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Office Max Price Match Guarantee designed to be meaningless Naperville Illinois
I went to my local Office Max store to purchase (4) basic bookcases. They were out of stock at my local Office Max store. The salesperson said their in-house order system was a 'pain in the a** and I should go online and do it myself. I left the store and ordered online. The pretax total was $219.96. The main warehouse didn't have stock. The four bookcases took three weeks to arrive, in THREE separate shipments.
A few days later, Office Depot advertised the same bookcases (different packaging, same design, same manufacturer - Sauder Woodworking) for 50% less, $109.96.
When I saw the lower price I called Office Max customer service about their price match. They requested I fax a written request, which I did, including the competitor ad.
Two weeks later, I had not received a reply. I called in. My account had no notes about the call I made. There was no record of receiving the fax.
I was told (after 11:40 minutes on hold) that Office Max's price match guarantee requires the item have the exact same model number. Even though they have no record of my fax and did not have the competitor's ad in front of them, the bookcases are made exclusively for Office Max and therefor there is no possible price match available.
As noted above, the bookcase I purchased are 'private label', they have different model numbers at Office Depot and Office Max, despite being manufactured by the same company, the same materials, dimensions, etc. This exclusion regarding model numbers is NOT listed in the Price Match terms on their website.
When I asked for a direct phone number to Office Max's legal department, I was told they had none.
Larry
Skokie, Illinois
U.S.A.
10 Updates & Rebuttals
pbillin
cedar valley,Ontario,
Canada
use form
#11Consumer Comment
Thu, October 06, 2011
This was reported in 2007, so it seems the situation has changed.
Just follow the guidelines and use the online form:
http://www.pricematching.us/index.php/price-matching-stores/officemax-price-matching/
Reality
Irving,Texas,
USA
Different Product
#11UPDATE EX-employee responds
Sat, August 28, 2010
John,
I agree, I also like shopping where the employees are empowered to resolve issues like this. Regardless, the UPC is a model #, it is not randomly generated. With Sauder furniture, the model number of the book case is the last 5 numbers before the final number in the UPC. It is the same no matter where it is sold. If the UPC was not the same, it was not the same product. It is that simple. If I was a betting man, I would bet, unknown to poster, you were trying to match the price of a discontinued bookcase with the new model. It is a common issue.
Athena
Bloomington,Illinois,
U.S.A.
Office Max "Ensure End User Satisfaction" - WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!!!
#11Consumer Comment
Sat, June 20, 2009
This is copied directly from their website: http://officemaxsolutions.com/ensure.shtml
This is my favorite part: "Done-In-One resolves any question about your account in just one call. And you can always rely on no-hassle returns." This is the biggest Joke! I was yelled at and called a liar when I tried to make a return tonight (and didn't get my money back)... Sounds like you didn't get the JUST ONE CALL promise either.
I wish you the best, these people seem to be rip off artists all over the country.
Athena
Bloomington,Illinois,
U.S.A.
Office Max "Ensure End User Satisfaction" - WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!!!
#11Consumer Comment
Sat, June 20, 2009
This is copied directly from their website: http://officemaxsolutions.com/ensure.shtml
This is my favorite part: "Done-In-One resolves any question about your account in just one call. And you can always rely on no-hassle returns." This is the biggest Joke! I was yelled at and called a liar when I tried to make a return tonight (and didn't get my money back)... Sounds like you didn't get the JUST ONE CALL promise either.
I wish you the best, these people seem to be rip off artists all over the country.
Athena
Bloomington,Illinois,
U.S.A.
Office Max "Ensure End User Satisfaction" - WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!!!
#11Consumer Comment
Sat, June 20, 2009
This is copied directly from their website: http://officemaxsolutions.com/ensure.shtml
This is my favorite part: "Done-In-One resolves any question about your account in just one call. And you can always rely on no-hassle returns." This is the biggest Joke! I was yelled at and called a liar when I tried to make a return tonight (and didn't get my money back)... Sounds like you didn't get the JUST ONE CALL promise either.
I wish you the best, these people seem to be rip off artists all over the country.
Athena
Bloomington,Illinois,
U.S.A.
Office Max "Ensure End User Satisfaction" - WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!!!
#11Consumer Comment
Sat, June 20, 2009
This is copied directly from their website: http://officemaxsolutions.com/ensure.shtml
This is my favorite part: "Done-In-One resolves any question about your account in just one call. And you can always rely on no-hassle returns." This is the biggest Joke! I was yelled at and called a liar when I tried to make a return tonight (and didn't get my money back)... Sounds like you didn't get the JUST ONE CALL promise either.
I wish you the best, these people seem to be rip off artists all over the country.
Athena
Bloomington,Illinois,
U.S.A.
Office Max "Ensure End User Satisfaction" - WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!!!
#11Consumer Comment
Sat, June 20, 2009
This is copied directly from their website: http://officemaxsolutions.com/ensure.shtml
This is my favorite part: "Done-In-One resolves any question about your account in just one call. And you can always rely on no-hassle returns." This is the biggest Joke! I was yelled at and called a liar when I tried to make a return tonight (and didn't get my money back)... Sounds like you didn't get the JUST ONE CALL promise either.
I wish you the best, these people seem to be rip off artists all over the country.
Anonymous Manager
Portland,Oregon,
U.S.A.
Manager
#11UPDATE Employee
Thu, June 18, 2009
This sounds as though your local store is avoiding a simple solution. In about 90% of my own experiences with similar ads or price changes, I've always taken care of my customers. We're driven to think customer first and take care of you.... as mentioned, it sounds like your store has a team that is failing. I've been a manager with OMX for almost 3 years and this would be unacceptable response in my store.
If you haven't already talked to an assistant manager or store manager, I would recommend it. If you explain to the manager the situation you're having and how much of an inconvinence this has become, more than likely they will attempt to help you out. We try to match our competitors (Depot, Staples) prices any chance we can because we want the best solution for our customers.
No gurantees with this, but I recommend going right to your store's manager if this happens again to you. Best of luck.
John W.
Oak Creek,Wisconsin,
U.S.A.
What's Incorrect?
#11Consumer Comment
Sat, June 06, 2009
I noticed your rebuttal is titled "Incorrect Information". What was incorrect about the original post?
Your rebuttal refuted nothing; you only confirmed the original poster's point - that there is an industry practice of issuing different numbers for different retail chains for what may otherwise be the exact same product. Standard products become a 'custom' product for that chain (Q:What's different about these two products ? A;Only the numbers, Ha ha ha!). Whether this is or isn't intentional, it serves as a a very clever way to skirt the price match issue. So while it may be legal (check the fine print), I find it to be very deceiving and disingenuous.
And just because "everybody does it" does not make it right. As a consumer, the best way to deal with this is to avoid these retailers, or shop at the locations wher employees are empowered to override this practice.
Brent
Why Is This Necessary,Texas,
U.S.A.
Incorrect Information
#11UPDATE Employee
Thu, January 31, 2008
A UPC code is a series of numbers used to identify a product for sale through retail companies. A product has the same UPC no matter what retail outlet it selling it. A UPC is split up into very specific parts for very specific reason, but for our purposes we need to only concern ourself with the last 6 numbers of the UPC. If you take the last 6 numbers and remove the 6th number - you will have the model number to the product you are buying. If you have two products that look the same but have different model numbers (which means different UPC's), retail stores will not match the price. This is not a scam or a ripoff or something only Office Max does - this is an industry standard.