Canadian Tire - Surcharge on salt water licenses?

[GDW]

I was in crappy tire the other day and noted a sign that said $5 surcharge for fishing licenses. Are any other retailers doing this? This was the Langford location.

DFO's website is a pain I'm wanting to get a license for my wife and two young girls but I think I can only get 1 license under my log in meaning I need an email address for each kid and use my wife's too. Keeping track of 4 log ins and creating email addresses for a 4 year old is silly. But so is paying CT (or anyone else) $5 to print a license for us when that money goes in their pocket and not towards fish projects.

 

[doger5]

Greedy Crappy Tire

 

[Kildonan]

I agree GDW, it's a poor design. It annoyed me too when getting a license for my kid.

Would be nice if you could login, get your license and all your kid's licenses in one go then go through the checkout process once.

 

[spring fever]

They are providing a service that the gov't should be able to do efficiently. The blame for this debacle should be placed directly at the source, Govt services and in particular DFO. Fishing lic. are nothing more than a tax and they( gov't/DFO) can't even get the collection of their own tax done in an efficient manner.
I don't blame CTC for charging-did you expect them to go through all this crap for free-obviously the gov't does. Maybe we should not bother with a lic until they become reasonable to access.

 

[Evenweight]

I wonder if the Service Canada office would be able to sell you a licence?

 

[GLG]

CDN Tire in Comox Valley had a sign out on Friday that they no longer sell them.
What a cluster....

Heard rumor that they might go to a system like they have in Alberta.
If so I sure would like to get the contract as it like printing money.

 

[seadog19]

2 bucks at gone fishing Nanaimo

 

[trophywife]

retailers are covering their time and expense as the govt has taken away the two bucks they used to get out of providing them... if i owned a shop i would use it as a selling feature,, buy 20.00 worth of gear and receive a free print out.


most or all dont see it that way.

 

[Dave S]

I used my email for my kids license.

 

[ComfortZone]

They are providing a service that the gov't should be able to do efficiently. The blame for this debacle should be placed directly at the source, Govt services and in particular DFO. Fishing lic. are nothing more than a tax and they( gov't/DFO) can't even get the collection of their own tax done in an efficient manner.
I don't blame CTC for charging-did you expect them to go through all this crap for free-obviously the gov't does. Maybe we should not bother with a lic until they become reasonable to access.

I agree, I don't blame a fee either, wages, equipment, ink, paper, electricity. It all cost money. I know I don't work for free, why should I expect others too, or run their business at a loss?? They are providing a service... you can take it, or leave it.

Trophy wife your idea of spend $20 get a print out is a good one, profits will cover the expenses and then some likely, customer walks away with something. win-win, a service/product in exchange for money...its what makes the world go round

 

[Rockfish]

If they had a manager team that had a clue as to what they were doing in terms of advertising and promotion they would not only not charge a $5.00 fee, when you get your license from them they would throw in a time limited $5:00 dollar discount card if you buy $25.00 dollars in fishing gear and give you a 10% discount for being a member of SVIAC on fishing related gear and bait. Then advertise the crap out of it in their weekly flyer which they already pay for anyway with some fishing related sales item. If they really can't stand the cost of ink and paper $2.00 should cover it.

It is a very competitive fishing related market on the island and this would bump up their business and profits and create more customer loyalty . The increased traffic and goodwill would then get them other business and they would be getting a positive PR and advertising bump on a very popular forum that targets a large specialty fishing camping, hunting and outdoor consumer demographic that has real value to their business model. It would bring in customers and promote good will with them that also have boats, trailers and trucks that need a lot of parts and supplies for repairs and maintenance and fishermen are often do it yourself types needing tools. Correct me if I am wrong but that fits in rather well with other merchandise and services they sell.

But what do they do instead; they put up a sign that screams “ Fishermen - don’t come back and give us your business, we think of you as nothing but a cash cow and a burden because we have to waste a little staff time on you and are now going to charge you far more than was payed by govt. for retailers processing the old paper licenses.

What a lost opportunity to build goodwill, sales and profits with exactly a consumer group that fits so precisely a large percentage of their business model and for which they spend a lot of advertising dollars trying to get in the store. Processing a fishing license for free or a least very low cost would be a great lost leader for Canada Tire.

It seems like many businesses have not yet caught up with how much good or harm the internet in general and forums like this can do to public perception of a business/goodwill and even word of mouth in a close nit sport fishing and outdoor oriented community. Instead of taking the hits and negative comments they are taking right now, when someone on this and other fishing and outdoor forums complains about having trouble getting or figuring out how to print a license, someone would be likely to post up and advise them to head down to Canada Tire and get a license and a discount card and they would have in the store a grateful customer by making their frustration go away. If there is a better way to get well qualified customers into your store and coming back and spending a lot of money, I can’t think of it.

Well they are at it, donating merchandise to funding raising Derbies for Habitat Restoration and Salmon Enhancement would be advertising expense money well spent. Building good will and related increased business and profit in a competitive market is cumulative and takes a little investment.

