Canadian High Interest Savings Bank Accounts

I applied for a CTFS savings account in early February. Because their website and welcome email gave contradictory instructions, I sent an email to the customer service address posted on their website asking for clarification.

I heard nothing back for over a month. Then, in mid-March, 35 days later, they sent me a reply instructing me to click a link directed to a secure page on the canadiantire.egain.net site to read their response. That link was broken.

I sent back another email asking why they took over a month to send me a reply I couldn't read. After another week, I got a response. This one ignored all of my questions and thanked me for notifying them that I had been the victim of a phishing scam.

Now, I doubt that the first reply was really a phishing scam, but if it was then the scammers must have had access to Canadian Tire's system, since that message cited my original customer service email and inquiry number. I sent them another reply pointing this out only to receive a delivery failure notice. My email had been rejected by their spam shield.

Then today, almost 45 days after applying for the account, I received my welcome package in the mail (misaddressed, but that wasn't the cause of most of the delay — the letter inside is dated about a week ago). It asked me to send in a cheque to complete the application process. Obviously I didn't do so.

Something is rotten at Canadian Tire Financial Services.