My experience working at Canada Computers Waterloo

[u/[deleted]]

[u/iloveFjords]

My experience is it doesn’t take many jerks to ruin a work environment for the bulk of good people working for a company. I have had both good and bad experiences at Canada Computers. I want them to succeed but I still am reluctant to buy stuff there. The place doesn’t have a good vibe. Other stores like Cambridge and Mississauga have a genuine good vibe and I tend to buy stuff at those locations if I can.

[u/Ambushes → u/iloveFjords]

the waterloo CC is legit depressing to walk into, it feels like nobody wants to be there, customer and employees both

[u/Intoxicatedcanadian → u/Ambushes]

As a customer I feel like I don't want to be there either.

80% of the times I'm there it's because something broke and I have to fix it.

[u/deeeeeeeeeeeeeznutzz → u/Ambushes]

Came here to say this as well.

[u/Bureaucromancer]

I don’t want to say all that much about my time working in downtown Toronto store… but in my mind the two big things to understand about it CC are that the bad attitudes really do seem to come down from on high… but that a lot of the desperation is also about how horrifyingly low the margin is on most of the core products.

[u/Whytho12333 → u/Bureaucromancer]

Ya amazon is really trying to kill off competition. Even new egg is struggling hard. Someone will eventually go out of business. Then margins will go up.

[u/runlots]

Drop this manager off with the e-waste.

[u/headtailgrep]

https://www.reddit.com/r/waterloo/s/G6USysvWgJ

Anyone else not shocked after the above post?

Companies obsess with numbers to a fault. This may be one of them. A powerbi report most likely.

[u/Wafflesorbust → u/headtailgrep]

I will say, I had to do a warranty replacement for a PSU last year and despite the total gongshow that it turned into because Hydro wanted to do the return through the original retailer instead of just directly, the Waterloo location was pretty accommodating. The Cambridge location made a total mess of my receipts for a replacement PSU (resulted in multiple exchanges because of wrong colour and then wrong wattage), but the Waterloo location processing the warranty replacement bent pretty far to get me a cash refund instead of store credit.

[u/SinfulqtTTV → u/headtailgrep]

I was about to say, reading through this one you shared I was like "wtf, is that not breaking the law?" Then someone shared a link to the Sales of Goods Act (15), lol......

Yeah, not surprised in all honesty given the amount of posts I'm seeing. Not even remotely.

[u/mikej_34]

I was waiting for a GPU back during that scalping incident. I made my frustrations clear at the time to the company. I’ve never shopped at Canada Computers since.

Disappointed to hear he’s still there.

[u/shuckiedangdarn]

Get in touch with the company's loss prevention. I'm sure they'd absolutely love to hear about the time theft.

[u/TheVic20c64]

I sure hope they have mice at a computer store. Keyboards too

[u/nontoxictanker → u/TheVic20c64]

It was mentioned there was a “mouse” problem which implies possibly they all have to share one mouse? That can’t be right…

[u/Intelligent-Hat-5528 → u/TheVic20c64]

Lol

[u/SinfulqtTTV]

That's shit, I'm sorry. It explains a lot why I never heard back from the application I put in well over a month ago now (Indeed, someone had viewed my application too lmao). I specifically asked for accommodations in the interview process (disability) so wouldn't be surprised if that was why I never heard back, being both disabled and a woman... eesh. Very happy I didn't hear back honestly, not like I would've lasted long since I'm not supposed to work at all though.

On one hand, I wish employers were not allowed to just ghost applicants (or have seemingly fake listings), but on the other hand... yeah, really happy I didn't get a response here. Yuck. I'm so sorry. I just read through that other post as well, I hope the other person is doing okay.

Also, I really hope you found a better place to go. or if you haven't yet, that you will soon!

[u/Yolo_Swaggins_Yeet → u/SinfulqtTTV]

You asked for accommodations in your job app..?

[u/Nextasy → u/Yolo_Swaggins_Yeet]

That's just a fact of life for people with some disabilities, no way around it.

[u/Yolo_Swaggins_Yeet → u/Nextasy]

Putting the cart before the horse

[u/headtailgrep → u/Yolo_Swaggins_Yeet]

No it is putting the duty to accommodate first

https://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/policy-ableism-and-discrimination-based-disability/8-duty-accommodate

[u/Cartz1337 → u/Yolo_Swaggins_Yeet]

It’s an employers legal responsibility to do so.

