Watch out for the latest rip-off by big business

[al...@iacta.est]

They're now using 'eco fees' to bolster their profits. Enough to make you barf - or join
the Black Bloc during the next billion-dollar Summits they hold in our country.
________________________________________
July 14, 2010

Canadian Tire apologizes for eco fee errors

Isabella Lam bought a $1 jug of bleach at Canadian Tire last week. Her bill was $1.55,
which included an eco fee of 37 cents and HST on top of that.

Ron Compton bought three $1 bleach jugs at Canadian Tire and was charged eco fees of 57
cents on each one.

April Holman bought a $3 bottle of laundry detergent at Canadian Tire and paid a 60-cent
eco fee.

Barb Harren bought a $20 driveway sealer at Canadian Tire and paid an eco fee of $3.23,
while Viren Desai paid an eco fee of $4.03 on the same product.

These examples of inconsistent and excessive eco fees will be fixed by Wednesday, says Amy
Cole, a spokeswoman for Canadian Tire.

“This is a very complex program and we made an error programming our point-of-sale
systems,” she said.

“We’re reaching out to customers to apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.
Customers that return to the store with a receipt will be reimbursed the difference
between the correct fee and the adjusted, correct fee.”

On July 1, Ontario expanded its eco fee program to cover 22 types of household products.
The goal is to shift the cost of disposing of hazardous wastes from taxpayers to
manufacturers and importers of the products.

But how much confidence can consumers have when one of Canada’s largest retailers makes
repeated mistakes in showing the right eco fees on its bills?

Do we have to become eco-vigilantes to make sure we’re paying the right amount?

After hearing many stories from readers, I went to two Canadian Tire stores to look for
errors in what I was charged.

It didn’t take long to find cases where I paid more – often a whole lot more – than the
examples used by Stewardship Ontario, a non-governmental body that runs the program.

My 2.26-litre bottle of Cascade dishwasher detergent should have had an eco fee of less
than one cent.
Instead, I paid a 43-cent eco fee at two Canadian Tire stores I visited (Yonge St., north
of Davenport Rd., and Bay St., corner of Dundas St.).

What happened? The stores didn’t differentiate between corrosive products, such as toilet
bowl cleaners and rust removers, and detergents – which are classified as irritants.

I also paid 28 cents on a package of four double-A non-rechargeable batteries at a
Canadian Tire store when the correct eco fee was actually 6 cents.

“Eco fees were not intended to generate profit for us and we’re working to ensure the
correct fees are charged going forward,” Cole said.
Any money that is not reimbursed to customers will be remitted to Stewardship Ontario to
pay for its recycling and disposal efforts, she added.

Diane Brisebois, president of the Retail Council of Canada, blamed the pricing errors on
the number of individual products – known as stock-keeping units or SKUs – carried in
large stores.

While some manufacturers will incorporate the eco fees into the price of their goods,
others will pass them on to retailers – which pass them on, in turn, to customers.

“I wish I had a simple solution, but this program is so complex and touches so many
products,” says Brisebois, who’s also a member of Stewardship Ontario’s board.

In her view, “a communications snafu” resulted when the second phase was launched on July
1 without advance notice to customers.

“The industry did not spend enough time to educate, inform and motivate consumers, as it
did in 2008. Instead, it spent more time on the implementation,” she said.

[al...@iacta.est]

[M.I. Wakefield]

<al...@iacta.est> wrote in message news:Upt%n.32208$Ls1....@newsfe11.iad...

> They're now using 'eco fees' to bolster their profits. Enough to make you
> barf - or join the Black Bloc during the next billion-dollar Summits they
> hold in our country.

Dalton the wonder-premier kept real quiet about this new slew of taxes; most
consumers were completely surprised when the new charges appeared.

And they make no sense ... there's an eco-fee if you buy a bottle of Vitamin
C, but not on Vitamin D ... how is disposing of one empty vitamin bottle
different from another?

There's an eco-fee on liquid hand-soap, but not on bars of soap.