Comments on: Office Depot Reluctantly Selling Gateway LT1004U Netbook

By: A

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 19:29:00 +0000

“He came back a few minutes later to tell us that they didn’t have any in-stock, despite the fact that there were no less than 10 merchandise slips behind the price tag. ”

Take-A-Tickets in their holders doesn’t say we HAVE IT IN STOCK. The associate should’ve checked their onhand on the computer to tell you right away. If there are 20 take-a-tickets in the holder doesn’t mean we have 20 in stock! they are printed for customers to take home or up to the register for an associate to check to see if we have it in stock. Seriously the Acer was cheaper when we carried it and its the SAME computer built by the SAME company. If you want to spend $30 more on the same netbook i guess thats your choice but the smart person would’ve just bought the acer. The acer was $299.99 when you posted this and the gateway was $329.99. I memorize these prices for a living and our Tech depot services are an awesome service for people who do NOT know what they are doing.

By: Vincent Lazano

Vincent Lazano — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:04:00 +0000

Office Depot needs to be completly shut down. Look at Circuit City!! They went out because of poor customer service. We consumers won’t be lied to. Besides I can get everything I need or want at much cheeper prices than Office Depot. I just know wher to do business. Sometimes I choose to even pay more somewhere else just because I enjoy good customer service.

By: Office Depot Customer

Office Depot Customer — Sun, 10 May 2009 10:06:51 +0000

For those who are frustrated with OD being “out of stock” on netbooks and notebooks…just order them online. No pressure to buy the extended warrenty, etc. and they are delivered to your door for free..often the next business day. I have purchased both of my full-feature notebooks this way, and will soon buy a netbook.

For those Office Depot employees who say that their tech support people are easier to understand than the manufacturer’s tech support people…what planet are you on?? Even the folks who answer the 1-800 number for Office Depot are working from a call center in India, and have such thick accents that I can’t understand them at all.

When I tried to order my second notebook, the Office Depot 1-800# call center put me on hold for 40 minutes, hung up on me, and when I called back and asked for a supervisor, hung up on me again. I spoke with 5 different people, and they all spoke very poor English. I usually do not have a problem understanding people with accents, but this was impossible.

Finally I wrote a complaint letter addressed to the president of Office Depot. They sent me the computer I wanted, and honored the sale price. They also sent me a $100 Office Depot gift card, which is the ONLY reason I will buy my netbook from them.

By: Annemarie McCutcheon

Annemarie McCutcheon — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 20:45:06 +0000

Went to Office Depot to look at external hard drives; walked out with new laptop. Why? I was told by sales assoc. that all new external hard drives did not work with Windows 98 or XP anymore. I am self-employed musician, and I need my pc to work with, so I purchased Acer Extensa with Vista. Three nights in a row; up til 7 a.m. trying to load all my programs to no avail. Sales assoc. was informed of all programs I used, and of course, Patrick McCarty said the programs would work. Wednesday, called Mgr. at OD where sales assoc. worked; told him situation. Richard (Mgr.) told me to bring in laptop on Thursday for full refund (absolutely nothing was downloaded or added to laptop). Thursday; went to Office Depot; Richard did not come to front of store; sent other Mgr. instead. Scott (Mgr.) told me he would not give me refund. Spoke with Richard on Friday, and of course he apologized for giving me wrong information. Receipt says 14 day return policy! Why would I purchase a laptop that would not work with my former programs in the first place? They figured they’d take advantage of a woman with absolutely no idea about all these new Windows programs. They must have been laughing as I walked out the door. Now I get a call from a Tech who said he’d help walk me through setting up my laptop. I don’t even want anything to do with Office Depot anymore, and I just want my money back! Also, I saw an Acer laptop on Radio Shack website that has Windows XP!!!! Just the Windows program I need! After Office Depot says that XP is no longer in any of the new laptops! Been in touch with Customer Svc., and can’t get anywhere with Office Depot. PEOPLE BE WARE! DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH OFFICE DEPOT! YOU WILL NOT GET YOUR MONEY BACK, EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVE A 100% MONEY BACK GUARANTEE!

