Comments on: It Is Staples “Policy” To Rip You Off With Bogus “File Conversion” Fees

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 23:38:54 +0000

For being a ‘price driven’ CPC employee, she sure didn’t charge you for a first page out of state fax.

Also a CPC employee here. I, personally, don’t charge the conversion fee unless I think you’re an ass. Then it’s my passive aggressive way of getting you back. But printing .jpgs is very little problem and you should not have been charged in this instance.

And Nichol, we would be more than happy to do that for you. Just write down the page numbers you need and it will be nice and simple! As long as the file is a .pdf, origin doesn’t matter. If you’re a rewards member (and if you’re not, sign up!) you are eligible for 50% back on your prints starting tomorrow (9/20).

By: Nichol

Nichol — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:09:56 +0000

I’m hoping someone can answer a question for me (I found this post via google) in reference to printing at Staples. I would like to take some files in for printing. Personal, not business, and nothing fancy. Just print files of portions of pdf documents I want a hard copy of. For example, I recently purchased a ScanSnap with Adobe 8 and both manuals are digital. I do not need an Adobe book, nor do I need the whole manual for each product, but I would like some portions of each in print format for reference.
My question then is can I burn the sections I want to a cd (in pdf format) and print the cd (files) at Staples.
It may be a simple question but I recall I was able to do this with Kinko’s years ago when I published a newsletter (for snail mail). I did all the work and simply used their computer with my files and printed what I needed.
While I do have a printer, it isn’t laser and the ink jet is too costly for this type of need. I have several applications/programs I would like to be able to utilize and all user documents are now digital.
Again, the needs are not fancy, no binding, color, etc., just cheaper printing of certain portions of the various manuals than I could do using ink jet printing.
As a side note, I’m on MAC OS 10.5 and I assume (?) a the pdf file is all I need … i.e. not disk formatting.
Thanks,
Nichol

By: nunya

nunya — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:48:17 +0000

Just cuz the associate has to work harder(copy center) doesn’t mean that associate is even profiting, he/she is getting an hourly salary weather the customers buy 1 copy the whole day or 1 million. so it is a b/s fee.

By: Part of the Staples team

Part of the Staples team — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:36:43 +0000

That fact that some of you consider this minimal charge fraud is outrageous in itself. As far as some of the employee remarks I read in numerous comments (or complaints) Staples’ employees are 100% trained to know the back bones of the copy center. It is up to the individual associates to use that information and apply it and learn from their own experience. We provide coaching and on the job training for any associate. The copy center’s system is complex and by converting the files to PDF enables our associates to detect and correct any errors before they are printed resulting in less waste and happier customers. PDF is the standard in all business printing; whether or not your file is personal or business, it goes through business and/or industrial printers.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:56:37 +0000

I used to stop at a local minimart that charged .50 for using my debit card. A 1.50 pepsi would cost 2.00. There were many complaints about it from thier customers. Actually, the service cost them .35 but they charged the .50. I don’t have a problem paying more for a service but I don’t like practice of making the cost of doing business visible. It is normal to provide debit service for a brick and mortar store. I don’t understand why a company would invite irritation on thier sutomers by making sure that they know what it takes to provide a service.

By: Nick

Nick — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 18:57:12 +0000

I also work in the Staples Copy and Print Center. I am the department lead at our CPC, also known as the CPC Expert. I would like to offer an explanation for these fees from an honest and non-biased point of view. Sometimes the intricacies of operating a copy center are eclipsed by the simplicity of its product. A file conversion fee is only necessary when printing a document that either; has formating that might be compromised while transferring your file to the print server, or the document has been saved in a color mode other than CMYK. CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) are the toner colors most professional equipment utilizes. Many files brought to us are created using “at home” programs, which are intended to be used in conjunction with “at home” printers. Converting the file to PDF locks in crucial formatting and color choices in a file format that is both user friendly, and compact. PDFs print faster, look better, and offer a wider range of print options at the software level. And whats ever better is that you are only asked to pay the conversion fee once per order, NOT for every document we convert. If you bring us a flash drive containing 15 .docs to print we will convert all files for one File Conversion Fee. What it really boils down to is this… You pay 2 bucks to know your document its going look the way you want it to look, and by enforcing this policy as standard operating procedure we insure that we are providing the highest quality print available for our customers.

By: Samson

Samson — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 19:30:42 +0000

To the poster- go to a local mom and pops shop. Most still believe in customer service and low cost competitive rates. Ignore any poster who overgeneralizes with the juvenile mentality of “gee they are ALL doing it” so jump on the bus .
I can attest that our business DOES NOT nickel and dime a customer.

