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Office Depot

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Review Summary

About the Author

My First Stop for Office Products and Related Technology

Written: Jul 04 '04

Ease of Ordering:
Customer Service:
Selection:
On-Time Delivery:

Full Review

I have become a product of my societal age, a forty-one year old gen-xer who knows computers and loves them for what they can do for me. My kids come to me if they want to know something about computers; after all I build all of theirs myself. So I am no longer content to frequent brick-and-mortar establishments to fulfill my shopping needs; I have to purchase any and everything on-line—if possible. So it is that when it comes to office supplies and associated technology products, my first stop is not the local Office Depot a scant 2 miles down the street, but Office Depot online at (www.officedepot.com), offering it wares scant feet from my television viewing pleasures.

The Web-Site

From the Site: Office Depot, Inc. Founded in 1986, is one of the world's largest sellers of office products and an industry leader in every distribution channel, including stores, direct mail, contract delivery, the Internet and business-to-business electronic commerce.

Since its inception in the mid-1990’s, OfficeDepot.com has evolved from an on-line presence offering only office products such as paper, pens, staples, etc., to a must stop shop festooned and burgeoning with almost everything one might need for the office. From simple office supplies to computers, to books to furniture, from ink cartridges to digital cameras, OfficeDepot.com delivers.

The OfficeDepot.com web site is logically laid out and easy to follow. Four tabs at the top of the site—Home, En Español, Tech Depot, and Ink Depot—make navigating the site a simple process. The default highlighted page is of course “Home,” where links to the item categories are displayed; i.e. Office Supplies, Furniture, Technology, Business Center, Customer Service, and Company Info. These links are laid out directly under the site tabs.

Along the left side of the site you find “Search Tools,” wherein items can be searched for by name, or brand. A separate “Search Tool” is dedicated to just printer supplies, searchable by manufacture, which in my current job as a network engineer responsible for supporting some 100 network attached printer from various vendors, I have found very useful. Directly under “Search Tools,” is another excellent feature, “Shopping Tools” which among other thing displays the current number of items in your shopping cart. This handy tool also affords you access to shortcuts including:

• Order by Item #
• Order Tracking
• My Account
• My Shopping Lists
• Request a Catalog
• Apply for Credit Card
• Advantage Program (a new offering from Office Depot which gives you up to 10% back on qualifying purchase)

In the middle of the site there are yet three more convenient tabs labeled Office Supplies, Furniture, and Technology, each with links to the separate categories under each.

On the right are brightly colored yellowed boxes entitled Super Values, Rebated Center, and Advertised Specials.

Tech Depot and Ink Depot are two recent additions to the site and afford the shopper with easy dedicated access to computer and technology products for home and home office use (Tech Depot), and Ink, toner, and fax cartridges (Ink Depot). The Tech Depot link opens a brand new site which offers a bewildering assortment of technology products in neatly laid out tabs across the top, including, but not limited to:

• Computers
• Build a PC
• Accessories
• Components
• Electronics
• Cameras
• Memory
• Servers
• Software
• Supplies
• Notebooks
• Networking
• Monitors

You get the picture. Like main site, this Tech Depot is well laid out and easy to navigate and find what you want. And all of the top manufactures are represented, and making selection a breeze, if your preference runs to Canon instead of HP for printers or Micron vice Kingston for memory, etc.

I love Ink Depot! I use HP exclusively at home, but at work I support Epson, Lexmark, Canon, and HP printers; Ink Depot makes it almost too simple to find the inkjet or toner cartridge I need. While quick links to the big five printer manufactures—Brother, Canon, Epson, HP and Lexmark are afforded their own taps across the top of the site, virtually every maker of toner is represented in alphabetical order underneath. As far as I can tell all makes and models are represented, even discontinued models. In some cases the cartridge might not be from the Original Equipment Manufacture (OEM), but an Office Depot brand.

Ordering

Ordering an item is straight forward; as on most sits clicking on the red “Add to Cart,” will place the item in your shopping cart. The Shopping Cart box on the left will display the number of items in your cart and the total price of said items. Once satisfied with your purchases, you can proceed to check out wherein you can fill out your personal information and credit card info. If you have set up an account with Office Depot in the past, this information will be available for quick retrieval. OfficeDepot.com is a secure site so I do not have to worry about my personal information being stolen, only sold by some disgruntled employee to the highest bidder (unlikely you say, possible I say). Orders over fifty dollars are shipped for free (more on that below); check out was very simple and fast.

