Office Depot Pays $25 Million To Settle Deceptive Tech Support Lawsuit

[Sky-Knight]

No. Not effing people over isn't "leaving money on the table." I'm sure it may not seem like it in the boardroom, but tricking people into thinking they have malware when they don't...is malice. Full stop, no qualifiers. Remember the Wells Fargo account fraud scandal? It's the same kind of behavior that they justified the way you're trying to now. Even if you don't agree with what they did, this reaction ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ...is why they keep doing it.

Yes, but in the case of Wells Fargo, if I recall correctly the state never managed to prove the management was at fault. All they did was setup a commission structure to reward people for sales, and push it. The branch managers and employees did the rest on their own.

 

[TechLady]

All they did was setup a commission structure to reward people for sales, and push it. The branch managers and employees did the rest on their own.

I'm sure this is precisely what OfficeMax is going to claim in court. It's a pathetic narrative designed to deflect blame and it isn't reality: "Wells Fargo employees say they faced a stark choice: Create new accounts by any means possible, or risk being fired for falling short of their sales goals."

That's not "rewarding" people. That's terrorizing people. Wells Fargo is so saturated with corruption and greed on every level I have no idea why ANYONE does business with them. Far, far too many problems to claim it's just some bad apples at the top (or the bottom).

Have a gander at the list:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/every-wells-fargo-consumer-scandal-since-2015-timeline-194946222.html

 

[Sky-Knight]

@TechLady all of my business banking is with Wells. I never experienced any of the problems, and their antifraud protection is the best anyone could ask for.

 

[TechLady]

I prefer to support credit unions. My main one I've been with for almost twenty years and I've never had a single problem or been charged a single fee. Seriously. If you don't have one in your area, there are online ones. Either way, they have the same benefits you mentioned and don't have a list of historic criminality as long as your arm.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@TechLady, I also bank with Credit Unions, they aren't perfect either. None of the ones I have out here did business banking at all, that's the only reason I'm at Wells.

 

[fastremotehelp.com]

I'm not saying it's right. I'm just saying that's what happens when you have technicians making $12/hour, corporate with unrealistic expectations, and computer-illiterate dumba$$es bringing their computers in for a cheap fix.

Don't you mean "glorified clerks wearing technician costumes?

 

[fastremotehelp.com]

My newest outrage at office depot: they are selling a 3 foot cat 6 patchcord for $21.95. Really officedepot? When monoprice offers the same cable for 69 cents.

 

[Sky-Knight]

My newest outrage at office depot: they are selling a 3 foot cat 6 patchcord for $21.95. Really officedepot? When monoprice offers the same cable for 69 cents.

Stocking and operating retail spaces is expensive. When you're warehousing and shipping, you can get away with lower prices. Honestly, I'm surprised any retail anywhere has anything for less than $20 given all the costs applied to it.

 

[nlinecomputers]

My newest outrage at office depot: they are selling a 3 foot cat 6 patchcord for $21.95. Really officedepot? When monoprice offers the same cable for 69 cents.

I sell them for $12.

 

[sapphirescales]

My newest outrage at office depot: they are selling a 3 foot cat 6 patchcord for $21.95. Really officedepot? When monoprice offers the same cable for 69 cents.

Cables and accessories are the main way they're able to keep the doors open. A lot of their products such as printer paper, computers, printers, etc. are sold at or very close to cost because those products have terrible margins. They have to make up for those terrible margins by buying things that they can sell at an insane markup like this cable you're talking about. They're not ripping people off. If they sold the cables for $0.69 they'd go out of business.

You're able to stay afloat because you can rely on income from services. That's why places like Office Depot even offer services. It's one of the ways they can keep the doors open. Without offering services and having insane markups on some products, they couldn't afford to stay in business. It's the same story with Best Buy. They're making anywhere between 1% and 2% margins on the TV's (so a $1,000 TV costs them like $992), but they make up for it by selling a $199 service plan and a $79 HDMI cable. Without those services and accessories, they wouldn't be able to afford rent, employees, etc.

 

[fastremotehelp.com]

They're not ripping people off. If they sold the cables for $0.69 they'd go out of business."

They're not ripping ME off. But what do you call someone who walks in and buys 5 of those cables and walks out?

 

[nlinecomputers]

They're not ripping ME off. But what do you call someone who walks in and buys 5 of those cables and walks out?

A valued customer....

 

[mikeroq]

My newest outrage at office depot: they are selling a 3 foot cat 6 patchcord for $21.95. Really officedepot? When monoprice offers the same cable for 69 cents.

The cheapest cat6 3' patch cable I found on monoprice was $1.19 + 2.99 shipping. And that's 3-6 business days. 2-3 for 7.65.

Cheapest I saw single on Amazon prime is $4.99.

Of course something in a retail store costs more.

Staples here has a 3' for $16.49.

We're selling 3' patch cables for $9.98.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 9 while driv ik gndjfhd

 

[sapphirescales]

But what do you call someone who walks in and buys 5 of those cables and walks out?

If they don't pay for them I call them a thief. If they do pay for them, they're either desperate, ignorant, or just don't care and would rather have it right now vs. waiting a week for one to arrive from Monoprice.

When I buy a screen protector and/or smartphone case from the mobile phone store, it kind of p*sses me off that they charge so much, but I need to use the new phone NOW, not a week from now and I realize that that's how these local places are able to actually stay in business so I'm not waiting a week to actually get a replacement phone and the necessary accessories.

I might be a computer guy, but I absolutely HATE ordering stuff online. Returns are a b*tch and I hate waiting for stuff to arrive. I order most of my products online, but when I'm looking to buy something that I've never purchased before, I want to be able to see and feel it before I buy and I also want to be able to return it easily if it ends up being a piece of crap (which 9 times out of 10 it is these days).