According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, after a back-and-forth legal dilemma lasting many months, state officials in Georgia have made it official: the state is ending its relationship with Office Depot over deliberate mispricing.
State officials recently terminated a multimillion-dollar contract with Office Depot after the company repeatedly overcharged and mispriced items for state employees, the head of purchasing confirmed Tuesday.
The company does about $40 million a year with the state and had been Georgia’s sole office supplier since March. Employees at the state’s 129 agencies used purchasing cards to buy everything from printers to desks on the company’s state of Georgia Web site.
Brad Douglas, commissioner of the Department of Administrative Services, said he found mismarked items on the site months after the company was notified there were problems.
“This supplier simply failed to perform,” he said.
Officials at Office Depot refused to answer questions, instead providing a brief statement saying the company has “worked continuously, and in good faith, with the State of Georgia.”
Good faith, Office Depot? That’s not how I remember it. Filter this blog by “Big Box News” and see how many articles are about Office Depot doing something shady. Oh wait, I did it for you. And that number is 10 stories in the past 3 months. That’s a lot of time to be in the news for something most people consider boring. (I personally find the sale and discussion of office supplies quite thrilling, thank you very much.)
Regardless, this is a step in the right direction. The more people who cease to deal with a dishonest corporation, the less likely that corporation is to stay in business. Simple economics, but apparently too far over the heads of Office Depot. I still don’t understand what’s so hard about “treat people the way you want to be treated” as a rule for a business. Some people never learn, I suppose.
