Customers of burned-out Midas Muffler feel left in the dark

Customers of Midas Muffler are increasingly frustrated by the lack of information from the owners about submitting claims for property stored with the company.

The building caught fire on Feb. 22 at around 10:45 in the morning and gutted the inside.

See: Major fire downtown North Bay, two injured

And: 'It took the whole business down in seconds' says Midas Muffler owner

But it's been almost two months now and loyal customers want to know how to file an insurance claim

Glenn Scale and his 80-year-old partner Winston Peace of Callander paid $50 to have summer tires stored there last fall when they had the winter tires put on. The tires and rims are worth $2,300, and they've had to spend that much again because they can't get answers from Midas.

They've called the local shop and the number is out of service, and the website says the location is permanently closed. They tried phoning the owners of the store, Patsy and Ray Oneil,  but the line has been disconnected.

They even phoned Midas head office four times and left information. Midas promised they would look into it, but never got back,

Midas is headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and is owned by TBC Corp, a unit of Japan's Sumitomo Corp. The local store is franchised... independently owned.

They've even phoned the demolition company, the police, and MPP Vic Fedeli but no-one has been able to help.

"We had to buy new tires for the summer for almost $2,400, meanwhile our stored tires are sitting there and we haven't heard from anybody," Scale told BayToday."I phoned the Midas dealer in Huntsville and he told us there was nothing we could do. We've pretty much explored all avenues and we don't know what else to do.

"We thought somebody would have contacted us by now. That would be the fair thing to do, but nobody did. We both thought maybe we should forget it but, we even know the owners. We used to go to Midas all the time and feel betrayed really. We thought someone could get in touch with us just to say 'Hey we've got your tires stored in a separate place and if you want to pick them up you can,' but we've heard nothing."

Scale has contacted his own insurance company but was disappointed to learn the deductible is $2,000.

"So it wouldn't be any cost saving as we've already paid 23 hundred for the tires."

They feel they've hit a dead-end, and hope perhaps other customers facing a similar scenario can offer some help.

"It's just not right," said Scale.