Friday, August 14, 2009
OfficeMax? WTF?
As some of you may or may not know, I work for a computer store in the St. Charles area. I'll keep this fairly anonymous, because I don't want to get my employer in any kind of hot water.
We, from time to time, find good deals on laptops at other retailers in the area and purchase them to resell here. Most of the time they will have a purchase restriction like one per customer, usually enforced by name, address, or phone number look up. Depending on the deal, we will sometimes try to get around this by having everyone in the shop order one individually, and sent to our home addresses. Not the most scrupulous business practice, but I'm certain that damn near every other small business in existence does the same kind of thing.
We tried this with a recent laptop sale at Office Max. The owners each ordered one (one to the office and one to a home address). The office and sales managers also each ordered one, to their home addresses. All but one of the orders were canceled. The reason for the three cancellations? OfficeMax said that the names of the people making the orders were associated with our company's name, and that their sales policy says that we are not allowed to purchase goods for resale.
WTF?
The owner, when discussing her purchase , asked, "What if the laptop is for one of my sales staff to use in the business?" They told her that no, since we are a reseller, we cannot purchase laptops from them.
Does it sound like a sound business practice for a company, called OfficeMax, that primarily sells office supplies to refuse to sell products to a business? With an office?
It's not like I shop there very often, but I think from now on, I'm going to make a point of not shopping there.
We, from time to time, find good deals on laptops at other retailers in the area and purchase them to resell here. Most of the time they will have a purchase restriction like one per customer, usually enforced by name, address, or phone number look up. Depending on the deal, we will sometimes try to get around this by having everyone in the shop order one individually, and sent to our home addresses. Not the most scrupulous business practice, but I'm certain that damn near every other small business in existence does the same kind of thing.
We tried this with a recent laptop sale at Office Max. The owners each ordered one (one to the office and one to a home address). The office and sales managers also each ordered one, to their home addresses. All but one of the orders were canceled. The reason for the three cancellations? OfficeMax said that the names of the people making the orders were associated with our company's name, and that their sales policy says that we are not allowed to purchase goods for resale.
WTF?
The owner, when discussing her purchase , asked, "What if the laptop is for one of my sales staff to use in the business?" They told her that no, since we are a reseller, we cannot purchase laptops from them.
Does it sound like a sound business practice for a company, called OfficeMax, that primarily sells office supplies to refuse to sell products to a business? With an office?
It's not like I shop there very often, but I think from now on, I'm going to make a point of not shopping there.
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