Paul
Anaheim,#2Consumer Suggestion
Mon, September 13, 2004
The bottom line is that Ed, above, tried to buy something that was advertised. Instead of getting his item, it sounds like he got the run-around. Either you intend to sell something or you don't. It's certainly no bargain to drive over to the store, only to find that the item you came in for is gone, or in this case, never there to begin with. All that is likely to do is upset potential customers to the point that they never return. I'm not looking to get something for nothing. A DVD drive costs money to make. I expect to pay good money to get it. I'm not looking for some kind of rebate scam that brings the end price down to nothing, or next to nothing. The customer above would have been better off to go to a real store that sells this particular item at a fair price. He would have made his purchase and went home satisfied. Instead, he ended up at Office Max, with nothing to buy. He went home disappointed. Think he'll be rushing over to Office Max anytime soon? Not likely. Sound business practices. Reasonable prices and reasonable profits. Having the products that customers want. These are the strategies that make a store a winner.
Matt
Prospect,#3UPDATE Employee
Mon, September 13, 2004
Ed, I am a front end seller at my local Office Max, at Springhurst Shopping Center, and i and my co-workers deal with the problem your talking about now. This past year Office Max has merged with Boise and many, many things have improved including out shipping systems. Since we have merged we have improved our shipping orders greatly. Unfortunatly we sometimes sell out of sale items a day or two early. This is b/c the costomers just happen to buy them(which happens a lot) and other times it's b/c of our early internet ads. what i mean by this is that if u sign up at our web page(officemax.com) they can send u the sunday ads early. What happens then is that customers buy the sale items a day before and gets a price adjustment later on so they get the sales price. They can do this b/c of our 14 day price match gaurentee saying that, " If you purchase an item and that exact items goes on sale within 14 days of the date of purchase, will give it to you for that price!" Also we can not backorder any items b/c one, it's against company policy, and secondly we don't want you paying for something that could possibly not be sent to us. It might not be sent to us b/c it's been dicontinued and the MANUFACTORERS will not send them to us. so i hope you understand b/c I know exactly what you going throw b/c i have too. But what you must relieze that the company is trying to make changes to improve our stores.