Jan 6, 2016, 5:28 pm
Last edit by: ChrisFlyer66
This is a new thread for 2016. The previous megathread on this topic is here.
The 2017 thread is here.
This thread is about prepaid debit cards from Staples. Please post questions on other topics in the appropriate threads elsewhere in this forum.
To activate cards over the phone (without activation codes), call (877) 426-2551 to talk to a rep. Post #132.
As of 5/12/2014, all known portals are dead.
*Note- max purchase at one time seems to be 9x $200 (stays under their $2000 limit)
Pluses to Online purchase:
1. Less time/effort/gasoline vs traveling to store to purchase
2. No mgr override or cashier call to Chase needed for large purchases
3. Can bulk activate by phone after receipt of VGCs
4. Email is a nice way to keep record of your purchases
5. Avoids stupid sticky gum (4x per card) that has to be peeled off of each VGC
6. Rare opportunity to liquidate rewards and/or rebate card (YMMV)
Pluses to in-store purchase:
1. No wait/immediate gratification- mail order can take weeks
2. No risk of someone getting to your mailbox to steal your VGCs before you get them out of there
3. Activated at time of purchase- no need to call in or wait for stupid letter containing one activation code/card that comes in the mail separately (the letter sometimes arrives AFTER the VGCs arrive; this can be mitigated, see Pluses to Online #3, above)
* FASTEST WAY to liquidate $20 Staples Rebate Visa GCs*
Use for purchase at Costco. The POS at Costco will auto-drain the Staples Visa GC, once you press the green button when the PIN is requested.
Then, swipe the next Staples VGC, press green and repeat! The POS is so fast, you can keep feeding 4 - 5 total $20 cards and the cashier will not even care!
The 2017 thread is here.
This thread is about prepaid debit cards from Staples. Please post questions on other topics in the appropriate threads elsewhere in this forum.
To activate cards over the phone (without activation codes), call (877) 426-2551 to talk to a rep. Post #132.
As of 5/12/2014, all known portals are dead.
- Get Chase Ink and BB/Serve
1% discount: Sign up Ink (must be Visa) at https://www.visasavingsedge.com/ to get 1% cash back at StaplesEnded 12/31/14- 5x points: Buy Visa gift cards at Staples or the website. $200 ones charge a hefty $6.95 activation fee (with 1% back it was effectively $4.88).
- Liquidate gift cards like any other
*Note- max purchase at one time seems to be 9x $200 (stays under their $2000 limit)
Pluses to Online purchase:
1. Less time/effort/gasoline vs traveling to store to purchase
2. No mgr override or cashier call to Chase needed for large purchases
3. Can bulk activate by phone after receipt of VGCs
4. Email is a nice way to keep record of your purchases
5. Avoids stupid sticky gum (4x per card) that has to be peeled off of each VGC
6. Rare opportunity to liquidate rewards and/or rebate card (YMMV)
Pluses to in-store purchase:
1. No wait/immediate gratification- mail order can take weeks
2. No risk of someone getting to your mailbox to steal your VGCs before you get them out of there
3. Activated at time of purchase- no need to call in or wait for stupid letter containing one activation code/card that comes in the mail separately (the letter sometimes arrives AFTER the VGCs arrive; this can be mitigated, see Pluses to Online #3, above)
* FASTEST WAY to liquidate $20 Staples Rebate Visa GCs*
Use for purchase at Costco. The POS at Costco will auto-drain the Staples Visa GC, once you press the green button when the PIN is requested.
Then, swipe the next Staples VGC, press green and repeat! The POS is so fast, you can keep feeding 4 - 5 total $20 cards and the cashier will not even care!
Visa Gift cards at Staples (2016)
Dec 3, 2016, 2:20 pm
#736
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 113
It's always taken a week of processing for me, then another week to receive the cards so about 2 weeks from order to receipt.
