Job Hunting Freebie: Office Depot Offers Free Resume Printing, Faxing Til May 30

Office Depot announced recently that the company will offer free copies of résumés to customers, up to 25 single-sided copies, for free until May 30. Office Depot's current free résumé printing promotion also includes free faxing to up to five domestic phone numbers, with a limit of 25 total pages. These free services for job seekers can be obtained by visiting any one of the 1,100 Office Depots throughout the United States and stopping by the Design, Print & Ship center before May 30. Customers may also upgrade their free résumé printing to résumé paper by paying a small fee per page.

How much will a typical job hunting customer save on printing a résumé with this freebie?

When I called my local Office Depot in Fredericksburg, Virginia, the staff was unaware of the free résumé and free faxing promotion. The sales associate sounded somewhat flustered and embarrassed and asked for help locating the page on the Office Depot site that mentioned more specific details regarding Office Depot's free résumé and free faxing promotion.

I quizzed her about what kind of paper qualified for the free résumé printing and she stated that it was their standard paper. Since most job seekers tend to use higher quality paper than the standard fare, I asked her about the nominal upcharge for upgrading to heavier paper. She stated that the cost to upgrade to résumé paper would be just 8 cents per page. Normally, black and white prints on standard paper are 9 cents self-serve and 10 cents if they do it for you.

Savings on 25 prints: $2.25 self-serve and $2.50 if they print the résumé for you on standard paper; a wash if you upgrade to heavier paper.

How much will the free faxing portion of the Office Depot promotion save job seekers?

Faxing a document can cost a small fortune. According to the sales associate at the store, a fax to a local or toll free number costs customers $1.75 for the first page and $1.00 for each additional page. Faxes to long distance numbers cost $2.25 for the first page and $1 each additional page. Considering that a job seeker would not fax their résumé without a cover letter, the minimum savings for sending a single fax to a prospective employer would range between $2.75 and $3.25.

Savings on faxes: On a single fax with a letter of introduction and a one-page résumé, savings range between $2.75 and $3.25. Multiply that by a maximum of 5 free faxes to prospective employers and the total savings rises to $13.75 to $16.25.

Sources:
http://mediarelations.officedepot.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=140162&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1278077&highlight=
Store associate, Fredericksburg, VA Office Depot