The Offer
- Purchase $150 of goods from Staples.com and receive a free 2-piece luggage set with coupon code 3995125276121148. You can see what the luggage set looks like here.
All you have to do is add $150 of products to your cart, (don’t add the luggage set yet), add the promo code at checkout, and the system will add the luggage and will reflect the discount.
For the gift card angle, see below.
The Fine Print
- Expires 5/2/15
- The staples system appears to allow doing this deal over and over, so you can buy $150 of stuff and get the free luggage and then place another order of $150 and get it again. Note: I am not recommending this, just pointing out the possibilities. Staples has been known to make problems for people engaging in certain ‘abusive’ practices.
Our Verdict
This could be a great offer for someone who has stuff to buy on Staples. If you actually need such a luggage set, it could make sense to try to buy $150 of products to get the deal.
Gift Cards
The big question is whether you can purchase $150 in gift cards to trigger the requirement.
The answer: Maybe.
The system does allow it, but it may get reversed afterward. Here’s my experience:
I placed an order of a $200 visa gift card and applied the code successfully.
After submitting the order, it still showed up as a successful discount. Then… the email came showing a $271 charge.
(Yeah, I know it doesn’t make much sense. Go figure.)
Checked my credit card and I see a $271 pending charge.
Not good.
Tried chatting with Staples, after 15 minutes he tells me I have to call in (800-333-3330).
Called in and was told that though the coupon code showed itself as applying successfully, it gets flagged at a later stage due to the fact that it was on the purchase of a gift card.
Ultimately, the CSR made an exception and credited back the cost to the credit card. Final charge ended up being $210, due to the way the refund was processed, taxes, etc. (Not complaining!)
The big question still remains: We know it doesn’t work properly with Visa gift cards. Will it work with 3rd party gift cards which are sold on staples.com?
I’m not trying another one myself and I don’t know the answer to the question. If it works without a hitch, this means you could buy, for example, $150 of Target or Sears (or any other) gift cards/e-gift cards and get the free set of luggage.
You won’t know until afterward whether the coupon code worked or not. You may get lucky to get a CSR to make an adjustment, as it happened to me.
Note: I don’t think there’s much in the way of monetary risk with trying out the purchase with a gift card. You’ll have clear screenshots showing that you only agreed to $150/$206.95 of charges. If Staples made any problems for you, you’d have an easy win by disputing the charge with the credit card.
It’s more of a question of time and whether you’re interested in staying on the phone with Staples CSRs. I’m sure they’ll let you cancel the order if you want to. If you order e-gift cards, it could be a little trickier since those could possibly be sent out or in processing stages very quickly, but with physical gift cards I’d imagine they’d be quick to agree to either credit you for the offer or let you cancel the order.
Remember to go through a portal when buying third party gift cards (hopefully it will work) and to use the INK card.
Hat tip goes to Tom Capone on Saverocity. Hopefully, he’ll see this post and tell us his experiences getting the deal with the purchase of a third-party gift card.