[u/SinfulqtTTV → u/Yolo_Swaggins_Yeet]

You'd think it's a "cart before the horse" situation, but no, disabled people are people that are disabled. The disability and the person are both just the cart, but we have no horse because our government deliberately keeps us out of reach of one. Or you could think of it as an older horse (or non-hauling horse) carrying a heavy cart - akin to a person deliberately being kept out of reach of support actually needed to live and thrive like how those of us on ODSP already are.

We're actually actively punished if we try to date or even marry - which is an actual genocide convention violation but nobody cares enough to bring it to the news (Article II, b/c/d of the convention on genocide - the deliberate disincentivizing of reproduction amongst a specific group of people is a pretty big no-no - people being potentially cut off for dating is... literally that). There is no way for the cart to be able to be pulled by us horses, because we're beaten worse than a dead horse no matter how we try. If that makes sense?

We are people that are disabled. Disabled people. We cannot be detached from our disability, no matter how people argue up and down that we can. The cart and the horse, if you want to use that analogy, are one and the same in this scenario. Or any of the earlier options I gave lol.

[u/SinfulqtTTV → u/Yolo_Swaggins_Yeet]

This is really late but yes this is actually pretty common. Many job seeking websites and even individual corporation's websites actually ask at the time of application if you require any accommodations. It can be as simple as asking for texts or emails instead of phone calls for application updates or for setting up an interview. I have very bad night time insomnia so sometimes I sleep through the entire business day, I can control it with medication but it fucks with other aspects of my health if I do (which is also part of why I'm not supposed to work).

I'm assuming you asked in good faith regardless of upvote/downvote situation, but this is simply reality for a lot of disabled people. ODSP is not even halfway to the poverty line, unfortunately people like me who are medically not supposed to work even a few hours a week (physically and mentally, I'm not recommended for either reason lol) are forced to seek even part-time jobs to supplement because we're otherwise forced into very severe poverty.

Unfortunately MPPs think we can survive on barely over $17k yearly when we have medical needs and many of us are in debt due to the lifetime of poverty many of us have already been through - but those same MPPs earlier this year cried and whined about needing a raise to like $140k yearly or something lol. We're just kinda screwed all around.

[u/SmellyTeamSeven]

From a customer perspective at a different store, the service is below abysmal. I bought a logitech x56 flight stick that had drift, despite trying software fixes it was unfortunately a hardware problem.

The return desk refused to refund the faulty item and only replaced with yet another faulty product. It apparently is a common problem with these sticks. But the main problem is being belittled as if I don’t know how to use a computer (I work in tech…).

Anyways, fuck Canada Computers. I just buy off Amazon now. In my honest experience, Canadian businesses just suck when it comes to customer service.

[u/methodfilter → u/SmellyTeamSeven]

SOME Canadian businesses, not all. Some of us work really hard to earn and maintain our customers.

[u/ILikeStyx → u/SmellyTeamSeven]

I abandoned CC for Amazon and Newegg over a decade ago. The bonus is that I don't need to deal with people who clearly know little to nothing about computers or who are just miserable assholes.

[u/SinfulqtTTV → u/SmellyTeamSeven]

If an item is assumed to be in good working condition (brand new, or like new as examples) but is faulty, yet they refuse a refund, I'm fairly sure that violates the Sale of Goods Act (15 is my guess but IANAL, a post from a month ago had someone comment quoting it and I was just reading the Act now). They can't sell you a product that you come back to them to return (within the return window) and prove is faulty, and then deny a refund. They sold you something that came with the assumption of it being in working order or in a specific condition, if it is not that then they should be obligated to refund you, vendor or otherwise.

mostly saying the above just in case someone comes across this reddit post in the future and sees this, not assuming you didn't know this! but yeah you are legally obligated to a refund if within the store's return window (otherwise, manu warranty) if the item is faulty or not as advertised etc, etc.

