The Staples Rewards for August 2015 were sent out earlier in the week. And with them comes an unwelcome surprise. Staples is now restricting how you can use your rewards. I found out while trying to use them. The rewards are good towards the purchase of regular price items and clearance items, however they will not work on promotions.
Of what I tried so far, these items CANNOT BE PAID with Staples Rewards:
- Less List items (they end 9/12/15 anyway, after a 2.5 month run)
- 1pk Staples 8.5×11 copy paper with the Easy Rebate promotion and coupon (1c after rebate and coupon)
There is an explanation on the cash register receipt – ineligible items have a * next to their name, and at the bottom of the receipt you have this message:
“Item is currently on promotion. Some coupons are only valid on regular priced items. Please see coupon terms and conditions for details”
Rewards are processed as coupons in their system, that’s why it says “coupons”.
Another side-effect messing up with Rewards redemption
Now this restriction triggers another side-effect. You can only use a Staples Reward in two transactions. After the first transaction, if there is a balance, it prints out as a one time use coupon. Previously, you could just do the math in your head and made sure the items in your shopping cart were move than the balance on your leftover Rewards.
Now, things are more complicated. You have to know which items in your shopping cart are eligible to be paid by Rewards, so you can calculate whether your purchase will be more than your leftover Reward balance. Hopefully as time goes by, we’ll have a clear picture of what is not eligible (sale items? Items with coupons? Items with rebates? Items on long term offers?)
More updates as I figure things out
I will update this as I figure things out when I try to use my remaining Staples Rewards balance…
Side-effects of the 3-way office supply chain store merger?
This is yet another side-effect of the OfficeMax-Depot + Staples mega-merger 🙁 First they killed the Office Max rewards program which was neck and neck with the previous Staples rewards. Then Staples restricted the rewards amount. You couldn’t get the full amount anymore, but some of it would rollover – in a fairly convoluted way not clearly understandable when looking at the online statements. And now this, Staples making it harder to spend your earned Rewards on the items you want to buy.
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