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Office Max

Office Max Competes with Staples

Ohio official files suit against OfficeMax by CBS MarketWatch.com  January 14, 2005. OfficeMax Inc. was sued by the Ohio Attorney General's office Friday for allegedly failing to honor rebates and provide rainchecks when items on sale weren't in stock. See also Ohio AG sues OfficeMax for missed rebates at dealnews.com. January 20, 2005 

Office Max would not come and pick up a defective Xerox printer

I bought a Xerox DocuPrint P8 Laser Printer from the Office Max catalog and wanted to return it because it never worked. See my gripes on the printer for why. 

I first called Office Max on or about Dec 5, 1999 to pick up the printer. This was only a couple days after the printer had been delivered. I got an RMA number and waited. Weeks later, still no pickup. I called them on the phone six different times and even got a second RMA number. A couple times they said it would take time to research the problem and they would call me back. Neither time did they call back.

To call this a computer gripe is, admittedly, stretching the point a bit, but after getting nowhere on the phone, I started to contact customer service thru their web site. You can't email them directly, but they provide forms on a web page devoted to returning items.

I first emailed them January 12, 2000 at 11am. No response. 
I emailed them again on January 12, 2000 at 11pm. No response.  

I emailed them again on January 13, 2000 and got the following reply (because I provided a different email address this time, I know the reply was to this message, not one of the above).

Of course, no one contacted me about picking up the broken printer. I told Nancy that, but never heard back from her.

I sent them another email January 15, 2000.  No reply.

I sent another email January 17, 2000 and got a reply a few hours later:

We have emailed our delivery center about your order numerous times. Andre from XXXXXXX XXXXXX 999 has told us numerous times that he would resolve this for you, and give you a call. They are closed at this hour, so I have emailed him again. Please call us during business hours, and we will transfer you directly to the person, who has told us that he has taken care of your order. We do apologize for any inconvenience. From: OnlineCSR10
* address withheld for good luck

I replied call who? At what phone number?  They responded the next morning:   

Call 1(800)283-7674, and tell them you need to speak to Andre at XXXXXX 999 . We are open 24/7, however that XXXXXXX XXXXXX  is eastern time zone. You can also call Andre directly at (999)999-9999*.  We do apologize for any inconvenience. Please let us know if you have any other questions.
* addresses and phone numbers withheld for good luck

I suppose after 44 days that I should have been glad for any progress. My first reaction however, was that they were asking me to do their job for them. I wrote back and said so, and also asked who I should complain to. Got a response immediately:

I have done my job by contacting the correct person at the delivery center to take care of your issue. From this point it is his job to contact you. We have emailed him again with your issue, and attached an urgent message. I am not located at the delivery center, and this pick up has to be done by our delivery center. Andre is the contact on your order, therefore this is who, I have been contacting. We do apologize for any inconvenience.
OnlineCSR10 <OnlineCSR10@officemax.com>

Oh well. Still they avoided the issue of who or where to file a complaint. I responded and asked this question again.

January 18, 2000.  At this point I really want to complain about the delay in picking up the printer. I  go to another section of the web site, the general questions/answers area and asked there who or how I can file a complaint. Up to now, my electronic communication with Office Max has been through the section of their web site dedicated to the returns department. 

I called Andre this afternoon.

The first phone call was fruitless, I got disconnected while being transferred.
On the second call I spoke to Andre who was helpful. He said the delay is not his fault. His computer showed that OfficeMax generated two "call tags" to UPS to pick up my printer. The first one was issued December 6, 1999, I didn't ask the date of the second one.

He suggested that since the normal process has failed, that I call UPS to pick up the printer myself. He gave me the (800) number for UPS and told me the Office max shipper number and the type of service for UPS to use. When I commented that their computer system lets a pickup go unanswered for 44 days without flagging it, he admitted their computer systems were not the best. 

My first call to UPS was fruitless because they needed to know the address to ship the printer to. Andre had said that they would know this based on the shipper number. This was not the case. I then called Office Max again to see where to send the package and was told to send it to the address on my receipt. The next call to UPS went fine. The package was picked up about an hour later! After waiting 44 days, it got picked up in an hour. Wow. I also got a response about who to complain to.

January 21, 2000. The credit appears on my credit card bill. 

February 8, 2000. Someone from UPS came today to pick up a package for Office Max.. About 63 days after I first requested the pick up. You can't make this stuff up.