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Sleep Country Canada
Why Shop Anywhere Else?

Update: After my horrendous experience at the Sleep Country Canada store, and after the store manager told me "Get out of my store right now!",

I drove home and called Visa. I told them what had happened and they filed a claim and put a freeze on the Sleep Country Canada charge against my account, following which they were going to contact Sleep Country Canada's bank and advise them the charge was under dispute.

Coincidentally, today we received a call from Sleep Country Canada advising us that they were going to refund the full amount of our purchase . . . Not that they had any choice in the matter. They apologized for "any inconvenience this might have caused".

They did not apologize for the conduct of their employees.

They did not apologize for the fact that their store manager did not have the authority to resolve a customer dispute.

They did not apologize for the fact that their store manager had ordered me out of his store without making any attempt to resolve the problem.

From now on, I am going to "Shop Somewhere Else". Thanks Christine! Nice commercials . . . Your business . . . Not so nice.



The Back Story  Let me tell you why I am going to shop somewhere else, and likely why you might consider shopping somewhere else as well.

A week ago I purchased two beds from the Sleep Country Canada store in North Vancouver. Delivery was rescheduled for this afternoon between 3-6 pm so my wife and I waited at home all day waiting  for our two beds to be delivered.

Unfortunately, when the truck arrived (4:00) it turned out that the delivery driver was afraid of dogs. I assured him that the dogs would not harm him but he demanded that we lock up our dogs before he would deliver our new beds.

When I refused to lock up my dogs the driver then refused to make the delivery.

My next step was to drive to the Sleep Country Canada store in North Vancouver to get a refund. When I told the manager that his driver had refused to deliver our beds, he told me that "he had a right to protect himself" . . . from what I do not know. These dogs are perfectly safe under my supervision.

Regardless, since his driver had refused to deliver our beds, I told him that nobody tells me what to do on my property and demanded a refund in full. The Manager then gave me a song and dance about, how he was not authorized to give refunds, and about some process involving customer service in some other office. I told him that I wanted my money back right away and handed him the credit card I had used to purchase the beds.

He refused to take my card.. I assume he didn't like my confrontational "attitude" because he ordered me out of his store. When I again asked for my money back he told one of his staffers to call 911!

For the record, the Sleep Country Canada policy, according to the brochure they provided with my invoice, states that no refunds will be allowed after delivery. Since they refused to deliver my purchase, I am entitled to a refund in full.

So, first the Sleep Country Canada driver refused to deliver my purchase because he has an unnatural fear of dogs . . . then the Sleep Country Manager refused to give me a refund . . . then the Sleep Country Manager called 911!!!!!  Completely frustrated and infuriated at this point, I told him in no uncertain terms what he could do with himself.

So why the Consumer Alert? In a world that is becoming increasingly difficult to navigate in I think it is only fair and proper than when someone runs into a vendor who refuses to deal fairly with its customers, people should be made aware.

Was I angry? . . . You bet . . . I waited all day for this delivery.

Was I frustrated? . . . You bet . . . I do not understand why people cannot simply do their jobs.

Was I irate? . . . Eventually, you bet . . . This situation never should have gotten to this point.

Was I rude? . . . You bet I was . . . I told those people exactly what I thought of them.

The Sleep Country Canada people promote themselves with the following promises:

- "No hassle"
- "Mistake Proof"
- "Express Delivery and Setup

Today, when dealing with me, Sleep Country Canada failed to deliver on every one of its promises, so far as I am concerned, their value proposition is completely unfounded based on my dealings with them.

I will NEVER deal with Sleep Country Canada again. What you do is up to you, but "eyes wide open". Be prepared for disappointment, you can just as easily be treated the same way that I was today, and they can take your money too, refuse to deliver the products you purchased, then call the police if you demand a refund.

Why am I blogging about this experience? . . . . Because efforts to deal with Sleep Country Canada have failed and their corporate website does not allow people to post reviews.

How could Sleep Country Canada have avoided this situation?

1) Properly trained delivery personnel
2) Properly trained store personnel
3) Managers with the authority to resolve customer problems effectively.
4) A customer service policy that puts customer satisfaction ahead of profits.

Why Is This Man Smiling?

Today we have a problem . . . A problem shared by the cast and crew of a motion picture company in Winnipeg . . . A problem caused by Westjet Cargo.

