS store that this was an informal courtesy that some UPS stores offer). Trackable and accountable package delivery, too.

You can't hate UPS as a company. You can hate shopping from Canada with retailers who only ship via Courier.

Edit: Oh, and UPS lets you divert your undelivered package to a new address for free. Fedex does not (for free. I checked 2 days ago). And I heard about Purolator above (not even trying to deliver), so imho, UPS wins.

interwebr wrote: ↑+1
You don't hate UPS, you hate the fact that as a Canadian consumer you can't get items shipped from merchants in a way that avoids fee's.

You can't hate UPS as a company. You can hate shopping from Canada with retailers who only ship via Courier.

No. I don't think you understand what their brokerage fees are. They are charges by UPS (not taxes or duty) that they base on the value of the package, so it has NOTHING to do with size. For example a $75 car tire would be charged much less than a $1000 gold bracelet. How does that make any sense other than it being a cash grab?

Fixer81 wrote: ↑Funny so many hate UPS because of the brokerage issues with UPS Ground\Standard...

Technically you may be right.

But UPS will lose every time in the court of public opinion no matter how good their case may be. That's because it's UPS—not the seller—who charges and collects these outrageous brokerage fees from the customer.

1. Futureshop.ca - Nothing seems to work on that site most of the time. The check GC link seems to be broken 25 days out of the month. Have no problems with the b & m stores.
2. Rogers Plus - Employees rarely know what they have on the shelves. Waited 10 mins to rent a movie because the employees and manager were busy talking to each other about where the best place is to watch a movie. That was the day I asked for a refund on my Star Rewards even though the manager apologized.
3. American Express - Huge issues with billing that was caused by their system. Happened 3 times and each time it took 30 mins to deal with.

1.Flurries Sheepskin - top of the list atm, when I ordered my boots 2 weeks ago, my invoice was no.36, says it all really.
2.Purolator - ever heard of a little thing called knocking at the door?....and making it sooooooooooo difficult when there is one failed attempt to deliver again instead of picking up the item, and the little fact that I have paid for the shipping to my house>
3.Rogers - we moved recently and signed up for their tv package for free for 3 months and guess what we get? A bill for the first month

NewEgg.ca Im never even looking at their website again, they dont care if what you buy never arrives, very poor service.

Wow reading everyone's commentary I would agree

BELL - when I did have Sympatico - the modem would over go offline - so cancelled - agreed since outsourcing to India - service is crap
CHAPTERS - just you can never find a person to help you when you need it
FS/BB - never bought anything, had to actually go find a rep to ask whether they sold digital camera cables
SDM - too over priced by at least $5 on everything
East Side Marios - they food has gone downhill

Barbara Ann wrote: ↑Wow reading everyone's commentary I would agree

BELL - when I did have Sympatico - the modem would over go offline - so cancelled - agreed since outsourcing to India - service is crap
CHAPTERS - just you can never find a person to help you when you need it
FS/BB - never bought anything, had to actually go find a rep to ask whether they sold digital camera cables
SDM - too over priced by at least $5 on everything
East Side Marios - they food has gone downhill

1. that almost goes for any retail store, null.
2. look yourself? they have computers everywhere in the store, search their site.

Barbara Ann wrote: ↑Wow reading everyone's commentary I would agree

BELL - when I did have Sympatico - the modem would over go offline - so cancelled - agreed since outsourcing to India - service is crap
CHAPTERS - just you can never find a person to help you when you need it
FS/BB - never bought anything, had to actually go find a rep to ask whether they sold digital camera cables
SDM - too over priced by at least $5 on everything
East Side Marios - they food has gone downhill

Totally agree!

Service Canada (E.I. department) crooks....