Office Depot — Attraction in Homewood

I love using Office Depot for my shipping materials. Best prices, have most all box sizes I need, and the one I usually use (Hoover, AL) has most all of my online orders ready in literally less than 240 SECONDS! For this location, my first time visiting but second time ordering from. The first time I ordered from them I was notified in less than 5 minutes they did not have the 1 item of supposedly 37 claiming to be in stock per the website. It was fine because Hoover was closer but I was planning to be in the Homewood area that day. Today, this Homewood location was closer to me so 10 minutes before leaving work I placed my ordered. I should’ve noticed at the 10 minute mark it wasn’t going to be fun because I’m use to the EXCELLENT service of the Hoover location. So I drive over to the Homewood location 15 minutes from my work. I get there and I have a text from Office Depot saying “There is something wrong with your order. The store manager will call you shortly.” I walk-in and advise the associate at the door I’m there for my online order but just got the text message. She pages her manager and she said all he said was “It’s been refunded to you.” And then the clerk behind the counter said “I actually have it right here. I then said great I guess I’ll repay for it since I’m here and you have it. For some reason it cost 103% more to purchase it in store. I told the associate I’ll pay what I just paid online for it. He said in a very depressed tone “I’ll have to go check with my manager.” I don’t know why he couldn’t just page him for it instead of walking the half-mile to the back of the store where the manager seems to hide. He never came back while I was there. I told the associate I met initially to just ring me up because I’m not waiting. Luckily she was able to price it right for me. Such a waste of time coming to this location. I DO NOT RECOMMEND ANYONE COMING HERE. You would truly be served faster driving past this one going to the one in Hoover and coming back to Homewood. Someone needs to check on this...

I walk in to do a shop order, worker scrolling on her phone looks at me and continues to scroll…the store manager Caleb glances at me a few times and nobody says a word. At this point Ive been in the store for 20mins looking for a few items and I finally found the earbuds on my own. I needed assistance with a few security locked items, so I said excuse me in the store to get help. The manager Caleb walks up to me swinging his arms and hands in my face, saying you don't need to yell you walk to me to get help! I said I needed help to get a security item unlocked from the shelf I am a customer! Why was he so comfortable to walk up to me with such disrespect and unprofessionalism? I didnt yell i said excuse me with a proper tone and kept my hand up so one of the workers would see me. He seems to had an issue helping me in any form, but jumped to anybody white or hispanic. I felt violated and disrespected, I am darn near 40years old and to be spoken to in such a way just for asking for help, he should not be anyone’s GM, supervisor, whatever he considers himself. I will be contacting corporate on this matter as well. He only decided to help and change his tone once my wife who looks very fair skinned walked in to address how he approached me. Im also a woman so him getting in my face swinging arms and hands telling me not to yell out excuse me to get someone’s assistance...

Afternoon Corporate Executives, Shareholders & Bruce (District Manager),

I’m reaching out to bring to your attention a recent experience involving your employees (Tracy, red/colorful locs in her hair & Phillip the store mgr) that reflects POORLY on the standard of customer service provided yesterday afternoon at this location. Unfortunately, the interaction was not only unprofessional but also dismissive, which significantly impacted my experience and raised serious concerns.

Tracy, exhibited behavior that included rudeness, unwillingness to assist, lack of knowledge for company procedures. She was laying across the counter strolling on her phone for at least one minute before acknowledging my presence. (*Phillip, same behavior via phone raised his voice). Despite my attempts to explain a simple exchange, her responses were curt and unhelpful, leaving the situation unresolved and created frustration.

I believe in giving companies the opportunity to address and improve service related issues, which is why we felt it was important to share this feedback. I trust that this matter will be taken seriously and handled appropriately to ensure another customer never has this experience.

I contacted management at the Hoover location who acted urgently to assist welcoming me to their store to...