TAA Review

[elleny]

Good review on online ordering.  I was trying to decide if it was better to use my current vendor or Staples.  A Staples rep had come by and dropped of a catalog and introduce their company.  I had received a call about 2 days later from an obviously board account rep who said that she would give me a discount on my next order if I did it though her.  Now that call turned me off, but I'm a second chance girl, so I was going to give her a call.  After reading the report, I decided that I don't want to deal with another one like that.



Ellen (did you turn that rep who cursed at you in?) in TX  

[andrea843]

that was an Office Depot CS rep who was overheard cursing, :chuckle: and darn she hung up before I could get her last name,,,, ever tried calling Office Depot to report an employee named "cathy"? Not worth the effort in my book.



Good customer service is like fine wine.  There are those who demand it and those who are happy with the screw top version. I felt kinda bad even writing the article it was so darn negative, but what could you do but report the facts as they occured?



Andrea, who likes her wine with a cork please......

[ssc1208]

I'm pretty lucky in that I don't have to order office supplies. However, before I was an admin at this company, I did work as a CS rep at Quill Corporation, which is now owned by Staples. I don't know if things have changed, but we were given a lot of freedom to waive fees like that for customers without having supervisor permission. In fact, I would have waived it for you, so long as you seemed like a legitimate customer and it wasn't a horrendous amount of money. Of course, it also does depend on who you get. Even companies who do give that much freedom still have employees who just don't get it. I don't know why they wouldn't do that sort of thing, I always figured that it wasn't my money, and they told me I could, so I did.



BTW a quick search for "5160" at their website www.quillcorp.com turns up one item - Avery Address labels, 5160 $19.98, $2.61 less than the lowest price offered on the review.



The bad part is that Quill has no storefronts, they are strictly a catalog company. You can have your order shipped to you, or picked up at one of their warehouses across the country. Headquarters are in Lincolnshire, IL north of Chicago.  

[energizer]

Well, folks, the company I work for uses Boise Cascade office products.  They do charge a "nominal" delivery fee, but our discount usually more than offsets the fee.  



If you call their customer service "800" number and have an account with them, you can place your order over the phone.  You can also order on-line, but I've always found that a phone order is faster.  In most cases, as long as I phone my order in by 4 PM, it arrives the next afternoon.  Once in awhile it will take an extra day if I phone it in late, but not very often.  Their customer service reps are extremely pleasant and helpful.  I placed an order the other day for six items (totalling less than $100) and the rep spent an extra 6 minutes finding an item that I wasn't able to locate in their catalog.  She found another source for the product, added it to my order, and it arrived the day after my "Boise products" arrived -- at no extra cost for shipping!! -- from the other supplier.  Now THAT'S customer service!!



You can call Boise at 1-800-472-6473.  They'll send you a catalogue and application to open an account so they can bill you.  Or you can just call and place the order with a credit card.  Either way, I've always found their reps to be courteous and helpful.



 

 

[andrea843]

I love Boise too, used them before, but the purpose of this review was to take a look at companies who "bill" themselves as stellar providers of supplies in an "online" format. It was just far too time consuming, rather like booking business travel, sometimes we think because we CAN do something online that we SHOULD do it, and often, that's just not the case when it comes to the busy Admin day...

my tuppence again!

A

 

[elleny]

I use Boise as one  of my vendors, but my favorite company is Compudata CPI.  I have the best account rep there, and I've yet to have a problem.  BTW, question for you guys.  



Which do you prefer as your point of contact for a company?

A. Account Manager just for your company

B. Customer Service via 800 #

C. Online Customer Service form

D. All of the above

E. Doesn't matter



I prefer the Account Manager myself.  It's nice to be able to talk to someone who knows you and your company very well.



Ellen (It's FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!) in TX  

[Katie G]

Well, now, we're a big university, so the entire university (like it or not) has a contract with StaplesLink.com.  This is a different site than Staples.com.  We get a special catalog with commonly used items (labels, folders, pens with our school's logo, white-out, etc.) with "contract" pricing.  I do the ordering online and usually have the stuff next day.  It will also accept item numbers from the regular Staples catalog.  I like the ordering online because, well, sometimes I just don't feel like dealing with YET ANOTHER phone call.  



As far as CS is concerned, the one time I had a problem with a return, our Purchasing department went to bat for me, so I really wasn't involved.  

[marieh2000]

We were using Office Depot, but have recently gone back to our local "hometown" office supply store. Our biggest complaint with Office Depot - we always made sure our order was over $50 to get FREE shipping.... What they didn't bother to tell us was that if they did not have all the items in stock at one warehouse and had to ship the order from two different locations, we had to pay shipping even if the order was over $50. The shipping charges did not show up on the packing slip that was shipped with the order, but was charged on the statement we  received at the end of the month.  After having to call customer service month after month and asking them to drop the delivery charges, we decided it wasn't worth the few dollars we were saving.    

[donnap99]

There's another university person here?!  We probably have a lot of similar beaurocratic crap to deal with.  And I say that being with a PRIVATE university.  I guess it's worse in public institutions, but I find it's bad enough here...



I'd like to chat, if you like, about university life, e-mail me at donna@administrative-assistants.com.



P.S.  I'm on vacation   next week in case you write and I don't get back to you right away.  There aren't many 'puters in the back woods (camping).

[judiann]

Just read the review on on-line office supplies. I have had a somewhat different experience. Like most of you Office Depot is a big pain to deal with on-line or on the phone. They have a store near us for those emergency needs, that I will use. I have had a very good experience with Staples.com. Most of the orders are consistently here the next day. Their customer service has been exceptionally helpful and their local store manager has delivered things to me personally when the order was somehow messed up. I agree that it is sometimes difficult to find certain items. I only use Staples.com when ordering things that we always need like paper ink cartridges, etc.. I put them on the favorites list and just go straight there. They even send coupons to use. I am able to save $15-$30 on most orders. That is good for an 18 person office.



For  the daily stuff and one time items I use a local company. They give us a discount and personal service. the owner comes by every Monday, takes my order, and can answer any questions that I have. That personal touch is definately worth it!