First let's start things off with a brief history lesson of what led me to my conclusion that Office Depot is Satan's love child. Several months ago I stumbled across the latest and greatest ergo keyboard from microshaft. As much as I despise their software their input devices are top notch. After reading some reviews and doing some research I decided that I was going to purchase two of these delectable keyboards. But as a poor person I was unable to fork out the $60 bucks a piece for two keyboards so I went on a waiting spree to see if the price would come down or I could scrounge enough cash to buy them. Along comes April 11th and I was linked to a site that has my precious keyboards on sale for $22.02 each. Hallelujah my prayers have been answered. I click on the link soon to discover that the retailer selling the keyboards is Office Depot. Knowing that they've been around for a while I decide now is the time to buy. I quickly scoop a few friends together and place an order for five keyboards to partake in the free shipping offer that they are also advertising.
At this point everything is fine and we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the much coveted keyboards to arrive. While waiting patiently at this point I check my account and notice that they have posted a delivery date for my order. "Wow, that is fast shipping" I say to fellow orderees. The order was placed on Tuesday morning and set to deliver Thursday. Getting giddy with anticipation Thursday seems to take forever to get there. Finally Thursday arrives and I rush home to see if my order has arrived. Not really expecting it to be there knowing full well that 99% of all deliveries to my house show up after 5 pm. So I decide to watch a movie while I wait. The movie gets over and there was never a knock at my door. Damn. Oh well, it was too good to be true to get them that fast anyway, they will come tomorrow like I was expecting them to in the first place.
I go to work thinking I'm going to get my nifty keyboards. I leave work and have a few errands to run before I can get home to see if they've come yet. After all that is done I get home and they still haven't arrived so I sit and wait and watch the clock. When 5 rolls around I decide to call the 800 number to see what's going on with my order. As always anytime I place a call to an 800 number I always get the Indian who I can't understand a damn word they say, they talk way too much and never get to the point. So during this call I get told that they should have been delivered all ready and they will send my order to the "Research Team" to find out what's going on. Since its late Friday I will get a call Monday morning before 11 am. "Fine" I said and hung up the phone. Monday rolls around and I get a call before 8 am. If I didn't work at the ass crack of dawn I would have been pissed that they called this early, but at least they called like they said they would. So, I explained my situation to the lady of the phone who is very understanding and tells me that the keyboards are on back order and they can cancel my order or re-submit the order and get them sent out after they arrive. I say keep them order and I will wait. I ask her "why does it show as shipped if the item was placed on back order?" I don't receive a straight answer just some garbage about we apologize for the inconvenience blah blah blah. I check my order status shortly after I get off the phone only to find that the sale price had been negated and was being charged full price of $59.95. I called back again and got the response we'll send this to our research tem and they'll call you back. I agree to this and within minutes I get another call and of course they try to deny that fact that I ordered at a sale price until I provide my original order number. She finally agrees and fixes the price.
At this point the frustration level is starting to rise but I am still anticipating the arrival. A few days go by and I check every day to see if my order status has changed knowing that I am just torturing myself. Finally late Tuesday the 19th I check my order and it says shipped once again and a delivery date of Thursday. I go through the same process of waiting at my house for the order to arrive which I'm sure you've guess by now didn't arrive. So I called this morning to see what was going on knowing full well I was going to fed more lines of shit. Again I get the Indian I can't understand and in the midst of their ramblings I find out that the item has now been discontinued. "How can the item be discontinued if you already sold it to me, approved the charge of my credit card and said it was shipped twice?" I ask. The response I get is "I'm sorry but that's what the system is saying." At this point my rage is at full capacity and I demand to speak to a supervisor. This action did nothing for me but cause my hatred to boil to a point it hadn't reached in a very long time. They even had the nerve to tell me when can find you a similar item, give you a discount and send that out for you. Now honestly, do you think I'd accept a substitute for my precious? I tell the supervisor the only think I want is for my order to be delivered like it was promised twice. I again get I'm sorry but we don't have any to ship out and we aren't getting anymore and she again offers to find me a substitute. This time I make it clear, the only thing I want is what I ordered if you can't deliver that then I want my order to be cancelled and I will never do business with you again. She then goes on to say "I'm sorry to hear that we might (MIGHT?) lose you as a customer but we can give you a discount and I'm sorry for the inconvenience." So needless to say I canceled my order and slammed the phone down.
By this time I am so furious I immediately dial a local store and ask for the corporate headquarters number, which they gave to me without any delay. I phoned the corporate office and got transferred to the corporate customer care division and for once I finally get someone I can understand on the phone and explained my situation again. This time the tone of the call was very different, she was helpful, she understood that I was furious and was doing anything and everything to help me rather than giving me canned responses read off a monitor. So now, my order is being shipped from Minnesota via UPS and should arrive the middle of next week. While on the phone I ask "why wasn't I ever notified about these changes to my order when they happened rather than them just showing as shipped?" "We don't have anyone staffed that can place calls to our customers if things like this happen" I'm told. What kind of company doesn't notify its customers if they can't deliver on their promise to deliver my order in a timely fashion? Even an email would have been sufficient. I make sure she logs all my complaints about their incompetent order entry system so hopefully the next poor sap that orders from them won't have to go through all this. I doubt that will happen but I did my part. With the exception of the item being discontinued and them not willing to fulfill and order that was already place without a call to corporate I would not have been nearly as pissed if they would have just given me status updates when I place my order. When I place the original order it should have said "item is on backorder". But it didn't, and led me to believe that everything was fine with my order. When I called to find out that it was backordered had they said it is discontinued and we won't be able to ship it to you, I would have been upset but I would have lived. Instead they show it as shipped and never a word from them.
The moral to all of this is: It's not how you bitch but who you bitch to that will get things done.
