Wednesday, November 1, 2006 at 17:49
Office Depot sucks.
So on Monday I came across a nice deal on officedepot.com for a Hanns-G HW-191D display. It’s a nice 19″ 1440 x 900 LCD with DVI, it got good reviews on Amazon, and it was only $160 with no rebates and free delivery, so I jumped at the chance.
It was scheduled to be delivered on Wednesday between 8:30 AM and 5 PM, so when 5:30 PM rolled around and no display appeared, checked the email confirmation again, and sure enough it promised that the item was available and that it would be delivered. And yet, no display, so I called up their 800 number and tried out their automatic order confirmation Rube Goldberg machine. I describe it as such because it’s one of those voice recognition systems where I say the number out loud. I try three times, and all three times, the computer voice tells me that ‘the item was delivered Wednesday, November first.’ Uh, no, it wasn’t.
So I navigate up a level in their menu interface to try the customer service representative option, but mysteriously, this option has disappeared, leaving me with only the options to place an order, find an Office Depot location near me, and so on. So I hang up, call back and this time finally hit the live operator option.
Me: ‘Hello, I placed an order on Monday and I received an email confirmation saying that it would be delivered on Wednesday before 5, and, well, it’s 5:30 now, and it isn’t here yet. Can you check on my order?’
Then I read her my order number.
Her: ‘All right, well, it says that the item was delivered today.’
!?
Me: ‘Uh, can you check again? Because as I just stated, it isn’t here yet.’
Her: ‘Oh, actually it looks like the item is out of local stock. Don’t worry, you haven’t been charged.’
Me: ‘Okay, so what does that mean, exactly? When is it getting here?’
Her: ‘Well it means that when the item was going to be delivered it wasn’t there, but don’t worry, you haven’t been charged.’
Me: ‘So am I still going to get it?’
Her: ‘Well it was not available at the local store when it was scheduled to be delivered.’
She seemed to not want to actually say whether or not I was going to get the item.
Her: ‘You can place a new order for the item, and then it will be on back-order.’
Me: ‘But I’ve already ordered the item. I’m not going to get two of them, right?’
Her: ‘No, no.’
Me: ‘Okay, let’s do that. But listen, here’s what I don’t get. If I hadn’t just called you just now asking where my order was, I would just be sitting here wondering where my item is, and it would never have gotten here, even though the email and the automated system says it was delivered.’
Her: ‘Well we can just place a new order. I just need to verify your card number.’
Ugh. I hate reading my card number over the phone to a real person.
Me: ‘So now, when will it be here?’
Her: ‘Five to seven days. Would you like a confirmation phone call when it is going to be delivered?’
Me: ‘Yes, please.’
So what have I learnt here? Well, the email ‘confirmation’ from Office Depot isn’t really a confirmation at all, is it? I mean to confirm something is to ‘establish the truth or correctness of something previously believed.’ Yet the email was bullshit. So was the phone system. So was the first thing the operator said to me. So when I get a phone call to ‘confirm’ my new old order, will it really be a confirmation? Who knows?
I suppose that if it doesn’t arrive, I’ll have to drive to the nearest Office Depot to ‘confirm’ that Office Depot even exists, and that I’m not a schizophrenic.
–Eoban
We use Office Depot for our office supplies here where I work. -They’re fucking awful. If they don’t duplicate an order, then they’ll say it’s out of stock, most times. Their web-site is from hell. The image descriptions are completely boot-leg from corporate sites and are generally duplicated across similar, but not identical, products. And, here’s the kicker, they’ve segmented themselves between “Office Depot,” and “Tech Depot.” -And the two use different product numbers, even if the product is available in each. Which, since our ordering department works exclusively through the Office Depot side, means that anything we need which is “exclusively” in Tech Depot, is unavailable for order. Which is Insane, considering there’s no delineation when you go into the damn store. It’s a ridiculous company.
I find this story both hilarious and horrifying. I’ll take this as a warning to not look for my new equipment at that place. I don’t even understand why my local Office Depot exists in this town, being that it’s situated right next to a best buy, and just down the street from a Staples.