Comments on: Source: Office Depot Associates Routinely Lie about Notebook Stock

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:54:00 +0000

I recently started working at an Office Depot store as a sales associate in the technology department. After reading this page, I my heart dropped. Fortunately this is not the case at my store, and I hope that it has died down since the time of the article. My fellow sales associates are honest and do their best to help customers. I got chewed out once for forgetting to offer our TDS to a customer, but that was because I neglected to offer it. Hopefully down the road I don’t see things like this pop up in my store.

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:44:14 +0000

hey sarah…how does a guy accidently tell you he has a laptop in stock?? haha wow!

By: od employee

od employee — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 03:17:28 +0000

managment is responsible
by Office Depot employee
I worked for Office Depot in Eugene, Oregon for a little over a year before walking out due to the unprofessional approach taken by management. Although some of the more extreme sales tactics were not used in my store, I can see how employees could be bullied into turning heads and using unethical sales tactics. Management would say they were not interested in pressure sales, only to turn around and threaten to fire you if you were unable to meet your product protection plan or tech services sales quota. I applied to be a stocker, sales was never in the job description. Bogus competitions were devised to stimulate sales, but after numbers were posted in the break room they felt more like ways for long time employees to shun people who were not as sales oriented. Management would encourage taking advantage of ignorant customers by withholding information, or flat out selling people stuff they had no use for. I can remember one instance when a customer was not buying any attachments with a laptop, the employee helping the customer was told to try to steer them away from buying anything at all, only to save the market basket attachment rating. My first day working for Office Depot I was told that we were a team. I did not realize that I had just joined a team of crooks!

By: OD workerbee

OD workerbee — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 23:56:16 +0000

i’ve worked for office depot for about 2 years now and everything in this article is 100% true. When i first started, the whole focus was about taking care of the customer, now its only on PPP and tech service sales. Managers constantly talk over the radios about PPP and “market basket” attachment rates. The customers needs are no longer the focus of the company. Every since “under performing” stores started closing, the remaining stores are fighting to stay open. Employees who dont attach enough lose hours or worse.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:22:33 +0000

Oh but on a second note, I guess it’s better for OD to rely on PPP’s for more profit than to increase the prices of the laptop itself….

By: Sarah

Sarah — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:02:05 +0000

Oh, wow. So I came upon this article before I was about to head to Office Depot to purchase a laptop. To be honest, I didn’t really think they would NOT sell me the laptop just because I wasn’t willing to purchase all the accesories that comes with it. But this article was completely true. Fortunately for me, I was able to buy the laptop because the guy working there accidently let it slip that there was one more available. Then he started informing me about how great their protection plans were, and when I said I wasn’t going to be in a protection plan, he let out a sigh and left to go get the laptop. However, while he was supposedly getting the laptop (which took nearly 10 min. same situation as Phil), another employee stopped by us and started informing us about the protection plan AGAIN. What made me angry was that he was talking to me as if I absolutely had to get it, and he went on and on even though I made my answer very clear the first time. (He was even sweating trying to convince me to buy it…ugh) I know I may have been rude, but I think I started to chuckle a little bit after a third person came to talk to us about the plans because I realized then that this article was so true. When we went to checkout, the employee at the cash register tried one last time to convince us, but he sounded really ticked off because we weren’t buying it. So there I was, making a $700 purchase, but being horribly treated. Yay for Office Depot!

By: J Office Depot Tech Employee

J Office Depot Tech Employee — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:47:41 +0000

I am an employee for Office Depot, and I find this article to be very bias. I’d like to know which office depot you were looking into, my store manager, and the rest of other department are very professional people, and we are asked to do our very best to help our customers needs, even if they don’t buy extra services. I am extremely offended by this article, that you put the blame upon us tech guys shoulders simply by just basing it off of a few very bad employees. There bad apples in every company, and very bias ones in others (hint) Our company like every other company in the U.S. is trying their very best to keep afloat. My stores associates routinely go out of their way to make sure the customer gets what they want. If we don’t have it in our store, we always find someone who does. That particular Office Depot should be reported, as our rules are clearly stated pressured selling is against company policy.

By: Herschel Everett

Herschel Everett — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:50:27 +0000

This is one of many reasons why e-commerce is winning customers over retail brink & mortar store’s. I would suggest the retailers to have 2 sets of prices for products. Mark up the in store products and discount the products if the consumer purchases online and goes pick the products when they are shipped to the store. The retail store would saves money on transportation for inventory they are not carrying. The consumer decides if he or she really needs that products now and if they would pay a higher price for that service. Discontinue the extended warranties. Is this a better solution? I don’t know but it is better than there current selling practices.

By: Edward Ringwald

Edward Ringwald — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:33:52 +0000

First and foremost, I deal with Office Depot extensively as a customer, both work related and personall related. I am very outraged at how Office Depot treats its customers and this article on how Office Depot is being deceitful to customers when it comes to selling laptop computers in Laptop Magazine very well proves the point.

If you want to see more of how Office Depot treats its customers, go over to ConsumerAffairs.com and search for “Office Depot”. There you will find a plethora of complaints as to how Office Depot treats its customers. One good example is a person who was a frequent user of Office Depot’s copy and print center (every Office Depot has one) and one day was told that the person was permanently no longer welcome at Office Depot; the general manager did not even give an explanation.

Another example is when you call Office Depot at their 800 toll free number. You end up speaking to someone I believe is overseas; I have had this issue a few times when I called Office Depot at work to discuss issues with our account. Some of the customer service representatives I have spoken with on the phone speak broken English to the point that I could not understand what the representative was saying.

All in all, lying to customers is not only unethical, it’s illegal no questions asked. The way Office Depot treats its customers Office Depot is well on its way to becoming another Circuit City.

By: The Taminator

The Taminator — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:51:57 +0000

Wow, I know this article has been out for a couple of months now, but I just now stumbled on it & wanted to comment. I worked at a Best Buy owned company for several years and the pressure to sell these extended warranties was tremendous even in the good economy at the time. They don’t just offer them on low-margin electronics like laptops, but on everything from a $9.99 MP3 player on up. The warranties are worthless unless they offer true accidental damage replacement/repair– and the fact is that accidental damage is what’s most likely to happen, especially if you’re clumsy or unfamiliar with how to handle electronic equipment. The amount you spend on the PPP/whatever is better off sitting in a savings account accruing interest, so in 2 years when what you have is outdated you can get the next biggest thing. I do not doubt any of the stories have read here about the pressure all of them face with these service plans– and these days with jobs on the line, I do not doubt that employees are doing whatever it takes to make the sale, including lying. It’s one reason why I buy direct from the manufacturer and on places like Egghead and Amazon. It’s not just warranties either– cables as pointed out by others here are a rip-off often marked up 4-5 times cost. Watch out for the way Victoria’s Secret tries to get you to sign up for an Angel Card. Their staff promote it as a frequent buyer card, but it is really a credit card. They will not tell you that you are signing up for a credit card and you won’t know until it comes in the mail. Corporate HQ can spout off all they want about ethics in these public statements, but we all know that now more than ever it’s a dog eat dog world out there, especially in retail right now. As consumers the bottom line is be aware, educate yourself about what you are buying, read the fine print, and caveat emptor.