aggravatedI walked into Staples with my mom on a mission. I was re-arranging my room that morning and decided I needed a new desk and a bookshelf. Seriously. I went in there with a $400 budget in mind. Sure I look like a reject high school student and my mom's face isn't that nice because of her allergies, but I assure you I have MONEY.
So the looong search
My mom walks me to the furniture section in the back and we look at desks for 20 minutes. The entire time, I'm wondering where the staff is and I see inventory stickers all over the place. We decide on a $150 desk and an $85 bookshelf. We then hunt for a person to help us.
The lady is writing numbers on a post it note in the center isle quite a distance from the furnitue.
"Excuse me, ma'am." My mom says.
"Yes?" The lady asks, looking up at us.
"We found some furniture we'd like to see if you have in stock" Mom replies.
"What would you like?" The lady asks, looking at us like we just ruined her slow day.
"An $85 bookshelf and a $150 desk." Mom replies
"Well, that doesn't help." The lady replies.
Wait, wait. We were supposed to write down alllll the information from these items and bring them to her? When did that start? And the bookshelf is sitting wayyy up behind some other bookshelves and desks. No way to reach the numbers anyway. So we lead the lady to the furniture and I clearly point at the bookshelf and the desk. She goes into the back, and returns 10 minutes later. Bookshelf is in, desk isn't.
Mom states: "This desk wasn't in when I wanted to buy it a few months ago as well."
The lady then looks it up on-line. "You can get it from 1 to 7 days if you order it"
"I'm kind of re-arranging my room right now." I speak up, wincing lightly. "We'll take another look at the desks."
So me and mom look again and I pick out another $150 desk. We find the lady on the phone and ask her about it. She grabs the paper off the desk, goes into the back, and coems out 5 minutes later with 2 boxes on the trolly. We walk up to the desk and wait at the main register. While we're waiting, I notice the woman took our boxes and is ringing them up on another computer. So I whip out my check book and write the check out. $204.84. It didn't hit me until later about that price, but I'll get to that.
"Do you have someone to help you?" The lady asks.
"yes, my dad's at home" I reply.
"Should I bring the truck around?" Mom asks.
"yes, you have to." The lady replies, and my mom goes to get the truck as I hand the lady my check and, surprising her, my driver's license. "And I meant do you have anyone to help you out of the store. I can't lift this. I didn't lift this. I had someone help me in the back."
"Oh, I guess me and mom will. I'm strong." I reply
So the lady rolls her eyes and we pass a strong man with a Staples shirt on who's just chatting on the phone. All three of us lift the two boxes into the back of the truck. We thank the lady very much and head out. AS I read the receipt, we're heading down the highway. I notice the bookshelf was only $50. "Hey, it was on sale!" I cheer.
When we get home, and my dad opens the box, it turns out she got us the cheapest bookshelf on the display floor. And it's twice as SMALL as the beautiful LARGE one I had initially picked out. And me AND my mom said the $85 one, NOT the cheap $50 one.
Oh, and the company messed up on the desk. I have a piece that has that bad wood stuff on all sides that shows clearly on the desk after it was assembled. the instructions were also bad on how to assemble it, and now I have two screws that destroyed the underside of the main shelf top AND they were missing 2 screws to put the file cabinet drawer together.
Mom's got the paper and will call the desk makers tomorrow about that and I'm putting in a complaint about the woman at Staples that thinks her job is a bother and can't listen to customers all that well. She just lost Staples $30 in a sale and if the woman tries to help me again, I'm leaving and shopping somewhere else for awhile, so she's lost Staples my future business for awhile. I wanted to get my next computer there, too.