The Offer
Direct Link to offer (affiliate link)
- Staples.com is selling $100 Mastercard gift cards with no purchase fee.
The Fine Print
- Limit 10
- Expires 1/25/20
Our Verdict
This is a terrific offer, both for racking up valuable INK points and for maxing out the $50 Amex Offer deal that just came out. A lot of people will buy $500 on the Amex to max that out and then buy the rest on the INK Plus/Cash for 5x. I’m guessing/assuming they’ll allow two separate orders of 5.
Hat tip to Dansdeals
Just thought I’d write up my experience dealing with non-working cards now that it’s finally been resolved. This should serve as a warning to others the next time there’s a no-fee deal on Mastercard gift cards at Staples.com. Don’t do it. Just don’t. Obviously the cards will work fine for many (most?) people, but there’s a significant risk you’ll pull your hair out trying to resolve the issue if the cards don’t work. Here’s a play-by-play of what I went through: Jan 22 – My wife ordered five $100 Mastercard gift cards (Metabank) from Staples.com for $500 using her Amex and 10% Amex offer. Feb 5 – Received cards. Activation PINs were included with the cards, so I activated them all and then registered each one in my name. Then tried to use each of them online to pay childcare bill, and each one was declined. Called number on back of card (877-322-4710), was told they weren’t working because I was trying to use them to pay bills and they’d work fine if trying to make purchase. Obviously the person was wrong, as I use gift cards all the time to pay bills. I hung up, tested doing Amazon reload, still rejected. I called back, was told Amazon reloads counted as a bill payment too (obviously not true). I may have called one more time that day, not sure. Feb 6 – Tried to use one of the cards in store at Trader Joe’s for a small purchase, was declined. Called 877-322-4710 again and said none of cards work, requested replacement cards. Went through each of the card numbers and they ordered replacement cards, which should arrive in 7-10 business days. On a whim I asked for some sort of confirmation number in case I needed to reference it in the future, and they gave me a case number. Feb 22 – Replacement cards still hadn’t arrived, so I tried to call 877-322-4710 to see what was going on with it, but couldn’t reach a human because the cards I had were de-activated, so it wouldn’t put me through to someone, just kept disconnecting me because my card number wasn’t valid. Called GiftCardMall (877-426-2551), I think multiple times because they kept connecting me to the wrong dept, not sure, but eventually I was able to speak to someone from that 877-322-4710 office who could help me. It seemed the only way they could look me up was by the case number I had asked for on the Feb 6 call, so I was glad I had that. They were apologetic that the replacement cards hadn’t arrived, ordered a second set of replacements, told me to expect them in 7-10 business days, maybe faster because the problem was escalated. They gave me a second case number. March 11 – Second set of replacement cards hadn’t arrived, so I tried to reach someone at 877-322-4710 again via GiftCardMall, but this time it was very difficult to get to the right person. They… Read more »
I’m in the group of people that had issues using these cards. They seemed to activate properly on the touch tone system, but 3 different cards were all declined when I tried using them.
I called Giftcardmall at 1-877-426-2551 (press 2 to speak to a person). The front-line operator transferred me to a technical support person where they said that there was a problem with some Mastercard gift cards purchased from Staples.com. I had to read off the numbers on the front of each card to her and then she told me that they would be mailing me new cards in the next 7-10 days.
Thanks Barry. I’ve called that number a couple times and both times they told me to “call Mastercard at 888-853-9536,” which is for US Bank Mastercards, but these are Metabank. Instead I called the number on the back of my cards (877-322-4710) and asked for replacement cards, which they said they can do and I should receive them in 7-10 days. Hopefully the replacements work!
Tried to load Bb at Walmart. Got message “card issuer denied the charge”
Has anyone here had success using these cards for online purchases? Mine keep getting rejected by multiple merchants and card customer service says the cards are activated and should work.
Mine got rejected as well! After reading your experiences, I think it is their tech issues. Did you register your card before shopping online?
Yes, I registered the cards online right after activating and they show the full balance. I tried making payments to Geico, another insurance company, and a childcare company, all were rejected. On a subsequent call, customer service explained that their prepaid cards don’t work for bill payments because they code differently, and I know that’s not the case because I’ve done it countless times before. I even gave them the card number of a previous Metabank card I had used for a Geico payment and they wouldn’t explain why that worked because they said it shouldn’t. While I had him on the line, I tried an Amazon reload and that was rejected as well. He said that won’t work either, but a regular Amazon purchase will. I’m quite skeptical of that, but I don’t have any online purchases to test. For now I’ll just assume these are only good for in-store, which is annoying and I never would have bought them if I had known.
Just tried to use it in a store and it was rejected as well. Ugh.
OMG. I haven’t tried it in store. But I tried costco.com and got rejected.
Have you figured out where this card can be used?
At the point I assume mine don’t work anywhere. I’m going to wait until next week, try again, and then contact Staples directly if they still don’t work.
Same issue. Activated cards, but they are declining everywhere. Called number on back of card, told cards are active and working fine – try somewhere else. Did that and they keep declining. Called Staples. Rep transferred me straight to GC Mall. Called staples again and asked for supervisor. Took him almost an hour on the phone to get GC Mall to open a help ticket requesting a refund. Said ticket will be reviewed in 3-5 days and then GC Mall will approve a refund or deny. Total runaround and nightmare.
I feel better that this is widespread. Makes me hopeful they’ll fix the problem.
Placed the order early on 1/22 and still show processing as of today 1/27. Hope it is normal. The expected delivery date is 2/4. Need it to fulfill my spending requirement. Fingers crossed.
My order placed at 11am ET on 1/22 also hasn’t been shipped yet. In the order status it says “Expected on: Invalid Date”
Mine finally marked as shipped.
I thought this expired on 1/25. Looks like it’s already dead.
Wow.. I’m always too late for every deal
I’m not seeing the discount. It comes up at 106.95 in my cart.
They are back in stock, but not fee free.
Deal is dead for everyone it seems. Time to wait for their bi-monthly in store no Fee sale instead.