We have had a truly miserable experience with this company, and it's insulting that the one time they would actually take the time to respond in writing to any complaint I've had is on this site. (Honestly, Desktop, this is just adding insult to injury.)
We did an entirely online order with Desktop. When I finally got the spreadsheets from them, they were a mess. About half the orders didn't even have a student name attached to them, so I had to spend countless hours trying to figure out how to get supplies to kids (you'd think that a company that has supposedly held online sales before would know children and parents don't always have the same name)
We were supposed to get our supplies on Aug. 11. Tamara from Desktop called me and asked if we could move the date back because of issues with their suppliers. It was an inconvenience, but I told them that as long as we got our supplies by Aug. 19th, it would be okay. To keep a miserable story short...on Aug. 18 when I called Desktop to try to get clarification on some orders, I realized I was being told conflicting things. I decided to ask what they had as our delivery date and they had it as Aug. 25th...the day after school started for us. Needless to say, I was livid. When I told them they needed to overnight our supplies I was referred to Tiffany at Geckler Co. in MN...apparently the folks who ship out the supplies.
We were able to receive a partial shipment of supplies on Aug. 24. It contained about 1/3 of what we should have received. Inside each box was a xeroxed note with all the backordered supplies handwritten in. Since then, I have been on the phone almost daily (often 3 times a day) with the people in MN trying to get the rest of our supplies. We managed to squeeze a second partial shipment out of Desktop. When they shipped it, they couldn't even tell me what had shipped but Nancy was hopeful that "it was everything." Guess what? It wasn't. And even worse, the second shipment came unsorted, so we had the pleasure of sorting through everything ourselves before we could distribute it to students. I also got to go to the store and buy paperbags to put everything in for each child.
This past Tuesday, I called Nancy in MN to let her know that we had only received a partial shipment again. This time I asked when we would receive the rest of our supplies or a refund. When she finally called me back she told me that we should go ahead and buy them and keep the receipts. (Keep in mind our parents purchased about $11,000 in supplies ...we as a pta made no profit, so I'm not sure where the money to buy all the missing supplies would come from.) I'm also not sure what the purpose of keeping receipts would be other than to be a constant reminder of this entire sordid affair. When I told Nancy that I would need this in writing, that this wasn't something I could just be told over the phone, she told me that she wasn't authorized to send me something like that, but that Tiffany would send me an email. That's an email I've never received....
When Desktop realized there was a problem, they should have contacted our parents directly (it was all online--they have access to everyone's email information) and told them the situation. We should not have received conflicting information about when they were going to deliver the supplies and most importantly, they should have told us when they were going to deliver the supplies prior to the start of school. Finally, they should have refunded everyone their money and given us ample time to go out and purchase supplies on our own. What good would it do for them to send the rest of the supplies at this late date anyway?...our kids are starting their 3rd week of school.
I hate the thought of this happening at any other schools. I know of one other school in my district who has experience the same issues with Desktop, and I've spoken with TX PTA and was told that they have received multiple complaints about Desktop, so I know that we're not in this alone.
