Staples Earnings Q3 – The Reality

First off let me say that just moments ago, I received an email saying that the local Staples store where I was once employed is currently looking for a couple of new full time sales associates.  Apparently the company either fired a couple of full timers or got a new boost from their sales results for last quarter.

 

However, I really doubt that latter idea happened.

 

In fact, realistically things continue to go downhill for the company.  For the 7^th straight quarter, sales have continued to drop.  It seems that competition from the big boy box stores have taken their toll on them along with the online companies they have to compete against.

 

While the company gained over the estimates, the bar has been lowered significantly every quarter.  Overall, the company gained about 9% in its stock today after the report, closing a few cents short of $14.

 

However, while the picture seems rosy, the company is still planning on closing at least 220 stores by year’s end, if not a few more.  It is that last part that should be disturbing to people as that “few more” is an unknown number.  Does this mean 5, 10, 25, 50 or more to close?  I guess we will have to wait to the end of the 4^th quarter to find out.

 

Most disturbing of the quarterly report transcript is that absolutely no mention was given to the possible data breach that was reported nearly a month ago.  I believe that they have had more than enough time to figure if they had a data breach or not.  It seems to me that they fear the fallout rather than the actual occurrence of the breach.  The time has come for the company to finally take its medicine and let the public in on the truth.

 

Of course, as I mentioned a long time ago, Staples is rather secretive on the gathering of credit card information and how they keep that information.  For those of you who remember then, I reported the company’s actions to the Better Business Bureau and they were in denial.  If you are interested in reading those posts just search “BBB” on this site.

 

Overall, Staples is falling apart as its seams despite people who own the stock who think otherwise.  Let me say that stockholders usually are NOT those who regularly shop at the company nor do they really care about what the company really does or its real performance.  Most stockholders are just in for a short time for a quick buck.  Therefore I expect that this stock will tumble in the coming days and weeks.

 

I also believe that the stock went up so much today was that it was riding on the coattails of both Lowe’s and Target, which also beat earnings for the 3^rd quarter as well.  I am not surprised with Target as it was in competition with Staples during the critical back-to-school season last quarter.  Apparently both companies had lowered their bars as Target is still trying to recover from their data breach of last year.

 

In the end, I expect to see Staples sales to continue to falter and decline.  However, it would be nice if Staples actually admit the truth about the data breach.  But then again, when has Staples told the truth?  Readers of this blog already know the answer to that.

 

No Privacy Ever Again?

So it was announced this week that your phone records and emails are being looked at by the government.

 

Am I surprised?

 

Not at all.  Anybody who owns a landline phone knows that for many years the phone company has been keeping track of every long distance call you make, displaying on your bill the number you called and when you called it.  It may not seem like much information, but what else were they getting as well over all these years?

 

While the government is having their fun, Staples is having their own fun collecting and storing data about its customers that it should NOT be entitled to. 

 

So here’s the story:

 

About a year and half ago in this very blog, I wrote that my mother made a purchase on her charge card at an out-of-state Staples store.  She did NOT have a rewards card during the transaction nor was one indicated on the receipt. 

 

A couple of days later, I received an email from Staples wanting me to review the product that my mother had purchased.  So how did Staples get my email address without a rewards card?  Let’s look at the facts:

 

• The charge card was NEVER linked to a rewards card even though I had one in the past but it hadn’t been used for over 3 years.  Granted the charge card number was the same as mine, the name on the card was not the same.
• My original rewards card was deactivated when I got the employee’s version of the card.  The employee one should have been deactivated when I was terminated.  So I should not have had any card whatsoever with them.

 

So was Staples storing old information about my credit card and linking it to a deactivated card, which still had my current email address attached to it? 

 

It seems that they did and after filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, Staples could not explain to me why they were doing this.  After going back and forth 4 times with the BBB as 3^rd party, the case was closed by the BBB with no solution to this problem.  You can read about this complaint and the back and forth conversation by searching BBB in this blog.

 

Certainly Staples had NO legal right to store my credit card number, much less link it to a rewards card’s email address without my permission.  Sadly, Staples is breaking many laws regarding credit card retention and should be investigated for this.

 

However, given that the government is doing its own tracking of people, it is highly doubtful that companies like Staples will ever be investigated for their improper behavior. 

 

Since I have rewards cards to other stores that I still use with this same charge card, it seems that no other retailer has performed the underhanded tricks that Staples has done.

 

If we can’t trust the government, internet service providers, and Staples, then who can we trust?   The answer seems to be nobody, nobody at all.

 

 

Another Newsweek Response–Just Keeps Getting Sillier

Today I received yet another response from Newsweek. Here it is exactly as I received it:

Dear Louis Brown,

I do apolgozie for the inconveince. I have forwarded your comments for further review of the account. Thank you for your patients.

