Staples Online Store is a Staple in My House
Written: Jan 24 '03 (Updated Mar 31 '03)
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I am reviewing Staples.com a store my husband often orders from because there are often shipping charge specials or free deliveries on items over $50.00. This was my first time using the site. He likes the site a lot.
About the site:
Before I get into the site I want to tell you that we have 4, 4 draw filing cabinets in my husband’s office. They are all cheaply made from discount stores. Many have handles that have broken. I needed a 2-drawer file cabinet for my computer room and didn’t want to spend a lot of money but I wanted something nice, that would last for awhile and accommodate me.
For whatever reason I went to Office Depot first and couldn’t find a file cabinet in any reasonable price range ($200). I also found it very hard to do searches there so that’s when I went over to Staples.com. Although there are ads on both sides of the first page, there is a nice neat list of links with headings such as Office Supplies and Furniture.
Under furniture it said file cabinets. I was a bit leery after the experience I had just had with Office Depot, but when I clicked on File cabinets I was given 10 links that made sense to me. I clicked on vertical and again was brought to a page that had more easy-to-figure out links and clicked on small home or office.
The pages loaded easily and compared to Office Depot this was simple. I really couldn’t have bought anything at that site since the product layout was so confusing. Staples.com is not. I was going to go with a metal file cabinet but since my room is all wood (It was my daughter’s bedroom set from This End Up.) I decided on the Dorel 2-Drawer Mobile Vertical File, Oak Finish for $59.99. It said it was for moderate users, which I am. I never intended to be in the cabinets daily. In addition, though there were some for less this has wheels and since I have a small room, I thought that made sense in case I wanted to move it around. You can enlarge the picture and it looked really nice.
You will find links to a clearance center, weekly specials and a rebate center among others such as the tabs on the top for technology and business services. There is an order status link as well.
Checking out, Shipping and Returns:
There was an easy to see check out button. I did not have to do any searching for it! We were already registered here but you will have to register if you never have. You also have the option of leaving instruction which I really like such as “leave on the deck if no one is home.”
The site says to expect delivery in 1 business day but that is a link and when you go to it I was told that it would be 1-7 days since this was a Furniture Item. Business items say 1-4 days.
In the past when we have ordered from Staples, our items have come the next day. We are always amazed when we see the Staples truck and there has been no delivery charge. Since this was over $50.00 there was no delivery charge.
In order to find out a shipping fee though, again unless I continue to miss things, I could not find out what items under $50 cost. We have never paid shipping. I went to help at the top and that is where answers to questions like this can be found. The charge is $7.95
The site accepts payment on their own Staples credit card as well as American Express, Master Card, Visa and Discover. I got a confirmation e-mail that my file cabinet had been ordered.
The return policy is clear and detailed but I won’t go into it here because there are so many options depending on what you buy. Some items can only be exchanged, some have a 15% restocking fee but the good news is that if you send something to someone as a gift or you need to return something and going to the store is easier you can return the item in a store rather than mailing it back to Staples.
My file cabinet came in two days in perfect condition and I love it.
My final thoughts:
I had a little bit of trouble navigating through Staples.com during checkout. When I ordered it, they didn’t recognize me and I realized I had not logged in so I did but that brought me back to an empty cart so I had to start all over.
When you first get to the site register. Don't wait until you are ready to check out. There is a lot of good information on the register page, which you will only find at the help page. This confuses me because someone new would have no idea that you have to go to help to register. Again correct me if I am confused. But if I am confused and I use online stores all the time others may be very confused so I have to rate the navigation ease at checkout a 2. The variety of products and amount of products is excellent. I’m rating that a 5. The products in the past have always been great. Once the box was broken a little bit and we were concerned that the item inside would be damaged but it was sealed well.
My file cabinet is great. It wasn’t all that difficult to assemble. I think the quality is fine for the price I paid and I would rate the product selection and quality 5 stars as well. Overall, the site will get 4 stars. I would and will use Staple.com again.
A related store:
OfficeDepot
Recommended:
Yes
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