Saturday, September 26, 2009

Bait and Switch?


Lisa's desktop died this week. After narrowing down the issue, we decided to buy a new one. We looked online to get some ideas and Lisa went to Office Max last night and bought one. We set it up and found that there was no card reader on the front. Their website clearly states that there is a Front-panel 6-in-1 memory card reader and the photo on the site has a card reader on the front. Lisa confirmed that it had a card reader with a few employees at the store when she bought it. Lisa took it back to the store this morning and was told it must be a corporate issue and she would have to talk to them. Lisa then went to another OfficeMax and was told basically the same thing. Lisa is feeling ripped off at this point. It appears to be a case of false advertising, or bait and switch. I just got another call from Lisa and she found a manager at one of the stores willing to help. He talked to corporate and will be giving Lisa an external card reader and replacing the tower as there is a scratch on it. I hope they at least apologized too. Not happy enough to not post this, but there will be no letter to their corporate headquarters.

1 comment:

Mom said...

I'd still write a letter to their corporate headquarters. I would tell them the whole story and indicate that even though you have what you need now, it took several trips to different stores to finally get what they had advertised in print. I would also mention that it feels like "bait and switch" and at this point you will be telling people about your experience and basically giving Office Max a negative rating. It would make me feel better and let corporate know what is going on in their stores.