For better or worse,
Circuit City has gone to that great big box in the sky, and, while we hate to see competition disappear in the retail world, we have a pretty good idea of which shop we might like to see go next. Office Depot has been the victim of various allegations lately, and
Laptop Magazine has managed to get confirmation from numerous sales associates that those allegations about its staff are true, including lying about stock to prevent customers from buying machines without paying extra for extended warranties, and using Photoshop to raise laptop price tags by $100 so that those extended warranties are unavoidable. These and other shady dealings don't seem to be exactly
supported by the company, as Office Depot issued an internal memo telling its sales force to cut it out, but with confirmations from around the country it sounds like this was standard operating procedure. Discouraging, really -- if we were looking for that kind of dishonesty we'd just buy all our gear on eBay.
[Via
Switched]
posted March 18th 2009 7:42AM
I use to work there about 2 years ago, and I can assure you THAT THIS STORY IS TRUE!!! The lies and fabrications got so bad, that myself and a couple of my friends ended up quitting. Office Depot is a terrible terrible company to work for, and I tell everybody I know to not shop there.
I don't see how making a item less attractive to buy (more expensive) is a deception. Just don't buy it people! shop around. go to newegg. :)
I, too, used to work at Office Depot up 'til about 2007. The "attachment rate" they strive for isn't totally ridiculous, but the fact that they [the managament] expect you to sell a $30 6-foot USB cable, overpriced paper, and overpriced printer ink to a customer who is buying a printer, its just dumb. While I was on the floor, I would check to see if we had laptop in stock. Upon *numerous* occasions, my boss would tell me they were "out of stock" of said laptop when I told him/her the customer wasn't buying anything with it, even when there were clearly 12+ of them in stock.
With business practices like this, its no wonder companies are failing. Cant they just be honest? Crazy idea, I know...
When i worked for OfficeMax, they wanted us to sell the gold plated USB cables for $30, because they said that "in order to achieve the print rate specified on the box, you must use a gold plated USB cable, because it's faster than a standard USB cable"
When my manager talked to me to tell me the new procedure, I called bullshit and told her a USB cable is a USB cable and that i'm not going to lie to a customer. She then told me to suggest the gold one first before suggesting the cheaper non-gold plated cable (Which is still 15 bucks). I never sold one goddamn gold plated USB cable.
I didn't get fired, But i hate ripping people off, especially when they trust you with their money! Ridiculous!
I used to work at Office Depot, and this was standard practice. Not only did they do "bundle" pricing for laptops, but also for anything that was on their "Total Solutions" chart. Chairs, Desk, Printers, you name it. It has been years since i have been there, but if you didn't sell a certain amount of extended warranties, you would get write ups. I think I still have some of the documentation on the sales culture here somewhere, if I find it, I'll post back another comment so you can see.
Most large retailers are like that these days. While working at Guitar Center years ago (even before the big corporate buyout that made things even worse), I was constantly pushed to sell these extended warranties ("Performance Guarantees", they call them), and was even initially lied to about what they would cover, information I passed on to customers. All employees had a monthly quota, and if you didn't reach it you risked losing your job, even if you were a top seller. Occasionally it may have been a good idea for certain expensive items that often break easily (another problem altogether), but it is truly absurd when $20 extended warranties are offered for items costing $20, or when one is expected to sell 2-year extended warranties on items that are known to last decades.
An investigation into these practices should be done by a qualified individual. The retailers and the insurance companies which provide the warranties ought to be thoroughly examined. Whether it's legal or not, it's completely unethical, and shows a complete lack of respect for both customers and employees.
Staples associates will tell you a monitor has a 1 year warentee by default in order to sell a extended warentee. Even though the majority of displays the stock have a 3 year manufacturer warentee.
Staples isn't any better. They force customers to pay 80 bucks for a recovery disc, which is just a DVD-R created from the computer itself.
I can do that myself.
"Staples isn't any better. They force customers to pay 80 bucks for a recovery disc, which is just a DVD-R created from the computer itself.
I can do that myself."
