Big Box Watch: Berkeley joins in Office Depot allegations

Continuing the drama surrounding Office Depot’s alleged misconduct in dealing with state and local governments, the Director of Finance for the City of Berkeley, Robert Hicks, says the Office Depot company has overcharged the city by as much as a quarter of a million dollars during the course of a three-year, $550,000-a-year contract to provide miscellaneous office supplies and recycled copy paper to the city. According to the Berkeley Daily Planet:

Hicks’ revelation supported the allegations first made to the City Council last October by Diane Griffin, president of Radston’s Office Plus supply store of Hercules and a member of the board of directors of the Nation-al Office Products Alliance (NOPA).

According to the conclusion of an analysis of more than 100 pages of the Office Depot-City of Berkeley contract provided to the city by Griffin, Office Depot charged the normal retail price on 135 of what it called “core” office supplies, but promised a 55 percent discount to the city for items not on the “core item” list. Griffin says that in fact, Berkeley received only a 39.7 percent discount on those non-core items, the basis for her estimate of the $250,000 overcharge.

Hicks has also stated that his office will look into the dealings with Office Depot outside of the contract mentioned above, and that the actual amount of alleged overcharge may reach even more than $250,000. Diane Griffin herself said she believes the Office Depot overcharges on its City of Berkeley contract are accumulating at a rate of $8,000 a month.

The more I dig into these Office Depot allegations, the more bewildered I am by their apparent conduct. They go and offer people a ridiculous contract that no one could possibly match, and then not only charge way more than they promised but also, in some cases, far more than retail price. There’s a lesson to be learned here: if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Big Box Watch: Florida Office Depot Investigation Update

As many of you may or may not know, Office Depot has been under investigation since last year for allegedly using bait-and-switch tactics in their dealings with state and local government contracts. The investigation is based upon the accusation that Office Depot would offer a low price during their initial contract bid, and end up selling high-priced alternatives when it came time to deliver. There are also accusation of over-billing and general misconduct. Georgia, California, Nebraska, Florida and North Carolina have all launched independent investigations, with some states canceling contracts state-wide until a decision is reached.

Today, officials in Tampa made the following announcement in regards to their internal audit, courtesy of the Palm Beach Post:

An audit of Hillsborough County’s office supply purchases from Office Depot has found little evidence of overbilling.A review of more than 15,000 county transactions with Office Depot during the past several months found few instances in which the county was overbilled for items ranging from staplers to paper clips, county audit director Dan Pohto told county commissioners.

Commissioners declined to pursue further investigation of the contract. Pohto’s office was asked to review the contract after news reports in several states raised questions about whether Office Depot was overbilling its government clients.

This strikes me as more than a little odd. The state is calling off its investigation because they “only” found “a few” instances of overbilling? To me it would seem that once is enough to make me question my dealings with a company, and “a few” would certainly be a few too many. Fool me once, shame on you, and so on.

Regardless, it’s an interesting look into the mindset of the big-box office supply retailer. With an online office supply company,  manufacturers are able to set the lowest price they can to give the most value to the consumer, and the retailer is able to pass the savings on by keeping overhead low and back-stock at a minimum, as well as not having to worry about the logistics of renting and running storefronts and so on.

The big-box retailer, on the other hand, is almost by necessity focused solely on the bottom line. If profits drop, they have a board of directors, investors, managers and CEOs to answer to. They need to squeeze all the money out of the customer that they can, and it’s no real surprise that some of them might resort to less-than-honest tactics to do so, especially in this economy. To be honest, I’m surprised this is the first we’ve heard of it, and hopefully the amount of digging going into this case will expose any other fraudulent practices that may be being perpetrated by other companies.

Have you been bamboozled by a big-box retailer? Have a customer service nightmare story you want to share? Email it to me at chase@ontimesupplies.com and I’ll be sure to post it here. In the meantime, do your research, get to know your vendor, and make your purchases from a responsible retailer who cares more about getting you the best value than getting your last nickel.

OnTimeSupplies.com Recognized as Top Internet Retailer for Office Products

On Time Supplies, an Atlanta-based Online Office Supplies and Office Furniture Discount Retailer Has Recently Been Recognized as a Top Retailer by Reseller Ratings

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

[Press Release, UPI] On Time Supplies, a nationwide discount retailer of office supplies and office furniture has recently been added to the “Top Retailers” list by Reseller Ratings, an independent rating agency.

