"This is, by far, the worst vendor I have ever dealt with. Keep in mind, I understand global competition as I lost my job to Mexico (computer programmer). Office Depot has outsourced their call centers to the Phillipines and El Salvador, neither of which have many people that can actually speak Engrish and fewer still that can think beyond the scripts they've been given. I ordered a Gateway Laptop I found on TechBargains on 7/16 and the website let me order it. The problem started when the web site showed Free Next Day delivery. The order actually showed 3 day deliver. Whatever. 3 days is fine. 3 days goes by, no laptop, no shipping information. Call El Salvador and they tell me that they'll replace it because that laptop is discontinued (even though they sold it on their website). They promise I'll have it on 7/24. 7/24 comes around and I check the web site for a status. No tracking information. I call Customer Service and get the Phillipines "Jen". She tells me that package is being shipped by "MobileCast" and that it will arrive today. I ask her who this mysterious company "MobileCast" is as I have never heard of it and perhaps this is a new, better company. She provides me with a telephone number (1-***-***-****). This turns out to be the Office Depot Operations Center... not "MobileCast". Great. Thanks "Jen". After a couple more calls and speaking to a couple of people located in the United States, I'm told the item is "at the cross dock" as of 7/22 and will be shipped "soon". They promise to call me and let me know the status of the order.
I would not recommend this company to my enemies or competition. Their business practices, customer service and inventory system are worst in class. Obviously there are some that have had success with this company, but buyer beware. I have done one transaction with this company and it has been horrible. "
"This is the second time I've ordered furniture from these people, and both times, the item has arrived the next day, as advertised. They're definitely a good source for decent-quality inexpensive office furniture. "
"I have had no problems with retail purchases from Home Depot. However their third-party delivery service is abysmal for residential customers. I had to order the same item twice and was never able to arrange delivery which is only available during normal working hours. The delivery window as 8:30 am to 5:00 and no call ahead service is offered to allow for meeting them at my residence. Two attempts to deliver were made for each order. Despite leaving specific instructions to leave the package or contact me they did neither. Nor did they leave any notice of delivery attempts. Office Depot did not resolve the issue either even though I sent several emails and called customer service. "
"What an excellent company! I live about 34 miles away from the nearest OfficeDepot so I usually like to order online... Almost everything I buy ships in 3 days or less! Sometimes it even arrives NEXT-DAY! Excellent... VERY SATISFIED"
"It deeply saddens me what has happened to the quality of Office Depot. This was by and far my most trusted and favored online vendor for office supplies and equipment for all of our companies. Per year we averaged around $8000.00+ in general office supplies purchased from Office Depot, most of it online.
Over the past 6 months there has been a noticeable and terrible drop in quality of shipped orders and customer service. We have recieved orders in the past (1998 - 2006) that were incorrectly boxed, but the customer service immediately took care of the situation and replaced the product within a day and we were very satisfied. But unfortunately from around October 2006 to present day, our online orders have been arriving in "miserable" condition. Hasty packaging at the Carol Stream, IL warehouse has led to many of our products (Files folders, Ink Cartridges, Toner, Fax Machines) to arrive in almost unuseable condition. Packing HP Ink Cartridges in a grey "plastic bag" instead of a small cardboard box is absolutely not a good idea. But this has become the norm lately.
The worst though is the current customer service department at 1-800-GO-DEPOT. I would bet my life savings that this is an outsourced call center in India or some other country. Almost 90% of the persons that I have talked to since October 2006 have been almost unbearable. Thick and very heavy accents that are impossible to understand at times. What is worse is that they seem to have very little regard to "FIXING" the problem at hand. Their main goal it seems is to get the person off the line as fast as possible and move onto the next. On my last order I had requested a replacement Brother MFC-7220 fax machine, due to the first one arriving completely mangled, and was completely blown off by the operator. I called back 3 days later only to be told a "credit" was given but another fax machine was not sent. After requesting a manager (2 times), I was placed on hold twice for over 28 minutes until the phone system reset both times. I am very very upset with Office Depot and unfortunately they have lost our accounts and good customers to boot. Never again.
