Office Depot

This Office Depot is a neat presence. It has a wide variety of electronics that have made popularity, but little to none of the cutting edge as with say Best Buy. There are frequent sales, through the appropriateness of their prices are all over the map.
It is usually fun to look around. Do compare prices thoroughly with all kinds of other retailers. A nearby Rite Aid may have the same thing, though here goes more in depth for offices.
This store is right for increasing productivity.

I run a business downtown Portland and have visited this location several times over the 5 years our company has been open. The location is super convenient, service has never been stellar, but what can you expect from an office supply store?
What you can expect is a company to stand by its products. On one occasion, they sold me ink that somehow was empty. On another occasion, I purchased an item to hang a poster and it was missing half of the backing?! Both these times, they reluctantly exchanged the products, but they did exchange them.
The icing on the cake was when I purchased a fax/​printer from them. Less than two weeks into it, the printer would print half pages, at most ¾ of a page or combine two pages into one and jam up like crazy! I have wasted an incredible amount of paper and ink trying to get this thing to work. With our busy season among us, I didn’t have the time to take it back or sit on the customer service line for hours. Finally, the fax started only printing half pages last week. I know this sounds old school, but we get a ton of business via fax, so we can’t go without having this working. I went back in to the store only to hear that they need a receipt for any return, fair enough, but they can not look it up for me. So they give me this number to call so they can look up the receipt. Totally fine, I call the number only to have them tell me since I purchased it in store, I had to go into the location to get the receipt. Umm. I was just told to call this number? They then put me on hold for 30 minutes — I wish I was exaggerating! I finally get through to someone, give them the info, then they say that their system is acting up and they need to call tech support and put me on hold again. Another 15 minutes later, she comes back and gets all the info again and says she will email me the receipt within 48 hours. (Meanwhile, we are still only getting half orders printed from the fax). Now it is 5 days later, and I STILL do not have the receipt they said they would forward to me. So I go back in the store to speak with the manager and hopefully have something resolved. The girl in the store told me her manager was not on site today and would be back tomorrow. So I asked for the Regional Manager’s information. She refused to give that to me and said there was nothing she could do, while saying to me «I don’t think its fair for you to come in and request a free printer» — umm. I’m not requesting a free printer, I am asking for you to exchange the one you sold me that is defective for one that will actually function! So… I call the customer service line back and explain the situation, they then proceed to try to transfer me AGAIN to the receipt retrieval line. A while goes back, and I am redirected back to him since no one picked up. I try and explain that I don’t want to wait 45 minutes again for something that will not come through and to transfer me to someone who can help me fix this scenario. He says, you have to wait on the line first… again, I say I do not want to wait for receipt retrieval. He says, there’s nothing I can do, wait on the line. then transfers me before I can get a word out!
Horrible customer service. I will never visit any Office Depot again. I encourage everyone else to make sure they are not treated this way!

I’ve been in the store 4 times in the last 2 weeks, I have dealt with 2 assistant managers and 3 sales employees. The service has been excellent, surprising because I had read reviews suggesting service was lacking — Seems not true today!
I had my laptop serviced at a reasonable price, with a rapid turnaround time, and excellent advice on the pros and cons of repairing it or buying a newer model. I bought a chair, special order, and returned it the following week for a different model, return total time under 20 minutes.
They do an excellent job with inventory in a smaller store with less space than larger stores. The store size mainly affects office furniture and computers, they respond by getting items within 24 hours of order. The size of the store is the only thing that keeps this from being a 5 star review.

Nice service, lots of supplies, some discounts. Why not!

The worst costumer service everrrrrrr. It took me three weeks just to get the binder I wanted from there website. The binder I order was not the one they gave me.

I’ve always felt that not nearly enough businesses sell printer ink. And somehow it seems like the places that have ink never have the kind I need. Maybe I have the wrong kind of printer. But I digress.
The other day I was near the Lloyd Center and needed printer ink. Thinking that the Lloyd Center has everything, I went there. Turns out there is at least one thing you can’t buy at the Lloyd Center: printer ink. Radio Shack and Sears both have a (very) limited selection of one or two brands, but if you need Epson, look elsewhere. I was so frustrated after walking around the mall that I just went home.
The next day I was downtown and went the one place that I knew would have every kind of printer ink cartridge ever invented: Office Depot. This location is super convenient smack in the middle of downtown Portland on SW 6^th. It’s nothing spectacular, but if you need any type of office supplies they have everything you need. Epson 124? In stock. Epson 125?! Yep, they have those too.
So would I come back? Yes, and probably sooner than I’d like. It is what it is: A-​OK.

In the middle of downtown and walking distance from my office, I have stopped in on a number of occasions. It was always for little things, like 25 sheets of card stock. I didn’t need or want an entire ream of 250 sheets, just needed enough for a small project. Since they have the copy center, this type of request is an easy one.
The staff are always friendly and knowledgable, something I really appreciate!

