Local service not great

To the editor:

I had the pleasure of listening to Harold Wilson, president of the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce last Monday morning trying to convince Thunder Bay residents to stay home and enjoy the many benefits of shopping locally rather than spend their hard earned money in Duluth.

Mr. Wilson hopes that residents can see beyond the tremendous deals that Duluth can offer and hopes we take advantage of the customer service, return policies and warranties that local merchants can provide.

Clearly Mr. Wilson must not shop locally as he has obviously not yet experienced Thunder Bay’s fine customer service first hand.

Our experience in shopping Thunder Bay has for the most part been appalling. We have called to get quotes on a fence and our calls have remained unanswered. We were quoted a price of a "couple hundred dollars" for a job and when completed the bill was double the quote with no explanation as to why.

We have walked into many shops in Thunder Bay and have been totally ignored even though the store was devoid of customers and we have sat in restaurants and been greeted with blank stairs and bad attitudes.

To be fair, Thunder Bay has some fine businesses but this disregard and contempt for the customer seems to be becoming more common. It is unfortunate that Thunder Bay merchants feel the need to gouge customers while providing non-existent service.

Duluth gets it: great service with a fair price. Now, if only Thunder Bay businesses could figure it out.

Robin Bureyko,
Thunder Bay