mscdex0
Platinum Member
- Apr 10, 2003
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Originally posted by: Tomer
The local Staples here had 106 HD's that were gone in the first 10 minutes. They estimated there were 250+ people in line waiting at opening.
This year, since the deals were so ******, I chose to stay at home and order online and get whatever I could. I was pro-active and called Staples Corporate a week before. I spoke with a friendly gal who seemed to know what she was talking about. However, in the end, she screwed me.
I asked when the deals would appear online and she said 6AM my local time. Being in the business, I know it is all but impossible to deliver time appropriate web page unless you know where the user is from, so I triple checked with her saying "How is it possible for Staples to know what time zone I am in when I haven?t logged in yet." She said she didn?t know, but she did know they could.
I woke up at just a touch before 5AM so I checked the site. Nothing there yet on the specials. Went back to sleep and woke up again at 5:40, checked the site for the hell of it and sure enough the specials were already up AND a message stating they went up at 5AM my time.
Knowing what was going to happen I clicked on the monitor anyway and sure enough "OUT OF STOCK". Needless to say I was less than happy, particularly since the online deal was $30 better than the instore.
Anyways, I added the HD, the DVD drive, and the DVD media. Then I clicked the Laminator which I have been trying to get for 3 years now. Like 99.9999% of the people who want them, I don?t really need one and don?t really have a use for it, but would still like one, yet every year they are the first thing to go. Go figure.
Going to the checkout I notice the total look high, damn high. After stumbling around for 15 minutes I find THERE IS A GD COUPON CODE BURIED AT THE VERY BOTTOM OF EACH PRODUCT PAGE. So I gather all them up and try to enter them at checkout. Of course, they will not work. Server first times out, then says they are invalid, then the HD comes up and shows OOS.
A friend of mine, who is an IT dude and very computer and Internet savvy got hammered by the same thing. He had to call later in the day to get his order corrected and the coupons added. He said it was obvious Staples had been getting calls all day long on the damn hidden coupons.
By this time I am, well, not too happy, so I call Staples. Hoping to order, but mainly to eat out someone?s ass, anyone who works for this place.
I end up getting a nice lady on the phone after about 5 minutes and I get my stuff on order. I convey my disappointment and she apologizes.
When I went to the local B/M store later, they still had 12 or so Samsung monitors in stock.
Personally, I believe people should let Staples know how hiding the coupons was not only customer unfriendly, but could be considered by some as borderline fraud and certainly instills a sense of distrust into the customers.
Our problem is, since we are in a small market, there is no where else locally to buy. Staples is the ONLY local office type superstore. Best Buy was claiming to be here by this Christmas, but no way that?s gonna happen this year since they haven?t even started construction yet.
I was speaking with another friend of mine who also owns his own business. Even though both of our businesses are small, we both know pissing off your customers is not the way to gain business. Oh well.
Cliff notes man, cliff notes!