To make matters worse, despite numerous calls to Westjet this morning, NOBODY at Westjet is willing to solve this problem. Instead, everyone we have spoken with has chosen to hide behind the "I am just following procedures" excuse . . . earning them all recognition as having the WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE.

At this moment six out of a shipment of seven boxes of production supplies destined for Winnipeg is still sitting on the tarmac in Vancouver waiting for a plane. Yesterday afternoon, we chose Westjet as our carrier because they told us they could get this shipment to Winnipeg overnight. For that GUARANTEED "EXPEDITED" service we agreed to pay thousands of dollars in shipping charges. This morning we were contacted by Westjet and told that only one box made it out on their 6:45 pm flight yesterday. As it turns out, the majority of our shipment was "bumped" by passengers. To make matters worse, they cannot tell us when . . . or even IF . . . our shipment will be delivered to Winnipeg.

We have been completely frustrated in all attempts to contact ANY Westjet manager with the authority to ensure that our shipment is expedited. The receptionist and employees of the Westjet sales department have continued to stonewall us . . . they have given us completely incorrect information . . . and have demonstrated a complete lack of concern about the problems, or consequences, that they and their SERIOUSLY FLAWED airline have created. We have been "placed on hold" repeatedly and completely unable to speak with ANYBODY who can help.

Christiane Youssef was the Salesperson for Westjet Cargo that we dealt with. In our view she is completely incompetent. In the last 24 hours she has:

1) Quoted the wrong price for our shipment

2) Conducted a personal conversation with a coworker while at the same time on the phone recording the details of our shipment . . . in her words, when questioned about this, she jokingly replied, "I am multi-tasking"

3) Lied to us. She told us the reason our shipment did not go out was because the boxes were the wrong size. Her supervisor later told us our shipment was bumped by passengers.

It should be noted that nobody at Westjet called us to let us know our shipment had not made it out last night as promised. Had we known, we could have made other arrangements and the problem for the picture company could have been averted.

Now, making matters even worse, unable to get service or a solution from the sales department, we just called the corporate offices of Westjet in Calgary and asked to speak with the current Westjet CEO, Gregg Saretsky. Judy, the receptionist told us she was unable to find the CEO, or the VP of Operations, or the VP of Sales, or ANY MANAGER in the building. She was also unable to find any "Administrator" in the building. We were put on hold repeatedly, but again the fall back was the "We are a large company and I am only following procedures" excuse.

Judy told us that she was in a six story building and could not be expected to know who was in the building. When I told her we would be sharing our experience with Westjet on the Internet, Judy said she felt threatened. Judy said she was "trying". I pointed out that "trying" was not the same as "doing" and I told her that I needed her to actually DO something instead of just trying. Rather than take this problem seriously Judy chose to hang up on us! Nice job of Customer Service Judy. So, given the fact that Judy "the receptionist" was unable to transfer my urgent call to ANY living breathing person in her six story building, I think it is fair to add Judy to the list of incompetent Westjet employees being managed by CEO Gregg Saretsky.

Personally, I have been flying since 1953 and have logged untold hundreds of thousands of miles in the air. NEVER have I encountered an airline with worse customer service. I have also shipped baggage and cargo all over the world and have never had a worse airline experience.

If you are contemplating using Westjet for your next cargo shipment . . . BEWARE!!! . . . Your cargo will get bumped if they sell too many passenger tickets. Seriously . . . This company should NOT be in the cargo business if they are not willing to service cargo customers properly.

According to a previous Westjet CEO, WestJet's Core Value Proposition is "cheap fare, fun environment and good experience when you fly with WestJet." The airline's recipe to attract its clients is "humor, customer service and good value." . . . Well, nobody here is having a good experience, or much fun, today dealing with your airline Mr (former) CEO.

Under CEO Gregg Saretsky's management, based on our experience with a number of Westjet employees as we have dealt with while attempting to manage the damage this airline has created, a more appropriate Value Proposition for Westjet employees would be . . . "We are a large company. We follow procedures."

This is just the latest example of a company that fails to live up to the founders' Vision and Mission. Mr. Saretsky, you are undoubtedly focused on growing profits, but in the process your corporate culture is in big trouble.

This ALWAYS happens when a company puts profits ahead of customer service. The wrong people are hired; employees are not properly trained; Managers lose touch with their customer base; Core Values deteriorate; individual initiative disappears; and Service is replaced by a robotic-like adherence to "policy". Over time, companies on this downward spiral eventually fail and shareholders lose their investments.

