Office Depot — Local services in Des Moines

the west des moines branch is the best! unfortunately i had to come here today instead (that detail is important). i needed help printing a prop for a halloween costume. prop in question: a clearly NOT REAL id badge belonging to a FICTIONAL CHARACTER FROM A TV SHOW (who also looks nothing like me and lives in a different state than the location of this store, this is also important). I needed help because i needed multiple duplicates (it's halloween and it's regular printer paper, i'm printing multiple in case someone spills a drink on me) and i needed it to be the size of a business card (roughly 2x3-3.5") and the self serve printers do not allow you to edit the size/quantity of photos. this was NO issue for the west des moines branch. they were SO kind and got everything for me exactly how i needed it and i was out of there in less than 5. i overestimated how big i needed the photo to be and i chose the wrong size at the wdm store but since they were so helpful, they showed me every single size i could get INCLUDING the size i actually needed! so i thought no big deal i'm closer to the merle hay store today i'll just pop in... LMAO NOPE. a young female employee complained when i asked for help because what i needed help with was "hard" and said nothing until I APOLOGIZED TO WHICH SHE SAID "it's fine.. no worries".... WHATTTTT??? SORRY FOR TRYING TO PAY FOR YOUR SERVICES IG ??? after about a minute of standing there she just gave up and walked away. a tall male employee came over and i reexplained everything. but not only is he helping me, he's chatting on the phone with what sounds like a friend, he's conversing with the other employees irl so much so that he had to reask EVERYTHING that came out of my mouth like 3 times. this is where it gets worse. he tells me they can't help me because i'm trying to print a real scannable id on printer paper and if i want it i need to order an actual id card. after explaining ONCE AGAIN that this is for a HALLOWEEN COSTUME, it's HOMEMADE, and from a FICTIONAL TV SHOW IN A STATE THAT IS OBVIOUSLY NOT HERE, then he goes "oh yeah i guess that is that character..." because funny enough he's seen the show! WHATTTTTTT ??? he returns with the printed paper and none of them are the size i asked for. literally i was asked like 6 times now what size i wanted it. then he tells me he cant print it because its too small (when i know that's not true because the west des moines location literally made it in that size for me, i just didn't think it was big enough at the time). then he tells me he can't print it because it's blurry. first off, what you're referring to are pixels, not blur. which can be fixed by entering the correct ppx for the size i wanted. second, LIKE IVE HAD TO SAY TO YOU 7 TIMES NOW ITS FOR A HALLOWEEN COSTUME I DO NOT GIVE A FLYING F IF THE PPI IS LESS THAN 300 (he said nothing about the ppi, but tried to mansplain what an aspect ratio was to me... and horribly i might add) literally all he needed to do was unlock the aspect ratio in the software and input the right units. but according to him the smallest size available was an 8x10... i just gave up and left because i had already wasted 20 minutes of my life at this point and it was pointless trying to talk to someone that clearly cannot or does not want to listen. just say you don't know how to do that next time! or hire people with basic printing knowledge! or hire people that actually want to help others! or respect them enough to listen! i already felt like an inconvenience asking for your help during the lil afternoon shift rant sesh, and felt even worse after apologizing for ASKING FOR HELP, so there's no need to dig the hole any further. but thanks for the headache and for taking 20 min of my time i'll never get back! more like 2 hours now because this was so bad i HAD to...

What a joke of a store. I placed a customized order for invitations for my child’s birthday party (I purchased a customizable, legitimate template from Etsy that I had full printing rights to. I received an email the following day stating my order was cancelled due to copyright issues…no phone call with any sort of explanation, just a joke of an email. Even more of a joke was the manager at this location when I called to question the cancellation. I don’t know what his name was, but I spoke to him at 8:20am on 9/11/24 and he claimed to be the “printing manager”. He needs someone to bring him back down to earth and remind him that printing services for a child’s birthday party ARE NOT THAT SERIOUS. He said he did “extensive research” on my print order (which may I remind you, was FOR A 5 YEAR OLD BIRTHDAY PARTY), and stated his “research” concluded my order was a copyright fraud, and if they chose to print my order, they could “face legal repercussions”. He said he researched my print template, which again, I purchased and have full printing rights to, and found “evidence that I copyrighted Sonic the Hedgehog”. I honestly was dying laughing because this explanation was so ridiculous…I seriously thought he was joking. You literally would’ve thought I was trying to print counterfeit money or something. I was embarrassed for him and his crazy explanation for cancelling my order…I hope he sees this review and realizes how idiotic his reasoning was, and that the “copyright police” have better things to do than raid an Office Depot for 5 year old birthday invitation print offs. I also want him to know that 10 minutes after his idiotic rant, I sent my invitation order to another Office Depot, who immediately fulfilled and printed my order the following day…and the invitations were PERFECT. They received a 5 star review, and I will count on them for all future orders. As a reminder to the manager I spoke to, it was a print service for my child’s birthday party, not documents for homeland security…you need...

This is specific to the Haymarket Square (Merle Hay Road) store; I have received fantastic customer service at all other locations. When I arrived, there were three staff people nearby; not one of them looked up from what they were doing to greet me. I wanted to ship something so I got in line behind a man waiting to be assisted with printing. When the staff working in that area finally addressed the customer, the customer said he had come to pick up his printing. The staff informed him that he had not taken the order (another staff had) and that he (this staff) would be getting off at 5:00 (it was 4:00 at the time). The customer asked what his options were, as he needed the printing tomorrow. The staff said it may be ready tomorrow or the next day, he wasn't sure because he was as off and leaving at 5:00. The staff made no effort to look for the man's order and see where it was in line or anything. So, my turn in line. I waited and waited and still not acknowledged by the man in printing/shipping OR the other staff just a few feet away telling the couple looking for a desk that they were just out of luck and should look at other stores. Finally, I said so all three staff could hear: Is there someone who can help me with shipping? The man in that area, still without looking at me, said that the machine might be down or broken. That was it, no "sorry for your inconvenience," nothing. I was so disgusted, I said (addressing all three staff), "it would be nice if you guys at least greeted your customers." The staff in that area responded with "yeah, it would be nice, wouldn't it." No manager stepped forward to apologize or try to correct the situation. I have never been so disgusted with overall customer...