Staples Faces Blogger Ire for “Virus Scanning” Fees

A small blogstorm is brewing over a report on Boing Boing that Staples charges a $2.49 fee for virus scanning any media that you hand over to them to print out, even if you're making one copy.

So, let's play Madden 2006, blog style. What should Staples do? Run (be scared), pass (send it off to PR to worry), kick (try somehow to shut this down) or punt (let it be someone else's problem). The answer, in my view at least, is to call an audible. This isn't just a small blog calling Staples out, it's el numero uno.

I had a similar “what would you do” conversation with a reporter today on this very subject. I had no idea this would come up so soon. If I were Staples, I would come up with an answer quickly. Try to assess if this is a chain-wide policy or simply a store-level situation. If this is indeed a national policy, don't hide from it. Try as best you can to explain it through allies you have in the blog world (which I know you have). And do it now before it starts to spread to the press.

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Comments

[graywolf]

I'd offer a free virus scanning kiosk, which would just happen to have a spot to hold the virus scanning software that staples is offering for customers to purchase.

[Jeremy Pepper]

A post an hour - for a total of 19 - is not a storm. It's a light dusting of rain.

And, well, Staples can only hope that the blogger fallout affects them the same way it did with FedEx ... profits increasing by 33 percent. I guess that all those claims of "never using FedEx again!!" did not take hold in corporate America (or, well, for me).

But, yes, it is a stupid policy from Staples - such things are a cost of doing business, and should have already been factored into the cost.