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:51:36 +0000

Yeah, I also work for Staples Easytech and we do -not- get commission. Exactly what CharlieB said, we do it so that we can help the customers that need it without paying associates to do it for no income to the store. It’s also very frustrating when time and time again, customers who refuse the service plans (because the manufacturer’s warranty is enough) have a problem with the computer, (after the return policy) and then are calling us on the phone expecting free tech support or trying to get us to repair it for free or return the computer. All because that manufacturer’s warranty that was enough is too inconvenient to bother with.
I also, time and time again, watch or hear of customers spending a bunch of money having their computer repaired or getting assistance with computer problems and alot of the time on the very first go they end up spending as much as they would have on the service plan. Gee, seems to me that it would’ve made more sense to purchase the damned thing in the first place and if you’re plagued with problems you’d save money and have a more convenient way to get your computer issues taken care of.
Some people who state that “anyone can take care of alot of these computer issues” are correct, if the person is technologically inclined. Most of our tech services I get are customers who purchased a piece of software, printer, component, etc and turned us down to do the service up front. Then, they are returning to the store to have us do it for them because “something must be wrong with it, I can’t get it to work”. Nine out of ten times this happens, it is entirely user error and any of our techs can get it accomplished completely on the first attempt.

By: CharlieB

CharlieB — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 10:46:37 +0000

I’m a Staples easy tech associate. I think this is hilarious. I don’t know if OD works on commission or not, but I know that at Staples, NO ONE is on commission. We push our plans so that people don’t call us up pissed off that they can’t understand anyone from the HP or Gateway tech center, or that they’re actually getting charged for tech support. We push the plans for superior customer service, we get nothing out of it.

By: DougC-3

DougC-3 — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 12:14:10 +0000

At one local Office Depot I was told that none of the netbooks were any good because they were too little.

At the other one I just went in to see what they had in stock, and a very aggressive girl pounced on me and grilled me with six or eight questions about what I wanted to do with my laptop. She assumed (a) I was buying a laptop now, and (b) I knew absolute nothing about computers and she knew everything. She then proceeded to tell me I needed their biggest laptop because it was the only one which came with 3 GB RAM, which I needed to store my movies!

By: mp

mp — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 00:28:10 +0000

We would never do that at the store I work at. If we have it we sell it. Also just an FYI the stock screen that customers can go into is not real time so any sales for the day are not out of the computer screen, it shows what was in stock when the store opened. We are required to inform customers about the service plans but it is their opion to buy or not. Just don’t complain when the product breaks. Call the manufacturer.

By: OD Tech manager

OD Tech manager — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 22:22:46 +0000

What they’ve said was true.. for the most part. Used to be that we would always drive numbers, but its only been recently that our job depended on us selling plans and tds. Honestly? I hate it. I’ve been with office depot for years but up until recently I’ve loved my job. The thought that I may not be able to support my family tomorrow, because some lady working 2 jobs with 4 kids and trying to buy her oldest son a laptop for college won’t shell out 200 more dollars for a PPP she can’t afford – is ridiculous. Thanks, OD, for wasting my time and making me despise waking up to go to work.

By: OD Employee (number 2)

OD Employee (number 2) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 21:51:28 +0000

The amount of merchandise slips by the price tag rarely represent how many of an item we actually have in stock. We tried to keep a 1-1 matching of merchandise slips to actual product in stock and it was a maintenance nightmare. Customer’s take them home to research more before buying, kids come by and take them out by the dozen, and other things. When we kept a 1-1 matching of slips to product, we spent our entire time counting slips and product, rather than helping customers or cleaning or organizing or any of the 100 other things we could be doing that are way more worthwhile. It was just too much work to keep up on, for way too little gain.