OfficeMax

My experience was pretty neutral and a little disappointing, I came an hour before closing on a Sunday to get a custom image printed and laminated. I know these stores are great at being flexible with images so I was able to email the store the photo and not have to print it out. That’s where the good part ends. An older man just beat us to the counter and had hastily given instructions for his paper work to be cut and laminated. The whole process took maybe 45 minutes after he kept making the manager re do the paperwork and making us wait (not the managers fault) at the end of the day there was no time left to get my stuff done but after talking to the manager I was able to get a price on what I wanted and a time to come back and do it. Overall not a bad experience, I see myself changing this review once I go back to finish the photocopy job.

This location has managed to go from «Meh» to «Eek! I think not!», which is really an accomplishment for a store that is two minutes from my house, that I only use to make photocopies.
I stopped in last night to make a large number of photocopies of a vintage political flyer for an event for a local Historical society. The flyer, being ancient, was a funny size, so I wanted to reduce it to a standard 8×11, and copy it. I asked one of the two clerks for help, and was told that he could not help me because … wait for it … I was violating copyright law.
I debated this point with him for a moment, and though another of the clerks agreed with me — the work in question was clearly off-​copyright — this particular clerk continued to argue that I was violating copyright. Both refused to help me with the copy machine.
I considered driving somewhere else, but since I was able to figure out how to reduce the image size without too much trouble, I just did the copies myself, and asked if I could pay at the register there. No, I was told — even though there were two people there and no other customers, I should take it to the front register.
Inevitably, at the front register, there was one clerk and a line of customers. They brought out another clerk, who first tried to open up a register, and between him and the manager could not get it going; he then moved to another register which he was able to get working. When it was my turn to pay, he scanned a barcode and rang up a price of 60cents each for four-​color copies, which is a wee bit more than that the 11cents each black and white copy is supposed to cost — and if that sounds petty, I had a lot of copies, it adds up. He tried to scan another barcode for the black and white copies, it didn’t work.
He tried it again. It didn’t work.
And again. And again, it didn’t work.
And so on, and so on, until I finally got tired of watching him and went to get the manager myself. I explained that apart from the fact that the clerk had spent ten minutes not able to ring up my six dollar purchase, I’d been accused of violating copyright law and denied help at the back for that reason.
Then the manager argued about copyright law with me, making sure I knew that I just don’t understand what I’m talking about, and they couldn’t help me violate copyright law. To her credit, she did manage to ring up my purchase.
I might have believed her about the copyright law, if it had not been for the Keystone Kops level of professionalism that is rampant at this store. But since I don’t believe her, and because I want to help anyone who may need to make a copy and have no alternative place to do so:
Works created prior to March 1989 that failed to include a proper notice of copyright (are considered public domain). Source: Copyright Clearance Center website.
There was no notice of copyright on the visibly aged document I was copying, a fact the staff never attempted to check, nor did they attempt to determine if I was perhaps the copyright holder or an otherwise authorized party.
Please save yourself the headache and make copies elsewhere. I know I will be, even though it means going out of my way to do so.

Like most office stores I’ve been in, this place is sort of dirty and depressing. No one said hi, I didn’t see any employees, but it was the middle of the day and I don’t like being approached anyway! I just don’t know that I’d come back to this particular location – it’s sort of off out of the way.
When I was ready to pay, I passed by a girl with Down syndrome who was sweeping, then had a much older gentleman at the checkout, so that really improved my impression of the place =) Thank you EEOs for hiring more than the typical surly teens! The smiles from both of those employees definitely improved my day.

An update, after I confronted corporate about sending me the store number and the district manager not even following up on the complaint, they CC’ed the manager and pleaded him to respond. I can see that the outsourced support could probably do nothing more.
However despite all of this the manager chose not to respond and even ignored that email. I have chosen not to name the manager here since its not personal, however Linkedin gods tell me he is the district manager for the Seattle area so absolving corporate here, the customer care we can reach can only do so much.
However I do fail to see how these stores would remain in business with poor customer relations and tactics like these. Probably they are too shortsighted.
Closing this review now with the bitterness behind me.