Reseller ratings is an industry leader in rating internet retailers based on level of customer service, price, delivery speed, and overall customer satisfaction.

In a recent interview, OnTimeSupplies.com co-founders, Miles Young and Andre Scott commented  “We are proud to be a part of Reseller Ratings and we recognize them as a fair and valuable service for internet retail comparisons.  We are very pleased to be ranked as a top tier site, and look forward to serving our loyal customers.”

For more information about On Time Supples, visit http://www.OnTimeSupplies.com.

OnTimeSupplies.com sells office supplies, office furniture, school supplies, toner, file cabinets and everything else needed for your office. We ship same day via UPS and reach the majority of our customers in 1-2 business days.

Office Furniture Retailer Introduces Discount HON Furniture Collections

OnTimeSupplies.com has teamed with HON Furniture Company to Offer Discount Office Furniture Suites.

OnTimeSupplies.com announced the release of their new line of discount HON furniture collections featuring flexible desk configurations, conference room suites, and many other workspace solutions to meet the needs of any office.

“We are very pleased to expand our relationship with HON, which is recognized as a global leader in high-quality office furniture,” said Andre Scott, co-founder of the Atlanta-based office furniture website.  “Our new office collections allow customers to quickly and easily select furniture configurations that would otherwise involve custom configuration. This new offering allows us to offer clients significant time and cost savings.”

Some of the most popular HON office furniture collections include the HON L-Shaped Corner Office Desk Suite (the HON 94000 series), as well as the HON 10600 L-Shaped Desk series, and many others.

For more information on the new discount furniture program, visit http://www.ontimesupplies.com/office_furniture.html

OnTimeSupplies.com sells office furniture, office supplies, school supplies, toner, file cabinets and everything else needed for the office. On Time Supplies ships same day via UPS and orders reach most customers within 1-2 business days. One of the fastest growing office furniture and office supplies dealers in the country, On Time Supplies provides a 100% satisfaction guarantee on every order.

Contact us at http://www.OnTimeSupplies.com or call us at 1-866-501-6055.

Office Supplies Discounter Expanding Bulk Discount Program

OnTimeSupplies.com announced today that it is expanding its bulk discount program to include more than 12,400 office supplies and office furniture products.

In the midst of an economic slowdown and increased demand for quantity discounts from business and government customers, office supplies retailer, OnTimeSupplies.com has expanded its bulk discount program by over 20% to include 12,445 office supplies and office furniture products.

The new discount program includes office supplies, equipment and furniture from well-known brands such as Avery, Wilson Jones, Rubbermaid, HON Furniture, Global and Tennsco.

“Our Volume Discount Program offers customers the best possible pricing to buyers for brand name office supplies and furniture,” said CEO and founder Andre Scott. “This program has been an enormous success and we have responded to demand by significantly increasing the number of items offered in the last quarter.”

OnTimeSupplies.com launched their Volume Discount Program in October of 2004, and originally offered quantity discounts from twelve different manufacturers including some of the largest office supply manufacturers in the country, including Avery, Wilson Jones, Fellowes, Acco, and Columbian. In September, 2006, the Volume Discount Program was expanded to include the most popular names in office supplies and furniture, allowing customers significant savings on items such as desks, chairs, file cabinets, filing supplies and office paneling.

About OnTimeSupplies.com: One of the fastest growing companies in the office products industry, OnTimeSupplies.com stocks over 40,000 office supplies and furniture in 70 distribution centers nationwide. For more information, visit www.ontimesupplies.com or call 1-866-501-6055.

OnTimeSupplies.com sells office supplies, office furniture, school supplies, toner, file cabinets and everything else needed for your office. We ship same day via UPS and reach the majority of our customers in 1-2 business days.

