Office Depot

FIRE NEVIN!!! FIRE NEVIN!!! FIRE NEVIN!!!
OK — let me count the ways…
#1) I walk in on January 27, 2016 at around 11:00AM with my 4 year-​old and I get followed around the store. OK, folks. I am a 55 year-​old, home schooling father with a Ph.D. who has taught my 4 year old to memorize all the countries of the world as well as the entire Periodic Table of Elements, and so many other things. YET — for some unknown reason (I am a tall brown man), they look at me as some kind of social deviant who wants nothing more than to shoplift their shoddy made-​in-​China items. No. I wanted to buy a $ 40 lamp in order to illuminate the rug area where my son and I conduct our morning book reading sessions. Sounds simple, right. Wrong. Read ahead.
#2) They didn’t have the lamp except for a display model. However, no one was around to help for a while. I take the display item with me and walk to the front with my son. I wait for Nevin to finish with two customers. I ask if he has this same item in a box, perhaps in the back stock room, and could he check for me? OOOPPSS! Wrong move, folks. Because this is where Nevin obviously felt overwhelmed by the simple task. He calls for floor help. None came. Another customer moves through his line. I wait. He calls again for floor help. Again, nobody comes. Four more customers move through his line. I stand there, staring at him, hoping he gets the hints. OOOOPPS! Wrong move, because little ‘ol Nevin will not get the hint. He will instead continue on, feeling as if customers are interrupting him with his incessant daydreaming of a life that could’ve been. And he may even take some level of pleasure in seeing customers suffer. I didn’t get it at first. But by the 30 minute mark, I could detect what looked like a devious smirk emerge every now and then.
#3) «Sir, sorry for making you wait. We can actually order this for you,» Nevin said. «True,» I replied. «But I can just as easily do that from the comfort of my home. If you instead let me know what other Office Depot nearby has this item in stock, that would be much more useful and helpful to me.» OOOPPSS!!! Wrong move. I actually asked for something that made sense. And that won’t be tolerated at this Office Depot. Ever. «Sure,» Nevin said with a rather blank look on his face. He finally flags down a passing employee. I explain to him my issue. «Just let me go to the back and sign in to the computer. I’ll be right back,» the employee said. He never returned. At the 45 minute mark, I stopped waiting and just left the store.
You have been warned.
Unless you know EXACTLY what you want, and can navigate to the EXACT point within the store where it is located — unaided, mind you — then you stand a chance of having a neutral experience. Anything beyond this which involves employee interaction is only going to lead to feelings of frustration.
I write this in the hopes that my story will encourage thousands to follow my lead. Boycott this piece of shit store. Do it for the nation. Do it for your sanity. Do it for your self-​respect!

I just left the store, frustrated, at 5:05 p.m. on 1÷24÷16. Extremely long lines, terrible and discourteous customer service. The young female clerk I spoke to acted like she could care less about my need for help. She told me «all the sales people are busy.» When I came back to ask whether or when I might get help, she told me I’d have to wait 20 minutes to get someone to help me. I won’t be back.
Afterward I went to Staples on Shattuck and had a very different experience (see my Staples review). Don’t even waste your time going to Office Depot. Go to Staples instead.

I was so excited when this new, revamped location opened near me so I would not have to go to downtown Berkeley to get office supplies. After three tries of shopping here I will never go back. even if it means I have to drive farther, I will ultimately save time by getting the goods and services I need rather then leaving frustrated and empty-​handed. Save yourself the headache and go to a different office supply store. and never ever try to ship something.

As a small business owner, I shop a lot at Office Depot and have for years. Today I stopped in to pick up a few things. I gathered the items and made my way to the cashier, Nevin. He needs a lesson in customer service! I asked for pricing on two identical items, that seemed to bother him. I handed my coupon and he grabbed it from my hand. I removed my card from the chip machine too soon and he made a big deal! What happened to the kind, helpful and cheerful people that used to work at Office Depot?

Brought something here last week for two-​day shipping. One week later, my package is still sitting behind their counter, in a sea of other unsent boxes. I would have been better off carrying the box over the river and through the woods to Illinois.

When shopping at this Office Depot you better have an idea where your items are located. The staff at this store are not very helpful, that is if you can find one. When you can track one down to ask a question, they either don’t know the answer or are not very helpful. Good luck if you shop here!

So bad it is pathetic. One checker when there were long lines. Each transaction seemed to take centuries. One woman recommended a product. When I returned later, a guy had no idea what I was talking about.
My purchase was delivered on the wrong day. I was working at home all day. Driver didn’t buzz me or the manager (also home)
No sign of the bookcase.
I called customer service. Crazy-​making music (the kind that makes you want to commit a violent act). Every 20 seconds a voice: «All our agents are assisting other customers. Please stay on the line and a representative will be with you shortly. Thank you for your patience.»
ONE HUNDRED AND NINE MINUTES LATER, I FINALLY HUNG UP THE PHONE. I had heard the message some 180 times and, in the process, developed a burning hatred for Home Depot/​Office Max.
I will NEVER buy another thing from either franchise.
Customer service sufferers of the world unite! Let’s boycott these lousy kinds of companies and put them out of business!

