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Forget Cyber Monday…It’s Staples Sharpie Sunday
Tomorrow in the U.S. is the special online-only holiday of Cyber Monday. I just left my finger workout class at the local gym to get ready for all of the exciting and quick moving deals that will be available. If you are new to Cyber Monday or are looking for information on how to find the best deals, I’ve shared a bunch of tips and techniques on my InformationWeek column.
Some online retailers have started their Cyber Monday sales early so if you are waiting until tomorrow to start searching, you might try searching tonight.
On Friday we reported that office supply retailer Staples was having issues with their website and ordering during their Black Friday sales. Today’s issue is even more fun than if the Staples website was down.
Staples posted their Cyber Monday deals a day early — one of the deals is for $25 in free Sharpie markers and pens. The purchase should be simple…add $25 in Sharpie products to your shopping cart, apply the coupon code 96140 and bingo — $25 in free Sharpie products. The deal was to begin at 6am this morning. The deal hunters lined up in massive lines with their products chosen just waiting for 6am. When 6am came, the code was not working. In fact, as of 5pm Eastern, the code is still not working.
The coupon issue sent the deal forums into mass panic. SlickDeals shows over 115 pages of replies related to this deal and over 155k topic views. Other deal forums show hundreds of reviews and tens of thousands of pageviews. So while Staples gets some egg on their face, the deal forums make out well in ad views. I guess we can say that for today, Staples was the Digg for the deal forums.
Big kudos to the customer service team at Staples – so far I haven’t read one complaint with how the coupon issue was handled. I sure hope that Staples management provides a bonus for the entire call center. At one point there were over 2,000 people on hold. The greeting on the phone line tells customers to call back later if they are looking for the Sharpies coupon and it will be validated later in the week.
Many of us are wondering why they didn’t just fix the coupon code so it worked. I grabbed a bunch of markers and pens – I wonder how long they last before they dry out.
I can’t believe you waited for 3 hours to talk to customer service on Sunday!
What coupon did they send you?
I don’t mind that they were out of stock. I do mind that they let me place the order online and did not tell me they were out of stock. I had to find that out by calling customer service a few days later when I got a confirmation with my part of order was missing. I printed a copy of my original online order. Nowhere does it say “subject to availability” or “while supplies last”.
I also mind spending time shopping on their web site when I could have been doing my Cyber Monday shopping on another site that does reflect accurately reflect what Items are in stock.
It’s 2009 there is no excuse for a major retailer using antiquated inventory and ordering software. From how my reaming order was chopped up, my guess is some of their inventory software is about 10-15 years old.
I do agree their customer service is very polite.
I have worked in retail my whole life. Retailers are not required to offer subs, and most of the time it is noted that promotions are “while supplies last”… good luck with the attorney general! *eye roll*
I tried calling in on Sunday, and waited over three hours to speak with a customer service rep. Obviously they were slammed with thousands of customers, so you can’t honestly expect to have been guaranteed the items you wanted would be in stock. Seriously.
I was quite happy with my experience, and the nice woman I spoke with even sent me a coupon because the computer I wanted was out of stock by the time I got through! I didn’t even ask for anything.
I’m going to write the attorney general. The site allowed me to place orders for items, including the sharpies and a ACER monitor. When I finally got a confirmation a few days later half of my order was missing without my being notified. I called customer service only to find the monitor and sharpies were out of stock. I substituted more sharpies, with the promise I could get the discount, but the discount was not applied. There no was equal substitution or rain check for the monitor. So I substituted an AOC monitor that was on sale later in the week (for $20 more), then checked my order online, only to find again the sale price was not applied. I was able to get the AOC monitor at the sales price by going to a local Staples, but I can’t cancel the one being delivered to my local store. Customer service said the store will refuse the delivery and I will get my charge credited within 10 days. There’s no excuse for poor online inventory tracking and sales in 2009. What’s really bad is customers lose out on real deals at other stores when they purchase cyber Monday products only to be told on Tuesday the products did not exist.
Well..I called in to order my stuff from cyber monday and was told by the rep on the phone, that they knew nothing about calling back later in the week for the deal and they refused to honor it..So I’m out I guess….
Here’s the response that I got from Staples Customer Service. Very lame. I think that I’ll write a letter to the FTP and my State Attorney General. The offer is a clear case of false advertising. Staples could have easily put a notice on their website but did nothing. Hmm.
Read for yourself:
Hi David, thank you for contacting Staples regarding the Sharpie Promotion and Staples.com.
I apologize for the inconvenience that you experienced. Our goal is to create an easy shopping
experience for each and every customer.
We are constantly making upgrades to our site to make it easier for customers to order office
supplies and purchase business services. At Staples, we take all customer comments very seriously.
Your comments will be very helpful as we prepare future promotional offers and future versions of
our site.
If you need further assistance, please reply to this email or contact us at 800-333-3330.
Thank you for your patience concerning this matter.
Tina
Customer Service Representative
I sent emails, called three different numbers, no response, no message about “redeming later”. Recieved a simple email TODAY that just told that they were sold out, even though I had tried at 6 on Monday.
This promotion was a disaster. They had to shut down some customer service options. Many who wanted items that were in stock were unable to use the offer as they expired it without any notice Monday morning.
Many times it is harder for retailers to fix errors on website than it is worth to them. If they fix the issue, they would have to take down the website.