We came to this OfficeMax to purchase a laptop. The salesperson did a good job of providing information on the products offered. The salesperson also sold us a monitor and a two-​year warranty for that monitor. At checkout, the salesperson told us that if we get a MaxPerks account, ALL the purchases we made that day (laptop and monitor) were eligible purchases and would apply toward that account, which would entitle us to a $ 25.00 reward. We signed up for MaxPerks, and I noticed that the total (before taxes) was only $ 499.98, not $ 500.00, and was not sufficient to get us a $ 25.00 reward. I then added a wood pencil (how many people buy a wood pencil these days?) to the purchase, bringing our total to $ 500.03, before tax. Golden. We checked our MaxPerks account and found that we only had approx. $ 100.00 of eligible purchases. Representatives at MaxPerks informed me that the laptop was not an eligible purchase. Either the salesperson lied or was misinformed. In either case, the customer should not suffer the consequences for the miscommunication. This was either a training issue or a lack of integrity on the OfficeMax side. I prefer to believe the former, but the continued lack of a resolution from MaxPerks strongly suggests the latter.
We’ve been wrangling with MaxPerks (at least four calls, unknown number of minutes, plenty of frustration) since then (October 26, 2014). Don’t believe what you are told (even when the salesperson looks you directly in the eyes!) when making purchases at this Office Max.

I was here to make a bunch of photocopies, so I didn’t really explore much of the store, but meh, it’s a big chain office supply store. The copying thing is very hands-​off if you do the self-​serve; where you’re responsible for loading the copier and printing as much as you need, and then taking the receipt to the checkout. Sure, it’s a little honor-​system based but it works. There’s also the «let the people who work here copy this for you» area, but if you’re remotely competent with a copier you should be able to manage yourself. It’s 10 cents per B&W copy, or 9c over 50 pages.
Otherwise the store itself looked pretty clean; I came across a few staff members and they did the nod and said «hi» but it’s not like anyone went out of their way to see if I was doing okay or if I was looking for anything.
There’s plenty of parking out the front in the lot as well.

I can’t believe this place is still open. Neither of the employees working this morning acknowledged me as I tried to stop and ask for help. One looked up, looked into my eyes, looked back down and walked past. Then, when I finally walked back to the front of the store where both employees were standing talking about their plans tonight, neither again said a thing to me. I asked where I could find a power adapter for my office phone. They asked what kind of phone it was, whether it was cordless or or not, finally just to tell me they don’t care power adapters. I don’t want to shop on Amazon if I can go into a brick and mortar but at this rate it’s my best bet.

With plenty of staff, you’d be hard pressed to walk in the door here and not find someone to assist you in locating something if you couldn’t actually READ the signs above the aisles that tell you where to find your junk!!!
So, yeah, if you can’t find your «shiny-​sparkly-​pen-​with-​the-​ejectable-​eraser-​and-​an-​airplane», there will be someone in aisle to help you.
BUT. The assistances in the printing and ink cartridge refill departments are deplorable. In printing, I once stood waiting for some arrogant punk to point something out to me in a catalog sitting on a counter after he got off the phone, while he couldn’t be bothered to acknowledge my existence. Thanks dude. I coulda looked in the catalog myself and had I known that’s what you were going to do… instead of your job… I would have done it myself.
I wouldn’t even try going into the ink refill again. The first time I went, the equipment was broken. The second time I went, there was a teenaged employee that took one look at my KODAK cartridge and indicated they couldn’t refill them. I just had enough.
Because this location is close to my home, it is my nearest option, and the parking is always wide open and right close up to the door. Maybe this is an indication… they are NEVER busy… how are they staying in business?

