Office Depot

Pros:  Free delivery on orders over $50; 24-hour customer service

Cons:  Not-so-real-time inventory; web site has some bugs

The Bottom Line:  Free local delivery and lucrative coupons make Office Depot online an excellent alternative to driving to the store.

Full review
Ordering from Office Depot (OD) from its officedepot.com site makes me wonder if I could actually do without owning a car.

OK, probably not.

In any case, the convenience of free next-day delivery eliminates the need to drive to the brink-and-mortar (B&M) store and fight the typical sale-seeking crowds on Sunday morning.

FREE DELIVERY
How does OD manage to give free next-day delivery even on such bulky items as office furniture? Simple. OD already has its own trucking network that delivers office supplies to businesses. Orders over $50 are delivered free in many areas within a certain radius of the B&M stores.

This can come in very handy for purchasing bulky items. Before I bought my SUV, I was able to get an office chair delivered without having to worry about squeezing it into my Honda Civic.

PROMOTIONS
As an added bonus, OD utilizes a fair number of coupons that are widely spread on shopping message boards. These discounts typically require a minimum purchase amount and provide either a percentage (usually 10-15 percent) or a fixed amount off. Techbargains.com is one good source (but not the only one) of such coupons.

One tip: make sure your coupon shows up on your order confirmation. I've noticed that coupons sometimes "disappear" due to bugs with their online ordering system.

CUSTOMER SERVICE
Neither free shipping nor low prices would be worthwhile if customer service was lacking. Fortunately, OD has a toll-free, 24-hour customer service number.

I've called several times when an order I had placed resulted in a "short-shipment" and almost always got through their IVR to talk to an actual rep without being placed on hold.

The problem I encountered was due to an inaccurate inventory level reported by one of the stores. The online ordering system checks if the items you're ordering is in stock based on the stores closest to your zip code.

In my case, the store incorrectly reported that it had stock of the item I ordered. This resulted in a "short-shipment," or cancellation of my order due to a lack of stock. This is different from a back-order, as a short-shipment completely cancels the order with no hope of filling it later.

Customer service was able to place me on a backorder list, but only after a supervisor intervened and got the local store to correct its inventory.

Lesson learned? The inventory levels reported online are only as accurate as individual entering the data at the store.