April vs. Office Depot

I purchased a Toshiba Satellite P205D-S7454 from Office Depot in December of 2007.  Luckily, I also purchased the extended, two-year Performance Protection Plan. 

After having to send it in three times within a four month period for the same problem, and having the hard drive replaced each time, I was fed up.  I have earned bit of a reputation for handling customer service resolution issues fairly well.  I don't stop until I receive a reasonable resolution, and that is what this post is all about.  I will explain how I handled Office Depot's attempt to squirm out of their lemon replacement policy, and how you can use the same tactics to get what you want from any corporation that has wronged you, or is attempting to wrong you.

Office Depot's Performance Protection Plan states that if you send in a PC for the same repair three times, that the upon the fourth occurrence, they consider it a lemon, and will issue a replacement gift card in the amount at which you originally purchased the lemon.  When I called to report the fourth occurrence, the warranty department attempted to tell me that only two repairs had been made, and the third one "didn't count" because it was put through a different claim system than the other two.  

After arguing for a while that the claims system, which is out of my control, is irrelevant to me, and that I fully expect them to replace my laptop, I realized I had exhausted this avenue of problem resolution and hung up with them.  You always want to exhaust the standard customer service resources before moving to more aggressive tactics.  I spoke with various agents and supervisors before reaching this point.  Most importantly, in any stage of the game, never, ever begin swearing or making threats.  It will almost always get you nowhere.  

My next step was to go to the top.  Not the next level up, but to the top.  I went to Office Depot's website and located the names of CEO's, Presidents, Vice Presidents, and their Executive Customer Service department.  You will most often find this kind of information on a Press Release or Media area of the site.  Also, by locating the email address of an employee in a press release, I learned that their standard email format was firstname.lastname@officedepot.com.  When I sent my mass email to the executives, I knew to use this format to ensure the appropriate people received it.  

I then constructed a professionally-written email.  This part is important, as you want to accomplish three main goals: 

• Explain the history and problem in detail, including dates, product numbers, invoice numbers, etc.  In my case, I listed the dates my laptop was sent in, claim numbers, and what repairs took place.  Try to keep it as unemotional as possible. 
• Describe what you feel is a fair resolution.  This is where you can let a little emotion fly.  I told them I was infuriated, disappointed, etc. Let them know how you feel!  Then explain what it is you want, and be sure it is a reasonable request.  In my case, I only asked them to live up to what their contract promised - a gift card for the original purchase amount of my laptop so I can purchase a new one of my choice.  
• Finish with what you plan to do if your resolution is not met.  Give them a deadline.  I told them if I did not hear back from them within one week, I would seek further help from consumer protection agencies, the Better Business Bureau, etc.  

It is also beneficial to prove or explain to them that it will end up costing them less money in the long run to resolve your issue.  In my case, they had paid to ship my computer six times, replaced three hard drives and the screen frame, and were looking at another hard drive replacement and two more shipping fees.  Corporations are out to make money.  If you can show them it is more cost effective to resolve your problem and get rid of you, then you will most always get your way.  

Within less than 3 hours of sending my email to the entire executive staff of Office Depot, I received a response from the Senior Customer Relations Manager of the Executive Customer Relations department.  What was most impressive was that I sent it at  5:40 p.m. on a Friday night, and received a response at 8:20 p.m. the same evening.  She informed me she received my email and that someone would contact me by Monday.  It was a courtesy email that indicated I was about to receive the customer service I should have gotten since day one.  

By Sunday, the issue had been resolved.  I was promised a replacement gift card, and I received the box to ship back the faulty computer within a few days.  Sometimes, all it takes is to get to the right person.  Large corporations, however, tend to make this very difficult.  With this more aggressive tactic, you should find success in most of your customer resolution battles.

If you would like to view my email to Office Depot, click here.