A while back, I praised Office Depot’s free shipping and the way they integrated their e-commerce model into their b-n-m model. Two years later, I have to say I’m still quite pleased with Office Depot (especially for a “superstore”), though for a slightly different reason.
From the last half-dozen or so orders I’ve placed with OD in the last couple of years I don’t think they’ve gotten a single one right from start to finish. Either they’d forget to deliver an item, they’d deliver a wrong item, they’d forget to apply a coupon, or they’d charge the wrong amount. But I’ve always said that it’s not about whether or not you make mistakes, but you how you handle them when you do. And Office Depot has handled every mistake to my satisfaction. They’ve picked up incorrect items and redelivered the proper items at their expense and they’ve applied coupons after the fact and refunded money after a purchase. This past week I placed an order for over $50 so that I could use a $15 off coupon. They informed me that one of the items wasn’t in stock and after only a little convincing, they still allowed me to use my $15/off coupon, even though my total order had slipped to $35.
Despite my short fuse for crappy service, I guess my faith in a company is renewed pretty quickly when their customer service treats me right when something goes wrong.
Posted in Consumer Commentary