Comments on: Office Depot Joins Dips Toe in the Reputation Deadpool

By: Bad Office Depot

Bad Office Depot — Sat, 30 May 2009 03:50:47 +0000

Yeah.. I had a terrible experience with Office Depot today. The department manager treated me like trash, asked if I actually own a business... She blamed me for not knowing the price on something being faxed and didn't let me know how much the fax was until AFTER she faxed it... when I asked her about it she said, "How come you didn't ask?" in this really mean tone.

I told her, "It's not my responsibility to ask. It's your responsibility as a business to inform the potential customer of your services and costs before you render them... especially when it's a $60 fax!"

If you have a bad experience join my conversation over here at http://twitter.com/bad_officedepot

Let's see if their marketing department is actually listening. Oh and Maureen I hope you get fired at the Federal Way, WA store as a department manager. You are a terrible department manager who is extremely rude and you humiliated my pregnant wife making her cry.

Yes I would even go so far to say that Maureen you are one rude piece of work! I have other words, but I'm not into lowering myself to your level Maureen.

Hey CMO of marketing... would you like to get off your chair and respond to this comment or are you going to stay silent and not say a thing.

Btw I have over 16 followers in 1 hour. At this rate I'll have 1,000 by the end of this week. That's more than you're marketing staff can pull off. My other twitter account I had 1,000 followers in less than a week.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:57:53 +0000

THIS COMPANY IS NOT FAIR TO THERE EMPLOYEES.
THEY (HEADQUARTERS)TREAT THEM TERRRIBLY.
THEIR STOCK REFLECTS THEIR POOR DECISIONS.
SHAME ON THE PEOPLE IN FLORIDA

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:43:51 +0000

I beleive this company is in very bad shape.
The customer service is terrible.
Staples is by far ten times better than Office Depot.
You deserve waht you get if you buy anything from them!

By: 5 Twitter Tactics for Building a Stellar Brand

5 Twitter Tactics for Building a Stellar Brand — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:00:40 +0000

[...] next day, my “Office Depot Joins the Reputation Deadpool” post went live on Marketing Pilgrim. If Office Depot were actively monitoring Twitter, it [...]

By: Nan

Nan — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 03:03:45 +0000

I should have researched more before ordering something from Office Depot. I actually went to their local store to order furniture which has to be shipped. They told me it should be at my house on Tuesday. I had my family waiting for them to arrive all day, but no sign of the officedepot truck. I hope they don’t arrive later than this week since I’m need that piece of furniture for remodeling. Thanks for sharing your story (found it on google).

By: Andy Beal

Andy Beal — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:01:23 +0000

@Ken – yikes, please do keep us updated on this.

By: Ken Lee

Ken Lee — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:43:55 +0000

I also have a story to share about OD. Long story short, I ordered a chair online at a great price ($9.99 plus tax). But they only delivered the other item that I bought on the same order. The driver first said I refused it (bogus). Then after calling his boss, he said there was a safety issue (also bogus) and could not give it to me (the chair was actually in the van!). Then I called OD and was told that someone from the resolution department would call me back in 4 hours. In the mean time, I chatted with an agent on OD’s web site and was told that there was a pricing error (valid). Two hours later, I got a call from the dispatch department (not the resolution department) saying there was a recall by the merchandiser of the chair (again bogus). So I decided to look up the email addresses of people in their headquaters and I ended up emailing their CEO, president, a few VP’s, the PR manager, and E-Commerce tech support about my problem and calling it fraudulent practice because of the lies that I heard. Here is the response that I got so far:

Dear Mr. Lee,

Thank you for your e-mail. What you have described is treated very seriously by our company and I want to ensure that this is resolved appropriately. For this reason I have forwarded your e-mail to the Office of Executive Customer Relations, where I am confident that it can be addressed. A Senior Case Manager will be assigned to your case, and will be in direct contact with you.

Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns with us.

Sincerely,

E-Commerce Technical Support
Office Depot

So I guess I’ll wait to see what happen next…

By: Denise O'Berry

Denise O'Berry — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:46:09 +0000

So glad to hear of this outcome for you.

I’m sorry to say that your experience is what used to be my norm. Your timeline is exactly what I encountered (twice in a row!) when ordering from Office Depot online. And it wasn’t even the 4th of July.

Two times in a row is not an anomaly! That’s why I quit using Office Depot a couple years ago. Staples has superb delivery service and the product arrives as promised.

By: Kaye

Kaye — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:09:02 +0000

I hooked into a great deal at Office Depot.com and had it shipped to local store so I could save on the shipping. I received an email saying all was well but I had to pick up product in 48 hours. I called next day to ask if product was in. I was told that my order had been cancelled and I would have to come to the store and re-order.
Not at the markdown price. Now I realize the price was too good but they accepted the coupon and accepted all my paperwork. I also have confirmation that it was accepted but not happening. Another Office Depot disappointment.

By: Bloggers Digest - 7/18/08 | Get Elastic

Bloggers Digest - 7/18/08 | Get Elastic — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:35:21 +0000

[...] Marketing bloggers are also web shoppers – and often our blog content is born out of personal experiences, positive and negative. Tim Peter and Andy Beal share their experiences this week, reminding us that customers don’t want to buy the wrong thing and overnight shipping shouldn’t take a week. [...]

