Comments on: Office Depot: We’re Investigating, Will Punish Lying Associates

By: JD

JD — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:19:57 +0000

I have a few friends that worked for Office Depot when this story broke, the companys big solution for this problem was to write up every employee telling them that they never told any associate to lie about stock. Oh yeah like that is going to help. Just before one of my friends wised up and quit his crappy job I went to take his keyes to him and there was a big sign on the lounge door. “Are you worth the hours your getting? “and it listed all the employees name with the hours worked compared to how many PPP they sold. Im glad my friends quit they are better off living off mom and dad then putting up with crap like that.

By: DW

DW — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:27:10 +0000

Unfortunately, horrendous retail sales practices like this are nothing new, and it is very difficult for the average retail consumer to protect themselves because the tactics are so underhanded, so devious that the such a consumer has almost no hope of having the knowledge necessary to identify them. A local chain store of TV’s and small appliances years ago was raked over the coals for bait-and-switch advertising, and it seemed everyone knew it.

Tactics like lying about stock should be handled under federal law, but we’re so busy bailing out GM I doubt anyone bothers to take notice, and its the consumer that gets stuck. Sounds like Office Depot is just one step away from the notorious ripoff camera stores in New York that lowball cheap prices for high-end cameras, then give you all manner of double-talk when you refuse to buy their ridiculous add-ons or service contracts.

Interestingly, I see that some claim Best Buy to engage in similar practices, but in most of their stores their stock is in plain view, so it seems it would be harder to tell someone its out of stock if they can see a pallet of them not ten feet away…I know of someone who bought a laptop there and was given virtually no pressure to buy a warranty…asked possibly once, declined, and moved on.

By: Ere

Ere — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 01:17:27 +0000

I have a question. We went to best buy today and we were looking at laptops. We found on we liked and the guy checked if they had them in stock he said that they didnt we also asked if we could buy he display but he said they had a contract with dell so the coudnt sell it. We called later in the day to find out what the model number is and they tell us that they dont have that laptop in the store and that the display was sold.So we go home and we are looking on other websites for the same laptop.We go on the bestbuy website and they have a full order of those laptops and the price is 450 dollars more expensive. So they have a store full of the laptops but they are lying to us. Is there a way to make them own up and make them sell us the laptop for 749 dollars.

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:53:29 +0000

This just happened to me…………
They ended up selling me the floor model…….
after the sales pitch I declined extended warranty they the said oh darn we are out of stock…
The next day I called talked to a different guy he said they just got one in.
I rushed over…then he said he had miss spoke…they didnt really get one in?
After raising a little cain they sold me the floor model…..for the advertised price….
I suspected something was up……

By: Lisa

Lisa — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:51:46 +0000

TMS Health out of Boca Raton operates a call center for office depot. The phone no. is 1-866-779-9941 you can call three different times and get three different prices for the same item. As a former employee we were to call customers of office depots to get them to buy from us their account manager and not order on the web. We had to follow a script that says : as your account manager we have access to better available pricing. In office depot’s ordering system their is a way for the associate to change the price.

We were also told even if a person asked not to called aka do not call list we were still not to list the customer as do not call and and to keep calling them.

By: G Harris

G Harris — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:40:31 +0000

This is along standing policy with this store brand and many others-espiecally Best Buy.

And yes there are laws against this practice but as long as there is no accountabliliy there will be no change.
ONly when these companies are fined big bucks will anything change.

ONe way to shrink our expanding national and regional debt……………….Fine companies big bucks there is plenty of coruption to go around…………………………..

By: ms peterson

ms peterson — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 13:27:40 +0000

Of course OD corporate is not instructing its employees to break the law. It has however created a hostile and intimidating environment for its employees by setting unreasonable quotas on the sales of warranty add-ons for technology and harassing and threatening employees with PIPS who don’t make the quotas. Remember, they can terminate you for anything or nothing – making up a reason just makes them look better. And for those who castigate the hourly employees accused of illegal sales practices, ask yourself what sort of environment would make employees on a LARGE SCALE resort to such tactics to hang on to their job. This hostile environment and the OD stock collapse started long before the recent stock market collapse and is a direct reflection on corporate management. These stories aren’t isolated incidents, they’re nationwide as are the allegations regarding overcharging for office supply contracts. The turmoil you see on the msg boards is just the tip of the iceberg. Any longtime OD employee will tell you that it was once a great place to work – as was once printed on the paychecks: “your hard work made this check possible”

By: john

john — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 21:38:13 +0000

First off this is crazy why the hell cant you sell a tds????? This is a joke if you cant. A monkey = cashiers even sell them at our store how funny. BTW to all those who need to know TDS is suppose to be past 30% and PPPs only 5 % My stores goal is 360 a day in PPP s and TDS and we meet it.

By: Ex OD Str Mgr

Ex OD Str Mgr — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:32:51 +0000

As a former store manager for over 1 year… yes this does happen. Frequently. In a district in Metro Atlanta, it was common at district meetings to discuss with other managers what shady practices we can come up with or use in order to drive the attachment rates of warranty plans etc. It was all driven from upper management. We had to meet results, bottom line. So, we used unfair practices in many cases. Most people do not realize there is 0 dollars in selling technology. That is why I am so happy to be out of Office Depot. Being an office supply store… why sell tech items at big discounts? An advertised laptop for 499.99 with instant or rebate savings of say 100 bucks. The cost of that laptop… about 469.99. So sell it for 399.99. They lose 130 dollars. So attaching items to the sale was crucial in gaining back some margin. Given the economy, well, consumers do not want the extra crap to go with a laptop or printer. No wonder Office Depot stock sitting at a 1.00, 112 stores closings. It is not all the economy, if they would shake up the top level execs (they have no freaking clue) and get back to basics which is supplies. That is were the freaking profit is. Look at Staples, they are not great either, but they have drastically changed their approach and their stock manages to stay in the teens at least.
—> Not to mention the FCC investigation and all the state wide investigations of alleged illegal price manipulation on state agency contracts in the MILLIONS!!! Office Depot can go to hell in my book

By: Anonymous1

Anonymous1 — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:04:07 +0000

I’m an ex-manager at Staples. I can most certainly confirm these actions are taking place. If your store did not have at least a 30% attachment rate then you got reamed by your district manager. Weekly conference calls consisted of the DM yelling like a maniac on the phone about how to get our attachment numbers up and if it doesn’t happen then we will be replaced with people that will make it happen. They call it CIPS. Cable Ink Paper Service plan. I consider myself a fair salesperson but the environment created by upper management really forced these associates to do unethical things such as lie about in-stock level, etc. I hope this comes out more because I even never seen such poor business ethics in my life. I’m very glad to be out of retail. We were also told to tell customer that the ink that comes with a printer is only a “starter cartridge” and has very litte ink in it when in fact they were full. This was an attempt to get the Ink part of CIPS. Associates would tell customers all the time we were out of stock on an item if they were not buying any attachments when in fact the item was sitting right in the stock room. Because of the environment created by the DM and corporate, a no sale was considered a better alternative by the associate rather than a 0% attachment rate. Ughhh I can’t believe I used to have to deal with that every day.