Dec 3, 2016, 5:48 pm
#737
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2000
Posts: 17,404
You'd think their only market would be flyertalkers. Blackhawk can't handle that modest demand?
Dec 4, 2016, 12:23 pm
#738
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,740
Why would Blackhawk cater to you the gamer? For as how much $ the gamers spent, I bet the sales at retail outlet would be 100 times more - there are "normal" people who dont own a CC but want to make online purchase - these Gebits are exactly what they use.
Dec 4, 2016, 2:33 pm
#739
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2000
Posts: 17,404
They dont sell to "normal" people. Normal people are not so stupid to buy these cards online.
Why would Blackhawk cater to you the gamer? For as how much $ the gamers spent, I bet the sales at retail outlet would be 100 times more - there are "normal" people who dont own a CC but want to make online purchase - these Gebits are exactly what they use.
Why would Blackhawk cater to you the gamer? For as how much $ the gamers spent, I bet the sales at retail outlet would be 100 times more - there are "normal" people who dont own a CC but want to make online purchase - these Gebits are exactly what they use.
That said, Blackhawk apparently "heard" my unhappiness as I see that my orders from a few days ago have been marked this afternoon as "shipped" in my online Staples account.
Of course, I then went to buy a few more, and the $300s are again "out of stock."
Dec 4, 2016, 5:03 pm
#740
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,740
I don't know who buys what: I wouldn't think gamers are the majority of their online business, but who knows. For example, I would think real businesses might actually buy these in bulk from Staples as "incentives."
That said, Blackhawk apparently "heard" my unhappiness as I see that my orders from a few days ago have been marked this afternoon as "shipped" in my online Staples account.
Of course, I then went to buy a few more, and the $300s are again "out of stock."
That said, Blackhawk apparently "heard" my unhappiness as I see that my orders from a few days ago have been marked this afternoon as "shipped" in my online Staples account.
Of course, I then went to buy a few more, and the $300s are again "out of stock."
Back to your "normal" people - saw those too at OD store - the guy told me "this Visa is great! I can use it anywhere." I tried to talk him into buying $300 in total so he would save on activation fee... even the customer service manager who was to ring him up chimed in on that advice... but the guy hesitated and asked could he buy just an additional $50 to get the discount? Of course not. But he had a merchandise to purchase together with the $200 Visa as he asked could he use the $10 off $40 coupon from last visit - he could have bought $300 and then turned around to pay for the merchandise which was close to $50 and would still save him the activation fee... But he could not figure that thing out! I did not have enough time to explain further so left it at that... Some folks just dont know how to count, sadly.
Dec 4, 2016, 11:44 pm
#741
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: PHX & AGP
Programs: AA Lifetime PLT, Bonvoy Lifetime Titanium, Hilton Gold
Posts: 11,449
I don't know who buys what: I wouldn't think gamers are the majority of their online business, but who knows. For example, I would think real businesses might actually buy these in bulk from Staples as "incentives."
That said, Blackhawk apparently "heard" my unhappiness as I see that my orders from a few days ago have been marked this afternoon as "shipped" in my online Staples account.
Of course, I then went to buy a few more, and the $300s are again "out of stock."
That said, Blackhawk apparently "heard" my unhappiness as I see that my orders from a few days ago have been marked this afternoon as "shipped" in my online Staples account.
Of course, I then went to buy a few more, and the $300s are again "out of stock."
I would assume gamers are a large portion of their sales.
Dec 5, 2016, 10:02 am
#743
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,740
Sure. But I doubt the service level you get would be similar to what the poster complains about. What I was trying to say is, Staples / GCM does NOT treat all customers the same way and the poster's complain extended that to how Staples / GCM treat business customers is laughable. There are got to be big differentials between how an individual ordering a few cards here and there versus a business ordering hundreds of cards on regular interval. Common sense tells Staples / GCM would treat these 2 types of customers quite differently.
