Staples used to be a great place to shop. Unfortunately, like many other great entities, they are having a lot of problems doing what a good store should be doing. Take their rebate program. I used to get their rebates on time, without any fuss. Now, you have to stay on top of them.
I bought an HP printer which was top rated for about $150 with a $50 Visa pre-paid card as a rebate. The salesman at the store didn't want to sell it to me without an extended warranty. I never had to battle/argue with a sales clerk to this extent before. He didn't understand why I didn't want to spend extra money on a warranty. They are usually bad bets for the consumer, and generate money for the store. They don't really care about your well-being and your protection. (Obviously, it has to do with his commission and the stores bottom line). After fending off his high-sales pressure tactics for 5 minutes or so, he sold me the item. Should a customer really have to go through that nonsense?
I filled out the warranty online within the allotted time frame and noticed after two months I did not get my $50.00 Visa pre-paid card as the rebate offer promised.
As a teacher, I have a rewards number and called their rewards hotline. I was able to get through quickly and always get a gracious human operator. However, once you tell them you have a problem with a rebate, they give you a different number (or they'll connect you to it) but this time it is automated and I quickly found out my name was not in the system to qualify for the rebate. There is no human operator that helps when your name isn't in their system. When I call back to tell them, they say they're sorry but cannot help with the rebate process.
After dealing with Staples over the years, I find them particularly problematic with their long lines, high pressured salespeople, and rebates that don't ever materialize. I try now to go to other retailers like BJ's, Costco, Target, and even eBay for ink cartridges.
This is not the first rebate submission I had problems with. I have come to realize it's really not productive to keep jumping through hoops to get what should be an easy and stress-free process.
I don't know how they can justify cheating people out of rebates and expect to hold on to these customers. They seem to look at the short-term gains from keeping these rebates for themselves. As a big corporation, their more interested in meeting Wall Street projections for earnings and keeping their stockholders happy than maintaining good customer relations.
Unfortunately, many customers besides me will continue to leave Staples in droves. I'm just happy I have other choices and will not patronize Staples in the future.
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