ten billion butterfly sneezes

We have an Office Depot about a mile or so from tbbs WorldHQ. Over the course of the last 15 years, I’ve spent a lot of money over there; the laptop on which I currently type this post was purchased there; I’ve bought countless USB mice, thumbdrives, and assorted other doodads from them. They are also a UPS shipping facility; I can’t enumerate how many packages for our daughter and grandchildren started their journey to the west coast from that store.

Over the last several months, this particular OD has been swirling the drain of pathetic service, all traceable to an OD “associate” named Raana, according to her name tag. A couple of examples of her stellar customer service:

• While applying for the West Virginia job, that thankfully didn’t come to pass, I had occasion to fax some documents to my prospective employer¹. Raana, after ignoring my presence at the counter for what seemed an eternity, given that the store was largely deserted, finally waited on me and faxed my document. I had specifically asked for the transmission report at the start. She faxed the document, walked back towards me while wadding up the transmission report. I asked whether or not that was the transmission report, she handed me the wadded up version, and I left.

• Today, I went over there for some canned air²; one can for home, one for work. I saw Raana when I entered the store, saw the length of the checkout line, and thought that I’d just go home. But I really needed the canned air. I killed some time looking at electronic doodads, bit the bullet, and headed to the checkout line. By this time, the line appeared to have dwindled, there were two people manning the checkout lines, and I had a 50-50 chance of getting Raana. And guess what, I drew Raana. I paid cash for my canned air, but only after Raana saw fit to almost turn her back on me, while she discussed some topic with another “associate” in some language that neither smacked of Northern Virginia, nor Guadalajara, for that manner. I held out my 20 bucks at least three times before she deigned to accept it. She made a big deal of counting back my change, and then didn’t even put my 2 cans of canned air in a bag.

I just went to the Staples website, where I determined that the closest store is 4.25 miles away. I guess that now I plan my trips for office supplies.

Office Depot #339, goodbye and good riddance. Your shelves are nearly bare, your service is condescending and surly, your basic shopkeeping skills nonexistent.

I’m a Staples guy now, until and unless they hire Raana. OD sponsors NASCAR driver Carl Edwards; NASCAR fans are brand loyal. They also know when they aren’t being treated right.

-k-

officedepot, officedepot#339, staples