By: Travel Point

Travel Point — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 08:00:30 +0000

It look like the sincerity of the email won over your heart. Travel Point's last blog post..The Samba of Brazil

By: Nicole Price

Nicole Price — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:26:18 +0000

I believe that promotion efforts like the one that started off this entire story, and the recent launch of iPhone suffer from inadequate planning and anticipation of possible larger than estimated demand. When this happens, everything collapses and poor service is experienced. I believe that the attempt to make amends is indeed genuine and that they have learned from this experience. That your post is a popular blog is just the vehicle to handle this problem and the response. Nicole Price's last blog post..Discounted Pet Products

By: Goran Web Design

Goran Web Design — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 06:08:06 +0000

Great seeing a precedent like this being set! Bad service needs to be highlighted and exterminated, and companies have to be kept on their toes.

Dean, your interpretation of their mail is a gem!

By: Nick Stamoulis

Nick Stamoulis — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:01:11 +0000

Dean – You are PRICELESS.

By: Andy Beal

Andy Beal — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:47:41 +0000

@Dean – LOL, you nailed it! When I replied to the email, my response included this:

“I hope that Office Depot truly does care about the service received by all of its customers–and is not just responding because I happen to have some authority in this arena.”

I also offered my services.

By: Paul Chaney

Paul Chaney — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:50:04 +0000

Andy, I'm sooo tempated to join Dean in expressing my cynicism. Instead, let me just express my hope that Office Depot learned a valuable lesson. Paul Chaney's last blog post..links for 2008-07-15

By: Dean

Dean — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:43:43 +0000

ohhhh I feel my cynical side coming on…..

If you read between the lines of the email it says something like this…

Dear Mr. Beal,

We can’t really say we’re sorry about your poor service because it happens everyday, and while we talk a good customer service game, it is really not a priority with us.

Normally we wouldn’t give a crap, but in your case, it came to our attention that you’re the author a relatively popular blog and could possibly tarnish our reputation with a larger audience. As such we’d like to suck up to you personally by offering a full refund on your purchase and allow you to keep the hard drive with our compliments.

Our delayed response was because we couldn’t use the standard template we send to most angry customers (you know, the one we originally sent you) and had to create a disingenous one that appeared personal, caring, and customer-focused. We all agreed it was pretty good considering it was the first one we ever did.

We insincerely apologize for your experience and hope you’ll continue to come to us for all your business product needs. We also hope you’ll write a nice fluffy update to your posting talking about how great we responded to your issue (after all we did give you a free hard drive, wink, wink).

Continued success with your blog, we are all big fans of that search engine marketing thingy stuff you are writing about.

Sincerely,

[Name removed by Andy]

Senior Customer Relations Manager

Executive Customer Relations

PS> As we will continue to offer lousy customer service we would ask that you do not order anything over $100 from us in the future. Budgets are tight and we are limited in the free stuff that we can give people who might spill the beans about this “committed to customer service” stuff we talk about.

By: Nick Stamoulis

Nick Stamoulis — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:24:01 +0000

It is pretty interesting to see that a popular SEO blogger has the ability to assist in someone’s reputation (by fixing it or writing a good review about a product or service) or totally influencing it the other way by reporting their bad experience…thus ranking high. Glad to see they admitted to their wrong doings and are trying their best to rectify the situation.

By: Scott Clark

Scott Clark — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:20:00 +0000

@PS3, that is not so far fetched, but the trouble is that the Wal-marts of the world have utterly changed the expectations of consumers. The web, in particular Amazon, and its scary-fast service has done even more.

Last week I saw a woman screaming (I mean really yelling) at a random employee at Target because they only had one model of Sonicare toothbrush. Her energies would have been far better used as a blogger, or by rating target on their website. If the employee had a small card to hand her she might have directed her to a place online or via 800 number to vent her frustrations.

In the days of shopkeep and “come back now, y’all” people were far more flexible, patient, etc. It was a more personal experience, and we had far less “shoppers rage.” Didn’t have the size you wanted? Nevermind, I’ll check back next week. It was a lot healthier for the soul, if not the pocketbook.

Occasionally, I’ll get a taste of this botique-level service in Kentucky when I venture out into the countryside. Family owned stores exist in places where populations are too small to support the big chains, and I often make a point to stop and buy some little something just for the experience. As a break from large city un-service, it’s quite refreshing, even if I paid an extra 15%.

Scott Clark’s last blog post..A Damage Control Ballet – Deconstructing a Reputation Management Event

By: PS3

PS3 — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:08:02 +0000

I think in general terms, it’s a sad sign of the times Andy. We have all got too used to the pile it high, sell it cheap and then throw it away and to be able to achieve that corners get cut. Unfortunately, the first thing to go is usually customer support, even more so when a lot more is done via e-mail/online.

Let’s go back to the good old days when your local storekeeper knew your name and gave you the service you deserved.

(Takes rose tinted glasses back off…)