BEWARE of Office Max and its scams...but of this store in particular! HORRIBLE customer service, outrageous prices, and borderline harassment at check out. The associates become obviously rude and uninterested in you the moment you turn down their attachments and warranty plans. The manager of the store is clueless and thus hides in his office the majority of the day. The impress associates are poor at communicating with one another and thus often lose documents vital to a project, or simply lose the project vision entirely….Ive even literally had a product an employee was grabbing from top stock for me thrown down the ladder in an annoyed fit when I politely declined the insurance plan for what seemed like the 5th time! I then decided that I could afford to buy the lesser insurance plan, after feeling bullied into it. I was told after being checked out by the roughly 6’4 employee (me being 5’4) that I had to carry and load the huge product to the car myself since I did not purchase the protection plan he wanted me to buy…after being made to feel guilty and embarrassed by all of the other associates that he informed of my decision to pass on the attachment (which was another 20 bucks). (the associates name was Daryl) They were all clearly disgruntled and I was completely flabbergasted at the horrendous service I had just received. I lugged the item out to my small vehicle, fought to get it in, and then decided I would never spend a dime there again. They have tried to trick me out of getting discounts I was entitled to, to the point of resorting to playing dumb and giving me the blank stare after reminding them repeatedly of a deal they were advertising on the front windows. And I have overheard employees at this store making fun of customers over (unknown to them) open radio headsets.
Just a few heads up for people that may not be aware (unfortunately I have been there, done that, and witnessed firsthand the blatant trickery and swindling that goes on on a daily basis there):
* Thinking of choosing Impress printing services to get your business cards done? I would think twice. They generally do not inform you until it is too late, but you are not guaranteed a perfectly cut card if you have it done in store...this is because the associates insert them manually into a template that is not perfect for every card to begin with, and then print them to machines with preset margins that cannot be changed. After that is done (depending on the number of cards you purchased and the state of the crappy equipment in the department that day) the cards will either be cut with a small machine that cuts 8 cards at a time, and begins to jam after 10 or so pages, which causes the cards to twist and curl...ruining them, forcing the associate to start over or (more likely) shuffle as many messed up cards in with the decent looking ones in hopes that you wont notice them as they can! after all, if they waste too much paper they risk a tongue lashing from the clueless boss that barely knows how to print a damn thing let alone do half of the stuff that is expected of the impress associates. OR if you're getting more then say...150 cards, THEN it gets really sketchy. the employees insert your design into a template that fits 10 cards to a page, prints them, and then uses a HAND DRAWN guide to cut the cards manually with a completely uneven laser light...so uneven, that 9 times out of ten the actual guide is ditched in favor of "eyeballing it" because that actually turns out to be more accurate! JUST BE AWARE THAT THIS IS WHAT YOU'RE PAYING 50 DOLLARS A POP FOR! The best part of all is that if you decide to bypass the shady practices of the store itself and go with the company they outsource very detailed or perfection mandated jobs too, you're completely getting the shaft. they walk you through how to order what you want on this computer that's open to customers. if i remember correctly there may have even been a name given to this center suggesting that the company you're placing your order with was tied in and directly affiliated with office max, but oh...how misleading. I must give them some credit for this is a very clever trick. The company you're placing your business card order with is Vista Print. That's right...you're paying twice as much for a product, that you could have sat at home...on your OWN COMPUTER, and ordered EXACTLY THE SAME...without having to waste the gas money to get to office max. Let's just say that employees are instructed, accompanied with the threat of termination should they decide to ignore the instruction, that under no circumstances are they to inform a customer that they are outsourcing the cards to Vista Print. In fact, this is a secret I was made aware that the majority of associates never even knew themselves.
* prices are for the most part completely up to the associate that takes and/or ends up doing your job. If youre unlucky enough to get the perfectionist or the slow associate, you will end up with 15 dollars worth of desktop publishing (how much time it takes to create what you want on the computer...they charge per minute). it could LITERALLY vary between 3 and 10 dollars to get the same exact job done over two consecutive days. This does not even take into account the leniency the given associate is willing to show in terms of hands on work (such as cutting the final product, removing staples, organizing pages, etc) 2 dollars per minute for hand cutting...well given the person you find in the department that day, you will be pinned with the ridiculous charge, you may be fortunate enough to have it waived, or if youre lucky enough, youll get one of the managers that doesnt even know the charge exists. take 20 color copies in that must be scanned onto a thumb drive? if youre lucky, youll get a single scan fee...which is huge to begin with, but if youre not lucky, youll be pegged with the "first page" fee...and then charged a lower fee for EVERY CONSECUTIVE PAGE. Are you wondering why the prices you keep getting charged never seem to add up? its because there is no way to put a set, objective price on varying and subjective work. and also, there is literally not enough time in the work day for the rushed and swamped associates to nickel and dime you for every ridiculous charge corporate has come up with.
*always expect at least 3 days for your job to be completed. but if you complain and are rude enough, you can get your job to take priority over even those that placed their job weeks ago, and probably paid 10 times as much as you. The associates are literally instructed to take the complainers orders first...so do not be surprised if your 100 bucks that was paid up front is nothing to them. orders constantly get lost, forgotten, and ruined...INCLUDING the ones that are outsourced to other companies. And if the materials that were there when you placed your order happen to run out before one of the associates manages to actually give it the time of day? well youre sol buddy, and expect to get a phone call begging you to accept a sub par product that is not what you originally paid for.
