A very unsatisfied customer

Staples.com is a very unreliable website when it comes to in-stock or out-of-stock products. I went online to their website yesterday and found this hp laptop that I really liked and I checked their in-store availability because they were out of stock on the website. I remember seeing that the product was still available at some of the locations around me, so I went to one of the stores to buy it. After I got to the store, I spoke with an employee there and asked for the product. He looked up the product in their system and told me that this store is actually low on stock. That employee then went to check if they have the laptop in the back and returned to me with a no. He also suggested that I try a different location that was nearby (about a 25 minute drive from where I was). But before I drove there, I decided to call to make sure they have something there, which was a very wise choice because as expected, they were out of stock too. Apparently I double checked this time online and saw the check store availability list and both stores were still listed as they were in stock for the laptop. Fortunately I didn’t give up that easily, so I continued refreshing the webpage that I was on for another couple of times. After refreshing the page, I noticed that the staples website was updated and I could actually place an order online. This time I placed an order and was a little confused as to why the delivery date changed from 1 day to 4 business days in between the time I added the item to my shopping cart and the time I was about checked out. But that was not a big deal for me so I placed the order as it is. The problem came when I was called by a customer representative today. I did not know my order was put on hold from yesterday until I made a second order today for another item. The representative told me that my order for today did not go through because the phone number I gave them on my card was my personal contact number not the primary cardholder’s number. I wasn’t aware that the number I provided was a different number but I was able to give them the correct number with in seconds to fix it and allow them to put through the orders. Now the second problem came. I asked them if my order from today was put on hold, how did the order from yesterday go through? The lady looked at all my orders and answered me that the order from yesterday was actually on hold as well. She then said the laptop I wanted is no longer in stock so my order from yesterday for that laptop cannot be fulfilled. How great is that? To find how all my time spent trying to buy this laptop has gone to waste? It wasn’t a great feeling for me and I probably would never have found out that my laptop order wasn’t put through had I not asked about it.

After this experience, I can only say that I’m very disappointed about the unreliability of the quantities listed as in-stock on the website and even in the stores. I’m also extremely unhappy that after spending all this time, I still don’t have a laptop and that customer support is very inefficient. They could’ve called me earlier and I would’ve supplied them with the correct number. Then I wouldn’t lose the chance of getting the laptop I really wanted while they were still available

I probably will never place another order online with staples ever again with this kind of bad experience and service.