Fast, Free Shipping But Ads Can Be Misleading
Written: Jun 21 '06 (Updated Jun 21 '06)
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I’ve ordered from OfficeDepot.com a few times. There is an Office Depot store within 10 miles of my home and there’s a Staples store that’s even closer. But it’s often difficult to make a special trip to these stores with a mischievous toddler and it’s even harder to lug heavy or large items home. So with Office Depot’s free shipping (for orders over $50 in “local trading areas”) and quick delivery time, I can shop from the comfort of my home during nap time and receive packages in one to two business days. That said, I have experienced one ordering problem from the Office Depot site.
THE BASICS
Office Depot is an office supply store that sells paper products, pens and pencils, school supplies, filing cabinets, office furniture (chairs, desks, workstations, etc.), and office-related electronics (cameras, scanners, monitors, fax machines, printers, etc.). There are brick and mortar locations throughout the United States. The Web site itself carries a full line of products that is typically much more in-depth than the physical locations. It also has a Business Center link that allows users to access advice on such topics as hiring and women entrepreneurs. There is also a Print Center that allows users to order imprinted items like business cards, stamps, and envelopes.
NAVIGATION
The home page is bright and busy. It’s full of splashes of red and photos of sale items and spotlighted topics. If you’re new to the site, it’s pretty overwhelming. But it’s no more busy than the Staples.com home page. In fact, the two are eerily similar.
There is a search bar at the top of the page so you can bypass all of the other flashy nonsense. Otherwise, there are three product lists in the middle of the page (office supplies, furniture, and technology). Each one lists out about 10 common products that fall under that category. From there, you can click into more specific products. For example, clicking on “paper, forms, and envelopes,” then on “paper,” and then on “inkjet photo paper” will lead you to a results page of 60 types of photo paper. Results can then be sorted by price. Availability for individual items is shown on the results page.
A small shopping cart icon at the top left-hand corner shows the number of items currently in your queue and the subtotal. Buttons below it allow you to “view cart” or “check out.”
MY EXPERIENCE
I think I’ve ordered from Office Depot two or three times over the past five years. It’s usually been because I needed one big-ticket item (office chair, fax machine, etc.) and a few smaller items. I usually compare the prices on OfficeDepot.com with those on Staples.com and OfficeMax.com. Generally, Office Depot has come out on top in terms of selection, price, and ease of locating items with Staples.com at a close second.
My most recent experience has left me a bit jaded though. I work at home about a week per month and I was looking for an office chair to replace the old folding chair I was currently using. I also needed a couple of reams of multipurpose paper and a desk blotter to cover up my ratty old desktop (the physical kind, not the one on my monitor). As soon as I opened the Office Depot home page, I saw what I wanted. There were two small ads (one at the top right and one at the bottom left) for leather office chairs. Both advertised $50 off, which made these nice $100 medium-level (meant for 3-6 hours of use per day) chairs extremely affordable. So I added the one I liked best to my cart and continued shopping.
When I checked out, the $50 was not discounted. I looked at the product description page and it listed the discounted price. So I went back to check the ad and though it read like the savings was instant, I decided to look for a rebate form on the site. When I didn’t find one, I got a little concerned, but I continued with the checkout process and figured the rebate form would come with the package in a couple of days (I’ve noticed that many rebate forms now print out with receipts, so this hypothesis made sense to me).
The package arrived in two days (I had ordered late at night, past the 10pm cutoff, otherwise it would’ve arrived the next day). All of the items I ordered arrived without any damage. But I didn’t see any sort of rebate form. So I checked the site again, and noticed that the ad was gone. When I went to the product description, the price had reverted to the original retail. I checked the rebate section again and I even tried looking up the manufacturer’s Web site.
I called Office Depot’s customer service and the woman sounded perplexed. First that I had received the package so quickly and secondly because of the missing ad. I questioned whether the ad was from the previous week and just hadn’t been changed yet since I ordered on a Sunday night. She tried to brush it away saying that some online sales are not the same as the store sales and that she’d look into it. I asked her if she’d call me back if she found out anything. She said yes, though she never did. She also transferred me to the rebate help line. The man I spoke with had no record of rebate forms for any chair at that time. I was pretty upset at that point and just wanted to return the chair and shop elsewhere.
I couldn’t find information on returns on the site but when I called my local store, they said they’d take it back. I ended up not doing anything about this situation since the whole reason I bought the chair online was so that I wouldn’t have to schlep to the physical store carrying a toddler and a heavy box. My husband was very busy at the time and convinced me that I shouldn’t worry about the $50 savings since the chair itself was nice and I could just write it off as a business expense. Before I saw the ad, I had figured my budget for a chair was about $85-100 anyway so it wasn't such a heartache. I just felt a little swindled.
One other word of caution, do take a minute to check your cart before checkout. I’ve noticed that some ads will automatically add items to your cart if you open them to simply look.
SHIPPING AND RETURNS
If you live in a local trading area, which unfortunately is not well defined on the site but I assume it means within 50 miles of a store, and your order costs $50 or more, you’re in luck. You get free next-day shipping (some items may require 2-3 business days). The minimum charge for purchases under $50 is $7.95 for up to 10 lbs., but the actual amount depends on the weight of the package. If you live outside the trading area, your shipping rate is also dependent on package weight, with $7.95 being the fee for up to 10 lbs. gradually progressing to $17.75 for 150 lbs. A pound by pound chart is available on the site by clicking on the “Delivery” tab at the bottom of any page and then clicking on “Delivery Charges by Weight.”
There is also an in-store pickup option that allows you to order online or by phone and pick up your purchases about 4 hours later.
I’m not sure about Office Depot’s online return policy. After my chair incident, I wanted to find out about it and I couldn’t find a link anywhere on the site. I ended up calling my local store and asking if I could return the chair there. They said of course. But I still don’t know what their policy for mail-in returns is.
OVERALL
Office Depot has a great selection of quality office supplies at good prices. Their fast and free shipping works out great for a busy SAHM/WAHM like me but their customer service is a bit uninformed and I am now very weary of their “instant savings” ads. Next time (yes, there will be a next time for this site), I will make sure that what I pay for in checkout is what I want to be paying for my purchases.
www.officedepot.com
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? leather office chair, paper, blotter, mouse pad
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