By: 1402871

1402871 — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:48:57 +0000

Part of the time I don’t really even do the $0.25 red/enl fee if the job is large enough. Or, I should say, not as many times as I should. It’s a bit easier to do the $5 a half hour if it’s huge enough of a job and tedious enough.
It really depends on the customer’s job and the customer.

If some guy comes in yelling at me the entire time, I’ll charge him what I’m supposed to charge him. If a customer comes in and is nice, understanding about time, and how busy we are, I might let a few pure profit fees slide a bit.

By: Ezz

Ezz — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 22:50:13 +0000

We quit using binding assembly fees over a year ago and the reducing and enlarging fee of $0.25 is per SIZE entered, not per original or per print. It’s for the time you take entering original size, auto center, % enlarge, etc.

By: 1402871

1402871 — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 06:45:18 +0000

It depends on what Staples store you go to.
The one I work at, Store 1097, District 91, Grass Valley California, I will say has more competent employees as apposed to Store 0424, same district, Auburn California, who seems to hire anyone over 18 and isn’t a crack addict.

When I’m over in the Copy Center, I will admit there are some ridiculous fees, and I generally don’t charge some of them.
Alot of people don’t know, but there’s a 25 cent fee for reducing or enlarging items. EACH item, really.
So, if you go in with a couple photos and want them blown up, 25 cents a pop.

With alot of this stuff, I charge accordingly. If it takes me 10 seconds to set it up to enlarge the photos, I’ll throw one charge on for all of them. Seems fine.

Same with binding anything. It’s supposed to be a dollar a book “Assembly Fee.” Doesn’t matter if it’s 1 or 100. A buck a pop.

Alot of this stuff is just pure profit, and for numbers. Numbers, numbers, numbers… Pretty much what all the managers’ jobs rely on. It’s at the point where if the store doesn’t make enough money a year, they cut 2 managers’ jobs.

Don’t get pissed at the associates of the corp. for charging you, it’s the actual Corp. you need to be pissed at. $2 isn’t a huge deal at all, and there’s a ton of free programs to convert to PDF.
Someone before mentioned it, and it’s 100% true. Printing alot of files not in PDF format will eat up a ton of memory on our servers. It’s not like a normal printer connected straight to the computer, it’s the computer is hooked up to two servers, one for black and white machines and the other for color. And from each server is hooked a variety of machines. So, the computer has to send the file to the server, the server has to process it, and then send it to the machine to print. The servers are really only made for PDF files because they process a LOT faster than any of the other files. When the file is told to print, it goes from point A (the printer) to Point B (the server) and spends a little time in Point B decoding, then gets sent to Point C (the actual copier/printer) where it takes a few seconds for the printer to warm up and print out. A text document in .doc may take 20 seconds to print, but it’ll take about 3 in PDF format.

While you may think you have a valid argument for complaining about a conversion fee, the complaint needs to be about the associate who DIDN’T convert the file at all when they printed it.

Printing any file NOT in PDF format takes up a TON of the memory on the server. It stores the printed documents on the server as well. Keep that in mind.

So, you can print about a thousand PDF files and take up maybe 12% of the server. And in any other file type, you can get through about 20 before it practically fills the ENTIRE SERVER MEMORY! And, just letting you know, to even go through and delete the stored documents on the server, you need a Administrator password to log into the server to even clear it out. And, if it gets too full, we have to actually call Xerox to come out and pretty much manually remove everything.

And, just to let everyone know, the prices for some things, if you think it’s high, do realize that we get alot of our paper from Xerox and some other specialty companies and they charge us sometimes $50 a ream. For those of you that don’t know how many pages are in a ream, it’s only 500. A ream of average printing paper, you can pick up for under $4.

By: Nation

Nation — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 06:38:02 +0000

Your a fucking retarded. I don’t think you know that THEY ACTUALLY NEED TO CONVERT THE FILE SO THEY ARE NOT SCAMMING. BESIDES IF YOU COMPLAIN ENOUGH IM SURE THE ASSOCIATE WILL BE HAPPY TO WIPE YOUR ASS AND NOT CHARGE YOU. Buy your own printer

By: gojira

gojira — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 06:58:00 +0000

I was just at Staples, and this was the 1st time I was ever asked to pay, however I was not told it was a conversion fee since they didn’t even open up my files, I was just told it was $2 to open each file. I was aghast and of course did not print anything. I look forward to informing the supervisor of that area the correct policy once I get it from Staples.