- Updated 03/23/2007 -
A pleasant and welcomed turnaround occurred today after recieving a call from the division managers and higher-ups which had taken our concerns seriously and are working to rectify the troubles in the warehouses and (outsourced) customer service centers. I was given a direct contact here in the US in which all problems could be resolved for our company. These steps have definately lowered my anger towards Office Depot and I sincerely hope things will change for the better in future orders."
"Order a 19" monitor via officedepot.com and after 10 days of waiting, the status still showed 3 day delivery pending. After email the customer service about the order, they said they don't have it in inventory and canceled my order!
What a porr service! I guess next store closure will be Office Depot and Sears."
"Ordered only twice from them and received everything I ordered.Shipping was slow the first time, but fast the second."
"Ordered a StudioRTA adjustable table (48x30", item# 398248). Was supposed to be delivered 2/9/07 between 8:30am and 5pm. Followed Office Depot's online order tracking status throughout the day. Tracking status began with "You are stop #12. The truck is currently at stop #0 of 20". Later in the morning, status showed "You are stop #-1. The truck is currently at stop #1 of 13". Then later, status showed "You are stop #-1. The truck is currently at stop #4 of 11". And finally at about 7pm, the status showed "You are stop #-1. The truck is currently at stop #12 of 12" but they never delivered my table. This is the second time I've tried to order this table from Office Depot--first ordered on 12/29/06 (order number 369097640-001) to be delivered 1/3/07--and so far, it is a repeat of my first experience with the table not being delivered (finally cancelled the first order). When you call Office Depot's customer service, they say that it's being delivered by a 3rd party as though that relieves Office Depot of any further service. This time I'm pursuing the non-delivery via emailing customer service in hopes of actually receiving my order. Staples has had no problem delivering orders and they have a release form you can download and complete to leave on your door so that the delivery driver can just leave the order if no one is home. Office Depot has no such option which means you have to sit home and wait all day only to have nothing delivered. If Staples had this particular table, I would have ordered it from them. Will update this review when situation is resolved--assuming it will be resolved.
Update 2/13/07: Received an email today from "customer service" that the table I ordered was not in stock which is interesting because I ordered it online (website showed it in stock) AND!!! it was supposedly loaded onto the delivery truck. I guess there is a black hole in the delivery truck that eats these tables.
To further my aggravation, when I called to cancel the order, I was told by the "customer service" rep that someone would call me with the order cancellation confirmation number. I asked to be emailed and was assured that would be no problem. It's now more than 4 hours later and no email and no call. I don't think that Office Depot could work any harder to make things inconvenient and unpleasant. This final screw-up on their part has just reaffirmed my decision to never, ever do business with Office Depot again.
2/20/07: On 2/13/07, I was informed that my cancellation request required a second level of tech support research! On 2/14/07, I received an email that my account would be credited within 2 business days. On 2/20/07 I discovered that rather than crediting my credit card, Office Depot has CHARGED my credit card! Needless to say, I have fired off yet another email requesting that they credit my account properly. It is hard to see how Office Depot could be any more incompetent but they have handily demonstrated that they can be with this latest fiasco."
"I ordered some extra items for Christmas on Dec. 15. The order went very smooth. Everything was as described. My package arrived before Christmas. Thank you."
"Ordered a Sentry waterproof / fireproof lockbox, with a 10% off online coupon it came up to the best price shipped. Shipping was free too, for such a heavy item. Received the item in 2 days. No complaints here."
"I purchased a copy of windows XP home from office crappo...oops, depot that was supposed to have a $70.00 rebate. Well, the order was billed to my CC on the 10th as soon as the order was placed, the order arrived on the 13th as promised, that worked well till then. After it arrived I mailed back the required materials for the rebate THE NEXT DAY, Now, mind you, this was on the 14th of SEPTEMBER 2006.