As you can see from the above, it has 2 spelling errors and 1 incorrect word. Can this company even be trusted to deliver news if they can’t even write a simple 2 sentence email. My answer is I doubt it. So this saga goes on…

Finally, Another Newsweek Response

After nearly 3 weeks without a response from Newsweek, I finally received the following response today:

Dear Louis Brown,

I apologize for the previous response. A review of your account shows that your subscription was to expire with the March 08, 2013 issue. If you were to cancel your subscription a refund would not be issued. If I can be of further assistance, please let me know.

Thank you for subscribing to Newsweek.

It appears that the company PURPOSELY waited until my subscription was over to contact me about it that way they would not have to issue me any kind of refund. However, as mentioned previously, they had extended my subscription by 2 months, so it seems that I should still be entitled to something.

I have sent them one last final email telling them how angry I was and that I was reporting all of this to my blogs. My advice to anyone wanting to subscribe to Newsweek: DON’T BOTHER – It is just not worth it no matter what.

Another Newsweek Subscription Update–It Just Keeps Getting Worse

Yesterday, I received an email from the company that presumably holds my subscription.  The news just keeps getting worse.  They stated that, since I really never “paid” it, I am entitled to NOTHING!!  This means that neither company seems to care about REAL CUSTOMER SERVICE and both would rather lose a customer than satisfying a customer.  I have sent both companies one final email hoping one will cave with a solution otherwise I will be reporting this incident to the Better Business Bureau.  I believe that this has gone on for way too long and shows complete irresponsibility of both companies.  My recommendation is that if anybody out there has a Newsweek subscription, don’t renew it.  This company deserves to die once and for all.  If they gave up on the print media, then we should give up on them as well.

First Sprint Now Verizon–Another Identity Theft

I don’t own a cellphone. However, given all the problems I have had with cellphone companies, I never plan to either.

I mentioned a few months ago that Sprint was sending me bills through my Gmail account for somebody else’s cellphone account. After several months, I finally got this straightened out and am no longer getting billed from them.

Now, this week, through this same Gmail account, I started receiving notices of cellphone charges from Verizon. After going through nearly a week of emailing back and forth with them, they finally said that they will be “taking care of the situation”. Of course, I will believe that when I stop getting emails from them.

It seems that somebody has been using my Gmail account as their point of reference to send their e-bills to just so they think they wouldn’t be responsible for the bill. What’s worse is that in both of these cases, identity theft is prominent. Yet, the biggest problem is that there is NO WAY to contact Google to let them know that this is happening. I eventually did send an email to Google about my email problem and got back the canned response that sometimes accounts that have periods in them confuse accounts and thus route email incorrectly. This wasn’t even what I was asking! Of course that was over 6 months ago and I never heard from them again over this form of identity theft.

As I mentioned in a previous post awhile ago, Staples also used my email account (a different account,though) linking it to a credit card purchase that my mother made in one of their stores last year during the holiday season. Unfortunately, after contacting the Better Business Bureau (a waste of time, by the way), Staples WOULD DO NOTHING even though they were guilty of identity theft. Of course, Staples is king of the lying and identity theft. Thankfully, other companies are a little bit better than they are when identity theft is called into question. Sadly Staples will never learn.

Woolworth vs. Staples – Battle of the Returns and Exchange Policies!

In this blog post, I will be comparing how returns and exchanges were done at Woolworth and Staples by comparing the differences between them.  I will also throw in the occasional Target and Best Buy policy as well as I have dealt with both of these companies for returns as well.  I have never done a return at Walmart so they are not included in this post.

Cash Returns with Receipt

Woolworth – In order to get a cash refund, the customer had to supply their name, address, phone number (optional) on a return form.  They had to sign the bottom of the slip as well.  Many customers didn’t like providing this information and sometimes refused.  However, no info meant no money back, rarely did a manager ever make an exception to this policy.

Staples – In order to get a cash refund, the customer had to supply their name, address, phone number (optional) on a return form that printed out from the register.  If the customer didn’t fill out the form completely, no return for them—NO EXCEPTIONS!

Winner:  TIE – Neither company had an easy policy regarding cash refunds and both required personal information to be given out to get refund.

Credit Card Returns with Receipt

Woolworth – All that was needed is the same credit card used to purchase the merchandise, employee swiped card through reader, receipt came out, customer signed receipt and got refund back upon their credit card within 5 business days.

Staples – Same procedure as Woolworth.

Target – Similar procedure as Woolworth/Staples, but customer DID NOT need to sign credit refund slip.

