01/23/10
Office Depot
6600 N Military Trail
Boca Raton, FL 33496
(561) 438-4800
Attn: Steve Odland, CEO
For your convenience, this document (including attachments) is posted on the Internet at:
http://mkgappraisal.com/blog/2010/01/23/office-depot/
Dear Steve,
I am self employed. I am the CEO of a small business – the total workforce consists of 1 person – me. I do everything, including shopping for office supplies. I am not a big customer, but I do buy all of my office supplies at Office Depot – typically at the store located in Aurora, CO at Mississippi & I-225.
I visited this store on 1/22/10 at about 9am. I needed 2 things, I knew where to find them, and I was only worried about 1 thing. I was in a hurry, and I remembered the last time I was at this store the line to check out was way too long. There were 5 or 6 people in front of me, and I estimated at the rate things were going it was going to take 30 minutes to check out. There was only 1 register open. There was an employee standing at an open register, but I watched him tell 2 or 3 people he was not open. I could not hear the conversation, but I could see that he was unable (or willing) to open that register and check people out. I could see these customers were disappointed as they walked to the end of the long line that I was standing in. After about 10 minutes, I was unwilling to wait any longer.
I considered leaving. Instead, I decided to speak to the employee at the closed register. The conversation did not go well, but after awhile I was able to get thru to him that I wanted to speak to the store manager – whoever was in charge. This was way more complicated than it needed to be, and it took several minutes. But I did (eventually) speak to someone who reluctantly admitted to being the person in charge. I complained about the long line and the long wait – and the manager opened the register and checked me out. The checkout process took about 1 minute once the manager agreed to help me – but overall it took about 20 minutes. I was not a happy camper.
So this is what I had in my mind as I entered the store yesterday. I found the 2 items I wanted and headed for the checkout. I noted that there was only 1 register open – but there were (only?) 2 people ahead of me. Within just a few seconds of when I got in line – one person was able to leave and now there was only 1 person ahead of me.
I was cautiously optimistic.
All went smoothly until the person ahead on me said he wanted to purchase Turbo Tax. The cashier spoke into her microphone, and then we (all three of us) waited. And waited, and waited. After a few minutes I told the cashier I was unhappy about the long wait – and she explained that Turbo Tax is locked up and only the manager could get it, and we could see across the store that the manager was busy helping a customer. I walked across the store, interrupted the manager and explained the situation. He was able to solve the Turbo Tax problem, but it sure seemed to me that he was completely oblivious to the real problem.
As I left the store, I noted that the bottom of my receipt said:
We want to hear from you. Please visit www.od.bizrate.com and tell us about your experience.
I had a long hard day ahead of me, I traveled over 100 miles, and I got home after 5pm. I was in no mood to fool with it, but I made it a point to sit at my computer and visit bizrate so I could tell them (you?) about my experience. I got an annoying error message. As near as I can tell, the website is not working. Can you sense my frustration?
It is my hope that someone can speak to the manager at this store and suggest they do a better job of keeping the wait time at the checkout to a minimum.
Thank you
Phil Rice
11268 E Linvale Dr
Aurora, CO 80014
(720) 282-3376
attachments:
receipt
error message
cc:
OfficeMax
263 Shuman Blvd
Naperville, IL 60563
Attn: Sam K Duncan, CEO
Office Depot
13730 E Mississippi Ave
Aurora, CO 80012
Attn: Tony Rotella, Store Manager