Maybe it’s because I’ve been away from Portland for a while and forgot about the amazing customer service that can happen here.
Or maybe it’s because this Office Depot is hiring and training its staff really well.
I had a great experience here buying a pad of paper and a folder. As I walked in, a friendly staff person greeted me and asked what I needed her help finding. She took me to a few different places to show me paper. When I asked if she just had a pad of 8 ½ by 11 lined paper (rather than a package of pads), she disappeared to go hunt, and came back with one. She said, let’s just call that 75 cents? Heck yes, lets.
With that kind of deal, I felt free to get my favorite folder (out of about 5 choices that would have worked). The man who checked me out was just as nice.
Minus one star for crappy downtown parking (I was already in the area), and a relatively small office depot.

Wow, how they have changed. No more down stairs!
Got a fast copy for 20 cents!

They’re really workin’ it on customer service… I went in today for an office chair. I’m a bottom-​feeder these days, and am always bargain-​hunting. I was lucky enough to be met by Nate, the store manager, who took a good long time to help me understand all the different chairs and prices and then helped me feel good about buying the cheapest one. I live downtown and don’t have a car (so not many options), but I’m very satisfied and will go back.

They probably have everything, really, if you can find it. Every time I go in this store I feel like I have to walk every isle to find that 1 thing, yes, just that one thing I went in for.
Service? I can stand around in this place and just look stupid before anyone will approach with the standard, «May I help you?» I’ve even stood so conspicuously in front of the display I’m interested in, to no avail. Alas.
Well, it’s downtown and it’s convenient, I’ll give them that. Anymore, I just buy what I think I need, hoping it’s right. If not, oh well, it’s convenient so I’ll just take it back. No problem.
Maybe a change to the layout would be helpful. Oh well. Like I said, you just get what you need and go. I’m not moving in or anything.

As I start to jump into the world of reviewing more and more of the places I go (I was going to say everywhere I go, but sometimes my activities are just plain too boring for a review), I fear I’m going to say things like I’m about to say about Office Depot more and more. But, there goes…
It’s Office Depot. You know what Office Depot is like. It’s Office Depot-​y. Now, it helps to review each store because the service may be great or poor at any one location or the selection may be better or worse. However, the overall feel of the place should be «Office Depot-​y» or corporate is doing their job wrong. If I were writing a review about how Office Depot-​y this place is, it would definitely get a five star. Alas, I am not. I am writing about my experience in going into this Office Depot on a cold late Fall day, more to get out of the cold on our way home than anything else, but also to buy a pen. I ended up with a box of pens and Tim and Jason ended up playing with both the iPad and the Droid tablet on display. Good times. Yes, good times. Well, you know, mediocre times really, but we were in an Office Depot. Compared to the surroundings of shelves of office supplies, finding a box of pens (yes, I ended up with a whole box instead of just the one) and playing with a couple of tablets seems like the best time in the world, right?
Oh yeah, I’m not writing a novel. Back to the point. It was Office Depot-​y. That would get a four star rating normally as I like them better than Office Max (I shudder just thinking of going into the Office Max near my home) and they actually have locations, unlike Staples. It got brought down a star, however, because of the fact that I couldn’t find a plain old box of Bic pens and the guy behind the counter gave an annoying «vote for me» speech when I bought the simple box of pens — you know, «here’s our survey, I hope your experience was great, my name is Jamie, I have a wife and 62 children to feed, please don’t give me a bad review or they put me in an isolation chamber for 16 hours for each bad review.» Something like that, I stopped listening when he wouldn’t give me the receipt because he was writing all over it and I just wanted my receipt. Mine. Gimme.

I’m standing downtown –in the misty, not really true Portland rain mind you– and I’m thinking to myself: «Do I reeeeeeally have to go in here?»
And then I think: «Yeah. Yeah I do.»
The problem is that office supply stores are basically a choose your own adventure kind of place [1] and as fun as that can be, remember that sometimes those books end in disaster.
Disaster like: I only really need a binder for a presentation, but here comes the landslide of dividers and tabs and colored card stock and pens and double sided tape and a rubber band ball for good measure. (Hey I’ve always wanted one.)
But this two story Office Depot in the heart of downtown offers adventure in printing, electronics & supply discovery. Where staff is dispersed around to direct you down the long aisles for just what you’re looking for, and likely by a few things you never thought you’d need. Prices are the typical corporate amount that you’d expect. Like many places, if you know you’re going, check the ad beforehand… of course that’s just common sense though.
It’s nice to have a general place like this downtown for the basics. You can get in, find what you need fairly easily, and then quickly check out so you can get on to your next adventure and back out in the wannabe rain.
[1]
If you decide to UFC this review: Give yourself a high-​5.
If you decide to not: Watch out for impending doom.

I was so amazed going into this Office Depot. It was like a depot, for office supplies. So amazing… just kidding, it is a great place to go. The minute you walk through the door you realize that this is probley one of the best Office Depots to go to in Portland. Once you walk through the door the people are so nice to you. If you need a question answered then they will answer it. Yes I know it’s downtown and all but its worth it.