Last weekend I needed to buy a shredder, as our old one (nicknamed “our old shredder”) finally gave up the ghost. Both The Wife and I also wanted one that wasn’t just a strip cut (I don’t want people knowing that I bought 6-10 method products on my last Target trip.) (Shoot.)
After going to three different office stores I ended up at OfficeMax. I shopped the options and made my choice: a nice diamond-cut shredder for $50. I walked up to the registers to find that there was only one lane open, the customer service lane, with one person in line.
Unfortunately that guy had a gift card that wasn’t ringing up right… so that took about 10 minutes. While I was waiting, a sales guy came up next to me.
“Do you want to buy some lubricator sheets for that?” he said in a smarmy fashion. “No.” “Okay, well, how about a three-year extended warranty? It’s only $5.99.” “No.” I wasn’t in a mood to fight back or play along… really, I just wanted the guy to open another damn lane.
I finally got up to the counter and was asked again if I wanted lube sheets. “No.” Then I got the pitch.
“Well sir do you want to add a three-year extended warranty to your purchase? I mean, on this shredder it would be a great benefit. Because what that will get you is the ability to come in and instead of repairing this thing we would replace it instead,” he said in what really sounded like one gigantic run-on sentence. “Just bring it in and get another one no questions asked.”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, thanks.”
“Okay, well, I’ve seen a lot of this model come in – they’re not built very well – and we just replace ’em. A lot of ’em have come in.”
I should note that this shredder already has a 1-year warranty on top of the 30 day return policy and a 3-year limited warranty on top of that, too. I didn’t see the need to pay $6 for a warranty but worse than that, sheesh, have some faith in the stuff you’re selling, you know?
I wanted to go at it with the guy but, honestly, I was just too tired. Next time I’ll just use Amazon and deal with impersonal emails instead of impersonal salesdroids.
Posted in Consumer Commentary
Steve A April 18, 2008, 10:57 am
You might want to send that little conversation to the manufacturing company. I’m _sure_ they’d be pleased to hear employees of OfficeMax telling potential customers their product is crap (regardless of whether it is or isn’t).
Ciao,
Ryan April 18, 2008, 3:19 pm
The droid-like interactions are the primary reason I cannot stand big box stores. Unfortunately, sometimes there aren’t any other choices.
Also, note to self: stop digging in Paul’s trash. Too hard to get any good gossip now.