I walked into your store Nov. 20^th 2015 @ approx. 8:25 pm & was immediately followed by an employee who never took the time or consideration to greet nor welcome me to the store.
The Office Depot employee pursued shortly behind me. I walked down an isle, he followed. I walked back up towards the front of the store & he followed. I turned around & he too kept pursuit.
In the store to locate my brother I eventually came across my twin speaking to the employee who’d been following me around yet never asking if I needed help with anything. However, upon seeing that we were together the employee finally asks if he can help me with something. I had began to record the experience personally, noting how disheartening it is to try to shop places and being confronted with racial/​prejudice. I often wear smiles, a beanie I had on because it was cold outside and my longboard which I often use for getting around town. What made this employee believe I was a potential thief is truly bewildering to me.
I work for an ambulance company and if I treated patients with prejudice, as if they were just drug seekers or mentally altered, before actually assessing them and obtaining a history on them then I’d be at great fault for mistreating those who’s care is placed in my responsibility.
I was treated like a common thief soon as I walked into the store by this employee. Who presumed it wiser to lurk behind me as oppose to treating me like everyone else that walks into the store.
I informed the employee that it would be nice if I was confronted with an experience given to all other customers. The employee acted like I was wrong in my assessment of his actions but later informed me that that he was too recording the experience on his phone. «So, you were following me around the store to observe me stealing», I said and he shrugged, rebutting if I was REALLY in the store to buy something. I got the employees name and said I’d be talking to his manager about this and he flipped his store hat around on his head and regressed to some sort of ill mannered sloppy kid one might find in a middle school, not someone who’s working for a company that sells office supplies (or anything, for that matter). The employee continued to attack my brother & I’s intentions, exacerbating the situation any possible way he could. I felt like I was defending myself against a rude little kid who was not fit to deal with all types of people who walk through your doors.
The manager was nice, though I felt the situation was beyond his control because his employee kept speaking with rude punches & displaying an attitude that appeared combustible. I been refrained from saying anything further to the employee that this review is about, because he wasn’t mature enough to be talked to. I assured William (the Office Depot Manager) that I’d be reporting this incident further with your HR department or corporate headquarters because this was not acceptable. He apologized asking me if there was anything he could do & the only thing I could think of was to suggest not hiring people like that.

The worst. The staff here are like Ignatius J. Reilly in Confederacy of Dunces. I can only assume that they are trying to sabotage the corporation and are doing it by torturing one customer at a time.

I just spent an hour in this store. With the intent of spending over $ 200. I waited in line for over 15mins to check out. When I finally got to the cashier and he started to ring up the items, all of the items that were on sale in the aisle rang up at full price. When I mentioned this to him he looked at me like a deer in headlights. At this point, there were at least 10 (equally irritated) customers in line behind. Frustrated and honestly shocked at the lack of cashiers and this cashier’s obvious lack in training, I just said, «you know what man, don’t worry about it.» And walked out of the store.

Night crew has no clue as to what the hell to do. Very poor service and how many people does it take to do a return. While you have people in line waiting to purchase. Why would you walk away from the register??? Must be a new group of folks there.

Severely mismanaged.
While checking out my items, I asked the clerks for a chair that was on display but not publicly stocked. The man helping me went to get a scanner, and took a while coming back. The scanner showed that 2 of the chairs were in stock, but he couldn’t find them. I started walking around the store to help. After a while he threw in the towel and said they didn’t have them. 40 minutes of my time wasted.
And he was helping *everyone* that approached him. I can appreciate that, but it left me just standing there a lot not knowing what was going on. Other clerks in the store definitely could’ve stepped in to help folks on the floor.
We looked at getting the chair delivered, but to get their 30 off 150 deal, all the stuff in my cart would have to be ordered online and delivered instead. What a crappy system, on top of a shitty, time-​wasting experience.
Lady paying in front of me also seemed pissed. She had all these big, loose items, and asked for a box. Office Depot crushes them up. Ok. The clerk then tries to put all her items in a bunch of small, grocery market-​sized bags. Lady gets the most «WTF» look on her face, recomposes herself, and asks for a bigger bag. We were all perplexed by how her request for a box to hold her stuff translated to getting the bags you would use for pens and post-​its.

Every time I go to this store I’m disappointed. There is a lackadaisical approach to customer service. Clerks don’t know the stock, so you have to wander around trying to find things. If you have a question, no one can answer it. And if you need help, forget it. The clerks are nice but put out no effort, and the manager hides from customers.

