Staples Rebate Reward Cards are a RIPOFF Washington, DC Nationwide

Staples makes money by enticing people to purchase products in return for a "rebate".  The rebate is a con.  They issue a card for $20.  But within an expiration of someting like six months.  So if you don't remember to use the card, it expires.  They skirt the law by saying that the value of the rebate never expires - but then after six months of waiving fees, they start charging a $3/month maintenance fee.  So that slowly eats away at your rebate.  THEN, if you want to use what was left, in my case  $11, you have to pay $6.95 for them to send you a new card to extend the expiration date.

It has taken me almost 45 minutes of my time to try to figure out what is going on with all of this as everything is extremely unclear - on purpose.  The number on the back of the card gets you no where.  Staples.com live chat and phone support couldn't figure it out.  They give you another number 877-266-6483 to call.  Lots and lots of hold time and people not knowing what is going on.  No voice prompt to actually speak toa person.  Finally get to a person at the rebate card - they are not able to help me.  I have to now call the pre paid card department to see if they can issue a new card for the remaining balance - I was told that there should be less than a 10 minute wait while they review.  Again, at every turn Staples makes it extremely hard and time consuming to figure out what is going on.  No doubt most people give up and let staples keep the reward.

I finally made it to the correct department and finally got them to reissue the card for the $6.95 fee.

If this is not a RipOff, I don't know what is... can't believe these big companies can get away with these scams.