Ash K. Gilpin

I’m sure all business owners can relate - moving into an office can be a nightmare.  However, there are companies out there that swear to you the process is quick and easy…probably just to get the sale.  This is exactly what happened to me.  If you didn’t know, I own and operate a web development company, Eyepinch, Inc.  I have had the luxury of working out of my home office for years; however, my business has grown to service more than 120 clients.  With success and growth comes expansion.  In helping to expand my business I have just moved into a new office and hired on my first employee to help with my every day tasks and lighten some of my workload.

Anyhow, having an office is one thing.  Moving into the office is this whole other beast.  One day I was out at Office Max shopping for office supplies.  One of the sales representatives noticed my full cart and asked if I was moving into an office in which I replied, “yes.”  He went on to tell me that Office Max is a full service organization and could help me with whatever office supplies I need, furniture and other related items.  Knowing that I needed furniture and having been told by the representative that they could come out to measure, help make decisions on the best furniture that would utilize the space I to work with and install everything, I reluctantly agreed.  Here’s where the fun began.

The first time they had scheduled to come out - I was stood up.  Apparently, the gentleman that was supposed to come out to my office to take the measurements decided to quit his job that day.  Unfortunately for me, no one there deemed it necessary to call me and let me know. I made myself available only to waste 45 minutes of my time that day.  Note: my office was completely empty at this time.  I couldn’t function out of the office with no furniture.  Therefore, going to the office and waiting on anyone was quite the inconvenience.

Anways, back to the story, I was able to get a hold of the store manager at the nearest Office Max.  He put me in touch with another Office Max that was more equipped to handle my furniture needs.  Note: there was plenty of phone tag between all of the people I was dealing with in this matter - only to add to my frustration.  After a couple of days I was finally able to get in touch with a gentleman that was able to come out and take all the measurements needed.  He came on out (showed up on time which was a plus) and took his measurements and helped me choose the furniture I wanted.  It took roughly 24 hours to get the quote.  So, the day after I received the quote I went to the store to make my purchase.  Because it was such a large order, the sales associate said they had to open a register just for my order.  After 20 minutes, they were finally ready to ring me up.  I provided all of my information and various coupons.  Apparently, the large order caused a malfunction in the computer system each and every time the entire order was filled and was ready to be placed.  After 30 minutes of this, it was discovered that the computer would not take the order because of restrictions on how many discounts could be made on a single purchase.  So, the attendent had to go to the back office and place the order there.  All together, this wasted about 1 and a half hours of my day.

About a week and half later I got a call from a delivery driver that some furniture was being delivered and he was waiting there at my office.  Funny, because I distinctly remember telling Office Max that I was not moved into the office and to call first before delivering so that I could make myself available.  Instead, I had to rush over to the office to let the delivery driver unload some of my ordered goods.  He delivered my chairs and two keyboard trays for my two desks (main office and receptionist desk).

About 2 weeks after this, the same thing happened.  I received a phone call from the delivery drivers saying that they were waiting infront of my office.  So of course, I had to immediately drop what I was working on to go to the office and let them in to unload and install my furniture.  During the install, the hutch on the receptionist desk was installed incorrectly.  One of the cabinets was misaligned and not flush with the others.  The installer tried to make the adjustment but it didn’t take and he made it pretty apparent that he didn’t have the time to spend working on it.  Then in my office, I had ordered two desks.  One was a regular and then other was to be a bow-front desk.  Well, they ended up delivering two regular desks.  They had to take one back so that it could be replaced with the bow-front I ordered.  Lastly, they told me that they wouldn’t install the two keyboard trays on the two desks because they keyboard trays were delivered on a different date.  Apparently, the installers are only allowed to install whatever is on the truck for that day.  This of course coming as a huge surprise to me because I paid for everything to be installed.  I called Office Max to let them know of the mix up with my desk, the problem with the cabinet on the hutch, the problem with the keyboard trays not being installed and also pointed out that my metal file storage cabinet was not delivered.

Two days later I get a phone call; yes, once again a delivery driver was there and I had to stop what I was doing to let him into the office.  This time it was my metal file storage cabinet.  This thing was huge and quite heavy.  There was only one delivery driver and myself to get this thing in the doorway and up the stairs.  After doing so (25 minutes later - sheesh!), we get it up the stairs and I took it out of the box only to find a humungous dent on the side of the thing.  I did my best to bang it out, but no luck.  I had to call Office Max back to let them know that storage cabinet was damaged and needed to be replaced.  At this point, there had been so many problems that they got corporate involved and then I began getting phone calls from all sorts of people.  Each person telling me different things and asking me questions - just confusing a guy!  I was informed that all would be taken care of and to wait patiently while they get things settled.

About a week later, they sent the same guy who originally did the measurements for my office furniture to install the keyboard trays.  At least at this point, I was able to function out of the office since I had a desk to work on. 

Two weeks later, I finally received my desk; however, the delivery guy was not ordered to install the desk.  Apparently, the desk was to be installed by another company.  He was able to make the required adjustment on the hutch cabinet.  It’s still not completely flush, but close enough.

Two weeks later, today - yes, a Saturday, I finally get a call saying that my bow front desk could be installed.  I met up with the installer at my office at 1pm.  20 minutes later, he was all done.  So basically, it took them two weeks from the desks’ delivery to do a 20 minute installation job.  I’ve still yet to have my metal file storage cabinet replaced nor have I heard anything back from Office Max in regards to it.  Hence, I will need to call them AGAIN and find out what the hold up has been and when I can expect them to remedy the situation.

This has by far been the worst service I have ever received from any company.  And to think, a company like Office Max…you think of them as this large and reputable company that “takes it to the Max.”  They’ve done anything but.  I haven’t even been offered any refund or compensation in any way for all of these mishaps and inconveniences.  I can tell you this, I don’t plan on using Office Max for any of my future business needs.  Office Depot is looking pretty good to me now.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 18th, 2006 at 3:12 pm and is filed under Ramblings, Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.