Poor Customer Service: Staples Hamilton Ontario Canada

Posted on by buildingtheloveshack

One of the things I love the most about the internet is that large companies can not treat people badly and keep it a secert.

I would love to share my experience with not only bad service but also a refusal to return my money.

Today I arrived at Staples on Upper Wentworth Street in Hamilton Ontario to pick up some ink we had ordered.

Staples Canada releases sustainability report – The Recycler - 09/08/2017

When I arrived there was only two other cars. I followed the directions posted on the email and the posted sign and tried calling them. The phone rang, when it answered it request you to push number six for cur-side pick-up. I did this. Then it went into the phone directory and it asked for the same thing again. I pushed six again. After about three tries of repeating the same pattern, the phone hangs up. I redial and this continues now for thirty minutes. Now the curb-side parking spots are getting full and I am watching others do the same thing. I get out of my car and approached other drives and asked, are you having trouble getting through. They confirmed they were having the same problem.

I volunteer to go to the door and ask if they are having problems with their phone. As I approach the door a man comes out who is employed there as I suspected as he was wearing the company logo. I said “Excuse me. Can I ask if you are having problems with your phone”. Before I got a chance to explain to him the reason for the question he snaps at me and tells me “to have some patience and get back in your car and wait.”

At first, I am stunned and shocked, which quickly became offended that this man was so rude.

At this point, I have no intention of dealing with him and I get in my car and leave.

I go home and call the store to speak the manger, where I was then left on hold for forty-seven minute for a store that has six cars in the parking lot and is closed, with the exception of curb side pick-up.

When the manger finally comes to the phone forty-seven minute later, yes, he is the same man. I am not having another conversation with this man.

I hang up and now call the head office in Toronto Ontario, where I am again put on hold. When I finally reach someone, I get told I can fill out a form over the phone and then they can send me an email to inquire about what the concern is.

I say no thank you. It is quiet obvious by the level of care and lack of concern, that they have no intention of doing anything or correcting the problem. Instead, I would like to cancel my order and have the money refunded to my credit card when I am told…

“They can not do that. But, I can wait five days and if I don’t pick up the order then my money will be refunded for failure to pick up.”

She has to be kidding me right? Failure to pick up… isn’t this what all this is about, me tryin to pick up my order.

At this point I asked to speak to her manger and was told “it could take up to thirty minutes to an hour on hold for a manger. And again she wanted to send me an email instead of my refund.”

I said “I have a better idea. Why don’t I just leave it there and go write a blog and share my great customer service experience I had with your company with the world on the internet.”

It was now three hours of my time. I still did not have my ink. I could not get a refund. And the beauty of it all… No one would ever even bother to ask for my number to contact me.

Amazon will be delivering my ink tomorrow. If/when I get a refund it will be at Staples Canadas discretions. But as I promised the head office and I always keep my word. I am sharing the great customer service I had at their Hamilton Ontario Store and the head office in Toronto Ontario.

I guess if they read this they’ll have the information to fill out their own form. But I do have a feeling they will be reading this as I am sending them my email address, attached with this blog posting of course, as I do keep my word and provide good customer service.

Business are wondering why we are all ordering from Amazon. The answer is simple. Curb-side is terrible service on it’s best days leaving people waiting for long periods of time. And, there is another side effect of curb-side, there is no one to witness how customers are being treated by unsupervised employees.

Shame on Staples Canada. Their poor services starts at head office. How can one expected excellent service when it doesn’t start at the top? The answer, they can’t.

But thankfully there is Amazon and people don’t need to deal with poor service and disrespect. There are always other options.

22 thoughts on “Poor Customer Service: Staples Hamilton Ontario Canada”

  2. I won’t use Amazon, either. Walmart uses people from China, too, but they so far are not involved in censorship (your right to free speech–the whole point). The most important point of course. No matter what your opinion. I also order directly from companies like Home Depot, Lowe’s, etc. I would think a company like Staples would just deliver. Walmart is a little slower than Amazon, but I just use Amazon when Walmart doesn’t have enough selection or time is of essence. We have alot delivered, though. Seems to be the way to go. Terrible experience for you! But good for you fighting back.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Staples does deliver and if the woman on the phone would have said “I’m terribly sorry about what happened could we deliver that for you.” I would have calmed down and said yes and that would have been it. But to tell me I can’t have my money back and can’t cancel my order was the finishing touches.

