Fedex Office, the entity formerly known as Kinko’s, offers a service where you can upload a document, have it printed at a store near you, and pick it up. How wonderful! Unless the system, in its infinite wisdom, sends your document to a store that is a 4-hour drive away. That’s what happened to a UCLA law professor, who tried to call FedEx and fix the situation. Maybe this would have worked had the customer service rep been capable of basic communication in English.

He blogged about the incident:

I’ve got a 400 page document that I wanted printed on 3-hole pre-punched paper. Since I’m working at home, I thought it would be easy to print it using FedEx Office online printing and pick it up at my local FedEx office instead of schlepping all the way down to my office at UCLA. WRONG.

Instead of printing at my local FedEx/Kinkos store, their automated system decided to print it at a store in Poway, California. Approximately 100 miles–and a 3 to 4 hour drive in traffic–from my house.

Then I call Federal Express customer service and get some moron with an impenetrable accent who, as near as I can tell, kept asking for the tracking number on my package! Where did they hire this guy? And what third world shithole do they have him penned up in? When my repeated efforts at basic communication failed, I gave it up as a bad job. I’ll just print the damned thing at work on Monday.

That’s the spirit!

In situations like this, it’s a good idea to just hang up and try calling again. The second or third phone call yields a different, more competent representative. Or e-mail someone in power at Federal Express and let them know how their terrible customer service lost them 400 pages’ worth of business.

FedEx Office Print Online SUCKS [Professor Bainbridge]

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