On Fri, 3 Apr 2009 17:11:20 -0700, "Michael Koblic"
wrote:

I made two enquiries about different pieces of equipment sold currently by
Canadian Tire and listed on their web site with their customer services. On
both occasions I was directed to the same telephone number, supposedly the
"manufacturer". The phone is answered as "Mastercraft" which is one of the
Canadian Tire trade marks. If you follow the menu and enter the product
number you are directed to the specific make of the tool (Jobmate or
Mastercraft again).

On both occasions I was told the same thing: "We have no information on this
product". When enquiring how it is possible that a "manufacturer" has no
idea about the product it manufactures I was told that both companies
stopped dealing with Canadian Tire or words to that effect.

The telephone number (as I found later but already suspected) is nothing to
do with manufacturing: It belongs to a company called "Global Sourcing" whom
I suspect to be essentially Chinese importers. I further suspect that it is
unlikely that *two* manufacturers in China would have gone out of business
(unless of course Canadian Tire stopped paying them for their goods -
another matter entirely). So does Canadian Tire import from a single
manufacturer and re-label their stuff locally: Cheap stuff is Jobmate,
slightly more expensive stuff is Mastercraft?

So what does it mean for the corporation or for the consumer? I for one
would be extremely wary of buying anything from them that might need spare
parts in future. Having said that, their return policy has so far been
excellent. Generally, however, I ask for money back, not for a replacement.
I wonder how that will go now?

Has anyone in the US noticed a similar problem with Chinese importers?


Canadian tire is in pretty good shape, but in attempting to compete
with WallMart they have gone to multiple offshore suppliers to make
their "brand name" stuff. The "suppliers" are hole-in-the-wall
operations that just broker goods - don't know SQUAT about the
products, generally speaking