Enough Already!

My wife sent me this link to an article about Tim Horton's in St. Andrews (FYI for my American readers; Tim Horton's is the Starbucks of Canada, only with generally crappier coffee and food items). The crux of the article is that the owner of the Tim Horton's in question, Edwin Dow, has banned a customer from his two locations for complaining about the coffee.

It is implied that this man has frequented this Tim Horton's for some time prior to this issue coming up. In my opinion, although the article does not go into great length about it, it seems like the person/people in charge of making the coffee or the machine(s) used to make is faulty or undertrained, and therefore the coffee is getting burnt. This customer recognized it and tried to bring it to the establishment's notice and get it changed. For his concerns, he is now banned from the store(s).

While the fact is that he is now better off, can make his own coffee for much cheaper, and can make it exactly the way he likes it, that isn't the primary point-- a business should listen to its customers and root out what the cause of the problem is, not ban them from the store.

This just shows some things I am struggling to cope with since moving to Canada:

1. The lack of competition creates near monopolies where businesses feel they don't have to provide good service, products, or staff in order to stay in business.
2. The feeling by companies that shit-service and products are acceptable and any complaint labels you a "troublemaker" and, via the grapevine, you become blacklisted and are always a complainer.
3. Canadians in general are a) willing to put up with this type of service and product to "get along" and b) do not complain as a whole, regardless of how bad things get. Which means when they do, they are always "troublemakers" rather than voicing legitimate complaints that need to be rectified.
   

Anyone who knows me knows that I will say what is on my mind when it comes to service. If you provide bad service, the company, your manager, whomever will hear about it. But if you provide exceptional service, they will also hear about it.

I also vote with my pocketbook. If you provide me with poor service multiple times in a row, then I take my money elsewhere and I try to convince any friends, family, or acquaintances to do the same. By taking money out of your cash register, I'm doing the most hurtful thing I can to express my discontent and to try and force you to change your business.

However, in Canada and in the Atlantic Provinces in particular, it is difficult to do as there aren't alternatives. There is, for example, only one movie theater in SJ. If they hadn't responded favorably to my complaints, then I would have been forced to go to another city's/location's theater for movies or only watch DVDs and TV. If you don't like the local Taco Bell, well, tough. There is just the one here, so screw you. If you become a "problem patient" for one doctor, you'll suddenly find that no other doctors will take you on.

If you read the comments that a lot of the people (who claim to be business owners) make on this article, you find a strong feeling of entitlement. Many are wishing they had the balls to kick out "troublemaking" customers. I wish I knew which businesses they owned so I could never/no longer patronize their business and get as many others not to as well. Especially in this poor/weak economy, most businesses need all the paying customers they can get.

My actions will be as follows:

1. I will stop going to Tim Horton's altogethers.
2. I will contact Tim Horton's and tell the company why I will no longer be a paying customer.
3. I will post this blog, on FB, and talk with friends and family and try to convince as many as possible not to go to Tim Horton's (any, not just the two owned by Edwin Dow).

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Addendum

I went to TimHortons.ca and found their online customer complaint form. I provided the following complaint to them:

Due to a recent article found on the CBC News site relating to Tim Horton's owner Edwin Dow banning customer Jim Craig from two locations in St. Andrews, NB, I will no longer patronize ANY Tim Horton's. I will also actively campaign to get as many friends, family, and acquaintances to stop going to Tim Horton's as possible. This is unacceptable behavior from a business owner and reflects poorly on the Tim Horton's brand, and I will not stand for it.

I also included the link to the CBC news article in question. We'll see, and I will post, any result I receive from the corporation.

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Second Addendum

Here is the response I received from Tim Hortons:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for contacting us at our Head Office in Oakville regarding the
recent article about our store in New Brunswick.

We want people leaving Tim Hortons with a smile. In this particular case,
we understand a customer had complained multiple times, and no matter what
the staff did to make it right, he was unhappy. He became increasingly
aggressive with store staff and was impacting their ability to serve other
customers. Our staff work long and hard to please each customer every day.
But at some point, we have to respectfully agree to disagree and suggest we
go our separate ways.

We always appreciate hearing feedback from our customers and we will pass
on your comments.

Thank you again for contacting us.

Kind Regards,

Lisa
Operations Services
The TDL Group Corp.

Strangely, she doesn't mention what this "aggressive" behavior is that Mr. Craig performed toward the staff. The wording of "multiple times" also implies this is chronic behavior, but the video with the article states he complained only three times. My response to her is as follows:

Thank you for the prompt response, Lisa.

This action by a Tim Hortons franchise owner seems so out of the normal for a situation such as this, that I am still left angry and confused. It seems like this owner could have done many things which were not mentioned in the article or by you, such as a) check the coffee equipment to ensure it was clean and functioning properly, b) make sure the staff was following all standards in making the coffee, c) check with other purchasers of decaffeinated coffee on the days in question and get their opinion on the quality of the coffee. Maybe these things were done, but it seems odd that the news article wouldn't mention them or that Mr. Dow would not mention it to the author of the article. If he did do these (or other) actions to help appease the customer and they didn't resolve the problem, why not mention them to show that he was willing to work hard to help this customer and to show he was being reasonable to his customer's complaints? This would certainly have painted Tim Hortons in a much better light.

Anyone who takes a business course, seminar, or who has worked retail knows that any one complaint received is indicative of multiple people having the same issues (my business courses specifically mentioned a 1:10 ratio, but I realize this varies by business, size of town, and type of complaint). So Mr. Craig's complaint about the coffee was likely the tip of the iceberg and any of the three ideas I provided above may have gone a long way toward resolving the issue, as he could have seen that the owner was doing something to address his concerns (even if the end result was the same) and the owner may have resolved by these actions any unvoiced complaints from other coffee drinkers.

Mr. Craig may have felt he was in a catch-22: no one else complained, so he was the troublemaker for mentioning it and got consistently bad service which caused him to become more belligerent; but no one complains because they don't want bad service or to be labeled a troublemaker and receive bad service. If, as you say, he became aggressive toward staff, I certainly do not condone his actions, but I can understand his impulse to push through the obstinacy.

In the end, the fact that Tim Hortons is not stating what they did to appease this customer (who only complained three times, according to the article/video, out of how many visits to that store?) makes me wonder what this franchise owner is hiding and what Tim Hortons is hiding. I appreciate your responding to me, but until further details are released which cause me to rethink my opinion, I will continue my stated action of not patronizing any Tim Hortons.

Again, I appreciate the civil discussion on this topic.

As always, faithful readers, I will post any further response I get from Tim Hortons on this topic.