That is what MICROSOFT tells them to do to avoid passing out pressed OEM OS DVDs. nearly every single retail laptop has those same terms. Stores have no control over what comes in the box from the manufacturer. As for the $80, it takes 2-3 hours of tech time to watch the DVD get made... so it's a deal, if you can't do it yourself (and lots of people want that done for them, just like setting up firewall, wireless networking and antivirus)
mabhatter Microsoft's OEM policies doesn't force the companies to do that, most charge far less than that to do the "restore disc" for the customer, some even offer one at the cost of the DVD-R. All new Computers, which all come with Vista now, when you first turn them on will advise you to set create a restore disc, and unless your just to lazy to do the initial set up yourself you will get the message the first time you turn it on, and until you make the back up or tell it not to tell you again, which most of your in store set up people won't do, you will continue to get the message, shoot some companies still give you one for free even though its not a Microsoft OEM disc.
@3dpenguin +1
That's exactly what i am talking about!!! Watching the progress bar growing, that's 80 bucks, That's highly technical !!!
Okay first off,tom that is not the price for the recovery disk. I believe u can get a recovery disk plus a setup package for 39.99. To me personally, i wouldnt pay thT amount but thats just because i know how to do it. Its merely for the convience of the customer. An old dude that is using the computer for basics is t gonna want to or know how to do that and for them that might be reasonable. As far as the rest of this goes, the associates use atta hment selling to boost their margin and to acheive goal so there company does t get the boot. I agree though it is ethically wrn g to withhold an item from a customer if its in stock. BUT most places reseve the right to withhold products and enough people shop there that 10 mins later someone comes in to buy it.
As a former employee of Office Depot, I can verify this is true. The company pushes their employees to sell the warranties, if they employee doesn't meet their quote, they are threatened with termination. The managers tell the employees to say anything to get the customers to buy the extended warranties. It is common practice to bring down the price of the item to bundle the warranty in so that the stores can meet their plans sold for the day.
We were told in some cases to tell the customers that the warranty covered anything, I mean anything that happened to the product.
My family usually shops at Office Depot for laptops. After reading this, no more.
If you wanna stick it to O.D. continue to buy from them, but not buy anything extra... most of the time, unless the laptop is not on sale, they are actually LOSING money on the item. The more you buy without extras, the more they hurt.
A week or so ago, I bought a 1 Tb Seagate external drive from Staples. They sold it for $229.99. Future Shop sells it for $129.99, so it was price matched with 10% of the difference to $119.99. Then I pulled out a coupon from their e-newsletter for $25... manager tried to tell me it couldn't be applied but the coupon clearly said it can, so she had to give it to me. Then I used a $10 gift card they gave me with my printer... all in all, $84.99 for a 1 Tb name-brand external drive. I'm pretty sure that was under their cost, given how reluctant they were to sell it to me.
I could feel them pressuring me ("Oh, the Maxtor drives have a much better warranty... those Seagate drives are cheap because they're refurbished....", etc.) and using some dirty tactics (I.E., checking a Future Shop store 300 km away which had no stock for the price match) which turned my guilty-ness for buying it into a small smug-ness.
I went to newegg.com during a sale and got a 1 Tb External for $99.99. Granted I spent a little more than you, but I didn't have to pay tax or piss off 2 people, and use several different pieces of paper to get what I wanted. Hell, I didn't even leave my room. While you were arguing with the manager, I was out eating a nice lunch after my hard 15 minutes of shopping.
GO NEWEGG.COM
Unfortunately, all I have is... Newegg.ca. Which--trust me--isn't as good as Newegg.com.
TigerDirect.ca is overpriced and filled with refurbished junk. NCIX.com is alright, but more for internal components...
Quite frankly, this does not surprise me one bit. I never even would consider purchasing any electronics equipent from Office Depot.
1. I can point out a misleading sales associate in less that 1 second, and never found an honest one at any of their Louisville stores.
2. They rarely offer better pricing than online outlets.
Years ago when I worked at Best Buy it was a similar story. If we were having a bad day for our warranty numbers, things mysteriously were all of a sudden "out of stock" and when there was a lot of price matching going on (Circuit City offering $100 of computers, etc), if a customer wasn't aware of it, we'd "speak to our manager" who miraculously offered to knock $100 off the warranty just for the customers troubles though on their receipt the $100 came off the computer as a price match, etc. Then as time went on, accessories became a big deal too so we had to sell a certain amount of "gold" plated accessories because their markup was way higher then the non-gold ones. If your numbers were too low in either category, it could result in a writeup. This was all encouraged behavior.
