Interesting day I had. Tried to return an online purchase to a Staples store. But the first store told me that they had to CALL IN TO THE ONLINE STORE to confirm about something, but they were CLOSED . Went to a second Staples because I wanted to return it today and they ALSO called into the online store.

Also, the manager said something interesting. He asked them if there were any coupons that had been used in the transaction, and of course he was told I had. Which was fine with me as I really just wanted to return the item.

Guess all the coupon usage plus returning crap some people were pulling made them go to this format, but I REALLY dislike it as it took much longer than my usual returns to Staples.

Sigh, guess I'll just have to put up with it.

The interesting thing was that the night before I did a return-and-repurchase, and they didn't do ANY checking in with the online store. Also, I did a return-and-repurchase today from an IN-STORE purchase and they STILL checked with the B&M store (it was purchased at a different store) . I mean those ALWAYS print out coupon codes....

Not sure what's going on with the last thing....

Anyways, just a heads up to you folk.

F

guess the managers dont know there sys well.
they can look up order's

Yeah, I was wondering about that too *shrug*.

F

I was told that Staples is moving many of their more experienced managers to stores that aren't doing as well. I just lost one of my favorite managers to a store an hour away. The replacement managers are new and not very experienced. Luckily my store's GM is staying.

I've had this happen before, and it's a very slow and frustrating process when they call the .com division to confirm crap about the order. Then again, I've become persona nongrata (sp?) at my most local Staples B&M ever since the FAR KByte RAM incident (which caused Staples to change their PM policy to no longer include MIRs in competitors advertised prices)!

Well, have to add my story to this thread.

Ordered several things from staples.com a week or so back, (no great deals or anything just a regular order), work got so busy that I didn't get around to installing stuff, today saw my local Fry's ad had great deals on very similar items, so I figured I'd return the stuff to a Staples B&M then head to Fry's.

Cruised to a local Staples B&M, decided to lug in the largest item 1st (weighed over 30 lbs), got to customer service. Showed my packing slip. Of course cashier didn't know how to do a return for an online item. So she pages manager. Manager comes over, looks at packing slip, says "Ok, I can't credit your card for this as it doesn't show how it was paid for. I can only give you STORE credit."

What...the...hell! How the * did you think I paid for this ONLINE?? Did you think I put cash on a carrier pigeon and had it fly to Staples.com headquarters?

I told him, "Staples return policy is clear to me, I CAN return this here and you SHOULD credit back my card."

So he tells me he WON'T do it, suggests going home and calling the 800 number. He then turns around and heads to the back of the store.

I leave the freaking package on the counter, pull out my cell phone and dial the 800 number. I get a CSR from Ohio on the line (I'm west coast) and explain the situation. She literally can't believe what I'm saying. So I find out the store number for her. SHE calls the store herself, asks for the manager, bitches him out, HE comes hurrying from the back of the store, and tries to get me to hang up my call with the CSR, saying "It's OK, It's Ok, I got it handled."

Finally they process my return and credit back my card. I was too irritated to bring the rest of the stuff in, I just went to another local Staples where the manager finished my return in less than 5 minutes.

I'm not convinced it has anything to do with using coupons online. Apparently staples.com and staples have seperate accounting departments. So for a manager to accept a return, his store has to issue the credit and I assume the manager wants to avoid having that credit issued during his shift - maybe it makes for bad appearances come promotion time.

Regardless, it made what should have been a routine return into a real hassle with one irritated customer asking a CSR what the hell's going on, the CSR on another line yelling at the manager, and the manager pestering the customer to end the phone call because apparently the CSR was filing a notation of the incident.

Be careful out there guys!

matt, I've had the same thing happen in the past. When you return an online item to a store, they get hit with the return and some Mgr's don't like that idea. They hope by giving you store credit, you'll spend it in their store so the return balances out with a new purchase. I didn't even bother doing my return there, I told him I'd take it to a store where they knew what they were doing

I did call Staples.com and report the Mgr though. Do you think that stopped him from doing it again...nope. He may have got 1 too many complaints as he's no longer working in that store

I'm fortunate, in that I'm in my local store so often, they never turn me down! I once brought back my printer (purchased from .com) over 2 months later and they returned it no problem.

:: knocks on wood ::

LOL! Glad you stood your ground and made that manager look like a tool.

Diggler