FedEx Office Print & Ship Center

This place is a little bit difficult to locate if you aren’t familiar with where it is already. I was using my GPS to get here and white it led me into a shopping center, the large signage before entering the lot didn’t indicate that there was a FedEx store and so I passed it the first time around. It’s around the corner from Home Value Center and the Dollar Store, facing Elmwood Avenue, just so you know. Ample parking, standard shipping store. I was sending a package out and was given a pre-​paid label from the company I was returning my item from. The gentleman assisting me told me that he would give me one of their free FedEx boxes but that I would need to pay for «filler» so that my item would not move around in the box. Confused, I asked if the filler was for my convenience or theirs and he told me that it was for their convenience and that items being shipped could not move around. Well, «filler» cost me $ 5. If I had newspapers or even an old t-​shirt in my car I was going to fill the box for them FO free. Sadly I did not. Customer service was nice, the store is really large, they sell lots of different things like calendars, planners and cards. They have a few self-​service machines too. Nice to know this place is nearby, but BYOF. (Bring your own filler.)

This place is awful. I’ve used their shipping services maybe 30 times over a span of years and, with the exception of one good experience, I’ve pretty much been price gouged and/​or hit on by the staff every time. I continued to go there because it was close by and the hours were convenient to me.
I went in today with a small/​medium box of items that weighed less than 7 pounds, and most of the items were soft/​cloth. There were some glass items, but they were inside suspended in plastic and wrapped in cloth. Everything was pretty snug in the box (I used to manage inventory – I know how to pack a box), but there was an inch of clearance at the top. The Asian girl at the counter shook my box hard (why?), demanded to know everything that was in it, and told me it wasn’t well packed enough because there was movement when it was shaken. She then pressed her fingers down on the seam of the box hard and declared that my box was a hazard and going to hurt someone, because fedex was planning on stacking much larger, heavier boxes on top of my box (which doesn’t make sense). She insisted on opening the box and declared there were five inches of space, which I was not only untrue but she managed to slice through the heavy bag that I had enclosed some of my items in with her box cutter (further making her five inch declaration illogical). I put my hand in the box and showed her that if I measure from the top of my items to the top of the box, it’s the distance between the tip of my thumb and my knuckle, which is generally accepted as about an inch. She continued to argue that they needed to put more packing in there, and refused to ship it unless I was willing to pay a $ 4 packing fee for them to do so.
So I took my business to the UPS store on Delaware (a block over), where they measured the distance (with measuring tape) as less than an inch and a half, laughed at what fedex had tried to pull on me, and said it was fine to ship. The guy at UPS even offered to toss an air packet or two in the top for free, if I’d like. Furthermore, my 6.8 pound package cost less to ship from UPS than the last package I sent from FedEx (which was small electronics and weighed maybe a pound or two). The UPS store now has all of my future business.
Other experiences I’ve had at this FedEx:
— wait times are generally very slow
— being charged a packing fee to help me tape up a box that I brought in
— being charged a packing fee to help me tape up a box I purchased there
— being charged a packing fee when I purchased a box there and used my own tape («it’s part of the box fee»
— have been hit on by male staff numerous times, and on one or two occasions it was aggressive enough that I felt uncomfortable that the guys had access to my personal information
The only good experience I’ve had was either with someone who was either a manager or was aiming to be one, who basically confirmed for me that the other staff was price gouging me and tacking on improper packing fees.
I’m sick of getting bad service and being price gouged here. Never again.

Loved their packaging service. I had to ship a laptop, computer monitor, and various other items. I literally dropped them off as is and they packaged and shipped it.

Wow, I’m shocked, it just cost $ 18 to print a 30 page document. That probably cost kinkos 70 cents max… Then if I were to fax that same document it would cost $ 22. This experience felt like robbery.

It’s dated.
I had to fax a document urgently so I stopped in, low expectations having been here before, and even those were exceeded (in a bad way).
My faxed document was received in Albany with giant black lines through it. I know this because they literally sent me the document back in the mail.
I’ve done some photocopying here and it’s never been as easy as I want it to be.
Lastly, it’s slow. Maybe I go at bad times but maybe not…

Hmmm. Reading the reviews Im wondering if:
a — I come at the right time
b — change in management
c — both a & b
Ive been here a number of times over the years, today most recently.
While I have had some of the frustrations others have had, not enough direction from the staff, I do find it to be reasonably well done. They have a few people working at any given time, and perhaps you will need to wait a minute or two, who knows. But usually not long at all.
Once, their machine did the wrong thing and it was resolved for me quickly and easily.
Overall, they do a fine job for what they are, and the parking is easy, always nice.