I’ve grown increasingly more disappointed by this place. I’m a simple customer, I don’t need help finding products, I know what I want, I go in, I grab it, I proceed to check-​out, and is like to be on my way. For the past year or so they have made it difficult for me to be able to do just that. About 6 months ago, for example, I went in looking for a new USB thumb drive, went it, was browsing the selection and this sales associate first asked if I needed any help and I politely told her I was fine, just trying to make a selection. She left and returned less that 30 seconds later to ask me if I’m sure she can’t help me choose. I thanked her again and told her I was fine. She then proceeded to watch me like a hawk. My phone vibrated while I had a couple thumb drives in my left hand and I reach into my purse with my free right hand and answer the call and she was acting as though I’m trying to shoplift! I let it pass since I thought maybe I’m over reacting to her behavior as I’m well dressed and don’t look like some teenager who can’t afford a $ 15 thumb drive. A few months later I go in to replace a chair mat for my office hardwood floors and the person checking me out didn’t know how to process the 20% off customer loyalty coupon I was mailed. I waited over 5 minutes while she tried to process it until finally a manager passing by randomly decided to stop and help. I’m sorry, I worked retail but if you can’t figure it out in a minute it two, you call for assistance. I don’t want to bash on Office Max too much but there were several instances over the past year that added up and the straw tipped the hat was Friday when I went in to buy an office chair and I had the rudest check-​out associate. I’m sorry but if you’re having a bad day, do not take it out on your customers… I don’t expect a fake customer service smile but when you instruct me to slide my card you shouldn’t say «don’t just stand there slide your damn card already.» especially since I’m not slow. I had my payment method in-​hand and ready to complete my transaction when she said it. Just not impressed with this place at all anymore…

shelf tag offered gift card with purchase of printer ink. Checker: «You should have told me before I rang you up.» (why shouldn’t it be automatic?). Then after he located the gift card, «they were in a bin right by the ink, you should have seen it and got your own.» when did customer service get this bad? I’m done with office max.

Man, I can’t believe how expensive business supplies can be. I needed a extension cord, packing tape and a wrist rest pad for my mouse got to the front and that was $ 30+ sheesh. I should have gone to Target or some place because they are way over priced. Staff seems friendly though and it is not very busy at all so those are pluses in my book.

None of these stores are perfect. Corporate determines what they stock and when. They have a limited selection of PC’s, etc. but all the office supplies I need. I ordered some business cards online and had them delivered to the store and they came quickly and with no shipping. Great service all the time here from friendly and helpful employees.

I’m obsessed with office supplies. Every color of Sharpies? YES PLEASE! Cool Post It Note dispenser? Surely!
We went today cause they had that 20% all you can fit into that brown bag thing. I always thought that was dorky, but we actually needed printer ink, so why not the 20%!!! Very cool.
I don’t come often cause I’m trying not to spend my whole paycheck.

I received great service from Tyler at OfficeMax. He helped me locate my item and then rang it up at the register for me. He was very helpful.

Wow. What a surprise. I stopped going to OM a while back because the service was so bad. But I needed to get school supplies, and they were the closest store, so I took a chance. They had everything in stock on a list of 22 items. Even better, I was asked probably six or seven times, by three different employees, if I needed help finding anything. When we did need help, these employees were easy to track down. The most painless, quick, back-​to-​school supply trip I’ve ever experienced. What is more, there were some killer coupon deals we found in-​store. One cent packs of notebook paper? Unbelievable. OM is redeemed in my view, and I’ll be back for sure.

Over priced. Pick staples or
unless you absolutely need it right now.

Office Max is usually my Office Supply store of choice. I use Officemax for a variety of things.
Whenever I or one of my computer consulting clients needs a Ethernet switch or wireless router, I send them here for D-​Link products or whatever else is available. 90% of the time they will have the needed product on a special for less than dealer cost.
Of course I buy those occasional office supplies that are not available at Costco too.
I also use their printing services extensively, as I do the bulk of my business mailings here. Until recently, Denis was the person in charge of the printing center and he knew his stuff. If someone else was there I would usually have to train them in copying stuff off my flash drive and opening up my mail merge document. I never got any charges for mail merge, but then I had everything set up for them, they just had to do about 3 extra mouse clicks for the print ready Word or Publisher documents. About 6 months ago, Denis wanted reassigned and Ted was hired. He had a printing background and knows his stuff. He has one person working with him (who I had to train the first time too: P) and they do quality, consistent work. But, Ted decided I was a good profit center and now charges me almost 20 bucks for those three mouse clicks — grrrrr. I can see charging for set up when they have to do the mail merge for a customer — that can be a tedious, long, frustrating experience.
I give them 5 stars for their excellent deals on Ethernet stuff (excluding cables, they are way overprices everywhere.) I give them 3 stars for their prices on other stuff, there are a few other places that seem a tiny bit more competitive. And the printing was 4, but down to 3 for the extra charges.