Tag: pricing

When Compared Apples-to-Apples, OnTimeSupplies Has the Sweetest Deals

Posted on by Alyssa Ochs

Today we bring you a true story about a call that our CEO, Miles Young, recently had with one of our valued school customers. If you’ve ever struggled to redeem order reward points or wondered why product prices vary from one company to the next, perhaps you can relate!

I recently received a call from a school administrator who had a corporate account with Office Depot and regularly used its website to order school supplies. She was just moments away from clicking the “checkout” button on Office Depot’s website, but an issue with redeeming the school’s reward points stopped her. You see, one of the reasons that customers keep coming back to retailers like Office Depot is that it feels rewarding to accumulate points that can be redeemed for free gifts, or “chachkies.” However, those chachkies aren’t always something that you really want or need, and the process of actually getting them can take up more time and energy than they’re actually worth.

But I digress. Back to my phone call with the school administrator!

The reason that she called OnTimeSupplies in the first place was because she was looking for a product that she couldn’t find on Office Depot’s website and stumbled onto our site in her search. You can imagine her surprise when she discovered that many of the items on her shopping list were priced significantly lower on OnTimeSupplies when compared to the Office Depot prices. Naturally, she was interested in learning more about our pricing model and how we can offer such competitive rates.

To get started, I asked her to send me a copy of her shopping list so that I could provide her with an “apples-to-apples” quick quote before settling on her standard Office Depot purchase. While we were chatting, I explained to her that OnTimeSupplies has been transforming the way the office supply industry works over 12 years, and that our motto is “Your Time Matters.”

This means that you don’t have to waste your time keeping track of reward points or coupons just to get a good deal or collect a chachkie to collect dust in your office. We offer our very best pricing right off the bat to our customers because we value your time and understand what it means to work within a budget. I also explained to the administrator how OnTimeSupplies utilizes over 35 locations nationwide to keep shipping prices down, how our dedicated employees work remotely to reduce overhead costs, and how our innovative software helps us manage our business with maximum efficiency. All of these components of our unique business model help us afford to offer top-notch customer service with rock-bottom prices.

Not only that, but we deliver in 24-48 business hours, offer over 40,000 products, and have live U.S.-based customer support. We’re here when you need us, but we aren’t going to waste your time by calling to solicit additional business either. Our service speaks for itself, and our customers choose to work with us because of the awesome buying experience we provide.

After sharing a bit about how OnTimeSupplies works, the school administrator emailed me her shopping list, and I turned around an apples-to-apples quote in about 10 minutes. I couldn’t have been more happy to help this customer save at least $314.02 on a single order. I’ve uploaded a sample page of the comparison sheet here so you can see for yourself! Needless to say, the administrator was thrilled to save this much money, and the savings allowed her to buy a lot more for her school than a $29 blender she didn’t need.

I hope that this true story provides you with a real-world example of the value that OnTimeSupplies can provide to your school or business – every order, every day. If you’re curious to see how our pricing compares to your current retailer’s on the items you buy the most, send us your shopping list for a free apples-to-apples quote today!

Save on your discount school supply order with bulk pricing at OnTimeSupplies.com.

Is Your Office Supplies Dealer Overcharging You?

Posted on by admin

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