This Office Depot store is absolutely awful. My wife placed an order for some office furniture. They claimed it was too heavy to have loaded into her car (bullshit) so they made her get it delivered (with a nice extra delivery fee, of course). In reality, the in-store rep was just too lazy and didn’t want to haul it out of the back room for her.
My other complaint is the company they use for delivery, Advantage (850-457-6683). We set up an 8:00am Thursday delivery, so I took off work to receive the delivery. After 9:30 rolled around I called them and they had no record of the delivery. He called back a few minutes later and said 10am. Fine. 10 am came and went, then I called the driver back and they said 3 or 4. 4:30 rolled around I called them for the 3rd time that day and they said they dropped and BROKE THE DESK while it was in the truck. They promised it would be out at 8:00am Friday. It is now 7pm Friday and still no desk, and no phone calls. I’m going out of town next week, so I needed to cancel the order I’ve placed with them.
I called 800-GODEPOT to cancel and they told me they could not do this. They also mentioned that I could not pick the items up in-store. So, they charged my credit card, they aren’t going to deliver the items, and I can’t cancel or pick them up elsewhere… To me, this constitutes fraud, which is why I ended up doing a chargeback on my card.
I tried calling the local Office Depot where placed the order. The rude woman told me to call 800-GODEPOT. I explained my situation again and she said “please hold, I’m going to see if I can get Ed on the phone” (who Ed is, I do not know). After waiting on hold for exactly 52 minutes, someone picked up the phone and slammed it back down.
If you’re in Pensacola, DO NOT go to the store on Bayou. If you must go to Office Depot, go to the one in Gulf Breeze. The employees are much friendlier there.
ATL might not be the world’s most awful airport, but Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is officially the world’s busiest airport. This doesn’t mean, however, that your layover in Atlanta has to be an unpleasant one. Here are some tips to make your visit to ATL a little more tolerable.
- The T Concourse: ATL’s best kept secret. At any time day or night, Concourses A, B, C, D and E are bound to be packed. You will see people sleeping in the hallways, lines with 20, 30, or 50 people in them waiting to get into bars or restaurants, and a smoky haze across the concourse from the “contained” smoking lounges. If you’re anything like me, you’d rather find a nice quiet corner of the airport than deal with this mess. Well, the T Concourse is what you’re looking for. All the way at the end of the shuttle line (or a 6000 foot walk from the E concourse), it is far off the beaten path. There is no smoking lounge, which helps makes breathing here almost tolerable. There aren’t quite as many bars and restaurants here, but there are a few, and they are almost never busy! Also, since Concourse T is the international concourse, the chances of striking up an interesting conversation with someone from overseas over a cold pint of Guinness are good. The last time I was in this concourse, I don’t think I saw a single passenger. I did, however, see plenty of pilots and airport personnel taking their breaks here.
- Don’t take the shuttle. When migrating from one concourse to another, you might be tempting to join the crowd and pack yourself into the shuttle that runs between concourses. Unless you’re really lazy or have health problems, I’d suggest walking it. There is one long hallway that connects all the concourses, and it has one of those “flat escalator walking accelerator” things, so it take about the same amount of time as the shuttle anyway.
- Check out the art show. If you have some time to kill before your departing flight, be sure to head down to the hallway between the A and T concourses. There are some impressive works of art displayed in the middle of the hallway and on the walls.
- Check your gate. It seems that every time I am in this airport, my gate changes on me. Be sure to check out the flight information monitors before heading out to your gate, as they may change even within minutes of boarding.
Keep checking back for more tips for dealing with awful travel situations. I have plenty of ideas to share. Also be sure to check out Jim’s Travel Tips for some excellent travel advice from another seasoned traveler.