Personally I think all the stores are guilty of things like this. (Best Buy, Office Depot, Staples, etc)
The last sentence from the blog says "if we were looking for that kind of dishonesty we'd just buy all our gear on eBay. "
Why are you hating on eBay? They don't pull this crap.
I think they were talking about the sellers on eBay not eBay itself.
Since unscrupulous sellers are a lucrative part of ebay, then ebay is not innocent at all.
I think he is referring to the zombies who fall into the trap of paying too much on eBay.. You got to be alert..check ratings..anything less than 95%...it's not worth buying from..
Yeah that bothered me too. I do buy all my stuff on eBay, and I trust it more than I do office Depot or Staples.
Some years ago, I purchased a sony laptop from Circuit City. A few days later, I went back to the store to inquire about purchasing the extended warranty. Before I could finish my sentence, the lady behind the counter barked, "IT DOES NOT COVER A BROKEN SCREEN." I'm guessing she assumed that I bought the warranty and broke the screen. Needless to say, I did not purchase the warranty.
anyways, the best place to look for a deal on laptops is slickdeals.net. Check the forums and don't pull the trigger unless it's a 5 star deal. You will pay a great deal less than you would pay at a retail store.
@yakapo
+1.. Look who is broken now (karma)
Thing is...If you bought the lappy with a good credit card, chances are your cc company will provide you with additional year of warranty. Just remember to keep your receipts, as the warranty is reimb. based, You pay first, reimb later.
I am a past office depot technology associate.. I have no problem buying technology from office depot... granted it is my old store and they still have the same passwords on the computer so i can see real invoice and msrp on any computer...
I sold the most product protection plans in my area and 3rd in my district but i would never buy one myself..
There is a lot of shady dealings with managment at office depot including a push for any attachment and threat of termination or movement into another department if your attachment rate fell below a certain level.. Hell the tech service is nothing more then someone using a vpn to vnc into the computer and run FREEWARE software like PCDECRAPIFYER (that is the actual program they use) to "clean" the computer...
Granted when you make minimum wage and they offer 10% on all warrenties and tech services it is a huge incentive to push them.. I never decieved a customer into buying them, but i highly encouraged and sometimes toed the line into deception about what the plan covers.. but never lied, cheated, or stole from my customers.. but i did see a lot of associates who would..
I worked during college and money was a big deal when you have none... I wouldnt discourage anyone from buying a computer from office depot, it is a lot better then worestbuy but always check your receipt and inquire as to what different sku numbers are....
Now if a customer was a real jerk or trying to nickle and dime me and flat out said there is no chance they will buy anything else i might tell them the computer is out of stock at my store but it is in stock at another store...
".. I never decieved a customer into buying them, but i highly encouraged and sometimes toed the line into deception about what the plan covers.. but never lied, cheated, or stole from my customers.. but i did see a lot of associates who would.."
Translation: I lied to customers, but try to justify it to myself.
"I sold the most product protection plans in my area and 3rd in my district but i would never buy one myself.."
Why would you sell someone something they don't need? I understand that they are the ones stupid enough to buy the plan, but you're the one pushing.
Why does a car salesman try to charge you msrp when you know the dealership is probably willing to go a little above invoice?
Money..
No i didnt outright lie to the customer.. if they asked me if it is benefical to them i told them what the policy covers.. i just choose words that made it sound to be more then what it really is but none of it is really a lie and contradictory to what the policy was..
Office depot technology associates make no money on electronics.. if you sell 1000 laptops or 0 laptops you get the same pay.. but you do get 10% of the warrenties you sell.. so if i can sell a 200 dollar warrenty.. that was an additional 20 bucks in my pocket.. you saying you wouldnt have tried to sell as many as you can? But downright lieing is horrible.. bending the truth is just a sales tactic as long as you dont break that line
If you said an item was out of stock and it wasn't...you are a liar. If you are looking for sympathy go hug your mom and ask her for a warm glass of milk. You are a piece of crap.
the only Credit card i know of that actively extends the warrenty 1 year past manufacturer is american express blue
Almost every "gold" or "platinum" VISA/Mastercard does the same.