Westjet is a company that was built on individual initiative Mr. Saretsky. You might want to be curious about how the airline has lost touch with its core values. Telling jokes on flights is all well and good, but today's joke is the horrific service on Westjet Cargo, and the "joke" is on all of your customers who expect, and deserve, so much more from your company.

Running a global business focused on meeting the needs of entertainment professionals around the planet is a task that requires a constant flow of market intelligence, especially in this challenging economic environment.

In addition to constant personal contact with our thousands of customers, we spend countless hours day and night on the Internet, and we monitor entertainment programming on our television(s) via Shaw Cable. We pay a very high price for all of this media access, connectivity and bandwidth . . and fairly so.

However, last night we returned home to discover that the programming on FOUR of the six television sets in our home had lost most of the cable access we had previously been utilizing. Instead of the regular 58 channels we were paying for, we now only had access to 28 channels. No CNN. No BNN. No BBC.

It seems that the Shaw Cable Monopoly had introduced a new digital "service" yesterday, that required us to purchase four additional signal converters. The cost of the Shaw converters runs from $58 to $199 each.

When we went to the local Shaw retail outlet this morning to obtain the new digital boxes, there was a very large lineup of very unhappy angry customers. Moving through the line took more than half an hour, then another half hour dealing with the counter clerk.

Never mind the unexpected expense. Never mind the disruption and inconvenience that this has caused to so many people's lives. Never mind the disrespect that the Shaw Cable Monopoly has demonstrated to its customers by forcing this new technology and unexpected expense upon them . . . especially at this time of year!

The thing that REALLY BURNED us was the fact that everyone behind the counter was smiling and clearly having a wonderful time at everyone else's expense . . . LITERALLY! This was a bonanza for the Shaw cable Monopoly and all of the staff were basking in the glow of an easy buck and a big payday . . . all at the expense of you and I folks.

Monopolies are often EVIL. Monopolies are often IMMORAL. Monopolies are always INEFFICIENT.

Anyone who subscribes to the Shaw Cable Monopoly "service" knows how inefficient it is. Our personal experience has consistently proven that: Cable signals are often scrambled, and are generally of poor quality. Their equipment is often faulty. Contacting a service person by telephone is almost impossible, often taking more than two hours waiting until someone is available to speak with you. Customer "service" people often know very little and are usually unable to resolve a problem. I could go on, and you could likely add a few things that I have overlooked, based on your experience with the Shaw Cable Monopoly.

Quoting directly from Shaw's 2010 Annual Report To Shareholders: "Consolidated service revenue of $3.72 billion improved over 9%". Clearly, these guys are not hurting . . . But this latest move of theirs is clearly "hurting" their customers in many ways other than in their pocketbooks.

We have high-speed cable Internet from the Shaw Cable Monopoly in our business. We have high-speed cable Internet from the Shaw Cable Monopoly in our home. We also subscribe to the Shaw Cable Monopoly's HD television cable product. Now, we own SIX of the Shaw Cable Monopoly's digital boxes.

If a company, its Directors, and its Management can be perceived as having a "personality", that personality can be reflected in the quality of its products and of its service. Based on our personal experience with the Shaw Cable Monopoly over many many years of doing business with them, our judgement is that the character of the Shaw cable Monopoly can best be described by words like: Greed, Avarice, Incompetence, and an overall failure to conduct its business with integrity relative to its representations to shareholders;



Shame on you Shaw. If you truly believe that your current product offerings, actions, and level of service represent "exceptional customer service" and that you are truly "creating best in class products and services" then your Directors, Managers, and Employees seriously need to go back to business school, and back to the drawing board. You are failing your customers in a major way and your most recent actions have forced us to aggressively look for alternate technology solutions. I am sure we are not alone in this.

Shaw Cable enjoys a highly profitable monopoly. Based on results, it does not have to deliver quality products, quality service, or quality equipment. Its customers are forced to accept whatever the monopoly is willing to provide and there is no opportunity to complain . . . nobody cares. We know this to be true because we have often complained but nothing ever changes. If we ran our business like you do, we would not be in business!

Sorry for my rant everyone, but I just had to get this off my chest. Someone has to call it like they see it. Multiply our inconvenience and expense today by the 3,200,000 Canadian subscribers it boasts of "servicing", and you have a company that has just caused a great deal of pain to Canadians everywhere.

