Above And Beyond: Office Depot CSR Saves The Day

Michael would have lost an incredible deal on laptop memory were it not for an Office Depot CSR. He was prepared to pay $139.99 for a 1GB stick of Kinston PC2700 RAM; when he added the RAM to his cart, the price plunged to $39.04. Michael verified the price with Office Depot and purchased nine sticks.

To my dismay, however, the store called me [the next] morning saying that they would not be honoring the price. I asked why she and she said “I cannot let that many go at that low of a price.” So I start politely arguing with her and insist that she honor the price, she settled on one and she would give me free shipping to my house. Well I figured I was getting hosed but at least I wouldn’t have to drive and get it.

Free shipping does not make up for the loss of an incredible deal. Michael called Office Depot, and to his delight, enjoyed “THE BEST CSR experience I have ever had!”

Office Depot’s CSR saves the day, inside…


Michael spoke with CSR Francisco. After hearing what happened, Francisco decided to honor the price, and invited Michael to purchase as much RAM as he wanted. Michael was understandably happy.

    What Went Right

  • Helpful CSR: Francisco fixed the problem created by the Office Depot store staff.
  • Happy customer: Michael got the deal he wanted, and he still does not have to drive to get the RAM.
  • Exceptional Service: The story may not seem exceptional, but Francisco’s action saved Michael almost $900. He could have easily earned his company an instant profit, but instead, he earned a long-term customer. That is above and beyond.
    What Went Wrong

  • Unhelpful Staff: The store should have sold the RAM at the advertised price; if they could not, a better excuse would have been nice.
  • Confusing Offer: Why wasn’t the original drop in price advertised more openly?

Michael’s email, below.

I recently purchased some laptop memory from office depot online. The standard online price was 139.99 for a 1GB stick of Kingston PC2700 SODIMM memory, however when I added it to my cart and choose in store pickup the price plummeted to $39.04, which is an INCREDIBLE price, so figuring I needed to increase the memory in the laptops for my business I would order what I needed, which is 9 while this might seem greedy I do in fact require a large number of chips. Just to make sure things were gonna work right I called 1800GODEPOT to verify the price, the CSR on the phone said that it appeared they were clearancing the chips and that the price would be honored the following morning when I went to pick them up. To my dismay, however, the store called me this morning saying that they would not be honoring the price. I asked why she said “I cannot let that many go at that low of a price.” So I start politely arguing with her and insist that she honor the price, she settled on one and she would give me free shipping to my house. Well I figured I was getting hosed but at least I wouldn’t have to drive and get it. So after I got done talking to her I called 1800GODEPOT again and spoke to a CSR Named Francisco, and I must say that this was by far THE BEST CSR experience I have ever had! I explained to him what happened and how I really needed the memory and to my astonishment he goes well I can honor that price over the phone how many do you need? I give him the quantity and he bills my credit card. I was dumbfounded by the professionalism and understanding that this CSR had displayed, even enough to hang around and talk to his supervisor to tell her about my experience, but I figured why not stop there maybe consumerist could help to I really can’t thank this guy enough for helping me out. I really hope that Office Depot does something really nice for this guy, and from now on I will be leaving Staples and going to Office Depot as their CSR’s have become rather rude in the last few months.

Sometimes, all it takes is one helpful CSR to save the day. — CAREY GREENBERG-BERGER
(Photo: Morgan Tepsic)

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