I just made an order for my story from a catalog that I rec'vd 2 hours before placing the order. There was a free item that was to be given if you ordered a certain amount of product. They called and when I asked about it, I was told that the item wasn't available and they could substitute what ever they wanted....... I got the items I ordered thru delivery yesterday and there was any free item with the stuff. I'd sure like to know how they figured what to substitute and where that item went..... False advertizing.
I will also get my office product from elsewhere net time. There are tooooooo many places that give the same stuff at better prices. Office Depot will be the next company to go......
I've seen this story linked multiple times now, and the original Laptop Magazine article is one of the most biased and unfair pieces I have ever read. It's fairly obvious from the comments here that the business model used by all the major electronics retailers is the same and that they all make money in the same ways, but Office Depot is targetted rather than investigating all the comments about other stores. I know my store does not push a quota on us, nor does our manager encourage us to lie to customers about stock. Nor have we ever Photoshopped a price tag.
This new article adds two more interviews and concludes that it is therefore commonplace across ALL stores. How great of a sampling is that? And from my experience working at Office Depot, there is no way that "Alex" can make an assumption that a clearance deal "always" some form of scam.
I think it depends on the Office Depot you worked for, as to whether they are shady or not. The one I worked for in Madison, WI didn't do any of the things described above. I think it comes down to what kind of manager a store has.
The last time I went to Office Depot was a few months back to buy a HP all in one that was on sale for $50. That was the last time I will ever set foot in one of their stores.
I asked an associate if they had the printer in stock. After 15 minutes of fumbling around he finally found some and brought me one. He then proceeded to give me a long speech about the extended warranty and how I should get it. Despite me saying "no thanks" about 5 times he just kept going. Finally he gave up and said I could get rung up at the cashier. So I walked on over to the checkout lane and as I was walking up I saw the cashier look at the guy who just got me my printer and nod her head. The first thing out of her mouth wasn't a good day, how are you doing, or anything like that. It was, "Would you like the extended warranty?" At this point I'm trying really hard not to scream, but I didn't want to be rude, so I politely declined. She then pulled out the warranty booklet and tried to show me what a "great deal" it was. I just said, "No thanks, I don't want it. Just ring me up please." She then proceeded to tell me "in these tough economic times $50 is a lot of money if the printer ever breaks."
I'm on the point of murdering everyone in the store or just walking out. A printer is not worth this much hassle. I decline the warranty for what has to be the 15th time, and she FINALLY scans the bar code to ring me up while shaking her head and letting me know what poor decision I was making.
Then my nightmare got worse. Another associate walks up next to the cashier and tries to play all nice and ask me how I was doing. I mumble "fine" to her. "Oh, have you heard about our extended warranty?" I do a facepalm, try to take a deep breath, but lose it.
After a few choice words, a lot of which began with the letter F, I signed the credit card slip, grabbed my printer, and walked out of that hell hole.
I will never, ever, give Office Depot my business again. I would rather deal with the Neanderthals at Wal-Mart then them. At least when you say no to the extended warranty the first time they shut up.
What do you expect.. office depot probably just lost money selling you that printer when there is a profit margin of about 5-10% on it and they probably marked it down 30% on sale.. that is why cables are more expensive.. because they have to make up a profit somewhere
With that type of service why didn't you just leave the printer on the checkout counter and walk out? They still made money on your sale and you still gave them your business even when being treated badly. That is what makes them think they can get away with pestering people into buying the warranties. If you really want to give them a message, just say "No, I already told you I didn't want the warranty however if you are going to bug me about it, I will take my business somewhere else. This transaction is void." and walk out of the store.
Their tag line says it all, really.
"Taking care of business."
Never did like Office Depot. They never had any good items on sale, refused to price-match with BB once when I was trying to get this printer/scanner thingamajig. I even went by myself in the printer aisle, checked the SKU, and then told them the SKU's match and since they said they'll price match, along with the mail-in rebate I was eligible for (which made it a good deal).
The sales associate walked a few feet away, said s'thing in that black mic hanging from the shirt, proceeded to waste 10 mins of my time directing me away from the printer aisle while another sales associate walked up to the printer/scanner with a piece of paper, checked it, picked up the printer/scanner and put up an "Out-of-stock" sign.