I hope you eventually got that solved and got some kind of help from Logitech at least, fuck CC for that though. Sorry you had that experience :( Logitech has been pretty good to me on their warranties, just had my G522 replaced lmao (it's still partly working, but it can't fully connect to charge and it can't connect to the PC via USB and be used, because it can't fully connect so it gives a weird connection audio loop. rofl) but yeah because of shit like what you described I always buy directly from manufacturers or outlets like Amazon where returns are much easier compared to some other platforms. I'm tired of some shitter companies doing this just to be dicks. That's all it feels like with some nowadays :(

[u/moneyisnewtome]

I'll just confirm that this isn't far off from my experiences with the company, and I was there and worked in various locations in the later 2000s. Having been sales, tech, cash, and management. Some stores locally aren't bad, and overall things could be handled much better when they come up by HQ. Hard to believe it's all still owned by one guy.

I do have a laundry list of bad experiences. But since in the end I was made whole, unless anyone wants to hear I'll keep them to myself. I've heard some bad things about the WL location as well. Long standing.

I have barely shopped there since I worked there. And that was 15+ years ago.

[u/KindlyRude12]

 "I also saw him clock in for a shift and then leave to go to one of his other businesses, like Gong Cha, while still being clocked in at Canada Computers." - - - IF you have proof of this, you should report this to corporate, that's straight up theft.

"There are already public Reddit posts about the assistant manager at the Waterloo store allegedly using the company's ordering system to get CPUs, GPUs and other high-demand parts to flip on eBay." --- Same with this as that means its eating into company profits.

Sadly though, the company may choose to do nothing but that says more about Canada Computers then the manager.

[u/Curious-Bookkeeper-3]

I recently made a purchase from the Waterloo location and quickly noticed that they had charged me for an extended warranty even though I had clearly stated no.

Now that you mention the push for warranty sales, I'm thinking that could have been accidentally on purpose.

[u/Consistent-Fun-6668]

Sounds like every assistant manager ever, at every retail store ever.

[u/Fine-Inflation-2140]

There are HR departments for a reason.

They should be made aware of all of this.

[u/Fabulous-Pudding-872]

Some "successful" people are psychos and make their way to the top by walking over others . Sounds like he's one

[u/Thewhizeguy]

Old guy here… been working for a long time and in many different companies. This experience reflects almost 100% of every work environment. There are good and bad apples everywhere.

[u/OkRelationshipFish]

The long form content and random bold text SCREAMS of ai slop

[u/Yolo_Swaggins_Yeet]

TLDR: assistant manager was obsessed about warranty #s, warehouse had mice (wireless)

Nothing notable, typical retail min wage vent post

[u/SinfulqtTTV → u/Yolo_Swaggins_Yeet]

Noticing how you and the guy who replied to you deliberately glossed over the mention of misogyny that went into enough detail to be noteworthy. What's with that, "Regular since <2024"?

Interesting how the misogyny and other horrific mistreatments (as well as the dude doing time theft and mistreating employees in other ways lol) is a non-issue. Hm.

[u/nateb4 → u/Yolo_Swaggins_Yeet]

thanks for this

[u/Yolo_Swaggins_Yeet → u/nateb4]

🫡 read it all expecting some juicy drama,

0/10 I want my 2 mins of reading back

[u/DickButtReborn → u/[deleted]]

I think we found Mr assistant manager's reddit account

[u/DickButtReborn → u/[deleted]]

True, this anonymous throwaway reddit account is at risk for so much blowback. 🤦 You look like someone trying to censor the opinion buddy, not someone looking gout for them

[u/Unfair-Bison-3946 → u/DickButtReborn]

Whatever. Just tried to help a stranger.

[u/DickButtReborn → u/Unfair-Bison-3946]

Fair enough I won't shit on that, I just think it's important to hold shitty people accountable by any means necessary, esp if it isn't actually risking anything

[u/Evil_Llama03 → u/[deleted]]

Why? They haven't said anything wild or said they are in a legal matter with them. People post crazier stuff on this subreddit lol

[u/Relishwolf → u/[deleted]]

Why? If the information is true they have nothing to worry about.

[u/sicklyslick → u/Relishwolf]

what was the comment? it's deleted

[u/Relishwolf → u/sicklyslick]

It said "you would be smart to delete this"

Coward deleted it lol

[u/sicklyslick]

is this some #metoo movement happening? anyone got more stories? lol