Huh? I checked-​in here today and caught a glimpse of the low rating so I had to read all of the reviews. I guess I am just getting lucky with this place? I’ve come here many, many times over the years and have even used their printing services for my job. I have always found everyone to be be incredibly helpful and friendly.
The only time I really had anything of a wait was when I picked up a package I had shipped there via Walmart’s site-​to-​store (or nearby FedEx) option. And that wait wasn’t terribly bad. I frequently use their self-​serve machines for faxing, copying, and printing double sided copies from the computer stations. No complaints from me.

I’ve had some great experiences here, but I tend to come during less-​busy off peak times.
I’ve had employees who were extremely helpful and have gone beyond their call of duty to help me with business cards, or large poster-​printing. They’ve helped me save money in ways that were not otherwise obvious. I love them for it.
Hey are you looking for another way to save money? Just do this! Well, thanks — dear kind FedEx employee. I have no idea if other people have gotten as lucky here, but it’s not the usual sales pitch (hey — print 1,000 cards and you’ll save 20%.but you’ll spend $ 300 more!), but employees that truly cared and showed me that I can cut my own cards to save a ton of money. Because of these guys, I’ve come back many times and don’t regret spending my money here.
If I’m looking for something a bit more complicated, I tend to go to Minuteman Press or a local shop with cheaper services, but if it’s a weird time of day (Saturday or Friday night) that I need something printed, I’m grateful that FedEx Office is here for those needs.

Like many of the reviewers have noted, this location can be EXCRUCIATINGLY slow. For some reason, no matter the time of day, they only have two employees behind the counter. And more often than not, only one of them is helping customers. If it isn’t busy, no problem, you’ll be done in a jiffy! But if there’s at least one other person in line, all beta are off. I’ve had trips here that were as short as two minutes to as long as 30, and all I ever do when I’m here is a) get books bound (which entails… dropping off the manuscript), b) pick up packages, or c) ship a package (just one, not tens of thousands to multiple addresses or anything like that).
However, the staff here really are very, very nice. For a FedEx shipment hub, I’d say they’re more understaffed than anything.

Pretty horrible experience actually — both online and in person. Here goes the list of things that went wrong:
1. Tried to print off a USB stick at the store, but multiple printers/​credit card devices hooked up to printers could not read my stick. They displayed no files. I’m looking at the 300 files on the stick right now hooked up to my computer at work.
2. The person who worked there only offered me the option of paying extra to use a computer to print the files. I told her it’s not my fault your printers’ USB slots can’t read my USB stick, but she did not offer to waive the extra fees.
3. So I decided to try to print online using their website and was immediately asked if I’d like to take a survey. I responded yes, but when I could not complete my order, I clicked the «Take Survey» button and the window disappeared with no resulting survey. I even went back to that survey page using my browser history, clicked «take survey» again and again, the window disappeared with no survey proffered.
4. Upon selecting the file I wanted to print (an image file in the format of «PNG» named «balbasicsandstyling-sum13-quartersheets.png»), I was presented with a message that this very common image format was not supported!
5. I was given no price during the selection of print options for style of paper, color/b&w, etc.
6. I was shown no print preview so that I could inspect the margin size.
All-​in-​all, I’d say that the FedEx Kinkos print services are useless to a consumer such as myself unless I am to jump through a bunch of poorly defined/​documented requirements such as limited acceptable image formats, what USB sticks are acceptable, etc. Using FedEx Kinkos is therefor a very inconvenient and unnecessarily complex option for me whether I want to come in person or print online.

Everything does take so long here! This is a decently busy location. I was surprised to see only 2 employees working there considering all the different services they offer.
FedEx Office is supposed to be about convenience and while their work product is good, their service is lacking. It may have been quicker for me to buy a printer and just print from home.

I absolutely LOVE this FedEx! And this is because of the staff! I recommend to everyone! I am usually in twice a week and every single time I receive the most professional customer service. Kurt Lima and Rodney go out of their way to put the customer FIRST whether it is tracking down an account number, helping carry out boxes to my car, repacking my torn boxes, and the list goes on and on. They genuinely care about their customers and it shows through their actions.
I can just imagine how busy and crazy it can be working in customer service for such a great and large company like FedEx and the employees don’t get enough credit. Thank you for your hard work! I will forever be a loyal customer because of my experience at this location.
–Cara Gustafson

I have experienced incredibly poor customer service at this location from multiple employees, on repeated occasions. Go to use a self-​service kiosk maybe, but just hope you don’t need to ask for help from the staff.

