Henry saved time and money by using an online coupon code to place a furniture order from his local Office Depot for in-store pickup. Well, he thought he was saving money. According to the store employee he dealt with, he “hacked” the ordering system by using a coupon, and could only receive his order by paying an extra $25 to have it delivered. Nice.

You’re gonna love this story. I decided to order some office furniture from Office Depot online to take advantage of the various coupons available online and pick it up from a local store so I could set it up that day. The order went through just fine online and my card was charged. I get an email confirmation that my order would be ready by 4pm that day from store #[redcted]. It specifically stated to bring the following:

• Your order number
• Valid Photo Identification
• Purchasing Credit Card (For Credit Card purchases only)

The email also stated that I would receive another email when the order was ready for pickup. I never received it so I went to the store around 5pm to see what the status was. When I asked the nice clerk about the online pickup she didn’t seem like she had ever gotten an online pickup order before. She asked me to wait while she went back to check. It took 10 minutes before she came back with no answer. She asked me some more questions and she called her manager.

Then she went to the back again and this time brought back the store manager. She asked me about the coupon I had used. I told her I found a coupon code online and used it. She asked me if I had the coupon on me. I told her no. Then she simply stated that I can’t pick up my order (that I paid for, mind you) without the physical coupon that I used because “hacked” coupons aren’t accepted here. “So you’re saying I can’t pick up the items that I’ve already PAID for?” She answered, “Nope.” The part that bothered me the most is that she insinuated that I did something wrong by using an official Office Depot coupon available freely to anyone who knows how to Google.

So I asked as a last ditch effort, “There’s no one else I can talk to?” She answered, “Me. Or you can talk to the other manager who will be in tomorrow morning.” So I said, “Well thanks for nothing.” And I left. And proceeded to call corporate. They changed my order to a delivery order, charged me an extra $25 delivery fee, and delivered the furniture a week later than I had to. Of course, they had no problem with the “hacked” coupon I used.

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