Staples — Local services in West Chicago Township

Either Chase or Staples (possibly both), running a classic “patrolling”towing scheme. This scheme usually involves a spotter, could be the tow truck driver him/herself or a paid third-person, catching any drivers who did not enter both establishments and then towing them within minutes. And it is a pretty clear scheme considering my car was towed within 2 minutes of me leaving.

It is illegal? Possibly. Under Illinois Vehicle Code 625 ILCS 5/4-203, commercial towing companies need to fill out proper paperwork and notify law enforcement of a tow within 30 minutes of the towing. However, more digging needs to be done on how this scheme is been implemented and if there are any kickbacks involved between the establishments and Rokaitis Industries (the employed commercial towing company). Regardless, all of this process is somewhat hard to accomplish within minutes, so I doubt Rokaitis Industries follows the strict legal procedures prescribed by the state law.

That begs the second question, is it unethical? Without a doubt in my humble opinion. There is many ways a private business can prevent cars parked illegally by taking correct measures before issuing the tow. “Patrolling” towing also preys upon financially vulnerable individuals as people without power tend to be more reserved when it comes to confrontational issues with authorities and legalities. Towing any parked car should be the last resort for any establishments and something to be done if the car has been unaccounted for for a long duration of time. Sadly, the state of Illinois continues to have weak legislative laws against bandit towing (unlike California that requires a car to be towed off a private property after an hour or longer stay). Additionally, there is insufficient signage within the parking lot that warns drivers of a possible toll as the only few signs that are available are all minuscule and shoved away in the corners of the parking lot.

Looking back at all of the negative comments, it seems like this scheme has been going on for a minimum of four years. While it is difficult to pinpoint the legality of this issue, since it is a private lot, victims should no doubt contact the towing company at first (don’t get your hopes up, expect typical scammer attitude) and file complaints accordingly to the ICC and your local alderman. More importantly, avoid this parking lot and the businesses at all times since there are also many victims who had their car towed despite showing evidence of themselves conducting business within the proper establishments. Better not to use this location and avoid the...

READ BEFORE GOING INTO A NIGHTMARE: Just left this Staples here at Roosevelt and Canal, to begin the first star is going to the mature blonde woman named Gail. She was professional, kind and flexible working with my boyfriend. When he entered she greeted, she understood that he wasn’t that tech savvy, and was very patient and personable. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the other two staff members behind the counter. The younger young lady with a red T-shirt on was not personable, omitted a greeting and instead asked me what I wanted quite offensively. She was very dismissive with my partners request for printing service. Not sure if it is unfortunately a generational misstep or just an overall reboot of customer service training in need. However she was outdone by the larger gentleman working behind the counter in a gray T-shirt. Not only was he out of his way rude, full on dismissive, but upon greeting him and asking his name as I thought I would be leaving a good review was very rude and belligerent and told me that he was too busy to speak to me even though when he felt like it he responded with a sharp and very unprofessional tongue. I understand that in the realm of the service industry it can get difficult when you are on hourly pay as opposed to commission, however these are the jobs that we all should be grateful for during these times and as somebody who is also in service I make sure to go out of my way because I know I chose this job however the people coming into the business had no other choice than where they went, and a lot of the times are depending on me to be the a pitta me of professionalism. Unfortunately I did not receive this from these two staff employees and I do recommend that they look to Gail to receive better training and education when it comes to proper client retention and service.

My other two stars my previous large event prints with MAPLE AND ASH, FOX, and SHOWTIME. Staples is great for the incredible competitive prices that offered, as well as awesome and very easy to use online service. They have maintained an impeccable quality to their products and as long as they can reign in their in-store employees I do believe that this company could be truly exceptional and...

Don't use their lamination services or even printing services for that matter. The employees there may care, but my god the supervisor Pat does not and it trickles down.

I spent hours designing, printing, and cutting cards for a custom gift and the supervisor for the printing services ensured that the lamination for these cuts were a) delayed for 24 past the pickup time and b) done so terribly that the final product was unusable. Truly unusable. Not even a "sorry".

They were cut too closely for half the cards where it compromised the integrity of the lamination, and cut over 1 inch too long on other cards. There were even cards laminated TOGETHER. 2 different cards both put on top of each other and laminated. I have less cards then I even walked in with because of it. It is literally unusable for so many reasons

Hand trimming would not fix what they did. Again, not even a "sorry." Just a sarcastic "yeah, ok" when I asked for an apology. Willing to apologize to my husband though when they tell us we need to drive 1hr to come in to get a refund.

The supervisor defended the horrible cuts saying I should have been charged more for the cuts and that that's why they look bad. Which, that reasoning makes no sense to me for why I wound up with unusable laminations, terrible cuts, and ruined artwork. I was charged for less cuts because their self-service paper cutter was tearing my cards and ruining my work, so the employee charged me less for cuts to compensate for that.

Worth noting that supervisor refused to help with the self-service paper cutter, but one of the employees helped by changing out the blade. The supervisor made sure that the employee wasn't allowed to change the blade a second time, so the tearing resumed shortly thereafter.

Now I need to re-do...