Everything here takes at least two times longer than it should. Even the fairly simple self-​serve kiosks require quite a bit of time per document. Especially because it doesn’t read your USB correctly and is generally a pain.
And god forbid you need some assistance, have a question etc. the staff conveniently walks in a back room when you start burning their faces with laser eye contact. If you want to punish yourself for being naughty come here to print a few pages, fax something and maybe special order some things and interact with the staff.

This FedEx Office Print & Ship Center is designed to be an almost wholly automated experience. You come in, feed your credit card into a machine, print what you need from a copier or computer, and get your receipt from a different machine at the end.
It’s a nice concept when it works: you don’t have to wait in line or interact with the staff, and they don’t have to interact with you. In theory, a place like this should require very little staff at all. Everything should just hum along, like a mundane science fiction movie with no plot.
Unfortunately, this is reality, and things rarely work like that.
First, based on my observations here (and I come here all the time), people come to FedEx mainly because they lack technical resources and have very human problems. They’re traveling, and need to pop into a mobile office and get something done, stat. They’re on deadline, and need to send something quickly in the off-​hours. Or they don’t own a computer, and thus lack the necessary computer literacy to operate this machinery solo.
As people flow into the FedEx Kinko’s, they’re bound to feel harried, confused, distracted, or distressed. At best, they might run out of printer paper or leave a credit card behind in a machine; at worst, they break something.
No one can fix this except for the one or two humans on the floor, and thus a bottleneck inevitably forms, increasing the levels of distress and panic throughout the store. The staff members are helping as many people as possible, but each person’s ruder and more unreasonable than the last. Because now the traveling guy’s been waiting to print his one-​sheets for fifteen minutes and he’s missing his meeting. The freaked out student on a deadline is late to fax her applications. And the poor folks in the back are watching their expensive computer time tick away with increasing panic while they wait for someone, somewhere, to fix the printer.
Reality, as it turns out, still involves people being humans.
I recently experienced this myself, as I tried to untangle a printing mess in which I printed a run of the wrong page, then was overcharged for another run of pages that I requested and paid for, but which never materialized.
It was ten minutes til close. The first clerk I spoke to about the mess was dismissive. «Look, you’re an adult. You need to pay attention to what you’re printing. If you want to change the receipt, you’ll need to talk to her.» He motioned to his manager. «And she’s busy.»
Suddenly, I felt angry. Not only on my own behalf, but on behalf of everyone I’d seen trying to do their best amidst this sad dystopia of broken and malfunctioning office equipment. My inner teacher surfaced.
«Look,» I said. «Maybe it’s been a long day, but your tone is really condescending. People come here because something is not working in their lives, and your job is to help them. We’re going to make mistakes. We don’t know how to use this stuff. We don’t have it at home. If we did, we wouldn’t be here.»
The clerk began to defend himself. Suddenly, the manager appeared. «What’d I miss?»
I faced her instead. I repeated the issue. She apologized. We talked. My heart rate returned to its regular resting level. And after a few moments of pleasant chatting (while the other clerk loudly cleaned up the back of the store), we’d come to an understanding.
«I’ve been working with this company a long time,» the manager finally told me with a sigh. «They ask us to do a lot with a little, and you’re right — it HAS been a long day.»
«I get it,» I said. «I really do. We’re all trying to do a lot with a little. But the thing is, manners are free. Customer service is free.»
«You’re right,» she said.
I ended up inviting my new friend out to dinner, and nixing the request for a new receipt. (After all, I had made my own dumb mistakes that night.)
Turns out, being human doesn’t cost much. Meanwhile, creating a wholly tech-​dependent retail environment has major costs for your customers and staff. I have nothing against good technology (after all, I work for Unilocal!) — but in this case, I think putting people back on the floor might be a better investment than new receipt machines. Providing proper training for those people on how to deal with the reality of a diverse population with diverse technical needs is an even better idea.
Perhaps FedEx can commit itself to training and hiring all the grads with teaching degrees that can’t currently find work in this economy? Because in reality, running this kind of business doesn’t require better machines, so much as it requires regular old patience, kindness, and the ability to gracefully manage people and their mistakes. Same as it ever was.
I know it sounds hokey or overdramatic. Come on, Ryan, this is $ 0.10 a print we’re talking about! But these things make a difference in real life. Especially to people who are being asked to do a lot with a little.

This was not the worst FedEx Kinkos I have used while travelling around the country… but it is close. Massive disorganization meets machines that don’t work. Every printer and copier ran out of paper at the same time, 15 minutes without anyone on the floor to help, and they screwed up my large order. Next time I will use a different location in Buffalo.