I ordered two Sandisk Extreme II 2gb compact flash cards as a part of their sale. The order was confirmed and shipped within a few days and was scheduled to arrive on November 26th. I was at work on the 26th and it was to arrive at home. There is always someone there in case a delivery person comes. I checked officedepot.com's order information and tracking page periodically during the day and saw it that it was "delivered," it also noted under tracking that it was signed by "f. door." I assume that it meant the courier dropped it off on the front steps. I figured someone at home would pick it up.
Came home in the evening and found that nothing was there. I was also informed by those at home that no door bell was rung and no one actually came to drop anything off. I thought maybe the guy just dropped it off and perhaps some pedestrian stole it. Fine. I'll call Office Depot and talk to them, and see what I can do and find out who the courier was.
I called, and was told that Office Depot will go ahead and just reorder the memory cards and have them delivered to me, all at no charge. Upon trying to enter the order, the customer service agent told me that that system won't allow it because it has not passed the delivery date and I should wait a bit to see if the package comes. This was around 8 or 8:30PM on the 26th, AND it already shows up as "delivered" on the Office Depot website. I said fine, I'll wait a bit.
I called back around 11:15 to go over the same things with another agent. This person told me that she'll have to send the issue to the resolution team, and they'd call me back in four hours. I told them no, because I'd be in bed, so they'll call me in the morning. I asked who the carrier was, she said it was listed as "UPS third party." I asked what the tracking number was, she said it is nonexistent. I asked her how on Earth can there not be a tracking number if it was shipped via UPS. She didn't have much to say to that.
So I went to bed and was awakened by a phone call at around 8:30AM. I was glad they called back. Someone named Debbie (I think) called and said that the package was left at the front door at 10:27AM. I was still home then, along with other people, but no one saw the guy, and no package was left. I told her I'd go out again and confirm that nothing is there, and of course, nothing was there. I asked what the courier company was and she said it was "Dynatec/Dynatech." I've never heard of them, but plausible. Out of the blue, she said that they were out of stock, and credit my account since they can't ship me anymore cards. There were, in fact, more of the same cards at officedepot.com. She then told me that the system shows there were never any memory cards in stock and asked if the courier left a note to that regard. In other words, there was never anything to be delivered.
So I ask:
-Why would the system confirm the order and state that it is being shipping?
-Why would it be listed as delivered a few days later?
-Why tell me it was delivered at 10:27AM when in fact nothing was delivered, because no product was in stock?
-Why tell me you used UPS, then tell me it is some third party shipper I've never heard of?
What this amounts to is fraudulent practices, in my humble opinion. From the sound of the other reviews, this isn't exactly out of the ordinary. Of course, I'm sure that there are plenty of other customers who were serviced, but it doesn't take many bad apples to yield a bad taste and a disdain for the "producer." What I had to deal with was simply unacceptable.
I got a confirmation number for the refund, so we'll see what happens then. I wonder though, what happens if the consumer just assumes the package was stolen, and never calls anyone? How many of those consumers exist? I don't blame the individual customer service agents for what they did. They have no incentive to lie and give me the runaround unless there was pressure from the superiors. I'd certainly like to know who was ultimately accountable for such practices. Is it the CEO. I don't know, but I'll certainly send him a letter.
Note: Edited for grammar.
This review was modified by its author, klaw, on
11/27/07 8:59 AM.
