Office Max Delivery Questions

I wanted to address a question that has been popping up recently regarding Office Max/Office Depot orders and their delivery methods.
Lately, Office Max/Office Depot (heretofore referred to as OM/OD) has been using UPS and FedEx shipping as an intermediary for delivery rather than delivering to the campus themselves, which has been causing a lot of confusion (understandably). Hopefully this short FAQ will help clarify:

I received notification from OM/OD that my order has been delivered and signed for, but I don’t have it! What happened?

One of two scenarios have taken place. First (and least likely) is that the delivery driver is new or lost and couldn’t find your office so they brought it to me and asked me to deliver it. MOST of the time, this doesn’t happen. Second scenario is that OM/OD used an alternative courier such as UPS or FedEx to deliver your shipment, and since they all deliver directly to me, my signature will appear in your notification.

Why wasn’t my shipment delivered directly to my office like normal?

If your shipment was sent through UPS or FedEx, these drivers are not bound by the same contractual obligations that OM/OD delivery drivers are, so they will only deliver to me (or the Physical Plant loading dock if you order something huge like a couch).

If UPS or FedEx delivered my OM/OD shipment to you, when will it be delivered to me?

My office delivers packages between 1:00 and 3:00 every afternoon, and your shipment will be delivered during that time frame. Alternative arrangements are considered on a case by case basis and depend upon our workload for that day.

Why didn’t OM/OD just deliver my order themselves?

The short answer is, I don’t know. I can’t speak for them (obviously) but my educated guess is that they are choosing the most cost effective and efficient method of delivery for your order as they can. For instance, say that you ordered this magnificent and crepuscular  Sterling Silver Jaguar Fountain Pen with 18K Gold Nib from OM/OD (Cheri tells me I can’t have it because it’s “outrageously expensive” or whatever), but the closest warehouse is in Texas.For OM/OD to deliver it to you themselves, it will probably go from Texas, to Nevada, to Seattle, to Portland and THEN to Salem, hopefully to be delivered the next day by one of their trucks. That’s upwards of 5-6 days of waiting, not to mention the time it takes them to pull and package the order in Texas… and do you really want your $500 pen in transit for that long? I don’t think so.

That is often why they choose to send your orders through FedEx or UPS. Sending a box from Austin, Texas to Monmouth Oregon through UPS or FedEx only takes two days, rather than 5 or 6 through their trucking system, and when you calculate all of the handling costs of 5 days’ trucking transit, they end up saving quite a bit of money AND get it to you faster.

 
I hope this helps. As always, if there are any questions, please reach out to me and I’ll see what I can do to help!
About Amanda Bales 39 Articles
Mail Services Supervisor, former student worker. I have a BS in Psychology/Communications and a MS in Counseling. And I work in Mail.