Dec 6, 2016, 5:16 pm
#744
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2000
Posts: 17,404
It's certainly curious that the $300 Visa has become a hard-to-get commodity at Staples.com, out-of-stock more than it's in stock. You would think Staples and Blackhawk would love to sell these, since they're making good money on them -- even if some credit card issuers are not. I have a hard time believing Blackhawk can send out other denominations, but that $300s are somehow in short supply. Any idea why, other than incompetence?
Dec 7, 2016, 8:57 pm
#745
Join Date: May 2015
Programs: All the programs!
Posts: 1,006
It's pretty annoying how the $300 gc is still not in stock.
Dec 8, 2016, 7:38 am
#746
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2000
Posts: 17,404
I saw it in stock last night and ordered one. It gave me an order number and everything, but I didn't receive a confirmation email and it's not in my order history. Staples ran the $1.00 pending charge against my credit card.
Has this ever happened to anyone? I should have written down the order number, but didn't.
And now it's out-of-stock again. Weird.
Has this ever happened to anyone? I should have written down the order number, but didn't.
And now it's out-of-stock again. Weird.
Dec 8, 2016, 7:42 am
#747
Join Date: Apr 2015
Posts: 41
I saw it in stock last night and ordered one. It gave me an order number and everything, but I didn't receive a confirmation email and it's not in my order history. Staples ran the $1.00 pending charge against my credit card.
Has this ever happened to anyone? I should have written down the order number, but didn't.
And now it's out-of-stock again. Weird.
Has this ever happened to anyone? I should have written down the order number, but didn't.
And now it's out-of-stock again. Weird.
Dec 8, 2016, 11:39 am
#748
Join Date: Jan 2012
Programs: Marriott/SPG Plat, Hilton Gold
Posts: 887
Staples outsources this to GCM I expect. I know that when I ordered a Hyatt eGift card recently and it was taking forever to fulfill, they referred me to GCM.
Dec 8, 2016, 11:46 am
#749
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,740
How long it takes for the shipped orders to reach you?
Finishing up the AMEX offers,
1) The first 2 lots shipped, arrived on the 2nd day after receiving emails on order shipped.
2) Then the 3rd lot has cards arrived also the 2nd day after notification but still no activation codes 3 days after cards arrived. At least the cards came first. (called to take care of it)
3) The 4th lot got order shipped notification 2 days ago and still no sign of card or activation code.
4) The 5th and last lot got order shipped this morning. Remains to be seen how long it takes for the goods to arrive.
Note to those who receive activation codes but no cards - you can call to ask CSR to notate your orders that only YOU can call in to activate the cards. This happened to me earlier this year. Cards took 5 days to come after activation codes arrived. I was worried so called and the CSR offered to note the orders. A small measure to help prevent fraudulent usage.
1) The first 2 lots shipped, arrived on the 2nd day after receiving emails on order shipped.
2) Then the 3rd lot has cards arrived also the 2nd day after notification but still no activation codes 3 days after cards arrived. At least the cards came first. (called to take care of it)
3) The 4th lot got order shipped notification 2 days ago and still no sign of card or activation code.
4) The 5th and last lot got order shipped this morning. Remains to be seen how long it takes for the goods to arrive.
Note to those who receive activation codes but no cards - you can call to ask CSR to notate your orders that only YOU can call in to activate the cards. This happened to me earlier this year. Cards took 5 days to come after activation codes arrived. I was worried so called and the CSR offered to note the orders. A small measure to help prevent fraudulent usage.
Dec 8, 2016, 8:59 pm
#750
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2000
Posts: 17,404
Fulfillment is truly unpredictable -- and usually pretty poor. Not surprised to hear that this is run by giftcardmall. Their fulfillment is poor as well. Oddly, giftcards.com -- also owned by Blackhawk -- has much better fulfillment. Blackhawk needs to put that management team in charge of GCM.
I know some people order the $300s just for cheap UR points, but this is just too sucky a service for that. Without a large discount (like the AMEX Offer), dealing with these guys is simply not worth the trouble.