Walked into Staples Courtenay last week to get some printing done mid afternoon. I walked to the print station and waited. There were no customers I could see, only four employees over at the till, talking loud enough for me to hear about some TV series. No one acknowledged my presence. After a few minutes, I walked over and asked for some help and was told someone would be there soon. I walked back and waited for more than 5 minutes. Finally someone else came from somewhere. The other employees were still standing around the tills. I told the print person about my job: I had poster files on my email, and was wanting several hundred copies. I was told I could either go home and email the docs (my old phone doesn't handle email) or pay to use their computer to pull up the files and do the printing myself. The quoted price was almost $200. I declined the unhelpful, nickle-and-dimeing service and went to ABC Printing in town. There, they let me pull up my files from email, and did the print job for me in less time than I spent waiting at Staples. The price was also only $120. Don't waste your time getting printing done at this store. They clearly view their customers as an inconvenience, and have ridiculous pricing.
UPDATE: They respond with "Customer satisfaction is a top priority for us" which is a line they have been using on all their low ratings for years. It is clear that even the lazy person monitoring the reviews doesn't care either: if customer service was their "Top Priority" they wouldn't have dozens of one-star reviews dating back years, nor would they keep saying the same thing. No, Staples, I will not reach out. And I will not be back. Instead, I will reiterate my review to Corporate. Service is not your Top Priority or I wouldn't have had to write this review in the first place, or go somewhere else. Your customer service is the worst.
opal luna
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March 26, 2025
The new management is amazing! They stayed a little longer after closing time to help me print my labels, for a market I had to be at, for 10am the next day. We also used my own sticker paper, a basic 3383 from Avery. The prints came out excellent quality and they didn’t even charge me, since it was a learning experience for them, on their new printer program
I’m definitely going to be printing all my labels here.
Look how great they look!
Thanks, guys!
Alex Lowe
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February 05, 2026
Very poor service. I came in about asking for an order I made online for the printing department. The customer service wasn't great, and lack of effort to help was not great. The attitude from the girl about the order was fairly poor considering she works in that department. Not sure if this comes down to lack of training or poor management when fixing an issue regarding orders. All I got was call customer service and shrug of the shoulders.
Edit: it would have been great if the printing department picked up their phone too.
Madison Holloway
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December 28, 2025
It’s almost sad this store and location have potential and I am convinced it is poor management. I do not know what is happening in the copy and shipping area, but clearly staff do not want or like working here. Their attitude and demeanour reflect this, and I have gone so far as to let FedEx know we will never use this location to ship from again. I visited Dec 27, and while the Clearance items were labelled 50% off, the register did not reflect this and it took almost 10 minutes for the woman at the till to locate someone who could override it to give me the correct price. The attitude of the man trying to assist was so vulgar towards her I am writing a separate letter to Staples western head office informing them of this incident. I said nothing at the time only offering a sympathetic smile to the employee trying to help me, but it will not end there. Other reviews here are somewhat accurate but please remember that staff actions are most likely due to poor management. I want to give Staples my business but have a hard time doing so when the place is run poorly. A sign of the times, perhaps.
Honest Reviews
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November 05, 2025
went into staples Wednesday November 5 at around 10 am and had lovely service. There was someone at the door immediately greeting and helping everyone who entered the store and it created a really positive efficient atmosphere. My day got better after experiencing the staff on this specific day.
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Walked into Staples Courtenay last week to get some printing done mid afternoon. I walked to the print station and waited. There were no customers I could see, only four employees over at the till, talking loud enough for me to hear about some TV series. No one acknowledged my presence. After a few minutes, I walked over and asked for some help and was told someone would be there soon. I walked back and waited for more than 5 minutes. Finally someone else came from somewhere. The other employees were still standing around the tills. I told the print person about my job: I had poster files on my email, and was wanting several hundred copies. I was told I could either go home and email the docs (my old phone doesn't handle email) or pay to use their computer to pull up the files and do the printing myself. The quoted price was almost $200. I declined the unhelpful, nickle-and-dimeing service and went to ABC Printing in town. There, they let me pull up my files from email, and did the print job for me in less time than I spent waiting at Staples. The price was also only $120. Don't waste your time getting printing done at this store. They clearly view their customers as an inconvenience, and have ridiculous pricing. UPDATE: They respond with "Customer satisfaction is a top priority for us" which is a line they have been using on all their low ratings for years. It is clear that even the lazy person monitoring the reviews doesn't care either: if customer service was their "Top Priority" they wouldn't have dozens of one-star reviews dating back years, nor would they keep saying the same thing. No, Staples, I will not reach out. And I will not be back. Instead, I will reiterate my review to Corporate. Service is not your Top Priority or I wouldn't have had to write this review in the first place, or go somewhere else. Your customer service is the worst.
The new management is amazing! They stayed a little longer after closing time to help me print my labels, for a market I had to be at, for 10am the next day. We also used my own sticker paper, a basic 3383 from Avery. The prints came out excellent quality and they didn’t even charge me, since it was a learning experience for them, on their new printer program I’m definitely going to be printing all my labels here. Look how great they look! Thanks, guys!
Very poor service. I came in about asking for an order I made online for the printing department. The customer service wasn't great, and lack of effort to help was not great. The attitude from the girl about the order was fairly poor considering she works in that department. Not sure if this comes down to lack of training or poor management when fixing an issue regarding orders. All I got was call customer service and shrug of the shoulders. Edit: it would have been great if the printing department picked up their phone too.
It’s almost sad this store and location have potential and I am convinced it is poor management. I do not know what is happening in the copy and shipping area, but clearly staff do not want or like working here. Their attitude and demeanour reflect this, and I have gone so far as to let FedEx know we will never use this location to ship from again. I visited Dec 27, and while the Clearance items were labelled 50% off, the register did not reflect this and it took almost 10 minutes for the woman at the till to locate someone who could override it to give me the correct price. The attitude of the man trying to assist was so vulgar towards her I am writing a separate letter to Staples western head office informing them of this incident. I said nothing at the time only offering a sympathetic smile to the employee trying to help me, but it will not end there. Other reviews here are somewhat accurate but please remember that staff actions are most likely due to poor management. I want to give Staples my business but have a hard time doing so when the place is run poorly. A sign of the times, perhaps.
went into staples Wednesday November 5 at around 10 am and had lovely service. There was someone at the door immediately greeting and helping everyone who entered the store and it created a really positive efficient atmosphere. My day got better after experiencing the staff on this specific day.