Staples the Office Superstore

I’ve purchased products from a couple other Staples stores, never had any problems… this store had several very helpful employees who were very courteous and hard working who made sure I found what I needed, a phone and a wireless router. After growing up in Northern California, the customer service and work ethic of Oregon employees is really refreshing. Friendly, helpful, enthusiastic, what a concept.

Went here to get 50 5×7 front and back copies for a takeout menu that I created. The jpegs were exactly the same size so I thought it wouldn’t be an issue at all. The FIRST day I went in there was only one man working who apparently is the head of copying and printing… say what? It was a super busy afternoon and he was the ONLY one working the entire station (it’s very big – self copying machines, ups shipping, ordering, checkout, the works!) I immediately realized how busy this man was, so I tried to remain patient. Finally I gave him my flashdrive and attempted to explain what I needed to have done, which in my mind was a simple task. I had to repeat myself countless times as he acted like he understood what I wanted done but was clearly not listening. He at one point helping 4 different customers at once, which is quite hard when each station is unique to itself. He kept frantically coming back to me with a new print-​out that was nothing like what I wanted. Finally my boyfriend came back from perusing the store and took his turn at trying to explain our simple task. Finally after half and hour dealing with this employee’s incompetence we put some faith in his ability to hopefully get this right, since he finally acted like he understood what we wanted. When we asked when it would be done he frantically explained that he had another employee coming in at 1pm and would call when it was done (he made it sound like it would be fast once she got in) Later on, with no phone call, I decided to go back to the store at 4:30pm thinking they probably had it finished but didn’t call… when I got there the SAME man, with his assistant there, explained that he hadn’t even started and to «give him 5 minutes» and to «take a look around the store» while I waited. I walked around the store for 15 minutes before he brought over the first rough draft which was horrible. I then walked around more as he fixed it and became impatient as it seemed like such a simple task that he was clearly not understanding. Finally, on an 8.5×11 piece of paper he showed me what the 5×7 printed in the middle, but basically what I wanted. He also notified me that it would cost $ 8 more for him to cut it. I was puzzled why he hadn’t printed 2 since they could both fit on a regular size piece of paper. I told him after 45 minutes that I would be across the street at Home Depot. After 20 minutes over there I came back and found that this man was no where to be seen, but his assistant, after ignoring me for quite some time, came over and asked me if I was picking up. I said yes and told her my name, but she called the man on her headset to come and help me (because she couldn’t handle ringing me out??) So after waiting he came back to the front and charged me $ 66 for 50 copies, which I thought was a big overpriced.
I brought the menus home and showed them to my boyfriend. We both agreed they were horrible. The were cut completely uneven and he had charged us for 50 8.5×11 pages! Why? Because he was completely incompetent! We decided to bring them back the next day. I didn’t even go in the store due to my frustration with the whole situation. But FINALLY my boyfriend dealt with 2 completely competent employees who said our finished product looked awful and said they would redo the entire thing for half the price. They were completely understanding and helpful, which gave me faith this could be done correctly.
The next day I got a call from one of the helpful employees (Chi) who said our order was ready to go and I could come pick them up and be refunded half the price. I went in and became instantly upset to see that neither helpful employees were now on duty… it was the assistant girl from my first experience. She gave off a very rude attitude as she found my order and then claimed that I OWED half of our returned order. I explained that I thought we needed to be refunded, but she assured me her fellow employee had explained that we had already been refunded and now I owed $ 33. She rudely let a customer go ahead of me and then let out impatient noises as I explained that I needed to be REFUNDED, not charged. She had to call over a manager and claimed that she didn’t even understand what the whole thing was about. Finally, I got $ 66 back since she had charged me an extra $ 33! This whole thing has made me so upset that this business clearly has the wrong people working in the station as the HEAD of the department! These people were rude and incompetent and I will never take my printing or copying business there again!

I did not know that Staples policy was to not take back ANY electronic item including monitors after 14 days, but that is what the manager here told me. So now we have a monitor with a warranty good until 2015 and they won’t take it back! This is ridiculous! Don’t purchase from Staples when other companies stand by the products they sell. I have the receipt, the original box and my staples card with the purchase on it too. We even have the plastic bags the wires came in, and the wrapping for the monitor itself! And they still won’t take it back.
Any time a company will not stand behind their products there is a something wrong. We have been good customers of Staples, but will not purchase our future electronics from them and I just wanted people to know this 14 day policy of theirs so you have a choice to purchase or not.

They were under-​staffed (which I totally feel for) but also kind of… incompetent?
I was giddy for an external hard-​drive. So giddy I knew I’d buy one there and get home and feel slightly guilty for not being patient and checking out my other options. So giddy, that after 15 minutes of wandering around, looking for someone to talk to, trying to talk to staff as they were running up and down aisles and talking on the phone; and seeing the floor manager running around just as crazy-​frantic-​curt as the rest of the staff, that my giddiness deflated into a flat balloon of sadness.
It’s better for me that they didn’t have the staff to help me, because I probably should wait and research, and now I will, but I was bull-​headed about buying one TODAY. And frankly, I’ve never been in any of these types of store that didn’t have about a million staff in red shirts pacing the aisles, chatting everyone up.
Boo.