 

[Dogbreath]

Army & Navy does it for free and the first few days of April they offered 15% off any fishing products in the store to anyone who bought a licence-a great deal for someone like me who's printer is a POFS.

I'd pay $2 but not $5.

 

[Rockfish]

Army & Navy does it for free and the first few days of April they offered 15% off any fishing products in the store to anyone who bought a licence-a great deal for someone like me who's printer is a POFS.

I'd pay $2 but not $5.

Precisely my point; your post is now free highly targeted advertising to well qualified customers for Army and Navy and will spread throughout the angler community. That has real dollar value to A&N and gets them visibility, in store traffic and customer base building which they realize financially exceeds the cost and effort of doing so. When others do the opposite, it may have the effect of transferring some of their sales to A&N at the time of license purchase and more importantly in the future, especially if the angler had not previously bought gear there. When I was a young kid I remember going to their huge tackle section like a kid in a candy store. I have not been there in decades but next time I am in Van I may have to take a look for nostalgia purposes. Without you post I would have not even thought of it and if I go I will be walking by other non related product they sell.

 

[KV1]

People wonder why more and more shopping and research into prices before purchase is done online? Greedy locals and or big box stores nickel and diming. I am pretty sure I used to be able to go get a license along with whatever purchase I made and fill it out for FREE!! Even if the store was getting a lump sum from the FEDS to provide this service and now don't they should still do it to keep their customers coming back. I for one don't even leave the house without first checking prices on the net and then tell stores what the other is charging if they match and or beat I buy from them if not see you later. Love the free market.
As far as licenses I have never had a problem online but then again I would not pay 5 bucks for one in store either at least online you can reprint yours if you lose it or "misplace" it for free. I don't believe any store that sells tackle should charge you for one...period. That is just a plain cash grab.

 

[carpeweekend]

Its interesting how some retailers think. They will spend thousands of dollars on advertising to attract customers (fishermen) into their stores. By selling licences, they are handed a fishing customer who must go to the till and will most likely spend money on other fishing gear. While I realize that is no guarantee that the customer will buy anything else, it seems a much better idea than spending dollars on advertising to hopefully attract the same person.

Canadian Tire (or any other retailer) charging a surcharge seems incredibly short sighted to me.

 

[spring fever]

Everybody has some good points about retailers doing it to attract customers and as a public service and not to get greedy: but let's not forget the cause of this sorry mess. The gov't started moving down this path of public doing everything for themselves through computers several years ago. Their way of cutting jobs and saving money. Surely they bare all the responsibility when all these cost saving measures turn out to be faulty. Nobody should blame the retailers for not wanting to spend money to clean up the governments mistakes when the government is leaning on the retailers to bail them out. Retailers made very little under the old lic. scheme-many of them really did it for the reasons that were cited by most of the thread respondents. Now (retailers) they have extra space,provide printers, paper and personnel for little remuneration to access a system that is faulty, unreliable and generator of many complaints. No wonder they opt out-who could or should blame them!! We know who is the real culprit!!! Sunday rant cause I'm back in Canada and have run out of Margarita's!!!!!!

 

[KV1]

I agree wholeheartedly with you SF. It never surprises me how useless the slugs at the trough are anymore. I think its all a conspiracy for the common man to give up. First you go to a Service Canada emphasis on "Service" office to get info and they cant help you but you can go to the website which you find out cant help you either so you give up. I have a question though I wonder if you can go to your local DFO office and get a licence and if not why? I would question that one would be kind of neat to take up some of the sloths "workbreak" for a license. I think if that's the case I will do that why not use the governments time because in theory we pay for it. My rant also

 

[Rockfish]

Everybody has some good points about retailers doing it to attract customers and as a public service and not to get greedy: but let's not forget the cause of this sorry mess. The gov't started moving down this path of public doing everything for themselves through computers several years ago. Their way of cutting jobs and saving money. Surely they bare all the responsibility when all these cost saving measures turn out to be faulty. Nobody should blame the retailers for not wanting to spend money to clean up the governments mistakes when the government is leaning on the retailers to bail them out. Retailers made very little under the old lic. scheme-many of them really did it for the reasons that were cited by most of the thread respondents. Now (retailers) they have extra space,provide printers, paper and personnel for little remuneration to access a system that is faulty, unreliable and generator of many complaints. No wonder they opt out-who could or should blame them!! We know who is the real culprit!!! Sunday rant cause I'm back in Canada and have run out of Margarita's!!!!!!

That is indeed a very good point. I need to make my rants more concise, especially as this rant thread is more useless than most and did not deserve War and Peace with little value than to practice the typing skills, at the end of which I should have just hit the delete button. Time to get the boat in the water for the summer.

 

[KV1]

Forgot it was Sunday. Used the online version failed to print in window so went to pdf link and presto they got my money and I got the piece of paper from my printer. I gave up. Typical lazy canadian.

 

[Dogbreath]

re: Canadian Tire-some stores are company owned and some are franchises that's why policies can be different @ different locations and also why no one cares if they are.