Petro Canada sells seasonal passes that allow you to wash your car 90 times in 90 days.
While most drivers wouldn’t do that, some families with several cars in their household have been using the passes to keep multiple vehicles clean.
Two families contacted CTV News after their season passes were cancelled without warning and without refunds.
Vu Tran, of Newmarket, purchased his 180-day season car wash pass for $490.
“It was one of the ways to keep our cars nice and clean and clean off road salt in the wintertime to prevent rust,” said Tran.
His season pass gets a lot of use at his house. There are four cars in his household, but he said it’s allowed under Petro-Canada’s terms and conditions.
“We use it within the family, the same household, the same address, four cars, and there is nowhere in the terms and conditions that says you can only wash one car,” said Tran.
He still had 80 days left on his season pass when it stopped working.
“They cancelled my card because they said I used multiple devices for the same car wash,” Tran said.
Shirin Abdolkarimi, of Thornhill, also had her 90-day pass cancelled, for which she paid $270.
She said the pass was only on one smartphone, but that she and her husband took turns washing their cars every day.
“We were halfway through the usage of the season pass when suddenly the card was suspended,” Abdolkarimi said and added, “I think it’s very unfair because we didn’t do anything wrong.”
‘We regret the inconvenience this caused’
According to Petro-Canada, the pass is for one wash per day; however, in its terms and conditions, it states the card can only be loaded onto one smartphone.
When CTV News reached out to Petro Canada on Abdolkarimi & Tran’s behalf, a spokesperson said in a statement that after reviewing the usage on the cards, it was determined that the passes were “incorrectly flagged.”
The spokesperson shared that the company has reinstated the passes.
“We regret the inconvenience this caused. Protecting our customers and their accounts is a priority, and we continuously evaluate and enhance our safeguards in response to increasing levels of unauthorized activity. We are reviewing what led to this alert to help prevent similar situations in the future,” the spokesperson said.
“Under Petro-Canada’s Terms and Conditions, car wash season passes may only be downloaded to one device. Users found to be in violation of this requirement were sent a cancellation email. As stated in the Terms and Conditions, these cancellations are not eligible for a refund.”
In the end, both Tran and Abdolkarimi were given replacement car wash passes.