MSDS Sheets: A Resource Guide

As an office supply dealer we get a number of request for MSDS sheets and we are always happy to help a customer with this need.  I have added some great resources that we use on a daily basis to help service our customers, and some information regarding what an MSDS sheet is all about.  I really hope that these resources will help our Smart Office readers.
A material safety data sheet (MSDS sheet) is a form containing data regarding the properties of a particular substance. It is intended to provide workers and emergency personnel with procedures for handling or working with that substance in a safe manner, and includes information such as physical data (i.e. melting point), storage, disposal, protective equipment, and spill handling procedures. The exact format of an MSDS can vary from source to source.
According to MSDS Writer “The need to communicate hazards of chemicals to users is of the utmost importance. The widespread use of chemicals, the development of new chemicals, and the need to re-evaluate the hazards of pre-existing chemicals contribute to the importance of MSDS Compliance. In the United States, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has created the Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) to mandate the use of a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) and provide information to people who use, handle or store hazardous industrial chemicals. The MSDS is used to convey the details on a material’s identity, manufacturer information, hazard identity, emergency information, instructions on what to do if a hazardous situation has occurred, information on the prevention of hazardous situations, as well as other technical information. Recognizing the importance of this document, many other countries (e.g. the EU, Australia, Canada) have adopted the HCS into their own chemical safety initiatives. Article can be found at the MSDS Writer Resource Guide.
To quickly look up MSDS sheet on Office Supplies, check out http://www.biggestbook.com/msds/home.asp (Just enter product SKU or description)
If none of these resources work out for you, contact the manufacturer directly. Biggest Book has contact information for all the manufacturers in addition to the MSDS sheets. I really hope that this article helps!
Miles D. Young
Smart Office
An Office Resource Guide by:

Is Your Office Supplies Dealer Overcharging You?

As a tax paying citizen and a member of the office products industry, I find it especially hard to stomach allegations that have surfaced recently in regards to government contracts and alleged overcharges.

This article below, written by Jin Kwon, is particularly interesting.

[Pass Through Sales Allegations in California]

There has been information floating around for several weeks about a passthrough office supply company in California by the name of Epylon.  If you don’t know what a passthrough is it is an company that poses as a small business or maybe even a minority owned business that takes orders designated for small/minority business from state and deferal governments earmarked for those businesses and sends those orders over to a larger corporate company such as Office Depot.  In the case of Epylon, a California company, they pose as a small business and when state employees call and place their orders their online system actually send them back to the Office Depot website.

The Mercury News in California has an excellent investigative story that ran on the front page of their April 6, 2008 issue. Reporter Kimberly Kindy has been following the California audit and has done a great job in exposing the overcharges and passthrough issues relating to the Office Depot state contract.  In a prime example of raising the actual M.S.R.P. retail price in order to show on paper and higher discount off list the paper noted “On these items, Office Depot promised to apply a fixed discount rate, but raised the price on which the discount was applied.”  Also as found in the Georgia contract you and I could walk into an Office Depot store and buy many of these contracted items for less than the State of California is paying.  “…the Mercury News went onto the Office Depot retail Web site and found dozens of items, including data storage tapes, toner cartridges and batteries, that were either the same price or cheaper than the special rates stated in the California contract.”

Now we’re seeing charges of “poor performance” coming from many investors and shareholders in Office Depot.  Woodbridge Equity Fund and Levitte Corp. have mailed letters to shareholders calling for the removal of CEO Steve Odland.  In their letter they state “OD’s management and board have had ample time to enact change and deliver improvements in operational and financial performance and have failed to do so. As we have stated before, OD has significantly underperformed its primary competitor, Staples, Inc., in all key retailing metrics. This demonstrates that OD’s performance issues go well beyond the current macroeconomic environment to which OD attributes all of its problems.”  The letter continues “The board’s weak oversight of management has not only allowed the Company to continue to underperform operationally, but also has raised several corporate governance concerns. Recent SEC investigations, multiple earnings restatements and the recent departure of top executives all point to failed oversight and a lack of fiduciary responsibility towards shareholders.” 

They have even began a web site devoted to this at RebuildOfficeDepot.com .  I would encourage you to read the supporting links and read the information present and make your own judgement.  Investigations and audits have now been announced in the State of New York regarding the Office Depot contracts and the states of Nebraska and Wisconsin are also looking into their contract performance.  What is your opinion? Do you think this is typical of big business greed or do you think Office Depot is the victim of poor judgement?

The last word:  “In the process of trial and error, our failed attempts are meant to destroy arrogance and provoke humility.”

References/Credits
Article by Jin Kwon, Hill on Sales Contributor