"I would've liked to provide a real invoice number, but Staples made this impossible. My complaint to them went something like the following and should explain my inability to provide an invoice number.
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I have just returned from visiting the South Surrey Staples in BC for the second time in 3 days. The first time I went in to get an item shown in the Staples flyer sent to my home. The store was out of stock. I was told there could be no rain cheque and that I should come back in a couple of days. So I did. Again there was no stock. Again no rain cheque. Now it happens that Staples carries a nearly identical item which has a regular price $1 more than the sales item's regular price. I discussed this with the store manager, asking that he make the substitution, particularly since his staff had now cost me 2 trips and that he claimed Staples has a policy against rain cheques. This store manager refused, but made the preposterous offer of a much smaller discount on the nearly identical item. This is the very definition of appallingly bad customer service.

Do not send flyers to my home with false advertising. Do not make me pay for the privilege of repeated wasted trips to view your empty shelves. Do not treat me as if I should be grateful when/if you get around to stocking your shelves with advertised goods. Do not expect me to shop at your stores again. Most of all, do not expect me to keep this story to myself. I will share it with many friends and colleagues, urging them to take their business elsewhere.

I hope you are not so foolish as to believe you have somehow saved money by treating me this way. On the contrary, you have lost my future business and you can be certain that my story will influence at least some of the people I tell to shop elsewhere.

For the record, the item in question is Item Number 489650, a Nylon CD Wallet for 92 CDs, on sale for $13.96. For argument's sake, let's suppose that $13.96 is pure profit for Staples. Do you not think your treatment of this customer will cost you at least that much in future profits? I suggest that this event will cost you at least ten times that, and probably far more.

Clearly your store manager knows nothing about customer relations. You would do well to replace him with someone that does and to educate your staff as to the necessity of happy customers in the retail business. Reminders that Staples has competitors and that they are treating their customers better than Staples would not be out of place. Now I have many other choices as to where to go to buy that CD wallet. I will definitely be purchasing one or two of them in the imminent future and Staples refusal to sell me such an item means one of your competitors gets the business - if they treat me well, I will purchase more items in the future from them.

Good luck, Staples. The retailing business is tough enough without driving away customers."

"Very sweet. Easy order, fast shpping. Nice deal. customer service is excellent. Staples is reliable. After multiple orders from Staples.com, all I can say is that their customer support is the best. Help line and online help both are easy. "

"I have done a lot of business with Staples over the years. But I have had a lot of problems with staples.com. My problem is that when they have good sales they are always out of stock. Staples.com lets you order and then you never get the product. Sometimes they call and tell you that your out of luck and the order is cancelled other times they don't. Why advertise if you don't have it in stock? This happened to me with a 19" monitor and a 160GB SATA Hard Drive. After talking to managers the 19" monitor was recieved, but the hard drive order was cancelled without letting me know."

"Ordered a Epson 2480 scanner. Shipping was very fast. It took like 2 days. Excellent product. How can you not trust Staples? :P"

"Ok, obviously it's crazy to be checking resellerratings on a store like Staples to see if they're reputable. Obviously they are, however I understand that customer satisfaction is completely different. I ordered two Uniden phones with free shipping and two MIRebates on both, only to later read consumer reviews saying they sucked. A little note, always do your homework, guys, before you buy. =) Anyways, I immediately sent two messages to cancel the order. Well, the next day when I got back from work, I found that the stuff had already reached me (One day shipping for free) (I live in Northern VA for reference). The good thing is that it arrived so insanely fast, I hadn't even had the charge show up on my online statement yet, and there's a Staples on my way to work I can return it at. The bad news is it shipped so much sooner than they could respond and cancel the order.

I'm leaving them a review of very satisfied, but if I weren't in such a good position, I'd probably leave them a bit lower of a rating. Also, if they give me problems returning, expect this post to get updated.

I had a little bit of trouble returning the online purchase to the store due to a price difference, but in the end they refunded me my total and then a little extra for the trouble. Very Cool!!!"

"Staples has been good to me over the years as I have bought several hundred dollars worth of goods from them. Items are shipped fast and arrive promptly, prices are quite competitive, and order cancellations are no-hassle."

"STRANGE BUT TRUE!

Email addresses used to register at staples.com eventually get passed along to spammers. In my case, it only took a month.

I've registered at staples.com about a month ago, using one of my extra email addresses that no one else knows about (except perhaps the ISP). I got two messages from staples.com that were fine. But, now I've just received spam for Cialis from a foreign site. My other extra email addresses still aren't getting messages, which leads me to believe that staples.com's privacy practices are insufficient to protect your email address from getting into the hands of spammers.

Maybe they don't sell email addresses directly to spammers like their privacy policy says; I don't know. But, if one of their partners sells your address, or one of their partners' partners does, the effect is the same. The address you use to register at staples.com gets in the hands of spammers."

"Ordered on the Staples.com a 1GB Sandisk Falsh hard drive and received a confirmation for the order with the delivery about 4-5 days later, but to my surprise, after a couple of days they cancel my order. Their manager did not honor the order but offered me the same item with a $90 price increase, Very disappointing."

"It looks like a lot of people are just complaining because, for example, Staples either wouldn't honor a price mistake, or they're having rebate problems (which would mainly be the fault of one of the rebate companys.) I can't understand why they are rated so low - they aren't perfect, but they're not a 5/10. More like a 7 or 8. Anyway, maybe it was just my luck, but I haven't had any problems with my orders so far. Nothing too special but everything generally works."

"Bought 2 256 mb ram modules because of the rebate $20 each. Sent in everything they wanted, addressed everything correctly, after 4 weeks no status on rebate, after 6 weeks they said would have to re-submit. Funny...never received any mail backfrom post office?? Like most companies, they know rebates are instant profit. Expecially when you dont get anything back. Avoid Staples!!"

"Outstanding service, item was shipped within 2 days, arrived promptly in good condition."

"Purchased computer case, cpu and motherboard.
Delivered on time as scheduled. "

"I placed an order with Staples on April 1, 2004, and cancelled it on April 2, 2004. Unfortunately they still shipped the item (though not until after I had cancelled my order). I refused shipment of the item and have spoken on the phone with CSR's at least twice, who assured me I would be credited for my purchase. They have not yet refunded me and it is now April 30. The package was returned to them over three weeks ago."

"Shop with these guys via Staples.com frequently (nearest store is half hour away) and delivery is always fast, best of all - BEST Rebate fulfilment in the business. I do like their quarterly Reward Checks and coupons which they email to me every few weeks. Another cool feature is a price match (kind of limited but better than nothing) and chat option with customer support via their website. Overall, they are reliable outfit and with coupons or specials their prices are actually compatitive."

"Staples is by far my favorite online retailer for tech supplies. The sales they run are pretty good, and if you sign up for Staples Business Rewards you get both cash back every quarter AND coupons in your e-mail, making their total prices excellent. Beyond good sale prices, they have very accurate inventory on their site, out-of-stock items are replenished quickly, their delivery is BLAZING FAST, and when they have a rebate deal, you can fill out the forms online. I love Staples!"