Best Buy – Call it Best hassle.  Before issuing a credit back to customer’s account, the customer MUST present a valid id (driver’s license preferred).  This information from the license is input as part of the return information and thus logged into their computers.  This is so VERY VERY WRONG as this will lead to IDENTITY THEFT!!!  This is why many people no longer shop at this company anymore and who can blame them?  Hacker’s paradise!

Winner: Target – What is easier than NOT having to sign anything?  Simple Straightforward.

Returns WITHOUT Receipts (Cash Refunds Only)

Woolworth – The company had a big blue binder in which was logged a customer’s name (in last name ordered sections) , address, phone number, and driver’s license number or any other id (including credit card numbers!)  A customer was allowed 3 times to do a return without a receipt then they were cut-off..  However, if this book was ever lost or stolen, identity theft would run rampart as this book contained a lot of personal information not for the general public.  I never liked this approach, but just accepted it.

Staples – The old method was to fill out a merchandise credit slip that the customer put their name, address, and phone number on.  This was a paper slip that looked like a check and had to be validated by a register imprint to be legal.  It was not uncommon to hear of books of merchandise credit slips being stolen, but they were worthless without a valid register imprint.  Eventually, the credit slip went away and the customer information was input directly into the register.  A cash card was issued for the amount of the return.  These were similar to gift cards, however, because of how they were numbered they were NOT interchangeable.  Customers were only given a certain number of non-receipt returns before they got rejected.  Ironically, the first day the program started, one of the first customers got their return rejected under the system.  It did  seem funny that this happened this way.  However, if anybody hacked the Staples computer system (not that hard to do actually-I did it one night), they would have access to all the customer credit card information, driver’s license info, and personal information.

Winner:  TIE – Both companies open the door wide to identity theft, although it was much easier to keep track of a binder than trying to protect an entire computer network.

Credit Card Returns WITHOUT a RECEIPT

Woolworth – Under NO circumstances were they allowed.  Any of these transactions would be cash refunds without receipts.

Staples – If the item was found on any receipt from any of the Staples’ locations, within a couple years of purchases, then the credit would be given back on the same card.  Otherwise, customer ended up with store credit.

Winner:  Staples – System worked almost like magic to put credit back, but then again they store much more information than they should anyway.

Merchandise Exchanges

Woolworth – Even though the instruction manual allowed for them, our particular store prohibited exchanges to be done in one transaction.  Return had to be done first than purchase was made.  Clumsy way of getting the job done.

Staples – Could be done all in one transaction.  Originally, returns had to be the first part of transaction, but eventually register software was updated to allow returns anywhere in transaction.  Straightforward approach and easy for the most part.

Winner:  Staples – No contest here.

Summary

So who is the winner in the return arena:  Target

Biggest loser of returns: Best Buy

Staples finishes 2nd as they win 2 out of 5 contests and Woolworth finishes 3rd as they didn’t win a round but did manage a tie in 3 rounds.  However, both Staples and Woolworth opened the door to identity theft, but not nearly as bad as Best Buy.  Still, no company is safe when they store any customer information even if it is as simple as an email address as my complaint with Staples was with the Better Business Bureau.

Of course, nothing is as fun as being head of all the money in the place as being head of the cash office, which is the topic of my next blog post.

Up Next:  The Company’s Money is Safe with Me?

The 50th Post

This being my 50th post I decided at this point to reflect on what has happened up to this point.  To be honest, I am rather disappointed at where this blog sits at right now, but in other ways I am not surprised.  I really thought that coming out of the gate I would get much more support from former Staples employees as well as some employees still holding on in the company.  Instead, I have found more sarcasm than anything else at this point.  It bothers me to think that up to this point that much of what I have written has been criticized by people who may not get it or who think that I am just being lazy for not having a job at this point in time.  I expected to see more comments here in this blog, but the only comments I received was from one person and myself on my very first post last year.  It makes me wonder if people are purposely ignoring all this because they just don’t care or they don’t want to hear about other people’s problems.  I believe it is a little bit of both.  Maybe people are ashamed of being a part of this blog as they would feel personally attacked by it.  That is not and should not be the case under any circumstances.  What I present here in this blog is the TRUTH which Staples denies all the way.  Since nobody from the company has ever responded or probably ever will, I will assume they don’t care what I write because they are done destroying me for now.

Destroying me you say.  Yes, as I celebrate and not in a good way, my 3 year dismissal as of yesterday (March 18th) from Staples, it should be noted that it has been a living hell since then.

Let’s go back to that faithful day 3 years ago.  It was around 12:45pm on a Wednesday.  It was a rainy damp day and as I had been anticipating when I arrived at work, the assistant manager was waiting for me at the door.  In all honesty, I was not surprised that I would get terminated as I sat in the manager’s office with a friend, a weasel, and a liar all in the room with me.  I actually expected this to happen long before now as the new manager who was in the store for the last 6 months had done EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to intimidate me and make my every day a nightmare.  It was bad enough that I was struggling with my health at the time, but it was aggravated even worse by the almost daily onslaught by the fiery manager.  What really surprised me during my dismissal conversation were 2 things that were told to me.  What were those 2 things…well that I will get to in a future post…stay tuned.

