Viking Office Products

Full review
I have been to all the local stores and couldn’t find the paper that I was looking for. The nearest office store is $7 away according to my gas calculations so I decided to save my time and gas and order online. I really wanted the paper immediately so I looked at my tried and true websites but I started nosing around at coupon codes and found a better shipping deal at Viking.

About the Company
Viking is an online office supply store. They sell typical office supplies like pen and paper, fax and printer toners and cartridges, office furniture, mailing supplies, school supplies, and other things along those lines.

I was instantly interested in Viking’s website because it said “An Office Depot Company” under the logo. Viking was established in 1961. I checked the Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.org) and as of August 2005 they have a satisfactory rating but they are not a member of the BBB. They are VeriSign secured and BizRate.com Customer certified.

The Price of Free Delivery
I had prepared to order from another site but I chose to go with Viking instead because I only had to buy $25 worth of items to qualify for free shipping. Other major office supply sites require $50 for free shipping. Since I didn’t need anything else this worked out best for me.

When I verified that my shipping was free before completing my checkout I noticed a $1.48 handling fee was charged. I felt the “free” part of shipping was misrepresented somewhat by charging shipping fee but it is fair. The $1.48 “fee” is applied to all orders over $25. Orders under $25 have a fee of $3.29 in addition to the price of shipping.

Good Business Practices
They offer guarantee delivery of the package and a hassle-free 30-day return. There is no charge for returned items even if you decide you just don’t want it.

My Order
I was replacing something that I already had so I searched by the name of my product. My results showed a thumbnail image of the product, item number, item price, discount price for buying more than one, availability, and a link to a detailed description of the item. There was a box that I could check if I wanted to compare similar items. I had the option of adding the product to my list or my cart. If I were to order from this company frequently I would request a catalog from them and enter the item number in on the website. It takes a while to search by topic.

I was ordering resume paper so I wanted matching envelopes to go with it. I found that they had ivory envelopes but not white envelopes in the size and count that I wanted.

Since I had not purchased from the site before I had to sign up and give them my address and credit card number. The back three digits on the credit card are required. Checkout was simple.

I received an email immediately indicating that I had placed an order. I was pleased to see that my order was scheduled to be delivered the next day. The item was shipped from

I received the package the next day via UPS. It arrived in a professional brown box with air pillows for packaging. The packing slip and all items ordered were included in the box and everything was accurate.

No mistakes were made so there wasn’t a need to call customer service. Their customer service phone number was easy to find and line is easy to find (1-800-421-1222) and is available 24/7.

Overall
I didn’t like the appearance of Viking’s website too much. It was simple there was something about the color scheme that made it difficult to read. Out of curiosity I went to Office Depot’s website and found that they had the same presentation of the products.

I was impressed with how quickly my order was delivered. I ordered my item in the afternoon and it was delivered the next day. The website indicates that orders placed before 10AM could be delivered that day if you’re in one of the 24 major cities that they are located in.

I was happy with the mostly free shipping and will continue using Viking for my purchases in $25-$50 price range.