I had a very upsetting experience with Office Tech recently. I had brought my laptops to them before so felt pretty comfortable with them. This time I was bringing a Toshiba laptop with pop ups and bad viruses. I brought my external hard drive and asked for them to back the laptop up before doing anything to it, but then to remove the viruses. When I got the laptop back the problem still was there, as if they had not worked on it. When I questioned who had worked on it and they researched, indeed they had handed it back to me without anyone working on it. They had said that a similar thing had happened in the past with the same employee who was helping me. When I asked them to fix it without charge, they agreed, but then when I heard from them they said the problem was more than a virus and something to do with my network adapter and motherboard It would cost $ 100 to ship it out of state and a couple hundred to fix estimated. At that point I decided to pick up my computer and go to a local business with folks I could talk to who would actually be working on my laptop. I am very disappointed with the lack of supervision, controls with Office Depot’s Tech section. Every day there are different people on shift and it seems little communication between staff to make sure a customer’s problem is being followed through on. They may have good prices on things, but I’d go elsewhere for service.

Office Depot. Remember their early 1990s commercial campaign set to the 1974 tune «Takin’ Care of Business» by the rock group BTO aka Bachman Turner Overdrive?
Office Depot used to occupy the large space (on Gilman Street) that is now Whole Foods, and moved to a smaller space on Tenth Street – behind the T-​Rex Restaurant, across the street from Walgreens and REI. Not too far from its original location.
I was looking for Post-​It tags and flags for the upcoming spring semester’s readings at Cal while The Mother was looking for Paper Mate felt tip markers. I found many an assortment of Post-​It tags and flags on sale. Whoo Hooo! As for The Mother, she did some comparison shopping between Paper Mate and Sharpie pens. She elected to go with the Sharpies as they were a better deal – and they were on sale.
The new Office Depot space here is much smaller and looks fully filled and stocked. At its former location, it was so spread out and roomy to find items that the space appeared to be empty and was so easy to get lost that either The Mother could not find me and vice versa.
It seems like every time we would come to Office Depot, there would new associates working behind the tills here. And it quite looks like we have many new faces here at Office Depot. The associates behind the till were very sweet and professional in ringing up our orders. There was one associate when we walked in, and by the time we were ready to check out, there was another associate alongside ringing up purchases. The Mother and I were able to get our purchases rung up separately and be done with it.
Office Depot – taking care of business!

I rarely have a good experience there. There is just a sense of apathy and avoidance of customers looking for assistance.
Once I had to leave without all my things because their credit card system was down and they had to hand dial every per chase and it was taking forever.
My last visit, (to get the things I had to leave without) there was a hold-​up in line because a bar code wouldn’t work with their system. (OFTEN HAPPENS, because general sloppiness internally). The line was backed up, someone got on a register finally and she waved the people at the END of the long line to come over. I’d been waiting long and was near the front of the other line, which was frozen because a lackadaisical employee was sauntering around the isles looking for a bar code)_. When me and the other casher pointed this out, the cashier coming on just shrugged in front of us. like «Too bad for you.».
I went ahead and asked if I could move over and the person in the new line said that would be fine (since the cashier REFUSED TO. Then she completed my purchase and I’d forgotten to give my phone number for the discount. I said, «Aren’t you going to ask me for my phone number?» She said, «Awe, it’s too late now.»
AND THIS WAS THE STORE MANAGER!!!
I started going to Office Depot because Office Max was the worlds worst in this way. But now Office Depot is just as bad if not worse. Not ALL employees there are just calling it in. Tony in the copy center has a big heart, but mostly it’s just a zombie zone for employees who are miserable in a miserable corporate culture.
I really hope Office Depot realizes that they cannot compete with online shopping by creating such an abominable customer experience.

I came into this Office Depot because it is conveniently close to where I live. First off, their accidental damage extended warranty, if you don’t have one. Get it! It’s so worth it. I purchased my galaxy tablet from this location in February of this year and the glass cracked because my daughter dropped it. The replacement plan was stress free. The Process only took a week and a half. I wouldn’t of known about it if the helpful associate didn’t tell me about it.
So, I went in last week to purchase my replacement and three different associates helped me including the manager. I really appreciated how hands on they were and extremely helpful. Especially patient because my daughter was all over the place. I ended up upgrading the size of my tablet and purchasing another extended warranty.
They know their products here. Great prices, and I would definitely recommend anyone to purchase their electronics from Office Depot.
Overall, everyone gave me a 110% customer service including the Cashier and I had a great experience. Thumbs up!

Office Depot was the only office supply store that carries computer paper (ones with holes on both sides)
buy: one carton with duplicate ($ 80ish)
–was in the $ 20’s months ago, ½ year?
take outs:
–sign up for something, get 10% back, usuable only at Office Depot…
–service ok.

Two stars because of reduced staffing (one clerk) at the shipping counter during lunch hour.
A big box chain store pretty much has nothing going for it, provided they have the product in stock, other than service, right?

Not much to really write, since at the end of the day — it’s office depot. But it’s certainly nicer and better service since it moved across the street. The old location felt like it was going out of business.
Otherwise, the usual stuff you’d find at any OD.