All I will say about those 2 things is that it led me to file a complaint against the company with the state.  Sadly, the results were very unsatisfactory as I will explain later.  The lies that Staples brought up against me and the information about me couldn’t be further from the truth.  However along the way before my case went to trial, Staples decided to seek its revenge against me.  They decided to BLACKLIST ME,  INTIMIDATE ME, HACK MY ACCOUNTS, AND WORST OF ALL STEAL MY IDENTITY! 

Yes, you read all that correctly and in future posts I will discuss all of this.  Its bad that they wanted to destroy me, but they did.

As I head toward the 100th post, I am hoping that this blog catches fire and becomes a more widespread interest from former and current employees and anybody else who has ever shopped at Staples.  After all, the BBB closed my complaint against Staples without answering the real question of why they store credit card information.  Sad that the BBB don’t care about consumers any better than that.  Let’s strengthen this blog and make it work after all the company doesn’t even know it exists.  At least I have one savior moment in my life!

Up Next:  Who’s Drawer is It Anyway?

Commentary: Google and Staples–A Tale of 2 Privacy Policies

Yesterday, Google announced that it would start tracking users information across the 60+ applications hosted by Google including their search engine, Google+, Gmail, android phones and even Blogger, which is where this blog is hosted.  In a way it is good that Google is upfront about tracking user information and targeting ads and pop-ups to what the user is looking at or searching for.  Its bad that anybody who uses anything Google will be tracked and market targeted with ads that they may not want or care about.  To make matters worse, even though the information is anonymously store, it still knows who you are.  Since I am such a strong advocate of privacy, I have actually considered moving this blog to a more friendly site like WordPress.  I will let everybody know if I plan on doing such a thing, but for now I am here and will continue to be here at least until mid-March when the changes take place.  However, the one thing that I think is funny now is when I load up the blog, I see ads for Staples on my anti-Staples blog.  I wonder if anybody else sees this like I do.  I am interested in hearing from anybody who does.

Staples, on the other hand, has decided to be very secretive about the data it collects, where it collects it, and how long it is stored.  Just a look at the Staples.com website shows that there is NO indication that Staples is PCI compliant.  I am not going to go into details on what exactly this is because it is complex, but a search will provide plenty of information on this standard. 

If you read my previous post about the Better Business Bureau closing my case against Staples, one thing should have been obvious:  the letter was generic and computer generated.  I highly doubt that any REAL person closed this complaint, but instead it was closed because it was open for exactly 3 weeks and Staples had refused to respond to my last complaint in 5 business days.  I believe that this was purposely done by Staples just so they would not have to explain how my email address got linked by another family member’s credit card.  This is definitely fraud which the company is avoiding and thus smartly let the time to let the case close itself without having to respond.  Shame on Staples for this action!  Later, I will be telling of other privacy policies that Staples clearly violated and I will guarantee it will anger people! 

So, Google smartly lets people know of the company’s intentions upfront, whereas Staples makes claims that it does nothing wrong and doesn’t violate any laws, but who’s laws are they going by anyway?  I know in the days and weeks ahead much will be said about the Google privacy change, but the Staples one will sadly continue because the company is so sly and divertive that their evil ways will continue until someone really decides to sue this evil company for the theft which they are creating. 

We can only hope that eventually the smart thing will be done with both companies and their privacy policies will change and will not steal customer’s information without their knowledge.  I highly doubt there will be any significant change in the near future.

Breaking News: BBB closes Staples Case

Sadly, the Better Business Bureau as responded by the following notice:

Dear Louis Brown :
This notification is in regards to your complaint submitted on 1/2/2012 1:52:12 PM against Staples, Inc.. Complaint # 8865501.

BBB has closed complaint #8865501.

After reviewing the position of all parties, BBB determined that the business made a reasonable effort to address the complaint and has closed the complaint. This complaint will be publicly reported on the business’s BBB Business Review for 36 months.

If BBB has additional information to provide you to assist you in pursuing your complaint with a government agency, and/or provide you with some educational tips, the information will be displayed below.

Thank you.
Better Business Bureau

The only good thing about this is that the complaint will remain with the BBB for a while.  I do not consider this a win, but yet another series of lies that this time was persuaded by the BBB.  All I can say is beware if you use any charge card at Staples as the company could and WILL store your information whether you like it or not.  Once again, this is proof that Staples is absolutely the worst company and continues to scam.