Office Depot

Full review
Based on the reviews here, Office Depot has certainly taken a dive in customer service and satisfaction during quarters 1 and 2 of 2006. They've certainly made me unhappy. The entire tale below occurs in a 72 hour period, which is important.

I used their online ordering system to order a wireless router. Included was an Office Depot-issued coupon code, which their online order configurator accepted, for $40.00 off. This brought the final price to $19.99. It was indicated that the item was available only for in-store pickup, so I selected the Office Depot retail outlet closest to me. A printable receipt with all the details above was provided.

The next day I went to the retail location to pick up the item. The manager retrieved the order and the router from the back office. I noticed that someone had handwritten "must have coupon" on the printed order form. I explained to the manager that the only coupon associated with the coupon code was on the printable receipt: a green graphical icon which spelled out C-O-U-P-O-N next to the exact code I had used to acquire the discount. Nonetheless, he would not sell me the router. He was looking at the same receipt I had from my online order. He insisted he could not sell me the router, without a printed or magazine stock coupon. I departed without the router.

A few days later I noticed that I had been charged for the $19.99 plus tax, despite the fact that I had never left the store with the item.

I called 1-800-GO-DEPOT and spoke with a customer service rep about the problem. She assured me that both a credit back and a new order would be accomplished. She asked if the new order could be sent directly to my house, so as to avoid the retail store.

The next day I received a call from Office Depot indicating that a credit back to my card was accomplished. Nothing was said about a new order, though.

So on the third day, I called again and spoke with a different rep, of course. She was able to confirm for me that no subsequent order had ever been placed. In fact, she said, the item had been discontinued and the router was not available for sale. This is the same router that I held in my hands 48 hours earlier and which an Office Depot customer sales rep assured me that she would place a new order for only 24 hours earlier!

This was rather puzzling so I acquired faxes of both my original order and the credit back documents. I called a few hours later and finally spoke with a third rep who actually would not tell me lies and also not make promises or statements that he couldn't back up. He was polite but he really couldn't do anything for me at his level, which I can appreciate. I asked him to write in my documentation that I would accept a different model of router (one that sells for $39.99 instead of the $59.99 of my original order!) and he said that all of this would be passed on to their Research Team. So my suggestion to make me happy was that I pay $19.99 for a $39.99 router instead of paying $19.99 for a $59.99 router.

A few hours later a Research Team member called and assured me there was nothing that could be done. The item was discontinued, she said, and a new order could not be placed. A credit had been accomplished on the billing error, she continued, and there's nothing they could do.

So that pretty much finished up my desire to ever do business with Office Depot again. But ... there's a beautiful ending. Two days later (today) the router is back on their web site, and now listed (amazingly) for a REGULAR price of $19.99 .

My conclusion is that Office Depot is having some major problems with all components of their online ordering and customer service.