I’m a Dad

OfficeMax Comes Through

I bought a CenDyne 48X12X48X CD burner at OfficeMax a couple of weeks ago. Part of the reason I bought it was that there was a $30 rebate in addition to it being $20 off the regular price. So instead of costing $99, it would only cost $49. Not a bad deal.

The first time I go to OfficeMax intending to buy the thing, they are all out of it. I got in the store at around 4PM on the day the sale started. I was a little peeved at this because my feeling is first off you should have sufficient product on hand when you start a sale to allow for higher than usual purchases of that product. That’s the whole reason for having a sale, right. The other thing that miffed me was that there were still tickets on the shelf leading one to believe that the thing was in stock. You know the tickets I’m talking about. You go to a store and certain items are so valuable they keep them behind the counter and you have to take the customer service people a little slip of paper that you get from the shelf where your item is supposed to be; of course all that’s really there is an empty box and a pile of little slips of paper. I don’t think it would kill them to be a little more on the ball and remove those slips of paper when the item is out of stock.

So, I don’t get my CD burner on this trip. But I do pick up a few other sale items and I grab the “Rebate Directory” because I did buy one item that had a rebate with it.

I got home and stuffed my receipts, the rebate directory and everything into a big bag and left it on the table, thinking I would just do all the rebates at once after I got my CD burner. I went back to the store several days later, having been told by the checkout clerk that they usually got shipments on Tuesday. The burner was in stock so I bought it. Cool.

I got home and went to fill out the rebate forms only to find out that there were no forms for the items I bought. I went to OfficeMax to find out why and was told I needed the supplement to the directory, that some of the items, for whatever reason, weren’t in the original directory. I checked before I left to make sure my items were in there – they were. I got to my car and was looking at the forms and noticed that the “buy between” dates for the rebates were several days in the future. I went back in. “Oh you need the old rebate directory.” So I got one, verified the dates and went home.

I filled out the forms, verifying the correct date range, cut out the UPC code from the boxes, put everything into an envelope and mailed it off.

I got a postcard about a week and a half later telling me that I didn’t buy my item during the right time period for the rebate I was applying for. They did not return my receipt, my UPC code, or anything. I decided I would go to OfficeMax and they would either make it right or they would suffer my eloquent wrath and I would boycott them forever and ever.

I explained to the customer service guy what had happened, knowing he would need to call a manager. He listened politely, got on his little phone and called for a manager. The manager arrived and I explained the situation. He told me to follow him to a different register, that he would make it right. My jaw dropped. I said, “What? I don’t even get to yell?” He told me it wouldn’t do any good if I had – obviously he hasn’t seen me righteously fired up. But he was making good so I let that one go. He actually refunded me the original amount and then resold the thing to me for the sale amount minus the rebate amount. I was pretty happy about that.

Now my question is this: if they can do that, why don’t they just sell it to you for that price in the first place?