Office Depot

I started working down the street and have come to this Office Depot three or four times now. Strangely enough, this store has the friendliest and most helpful employees. Every time I walk in someone kindly greets me and asks if I need help. One guy ripped open a huge package of folders for me so I could see if it was the right kind. Then he let me keep one and take it back to the office to double check it was the right kind. The time after that, I thought that my item was around $ 9 when in fact it was $ 13…the man at the cash register let my purchase it for $ 9 just because I had mistakenly thought that was the price. Completely my own fault. They are very decent, helpful people. I appreciate this kind of behavior so much these days.

O Boy… epic fail. Waited 45mins for an employee to print a photo for me… he fumbled around for 30 minutes after consulting the store manager on how to print it. The store manager did not once come by to help him out even though he was not serving a customer (he was working on something but come on. take care of the customer in the store).2 consultations more, another 15 mins later I just said politely to the employee «Is this going to happen or now or should I go to CVS?».CVS it was… self serve Kodak machine. in and out in 3 minutes.
Earlier I was making photocopies at the self serve machine when the payment processing screen jammed after I was done. these guys showed no real concern even as other customers came by and complained about the situation. all the while I was thinking, I don’t want to be billed for any one else;s copies… gotta check my bill.
These guys have lost me as a customer forever.

I was a huge Office Depot loyalist when I lived in LA (where it’s prevalent) and was happy to find one near me. What a disappointment: this store is small, rundown and constantly low on stock. But my biggest frustration is that its staff is MIA: I’ve probably been inside at least 15 – 20 times over the past few years and it’s impossible to get anyone to help you. And it’s not that they don’t have staff on hand — within your line of sight, you can easily see a number of people with the OD badge. It’s just that they seem to avoid customer contact. When I’ve had to flag down a staffer, the person will inevitably say I need to talk to someone else. Management doesn’t push customer service as a job requirement. So I’ll go here when I need a few basics — white stock, paper clips — but I’ll schlep out to a Staples in Maryland or in downtown DC if I need anything more complicated.

I was hoping to save some time by getting a bunch of documents printed at this Office Depot. I uploaded all of the documents online and waited for the confirmation that they printed. They sent me the confirmation at 7:15 PM — too bad they close at 7. So I ran in the next day to pick it up. The store is pretty small and rundown looking on the inside. I went to the copy station to pick up the documents, and there was a little post-​it on the box that stated that one of the documents didn’t print. That’s fine — the guy was nice and got me a refund since I had paid online. I got home, opened the boxes, and throughout the order there were more post-​its about other documents not printing. Plus, I rechecked the order and they completely forgot about another document. I had to call the OD customer service line to get a refund on those. While the staff at the OD and the customer service people were nice, I’m never getting my documents printed there again.