You can also order by phone via the Office Depot catalog by calling 1-888- GO-DEPOT, which is available 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, and if you call in before 5pm local time, you can get next day delivery if there is a store in your immediate area.

Orders can also be placed via fax by calling 1-800-685-5010. Faxed orders received before 3pm local time you get next day delivery; again the store has to be in your immediate area.

OfficeDepot.com offer a Low Price Guarantee on items purchased at the site. It stipulates that if you find a lower price on a new, identical product found on the site, advertised for less at any other office product or consumer electronic supplier within 14 days after your Office Depot purchase, they will match the price. See the website for complete detail.

Shipping & Handling

From the Site; FREE Next Business Day Delivery: In local delivery areas, order by 5:00 PM local time by phone/online or 3:00 PM by fax and your order of $50 or more will be delivered FREE the next business day (between the hours of 8:30AM and 5:00PM local time, Monday through Friday). Call 1-800-GO DEPOT (1-800-463-3768) or go to www.officedepot.com to determine local delivery areas. Sorry, special orders (manufacturer’s direct items) are not available for Alaska or Hawaii. In order to ensure efficient service to all our customers, Office Depot reserves the right to determine the delivery method used to fulfill your order. Deliveries for orders under $50 or deliveries outside of our local delivery areas will be assessed a charge based on the total weight of the order. Minimum charge is $5.95 for up to 10 lbs. Delivery fees are non-refundable if the order or part of the order is returned, unless the product is damaged or defective. Custom delivery fees may be added for custom items.

For my money this is one of the best deals on the web, if of course you routinely purchase items totaling more then $50.00, which if you are like me, is rarely done. My average purchase as a home user, despite the fact I have a small home based business, rarely tops $25.00, unless I am buying inkjet cartridges.

Orders delivered outside of Office Depot’s local trading areas will be assessed delivery charges based the cumulative weight of your total order. The estimated shipping charges shown in your shopping cart to the right of each individual line item, and according the site…”are provided as a guideline for those specific products. The shipping weight includes all packaging and materials associated with the product, and may differ from the product specification weight.”

If you are only ordering a single item, the estimated shipping charge shown for the product ordered will most likely be your delivery charge, and if the item weighs 10lbs or less you will be charged $5.95 no matter the actual weight of the item. Pretty steep, almost urging you to make sure your order totals more then $50.00. OfficeDepot.com provides a handy shipping chart within the site under the Customer Service tab.

You can pick up your item at your local Office Depot store if you want to save of shipping charges. Simply place your order via the phone or website and indicate that you would like to pick up your order at a store location near you, and your order will be available for pick up four hours later. Note: not all items featured on the website are available for In-Store Pick Up.

Tax Exempt Purchasing

If you routinely purchase items for a business in the business of wholesaling, retailing, manufacturing, leasing (renting), or authorized to purchase on behalf of an exempt organization buying for its exempt purpose, and wish to purchase items tax free from OfficeDepot.com a form or two must be filled out. Otherwise, you must pay sales tax on items purchased wherever Office Depot has a brick-and-mortar concern, which of course is just about every state. Tax exempt forms can be downloaded for OfficeDepot.com and then faxed to customer service.

Conclusion

I have by-and-large been very pleased with my on-going experience with OfficeDepot.com. Their prices are in-line with OfficeMax.com and on average less then Staples.com. With a huge selection from a plethora of vendors, there has never been a time when I could not find what I wanted. And while the shipping cost can become quite high, the free shipping for orders over $50.00 is helpful when ordering big ticket items. The introduction of Tech Depot and Ink Depot make the site even more attractive, and the place to shop for office supplies, ink and toner cartridges, and technology products.

These features coupled with the easy to use, well laid out, and insightful website, make OfficeDepot.com my first stop for office products of all stripes and description.

Recommended:
Yes

What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Inkjet & Toner cartridges, General Office Supplies

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