Staples

Full review
This review only reflects Staples Online store (staples.com). I've been going to the brick-n-mortar Staples for my home office supply needs for years and never had much to complain about. This was the first and probably my last time dealing with Staples Online however and the experience was less then satisfying.

I was shopping for a new desk and found one at my local Hollywood Staples. On a whim I checked Staples Online and found the same desk for $20 less with a promise of free, Next Business Day delivery. My thought was, well, why not?

The order proccess with standard stuff and nothing to complain about there. I pleasently surprised actually how easy the intial proccess seemed to be. I received an estimated delivery date of Tuesday between 9am and 5pm.

Tuesday rolled around and I waited, and waited, and waited... When 2pm rolled around I checked the online tracking and it still indicated it was "on the truck", "out for delivery", To double check I called Staples 800 number and they confirmed that, yes, I should receive my desk by 5pm.

Well, 3pm rolled by and then 4pm, and several calls back to Staples 800 number; each and every one assuring me that my desk was on its way. When 5:01 hit I was told by a Staples CSR that the truck was still out and to wait until Six... When i called back at six they said, SORRY! and essentially told me that for a reason that could not explain I would have to wait two extra days (the day after being the 4th of July so the 5th) to receive my desk.

Oddly enough when re-checked the tracking at Staples.com on July 3rd it was updated five minutes after my last call to customer service with a note. JULY 3 HOLIDAY, DELIVERY NOT ATTEMPTED. (Didn't know that July the 3rd is now also a national Holiday.) So I had essentially waited twelve hours for a delivery that was never going to be made on the date promised.

Free shipping is one thing, and I am a firm believer in you get what you pay for so if the Staples warehouse wanted to declare July 3rd their holiday as well, okay, fine... But why did their website tracking state that my desk was out for delivery when it wasn't? Furthermore why didn't Staples Customer Service know, or tell me that my desk wouldn't be delivered as promised until my day was pretty well gone? Missing a delivery date is oe thing, but being forced to put your life on hold because a lazy tracking system and bad communication is just silly.

When my desk did arrive on the 5th the carton was ripped open and the poor Staples Driver could barely get it up to the second floor of my apartment without my help.

Thankfully the desk was intact. And to Staples credit on or around my fifth call to customer service I was given a $15 gift certificate for my trouble.

Basically, ordering from Staples is fine from what I experienced. Their in-house delivery service is sketchy however. The tracking is non-existent because its never updated and there is no thorough explanation of why something does or does not get delivered on the date in question.

I'll continue to shop at brick-n-mortar Staples, but I'm not ordering online through them again unless they vastly improve their in house shipping, or switch to Fedex or UPS.