*the managers are constantly doing their own projects on the stores time. The store manager calls on the associates to complete projects for him (such as using office max for his own graphic design business…which im curious if office max knows about…bit of a conflict of interest if you ask me) during store hours, when time SHOULD be being focused on the customers who actually placed orders and are waiting in a queue to have their project completed. Or the assistant manager hopping on and off the computer, using it for her personal projects, hogging the resources the associates need to complete waiting customers work. RUDE RUDE RUDE…and EXTREMELY unprofessional.
*now lets step away from that department and focus on the store itself shall we? first of all...max perks. "do you have a max rewards card with us? its completely free to sign up, and you will earn points to get some of your well earned money back". WHOA...back up. Yes it is free to sign up, but ofcourse you have to spend money in the store to qualify for any of the points (so ya...that ones obvious) but heres the kicker...that even I didnt learn until pretty late in the game. You will not EVER receive any "max rewards points" on your purchase if you use it in conjunction with any store coupon, if the item is already on sale, or if you use max points to pay for part of your purchase that contains products that qualify for the rewards program. I never once got a single max rewards point, and i shopped there many times. this is because i took advantage of the "buy one get one half off" deals on things such as notepads, or a 5 dollar coupon that may have covered one item on a 50 dollar purchase of multiples things, and it always negated my other qualifying purchases...hah...what a bummer. not worth it in the slightest.
* one thing that always gets most customers is the sign up itself. be aware that when you write ALL OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION on that paper in the store and are given a card...youve literally done nothing in terms of activating your rewards card. they take youre information to fax to the big wigs as proof that they collared another person into taking a card home, and then your application is destroyed. youll come in the store over and over scanning your card thinking youve received some points, but you actually have to go online and register everything YOURSELF in order to activate the card and begin receiving rewards. so what is the point of taking my info in the store? its a scam...theyre hoping youll buy more and never register/qualify for the points youre entitled to. you have a year to use them...or they simply disappear, and it takes a month for them to show up on your max rewards statement...so if you manage to actually keep track of any of it amongst all of the purposely created chaos, then you most likely dont do anything BUT shop at office max.
* The entire store scheme, and business model is blatantly sexist. in employee training youre informed that the target customer is female. everything in the store is designed to appeal to women, because women spend more, and are inherently dumb when it comes to knowledge of technology. they are simply much easier to con into buying something...once again, being a woman and thus knowing the nature of a woman...i have to give office max true credit for such a simple and yet genius business model. just be aware that this is what the employees are trained and are thinking while theyre speaking to you. so much for being a valued customer huh?
*be aware of the max assurances and "EK"s (essential kits). they will pretty much beg you to buy them...and they are almost never worth it. keep your eyes open because many of the products that OM covers under their plans already have warranties on them from the manufacturer. theyll try to convince you that OM covers more various types of damage...but if you bring the damaged product back to them they not so conveniently inform you that you are supposed to ship it to the assurance company, and run round and round with them. another scam, and they are making bank. OH also...they most likely wont tell you, but you actually have to go online and register the assurance you purchased, or keep the receipt (which fades to nearly invisible after about 6 months if you dont make a copy) otherwise youll have no hope of even getting a customer service associate to give you the time of day. good luck finding the receipt for some mundane item you purchased a year ago that you were convinced may break and could be replaced for free with the warranty plan. (i believe they only keep receipt records for around 6 months...if that...and good luck getting one of them to take the time to find your receipt for you).
* last but not least...each employee is given a quota they must meet. they are not paid commission, simply threatened with termination should they not meet their unrealistic quotas. this list of things they are required to scam you into include, max rewards, max assurance, some sort of paper, more stuff (must have atleast 3 items per transaction) and atleast 40 dollars worth of stuff...on top of whatever sale is coming up. seems like a lot right? well guess when theyre supposed to pitch it to you...at check out. everyone one of those things will be thrown at you at checkout...how stupid. i just want one 10 cent copy...leave me the heck alone lady! oh which reminds me...impress is required to push even more. need a copy of a wedding photo to mail to a friend...20 something cent...well they are required to beg you to get something more expensive done. would you like this on a better quality photo paper? you could get this blown up to poster size for a long lasting memory. would you like this laminated to preserve it and give it a professional finish? ...does it sound like ive done this before? ;)
NONE of it is sincere, and it is ALL lies. the paper that they are trying to push on you does not save you money on ink. the office max brand is not the SAME quality as the name brand. the stories they use to relate to you in order to convince you to buy something are fed to them by management. dont be fooled into thinking youre speaking to someone who knows what theyre talking about...because everyone there is taught to "wing it". according to the store manager "people want to be lazy, they dont want to think, they want you to do it for them". he thinks so highly of the people that pay his check.
Just keep an eye out for shady business practices at this store...I have never been to another office max so i do not know if the other store associates are so clueless, rude, and shady. but when it comes to me, some of the practices passed down from corporate alone are enough to keep me from ever going back into that store again.
EMAIL:
[email protected]
Phone: (904)573-8221
Store Manager: John
Assistant manager: Nicole
District manager: Bill
Office Max Store 1422 in Oakleaf Town center
