Deal has ended, view more Staples deals by clicking here.
The Offer
- Staples stores are selling $200 Visa gift cards with no activation fees from 11/8-11/14
The Fine Print
- Limit 5 per customer
- Valid 11/8-11/14
- In-store only
Our Verdict
Same deal as this week. Remember to use a card that earns at a high rate on office supply store purchases.
Bad News, tried to load $200 VGC to BB at WM, tried different amounts, $198, $100, $95, and lastly $40. Unable to do so. RIP staples VGC. Have 15 such VGC to use/unload. Will have to use them for daily use/spend. Yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!
I tried to load Staples $200 VGC on BB at WM today, transaction declined. Dunno what to do…..I have 14 more such cards to unload…… Doomsday it seems
Any insight to @MilesperDay tweet this morning that reads ‘RIP VGC at WMT?’
Can’t find any information and was wondering if they are going to stop carrying for purchase or if VGC can no longer be used for BB / MO / Billpay. My MF friendly MC rep also let me know that $400 is now the cap per swipe. That means that the 500 and 1k VGCs will have to be split up in multiple transactions.
Can confirm there’s definitely something strange going on – the Meta Bank Visa’s from Staples all declined multiple times (running them as full $200 swipes) at one of my usual WMT’s last night. However the Style & Grocery Everywhere & Five Back VGC’s from Office Depot went through fine.
Definitely a huge problem if this $49/swipe limit ends up being permanent due to my local grocery stores not allowing multiple swipes for MO! 🤔
https://milestomemories.com/issues-with-money-orders-at-walmart/
I loaded about $600 on BB using these cards on Nov 10. Transaction amts were 199.97, 199.98, 199.99. I never use full $200.
There’s a huge amount of discussion of this on r/churning MS thread from last week
Many reports of these VGCs no longer working at Walmart and other grocery stores, except in amounts less than $50.
Add my dp
RE: OOS. My experience just last week. But, thanks for posting again, DOC.
Sales are irrelevant if they’re always OOS.
I had the strangest thing happen to me at checkout today. The cashier at Staples must have scanned the same card twice at checkout. I ended up with one $200 card that cost me $400. The receipt shows the same barcode twice and the second time it gave an activation error, but still charged me the $200. I talked to the assistant manger and he said he couldn’t help me and told me to call the number on the back of the card. The person that I talked to on the phone understood my situation, but told me that Staples needs to fix this on their end.
This is crazy. Staples shouldn’t allow this to happen in the first place. I will have to be extra careful next time
I’ve had this happen twice at two different Staples. The most recent time was just last week. Staples has to fix it – not Blackhawk. This most recent time, the staff at my local Staples were able to resolve it pretty easily by doing a return on the line item for the gift card that said it was NOT ACTIVATED. (As you said you have two line items for the same gift card – make sure they do NOT try to return the line item where it was activated.) I got a $200 refund and I checked the balance on my gift card, and it was still $200. Then I used it yesterday without issue. I’m so glad I know what to tell them to do now if this happens again in the future.
(The first time it happened was a year ago at a different Staples and they couldn’t figure out how to get me my money back for over a half hour… it required the help of three different staff people including the store manager and they did something much more complex that I’m pretty positive had to later be explained to Corporate.)
Had the same issue a month or so ago. The store manager did the exact same thing, but gave me a new replacement for the same price instead of a cash refund. The receipt is the key and you have to tell them to return the card that shows it can be returned (or not activated as stated above).
Thanks for the tip. I went into Staples again today. The same assistant manager was there and again couldn’t help me. He tried to get do a refund on the line where it the receipt said not activated, but the register wouldn’t allow the refund to go through. I think the manager will be there tomorrow so hopefully he’ll be able to get somewhere with this. On a positive note, there were still Visas on the shelf so I was able to pickup another five cards.
Yikes, what a pain. I’ve watched them mix up which cards they’d already scanned and thought the system would show it was already done if they accidentally re-do it. Good to know it can actually create a big problem like you experienced!
Easy to fix. Just ask the the cashier to do a return using SKU number of 6 digits right after the Card Activation Error line on the receipt (not the SN number on the back of the gift card). It should show up as Visa refund $200, then ask for manager approval for the return.
WM seems to be getting tough. Could not buy VGC with CC at WM yesterday, they said only cash or debit card can be used to buy VGC at WM.
Also tried to use my VGC’s from GC.com to buy MO at Krogers and was declined. Swipes were declined somehow. Did not ask for any ID, just somehow VGC were not going thru…..any similar experiences for someone else ?
Yes, but never had success before
My local Staples store sucks. They removed(or hid) all the $200 VGCs. There are plenty of $50/$100 VGC and all denominations of MCGC.
The WM that I go asked to see my card today. Just my luck that this is the 1 time that I didn’t also bring a normal debit card. Showed her the Grocery Everywhere card and was turned away 🙁 I’m hoping that she only asked to see the card bc I asked to split tender.
“Never give up, never surrender!” – Galaxy Quest (1999)
haha, i got asked many times; even having actual bank DCs to show but realizing the cashier watched with an eagle eye, told the cashier to change to a lower loading amt for a heck of it or cancel the loading request with reason like card activation is needed, etc.. ; definitely avoid swapping cards but was stopped whereby that cashier & esp. other co-workers get alert when i return every time at a later time
Went back today bc this would have driven me crazy wondering if this store was dead. It worked. Turns out it was probably just a typically YMMV situation bc I wasn’t asked to show the card and the load went through. But, I’m gonna stay away from this store for a while bc I tried to buy gc and 2 cc were declined. I asked the mgr if something was wrong w their system and he wrongly said that you have to pay cash or debit for gc bc you have immediate access to the cash on the card. *eyeroll* They just make up stuff. Didn’t realize til I was in my car that I got 2 fraud alerts, which is the reason the charges were declined.
I try to have a Simon gc with my name on it when I do MOs. I keep the Staples gc in one hand and the Simon in the other. If they ask to see it before I swipe, I give them the Simon one.