GREGG sent a message to Roland C. Smith Chairman and CEO, Office Depot, Inc. – email address that said:
Mr Smith,
I have been a loyal Officer Depot customer for many years. I have a small business and have used Office Depot for computers office supplies, furniture and many other products.
Yesterday, I was in the Washington D.C. area taking my daughter to her Freshman year at American University. One of our many duties was to buy a laptop compute. In the past, I have had confidence in Office Depot's customer service ad ability to provide excellent service.
This experience changed that. You advertise: Order online and guaranteed pick-up in an hour.
With my previous experience, I had little doubt that this was true. I was counting on the "guarantee" to pickup a computer and get on with the many other tasks before I had to return home to Florida.
I was sadly disappointed. I arrived at the store in Falls Church, VA about 2 hours after ordering products online to find that not only was the computer not ready, but also that the store did not have record of the order. After getting the order number, the manager checked and found that the computer could not be released to me due to LPN or LPR. Something to do with loss prevention. After calls by both the manager and me, the only satisfaction I got was to wait for the Loss Prevention to clear and the computer could be released to me. I was further informed that nothing could be done until the release, and the release should be done by the end of the day. I then spoke with a supervisor at customer service/online orders. She informed that the only way this could be expedited(or done the "guaranteed" time was to have the manager authorize the release of the products. The manager stated she could not do that. My intention was to go to your store, spend 5 minutes at the most, get my order and leave the store so that I could spend time with my daughter before heading back to Florida.
I was in he store for over an hour. Finally, exasperated, I cancelled the order,and in the interest of expedience, bought the products I needed. I was told by both the manager in the store and the supervisor of customer service/online orders that they were sorry. Nothing more than that. The manager in the store matched a %20 discount for a computer case, but little else was done.
I told both the customer service manager and store manager that I have been a loyal customer for many years. The store manager stated that she hoped it wouldn't happen next time. I told her there was not going to be a next time. I also told the customer service/online supervisor
the same thing. The response was, "I'm sorry"
Sir, I am familiar with the highly competitive market for office supply materials. Staples, Best Buy, HH Gregg, not to mention Walmart and Amazon among others are options for products. I chose Office Depot/ Office Max because of past experience and confidence. This experience has soured my opinion and will lead to me shopping at other options.
Hopefully your company can remain in business, and this was merely an exception.
In the future, it is highly unlikely that Office Depot/Office Max will be my first choice.
Sincerely,
Gregg