Then the cheeky bastard comes up to the SA who was blabbering on and on in my ear trying to get my attention, and says they're "Out of stock". Hah! I just went to BB and bought it (price diff of $20).
Real shady
'Associate' lol :D
Yeah, those place are crap. Its even worst at FutureShop (the St-Catherine street one, not the others) in Montreal because the staff trying to force you those extended warranties appear not have taking a shower since weeks. I had walk away from a transaction one time because I couldnt stand be near the guy billing my cables. The smell... oh god! I dont care about minority (and im a minority since I live in japan) but you are doom to be a minority in your own minority if you smell like that.
ps; Sorry for the grose comment.
You were in Montreal, what did you expect?
@Seminole
Why did you buy the printer? Let your dollars talk and show them that they are not worth it. Buying from places that suck only allows them to stay around.
@Saltboy
My 3 year old Brother printer had just broken, and I really needed a printer. The sale was a pretty good one, considering the printer normally cost over $100. I would have walked out, but I didn't have the time to go somewhere else and I didn't feel like searching around again for a decent printer at a good price. If it had been for any other product that I didn't absolutely need that day I would have left after declining the warranty twice.
These types of practices have alway concerned me when buying a PC or laptop from big chain stores. The one time that I had a good experience at Best Buy was just a few months ago. Some friends were in the market for a new laptop and I went with them to help since they weren't exactly computer savvy. I warned them that the employees at the computer department would push really hard for warranties and other extras that weren't necessarily needed when ringing us up. Fortunately the best buy worker gave them the box and let us check out at the front instead of the computer section. The cashier up front was a young teenage girl who was more concerned with talking with her friends than trying to get us to buy an overpriced warranty. They walked out paying for just the laptop without the extra hassle. I would suggest going to the regular cash register in the front if you can. It's much faster and without the hassle.
Well guys this is not limited to big box stores. I know for a fact from working for Electroics Boutique (EB Games) for over 10yrs what goes on with warrenties. First off there is no insurance company backing these things. When we started warrenties what was done if you had one and you playstation stopped working we would just give you a new one and sent the broken one back to Sony. We even replaced one that a guy shot. It had a bullet hole right though it we kept it on display in corp. office. Well after about a year or two of doing this Sony was like why are your deffective returns soo high? That is when they started tracking serial numbers on systems. So now if you seek a replacement you get a tradein refrub system.
I was even called to a meeting by the president of stores to explain why we replaced a gameboy unit that look liked it was melted in the mirowave. I looked at him and said we replace anything for any reason. Well that brought about a change.
As a district manager I was also told if your stores do not meet ESA sales goal you have to write up the manager and or employees and after 2 write ups they could be fired. I never fired anyone for that reason.
There were also ESA scams being done where mamagers was putting ESA sku's on old hint books and selling them or selling mulitable warrenties on 1 system like a 1yr and a 2 yr making customers think they had 3yrs of coverage.
My advice is if you take care of you electronic toys they do not break. They only time one might be needed is new tech. like when the Xbox 360 came out.
You have been warned.
As a current employee of the company, I am saddened and dismayed that talk of so called procedures becomes nothing more than a Brittany Spears type gossip rag witch hunt. I sell technology and never once, in different locations, have I ever been asked to fabricate or lie. But I see that the online yellow journalism is alive and well. Obviously, the minds have been made up because someone, somewhere lives their life unethically.
I work for a company that is fighting for their retail life because so many people have made their minds up that they would rather shop with the Best Buys or the Walmarts of the world, who ironically enough, have their own issues from beginning to end in how they strongarm every part of the logistics chain. And most consumers are not only ignorant of the product they're buying, but even more so as to how retail works. If you only want one choice, keep going the way you are out there. You'll get your wish.
Well there are countless stories about plenty of employees and managers who do lie, have lied, and continue to lie about certain products. Maybe you are the Angel of Office Depot, but when many people are giving accounts that contradict yours, you will have to do better than insulting the way other companies do business. That tactic, to me, indicates you are justifying the way you do business because "others do it too", or something similar to what you do.
And as far as "the logistics chain"..That is business, deceiving customers is illegal. Manufacturers do not have to sell to Walmart if the price is wrong. On the other hand, customers do HAVE THE RIGHT, to expect honesty from salespeople. That's why one is illegal (lying to customers) and one is legal, practical business.