      Liked by 2 people

  3. Do what I did with United Airlines – contact the CEO directly! It was amazing the great results I got, and I also made sure to send a complimentary thank-you directly to the CEO when we received the proper credit to our account.
    The CEO of Staples is Mr. J. Alexander (Sandy) Douglas, who was formerly the President of Coca-Cola North America. Mr. Douglas’ direct e-mail is sandy.douglas@staples.com his phone is listed as (508) 253-5000. Go get ’em!

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Please let us all know if you get a response/resolution….I am especially curious! Sometimes middle managers/frontline personnel think customers will just give up, and not try to pursue an issue. (I have no problem with taking on Big Business myself – as a paying customer, it’s my RIGHT to receive satisfaction for the dollars I choose to spend to purchase their products/services…and I believe it’s their OBLIGATION to honor consumer trust).

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I will definitely do an update on how this turns out. I have dealt with other companies and had excellent outcomes when something went wrong. And then there were others who never even returned a call. The ones who corrected it, I still do business with. The others I do not. I personally do not think that manager should be a manager. I have been in management myself and did many years of it in Nursing, and let me tell you people get upset in the medical world, but never once would I have ever spoken to someone like that. Whatever his personal problem was and I am assuming he had one, had nothing to do with me.

        Liked by 1 person

  5. Girl, YES!! My post yesterday was about the TRASH customer service from my internet provider. Unfortunately, it’s use their service or don’t have the internet where I live. I’m about ready to just unplug 🤦‍♀️

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I remember back when Bell had the only phone service. They were terrible to deal with. I also remember saying to one of their reps “one day you will not be the only phone company”. Since another phone company came into service, I have never been a Bell customer. Not that they haven’t tried many times.

      Liked by 3 people

  7. Hello Lacie,

    I really enjoyed your blog; it was informative and moving. I really enjoyed reading you and the group’s content for many years. I great admirer of your work.

    Like you, I recently had an encounter that left me livid with the customary service with Staples. Ironically, this was the same Staples store that you have mentioned. This is an outrageous company, I’m glad that I am not the only one whom encountered this unprofessional behaviour from the associates and management.

    Like you, I was waiting for curb-side pick-up, there was four cars in the parking lot and I was told it was busy and had to wait by one of the associates who was serving others that arrived after me in the parking lot. I was waiting for 10 minutes!!! I could not believe this; Whoa! I requested to speak with a manager for this delay as one of the associates was running from and to the store and avoiding me. I can’t believe this behaviour! I was almost treated as If I was a dog. When the associate returned to my vehicle, I noticed that his mask was not fully covering his nose. The manager soon followed with a highest talk and a heart of stone, with no care in the world. The manager spoke, “the associate was fully masked and you must stay in the car”. I responded to the manager as he approached, “If you practice what you breach yet you turn the other cheek”. The manager was confused by my comment and as if he didn’t care about my issue against his team. I yelled at his boyish behaviour, and I requested a refund. He simply replied, “you have 30 days for a refund, once the store re-opens”. The whole situation was unacceptable and could’ve been avoided if the personnel treated their customers better.

    I am glad that another has experienced this form of such low behaviour. The hardest choices require the strongest wills. I am glad that you wrote this, I love when people share stories like yours, especially when two people come together. I would like to get in contacted with you and fight our issues together. We can share our experiences with Staples, and maybe we can go against them.

    Cordially,
    Caryn (Marj) McGhatem Joel

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I am so glad you shared this story as I also learned when my husband got home from work the day of my experience he had the same treatment from the same man. The day before she was picking up some other supplies and put his window down to show his ID and was also yelled at by this same guy. I am waiting got see if I hear back from head off. In the meantime, one of my other bloggers gave me the email address for the CEO. Could you possibly send this information you sent me to him. I think it’s time to let head office people know what is happening at this store. And yes. let’s fight this battle together. This guy should not be a manager.

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  8. What horrible customer service! I hope you were able to make a little progress with the CEO. I rarely shop at Staples but this makes me want to shop there even less.

    Liked by 1 person

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