Canada’s top plastic polluters, service centres under scrutiny: CBC’s Marketplace consumer cheat sheet

Nestle and Tim Hortons top plastic polluters. Again.

Those discarded coffee cups and plastic water bottles are adding up. For the second year in a row, Greenpeace Canada says Nestlé and Tim Hortons were the top companies behind branded plastic bottles, coffee cups, lids and other plastic waste collected in shoreline cleanups across the country

Are drivers being misled?

How often do you really need to have your vehicle serviced? A class-action lawsuit is claiming drivers are being misled about their vehicle’s maintenance schedule, and raising questions about how often drivers need to service their cars or even change the oil.

Back in 2017, Marketplace tested service centres to find out if customers were being ripped off.

Canadian banks missing online security feature

Google offers it, some video games require it, but three of Canada’s big five banks don’t even want to talk about two-factor authentication, an extra layer of online security that some experts say banks should be required to provide to help protect consumers.

Busting tech support scammers

ICYMI: Marketplace tackled one of the largest scams targeting Canadians: Fake technicians claiming your home computer or smartphone is compromised. 

Read more about our investigation and watch our full episode below.

We want to hear from you

Do you have questions about vaccines? Heard conflicting or confusing evidence? We want to hear from you! Email katie.pedersen@cbc.ca

What else is going on?

Seafood giant vows change after hidden camera shows ‘unacceptable’ treatment of salmon. Video from a New Brunswick company’s hatchery in Maine shows salmon being smashed and stomped.

Little-known rule says airline can keep your money without delivering what you pay for. A Calgary couple is fuming after paying Air Canada hundreds of dollars for an upgraded flight package they never fully delivered on.

Legalized cannabis hasn’t hurt productivity Recreational cannabis has not had nearly the negative impact on workplaces that some Canadians expected it would have prior to legalization, a new online survey suggests.

California sues travel sites FlightHub, JustFly for ‘swindling’ customers and ‘deceptive’ fees. The Montreal-based parent company says the lawsuit’s allegations are unfounded.

The latest in recalls

This week: Credit scores with Asha Tomlinson

It’s one number but it can have a huge impact on your life — from whether you qualify for a mortgage to renting an apartment or buying a car. That’s why millions of Canadians are signing up online to get those three powerful digits. Their credit score.

But did you know not all credit scores are the same? Or that some scores carry more weight than others? We put four popular companies (Credit Karma, Borrowell, Equifax and TransUnion) to the test and the numbers just don’t add up. Each company offered totally different scores. Some were much higher and some were much lower.   

Plus, in our investigation we find out that big banks and other lenders aren’t using the same scores you get. Most lenders pull a secret score that you may never see. 

I hope you’ll watch on CBC TV, Gem or on YouTube.

— Asha and the Marketplace team