The rebate terms from office depot clearly state "allow 60-90 days to RECEIVE your mail-in savings" Now, in my book 60-90 days is a bit excessive but eh, whatever it is on their terms. I kept watching the website for notification that they received my rebate, which they did and it was listed as "being in the required validation period" which I am assuming the 60-90 days that they use your money for free.. after 90 days (now remember I was supposed to HAVE the check within 90 days) after the 90 days it finally moved to the "check approval" stage, I thought, well good, they are finally doing something. There it sat for another week or so, now we are talking about christmas time, I check again and it went to "check mailing" so I thought, well, 105 days to write a check... maybe they are very young and don't know how to spell yet. But hey, they were mailing my check right? wrong.. I check back a couple days later, now it is the beginning of JANUARY and I find I am back in the "required validation period" again!!! so, on 01-03-07 I call CS at office crappo and get put on hold for 13 minutes long distance with "jane" for her to tell me they have all the required rebate materials and they would send the check "right out". I asked why it had gone back and forth she said she didn't know, but would send it "right out" I asked how long before I get it and she says it would take 4 WEEKS!!! I said, 4 weeks to mail a friggen check? she said yes. I was floored.. this is BS and an attempt to defraud consumers in my opinion.
SO... I wait 4 MORE weeks, and guess what? NO CHECK. I then call CS once again and talk to "rafael" ( I swear I think they make up fictitious names so you can't track them)and he informs me he sees 2 submissions, so I once again, on long distance explain that if they did their job correctly, and "jane" did her job correctly I wouldn't have 2 friggen submissions, that I would have had a check over a month ago, so, he puts me on hold once again. He then comes back and tells me "because I waited so long for it he would send a check right out".. what a nice guy eh? see a pattern emerging here? I do. I again ask how long before I get this fictitious check he says " you will have it in 5-10 days" well, it is now 4 days later and they are now in the "check approval" stage, so I can safely assume I will not receive it in 5 days, My bet is 10-15... I will update if or when I get this so called rebate check from office crappo.
I also talked to a bunch of other people on another forum about this rebate and it seems to be a popular theme of office crappo to just not mail the rebate checks until you contact them multiple times. How convenient, if you forget they never send it. They are scammers, fradsters and should be shut down for commiting mail fraud for starters.
Updates later."
"Ordered storage boxes and writing pads on 08/21 and had them on my doorstep on 08/22. Shipping was free as I ordered cents over $50 and then I even applied a $10 off coupon.
The only issue I had was at a later time with a different order attempt. I found a file cabinet on clearance in an actual store, but needed two when they only had one left. Going on-line I found the same file cabinet, but it was priced at the regular price. When I tried to order it, I was told it was out of stock. Unfortunately, no other local store had it in stock either. Office Depot's reasoning on the price difference was that local stores sometimes have different prices than the on-line store (I do agree and understand), but if the item is a clearance item why wouldn't the on-line store have it as clearance and why were they still "selling" it when it's discontinued and out of stock.
All in all, my experiences with Office Depot have been positive."
"They have some great deals and often sends me coupons.
Made 3 purchases in the last 2 months and rec'd my orders within 2-3 days of the order. FAST!
I rec'd the wrong item, just a box of pens that were the wrong color and they had a new box to me THE NEXT DAY - now what company is going to send a $2.49 item overnight! That's just great customer service."
"Just how does a company this BAD stay in business?
Order placed @ 7 AM on 12/14. Showed FREE Overnight FedEx delivery on web-site. When email verification rec'd, showed delivery for 12/18, thought not next day, but OK, would be here in time for Christmas gift for daughter. Bad assumption, on my part.
Was out of town and came back late on Friday, 12/22. Called morning of 12/23 to trace item. Wrong again, they had not scheduled for delivery OUT of their warehouse until 12/28 (also, person who answered at call center could hardly speak English.)
Checked emails, and nope, they had NOT notified me of the change of date of shipping.
Sent a complaint on their web-site, but after the SCAMS they run on their rebates (have an issue with one now), doubt they will do anything about it, other than ignore it. Will boycott this company in total from now on, OfficeMax, Staples, etc. do too good a job and wish I had gotten out to shop now, instead of ordering a camera they didn't have in stock, they showed me!
"
"Very unhappy with Office Depot. Order many of the Pen/Pencil set they had on sale, and they cancelled all of my order except 3 and said it was out of stock. called to ask why and the guy deliberatley hung up on me."