Robert found an amazing sale on paper at Office Depot, so like anyone confronted with big savings would do, he went ahead and ordered away, and patiently awaited the arrival of his merchandise. Of course, sometimes when deals seem too good to be true, they probably are.

Robert says he stumbled on a great discount — reams of paper at Office Depot for 49 cents each and free delivery. Woot! He placed an order for 10 reams for his home office. He then waited. And waited. Yep, then he waited some more.

I received a confirmation of my order with the delivery date of the next day. The next day when I was supposed to receive my order I received an e-mail telling me that the order was now on backorder. The next and only other e-mail that I received was a survey request.

It has now been seven days since I was supposed to receive my order and I haven’t heard anything. I called their 1-800 number and was told their official answer was that the price was a misprint and that an e-mail was sent out to all affected customers with a coupon for a different paper selection. I then explained how I never received any kind of e-mail explaining the misprint or a cancellation of my order… especially since my credit card had been charged.

I asked to speak to the supervisor who told me that she would not honor the original order and that the only other thing she would do is sell me 10 reams at $4.80 a ream. I explained how I had yet to receive any kind of formal cancellation on my order and I wanted it upheld because this was an error on their part and not mine. She grew frustrated and told me that I could not speak to her supervisor and if I had a problem I could just call corporate and tell them. I called corporate and was dumped into a general voicemail box after waiting on hold for 10 minutes.

Office Depot obviously has a problem upholding their orders even when they screw up and clearly admit that they screwed up. This is a horrible way to do business…if you sell something then deliver it!

Going from a total price of around $4.90 for 10 reams of paper, to $48.00 is a big bummer. Canceling an order and notifying the customer of it, after their credit card has been charged, now, that’s the least you can do, Office Depot.

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