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Company: Office Depot

Location: 4428 Convoy St
San Diego, CA, 92111, US

Category: Other

My boyfriend and I have certainly had bad customer service before. But usually whether we like it or not we can find SOME explanation for it...we're in a store at a too-busy time, we're there just AFTER a busy time when the staff is still in a state of "battle fatigue," we're underdressed or otherwise not lookins like their target market...SOMETHING. But the lack of service we received last Saturday at this Depot was in a headscratching class of its own.

We stopped in for one specific item (plastic coupon sorter/storage envelope), and the star I'm giving this place is awarded ONLY to the one helpful employee in the aisles who promptly and politely directed us right to their full stock of such items (even specifying where the cardboard versions were in case we wanted to check those too).

After picking up the envelope we proceeded to browse/wander through the rest of this VERY starkly fluorescent-lit warehouse store to see if there was anything we needed on sale. After a few minutes we walked through the deserted store up to the one staffed register with a coupon sorter, a printer cartridge, and a box of cheap pens. Only one customer ahead of us with a cartful of 3-ring binders. No big deal....

...WRONG. We can only assume we were granted the power of invisibility somewhere along our journey, because our presence was never even acknowledged once in the next 5-10 minutes, and at least 2 staff members looked straight THROUGH us at point-blank range.

We watched the lady in front of us...otherwise known as THE ONLY OTHER CUSTOMER IN THE STORE...as she tried unsuccessfully but very politely to get store credit for returning 78 plastic 3-ring binders 5 days after the "return by" date on her receipt. 2 clerks and an assistant manager explained to this remarkably calm woman that because she was 5 days late she could only exchange the items by buying equivalent merchandise RIGHT NOW.

The BF and I fought off the urge to intervene on her behalf, just as we fought off the vaguely seasickness-inducing effects of the bad lighting, and quietly waited for someone to ring us up as she went off to look for replacement binders. We couldn't help wondering why there was yet another employee visibly lounging in the employee office and 3 unoccupied checkouts while we were left unserved, but we figured one of the 2 guys milling around 3 feet in front of us would get to us sooner or later....or at least say they'd get to us once they were done with Binder Lady. But no. Cloak of invisibility in complete and full effect, we didn't get even a glance of eye contact, let alone a word or gesture. We began conversing about the service problem, wondering if we should just leave and see if they had the coupon sorters at the former KMart down the street. Still no attention...apparently there was something very important the 2 clerks needed to mess with behind the counter and we were inaudible as well as invisible. After a few minutes of having this conversation with a $20 bill already on the counter ready to pay, we gave up. Even our frustrated exclamations of "Oh MAN, you guys SUCK" produced no reaction at all as we dropped our merch on the counter and went out the door.

Don't know if Office Depot HQ cares, but we'll find out...formal complaint gets emailed today!