Staples — Attraction in Oakville

I would not have written this review today.... but if you're going to say something about a customer don't do it in-front of them, where they can easily hear you. Attended Staples to pick up my Fedex shipment. The doors on the North End were closed (the entrance by the shipping area). Walked around the building to the regular entrance and back to the far end to shipping counters etc. There were no customers at the pick up area, and two customers to the side at the other area. I stopped and stood at the pick up area, noticing a girl doing something just behind the partial glass partition. I stood there quite a while, said nothing and just kept waiting. Expecting she would eventually serve me. No response. I walked up and put my ID on the counter and waited. Slowly a line started to form behind me. The first holding a package, waited quite a while and then sat the package down. We stood there looking at each other after a while with the "we're waiting look". After a while another gentlemen showed up with a bunch of documents for shredding. A few minutes later another gentlemen showed up. All lined up behind me. The same original two customers were at the line of service desks to the right. One being a mother and daughter, they then came over to the pick up area to have the daughters pass port photo taken. I nicely stepped to the counter and picked my ID off the counter and stepped back to wait. This is not a negative on them whatsoever, just a description of events for time purposes. We all waited for the jewelry and wardrobe changes , hair fixing etc, again that is not on them. This was what most would do and they were there first. Not a problem. As we all waited a red haired lady walked in and was served at the other counter . All the while the girl in the package pick up kept doing her thing behind the glass partition. After the photo was done the staff member started to Iserve the man with the shredding who was there and third in line. After he was done....At that point I said "excuse me, I've been waiting here and have now had 3 people served ahead of me and waited for one passport photo." The person serving the mother and daughter who was 10 feet from me said to the girl behind the partition who was just off to his side " XXXXX one of the customers is getting restless can you help him."......I said nothing and waited patiently, until the girl left the counter and ended up servicing the man behind me with the package at the side counter! I approached the counter to close the distance to the person who was about 10 feet back behind the counter ( to help keep my voice lower)who was servicing the passport people at the machine behind the counter. I nicely said "Next time you're going to say something about a customer don't say it where they can hear you." After a short time he asked for my identification and retrieved my parcel. Lines happen in order folks. Even a simple " we'll be with you in a second sir would have sufficed but that never happened. There was also a moment with the girl who was behind the counter who went into a room behind the partition with another employee and I could here them laughing loudly as I signed for the package. I cannot of course say what the reason for the laughter was. I'm sure it was just a good meme or something on TikTalk....

The first thing about quality.... partially my mistake. I took them up on the offer for business cards and just didn't expect the quality to be this bad. Smaller letters look like they were bleeding with the background, the cards have the little white stubs along the edges. Obviously from the punch card style stock they have in the store. If that's what they were going to use, I could have done that myself for cheaper... Should have just gone with Vistaprint. I will next time.

Disappointed.

But what really upsets me is the customer service.

I tried calling the place many many many times on many different days. No one ever picks up the darn phone. Not in the Copy and Print Centre, not at the main desk. At one point, I wondered if they were out of business.

On the last day the cards were supposed to be in (today), I walked in -frustrated out of my mind after 10 business days) and while standing in line, I heard the phone ring. One person was helping a customer and the other, just stood by the counter not even bothering to answer the call. That explained a lot.

Then it was my turn and I calmed asked for my cards. After 5 minutes of looking around in the drawers and computer system (and me getting anxious that my cards weren't in), the clerk told me that it's scheduled to come in later today and that it would be ready for pick up tomorrow. I showed her the email on the phone and said that today is the 10th business day. It should have been here ready for pick up at the latest by today.

At the point, the manager (I assume) came and apologized. I told her the same thing matter-of-factly. She looked around again and miraculously found the cards in a different drawer. I told her that it's been very frustrating calling and having no one every pick up the phone and all she could say was that she was sorry, they have a new team that's not used to handling all the different aspects of the job, and that they've been too busy to answer the phone. Too busy to handle calls???

Give me a break.

Next time, I'm going with vistaprint. Quality can't be worse, they'll deliver to my house within the same time or less, and price is the same or comparable.

Thumbs...

I really enjoy the convenience of the print centre in all of the Staples locations. However the Dorval location has the absolute worst service ever. Every time I go there I wait between eight and 15 minutes to be served to load my card meanwhile there is always one or two associates visibly in the back area which is open to the public and they continually ignore the customers in line not so much as a someone will be with you in a moment or we will be with you shortly they just keep their heads down glance up once in a while to make sure you’re not looking at them and totally ignore you. I was there once again today and I needed to load my card and waited in line with four people in the lineup I was second and only one cashier and two people in the back one lady with red hair and glasses was working on the computer and very hesitantly looked up but never once acknowledged any of the customers after eight minutes of finishing whatever it was she was doing she then proceeded to the cash and helped the next person in line. Once I finally got to the front of the line up and loaded my print card I proceeded to the printer and of course the printer wasn’t working and guess what not one associate could help because they were busy at the counter in hanging out in the back area. Fortunately I grabbed a young gentleman who looked fairly new and asked if he could help me he tried his best however I did troubleshoot it and figured out the problem which the printer was out of paper not toner which is what the system is saying and I expressed my concern about the service or lack there of to him in the poor guy was like a deer in headlights. I didn’t proceeded to let him know please if you’re going to work here ensure that you give good service because your service desk in the print centre is absolutely not and that is not the model you want to follow do good for your customers and you will be successful. Anyways I hope this helps Staples to identify the core issues of the lack of service at this particular location and...