In my estimation, Shaw Cable qualifies as this year's "Grinch that Stole Christmas" . . . from millions of Canadians.

Running a global business focused on meeting the needs of entertainment professionals around the planet is a task that requires a constant flow of market intelligence, especially in this challenging economic environment.

In addition to constant personal contact with our thousands of customers, we spend countless hours day and night on the Internet, and we monitor entertainment programming on our television(s) via Shaw Cable. We pay a very high price for all of this media access, connectivity and bandwidth . . and fairly so.

However, last night we returned home to discover that the programming on FOUR of the six television sets in our home had lost most of the cable access we had previously been utilizing. Instead of the regular 58 channels we were paying for, we now only had access to 28 channels. No CNN. No BNN. No BBC.

It seems that the Shaw Cable Monopoly had introduced a new digital "service" yesterday, that required us to purchase four additional signal converters. The cost of the Shaw converters runs from $58 to $199 each.

When we went to the local Shaw retail outlet this morning to obtain the new digital boxes, there was a very large lineup of very unhappy angry customers. Moving through the line took more than half an hour, then another half hour dealing with the counter clerk.

Never mind the unexpected expense. Never mind the disruption and inconvenience that this has caused to so many people's lives. Never mind the disrespect that the Shaw Cable Monopoly has demonstrated to its customers by forcing this new technology and unexpected expense upon them . . . especially at this time of year!

The thing that REALLY BURNED us was the fact that everyone behind the counter was smiling and clearly having a wonderful time at everyone else's expense . . . LITERALLY! This was a bonanza for the Shaw cable Monopoly and all of the staff were basking in the glow of an easy buck and a big payday . . . all at the expense of you and I folks.

Monopolies are often EVIL. Monopolies are often IMMORAL. Monopolies are always INEFFICIENT.

Anyone who subscribes to the Shaw Cable Monopoly "service" knows how inefficient it is. Our personal experience has consistently proven that: Cable signals are often scrambled, and are generally of poor quality. Their equipment is often faulty. Contacting a service person by telephone is almost impossible, often taking more than two hours waiting until someone is available to speak with you. Customer "service" people often know very little and are usually unable to resolve a problem. I could go on, and you could likely add a few things that I have overlooked, based on your experience with the Shaw Cable Monopoly.

Quoting directly from Shaw's 2010 Annual Report To Shareholders: "Consolidated service revenue of $3.72 billion improved over 9%". Clearly, these guys are not hurting . . . But this latest move of theirs is clearly "hurting" their customers in many ways other than in their pocketbooks.

We have high-speed cable Internet from the Shaw Cable Monopoly in our business. We have high-speed cable Internet from the Shaw Cable Monopoly in our home. We also subscribe to the Shaw Cable Monopoly's HD television cable product. Now, we own SIX of the Shaw Cable Monopoly's digital boxes.

If a company, its Directors, and its Management can be perceived as having a "personality", that personality can be reflected in the quality of its products and of its service. Based on our personal experience with the Shaw Cable Monopoly over many many years of doing business with them, our judgement is that the character of the Shaw cable Monopoly can best be described by words like: Greed, Avarice, Incompetence, and an overall failure to conduct its business with integrity relative to its representations to shareholders;



Shame on you Shaw. If you truly believe that your current product offerings, actions, and level of service represent "exceptional customer service" and that you are truly "creating best in class products and services" then your Directors, Managers, and Employees seriously need to go back to business school, and back to the drawing board. You are failing your customers in a major way and your most recent actions have forced us to aggressively look for alternate technology solutions. I am sure we are not alone in this.

Shaw Cable enjoys a highly profitable monopoly. Based on results, it does not have to deliver quality products, quality service, or quality equipment. Its customers are forced to accept whatever the monopoly is willing to provide and there is no opportunity to complain . . . nobody cares. We know this to be true because we have often complained but nothing ever changes. If we ran our business like you do, we would not be in business!

Sorry for my rant everyone, but I just had to get this off my chest. Someone has to call it like they see it. Multiply our inconvenience and expense today by the 3,200,000 Canadian subscribers it boasts of "servicing", and you have a company that has just caused a great deal of pain to Canadians everywhere.

In my estimation, Shaw Cable qualifies as this year's "Grinch that Stole Christmas" . . . from millions of Canadians.