Staples has been running a lot of Visa and Mastercard gift card deals recently, waiving the $6.95 purchase fee on $200 cards. I’ve been taking advantage of these sales and recently had an issue which was a bit of a hassle getting resolved. Part of that hassle is due to our unique living situation, but I thought I’d share something I was advised by a Staples store manager as it might save you time and hassle in the future.
I bought five $200 Visa gift cards a few weeks ago while we were in Roanoke, VA. My wife and I travel full-time and I didn’t get around to liquidating the cards while we were in Roanoke, so it wasn’t until after we’d moved on to Maryland that I noticed there was an issue with one of the cards.
The card got declined at Kroger (this was before all the recent MetaBank Visa gift card issues), so I tried checking the balance when I got back to the hotel. After entering the card details, GiftCardMall advised the following:
We are unable to process your request at this time. If you continue to receive this error, please contact Cardholder services by calling the number on the back of your card.
That wasn’t a good sign. I called GiftCardMall and they advised that they didn’t see anything on their system about the card ever being activated. That being the case, they advised that I should get in contact with Staples.
I keep good records of the gift cards I buy. With Visa gift cards, I keep track of when and where I bought the gift card and the last 4 digits of the card number (among other details). That meant I was able to track the date I bought the gift card, so I looked for the email receipt I’d received from Staples. I only ever request email receipts to have less paper to deal with, but it turns out that was a mistake (I’ll explain why in a moment).
While scrolling through the receipt, I noticed the problem:
The receipt confirmed that I had a non-activated Visa gift card, but they’d charged me $200 for it anyway. I called the Staples store I’d visited in Roanoke and explained the situation. They advised that I’d need to go in to the store to get a refund, but that was a problem. We’d moved on from Roanoke and were now in Ocean City, MD which is more than 6 hours away.
The store manager then advised that I could go in to any Staples store to get this resolved. There’s a Staples store in Ocean City and so that shouldn’t have been a problem. However, I’d had a similar issue with an iTunes gift card last year and when I went into a different store in a different state to get it fixed, they advised there was no way for them to help as it had to be done by the original store.
It took a while to get that iTunes gift card issue resolved last time and eventually someone from the Office of the President arranged for me to get a refund. I still had her email address, so I dropped her an email about this Visa gift card issue. Within a day or two, she’d gotten it resolved again and the Roanoke store had processed a refund.
The Staples store manager in Roanoke called me and explained that this was a one-off due to our unique living situation which is fair enough. He did share something helpful though which is the purpose of this post.
He shared that when buying gift cards (or any item) at Staples, you have three receipt choices:
- Printed
- Printed & email
If you ask for a printed receipt, when the cards are being activated it’s immediately clear to the person at the checkout if there’s a problem with a non-activated card. That means they can refund the overcharged amount immediately. If you ask to receive both a printed and email receipt, the same thing happens and the employee immediately knows there’s a problem.
There’s apparently a quirk with the computer system at Staples though when it comes to email receipts. Unlike with printed receipts, if a card doesn’t get activated properly when you’ve only requested an email receipt, the system doesn’t warn the Staples employee. That means you leave the store thinking everything is fine, even though it isn’t.
The store manager therefore advised that you should always ask for a printed and email receipt, even if you only want an email receipt. That way you’ll know about any problems while you’re still at the checkout.
To be fair, non-activated cards wouldn’t be a huge problem for most people seeing as the majority of people could return to their local Staples to get a refund if needed. However, getting a printed receipt saves you that extra trip by ensuring the issue is resolved as soon as it happens rather than only noticing it when trying to use the non-activated gift card.
Very helpful! Definitely good to know.