And seriously, why are people defending a corporation so vehemently? Especially when they don’t train the employees properly in policy.

By: Ezz

Ezz — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:50:12 +0000

some of you have issues if you think $2 is “excessive.” Shut up and convert the files to PDF yourself while you sip your $5 latte.

By: punkerp

punkerp — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 20:56:00 +0000

I agree with Eric – I can’t believe people are ripping into the author here – maybe YOU ARE rich enough to deal with BS fees – but most Americans aren’t – and it doesn’t matter that this is about staples – EVERYWHERE does this to people now-a-days. It’s ridiculous – I commend the author for bringing it up – I think more people need to bitch about these fees and shows distaste with retailers – how else is it gonna get fixed if we all keep LETTING it happen?

Also, I work at a print shop – it IS a pain to convert a non-pdf file format – but it’s only ever a pain if it’s an adobe illustrator or an in design file format, otherwise it’s pretty easy.

Also, it’s not like that “conversion” fee is going to the workers actually having to convert the files – it’s going to the corporation!

The fact is, like the author stated, they didn’t even convert the file and yet still charged him – it’s ridiculous.

I don’t have the money to get screwed all the time with these BS fees.

By: Joe...Staples dude

Joe...Staples dude — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:32:55 +0000

$2 for a conversion fee???? Crazy!
Yeah, it would be crazy for Staples to charge $2 to convert a file to print for you… This seems like MONEY GRUBBING corporate fraud!!!

The SOLE REASON THEY CHARGE these excessive prices is to pay for CORPORATE WASTE & EXCESS such as: associate’s pay, insurance & benefits, uniforms, lighting, power to run the computer, the computer & software, copier lease, air conditioning, restrooms, cleaning, advertising… and $30,000 moth rent.

Since the charges are so excessive, ask your mom for $200,000 to open a store & make the same MAD CASH they are. When it takes 10 years to break even and 18 year old snots are complaining about $2 conversion fee’s… suck it up. Until you learn a bit more about business, the costs & risks… use your ears & not your mouth when you want to learn.

By: court

court — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:41:28 +0000

its two dollars get over it

By: Employee for Staples

Employee for Staples — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:52:10 +0000

I just read your complaint. I have been working for Staples for over 8 years this July. I have worked electronics, furniture, office supply, and more recently Copy Center. In the defense of Staples although I completely agree with you is it is up to the store that you go to what you are going to be charged. Due to higher management and trying to make numbers… Our company has a goal for the Copy Center per order they call it an AOV (Average order value). There is alot of pressure with in the company to make your AOV goal which in my store is 35.00… They are a rediculous company to work for as far as goals. They want you to upsale everything from Protection plans to rediculous charges at the copy center and want you to engage, ask, show, yes (easy) but never give enough hours to make this a reality. I am about to quit the company because I have had enough of their changes in the last year. You will never see me buy any thing their because I know how high priced everything is.

By: Employee for Staples

Employee for Staples — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:52:10 +0000

By: Christina

Christina — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:56:05 +0000

Ok, so I work for Staples in the Copycenter and let me tell you we absolutely charge the conversion fee every time if the its not in pdf format. It may seem like a rip off if you are only printing one page but thats what corporate says so thats what we do. We even keep a copy of the MAP communication by the register to show the customer we’re not making it up its company policy. I understand the Manager was trying to please the customer but at my store the managers know better and back us up. The charge used to be .99 per file, so its actually been changed for the better. Every store should be charging correctly, its stores like the ones previously stated that has the angry customers coming to my store thinking we made it up cuz they’ve never been charged correctly before. I won’t waive a fee for other ppls incompetence.

By: Laura

Laura — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:39:31 +0000

Hey, I actually work at staples… in the copy center. And I’m going to agree with that prices are ridiculous… to an extent. If you want something cut, we charge $2 for every cut we do. Ya we have to make sure our blade stays sharp, but I don’t think it costs that much to keep it sharp. And if you want things scanned and saved to a pdf it’s $5 a picture! But for the most part prices are pretty reasonable. I mean you have to consider 1. the price of ink and paper 2.Machine “wear and tear” and repairs for the machines (which is like everyday, hate those machines) And for The quality you get it’s a pretty decent price. And for some of the things, we charge for more labor. So yes some things can be ridiculously priced, but that’s everywhere not just at staples. Most (not all) corporations/ businesses/ etc. are trying to squeeze every penny out of you they can get. So don’t get pissed at staples itself, blame the employee for not telling you the “small print” (ps they would probably get in trouble for not saying that)
Laura