Staples Buying Empty Cartridges

[ghwellsjr]

I take ten cartridges to Staples every month and sometimes accumulate up to $90 in rewards in which case I can buy a $90 item and walk out of the store without paying a penny, even for sales tax. I feel like I'm scamming Staples.

But you have to have a Staples Rewards card with a bar code and a ten-digit Customer Number on it. Did you get one when you dropped off your eight cartridges? If you did, or if your receipt has a number on it, then I think you are in good shape. If you dropped your cartridges off in March, then you won't get your rewards check in the mail until about the second week in May and it will be good through the end of June. If you sign up to have your rewards emailed to you, then you will get them a few weeks earlier which allows you to accumulate $90.

The Office Depot recycle program is not really a scam but it is no where near as nice as Staples. The difference is that with Staples you never have to spend any money whereas with Office Depot, they only match your rewards to your previous spending so it is only a 50% savings, although you can accumulate way more in rewards. It also takes a lot longer before you can cash in on your savings and you have to be very careful to follow the very complicated rules. In short, I do not recommend Office Depot.

 

[Ron350]

Emerald something similar happened to me but eventually Staples sent a rewards letter.

I sure am glad I read about Staples reward program on this forum I just dropped off 10 carts.
So a big thanks to every one who helped me get started with Staples rewards program.

 

[Nifty]

I've had fantastic success with the program. The only thing I could complain about is the credit / rewards expiring so quickly.

I already had a Rewards Card when I went in and the process was super simple. I even received a nice long receipt that had all the details of the "deposit". I received a few rewards via snail mail but quickly signed up for the email program (so I'd get them sooner) and haven't had any problems. I even had my father-in-law drop off some carts for me and use his card. He came by the house a month later and dropped off my certificate.

Sorry you had a bad experience. I sure hope they keep the program as-is indefinitely!

 

[ghwellsjr]

Staples has just dropped the reward from $3 to $2 starting in July. You only have a few days left to get $3 for your recycled cartridges.

 

[Nifty]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




(as I quickly grab all my empties and rush out the door)


I'm just glad the news isn't that they have dropped the program or that they are only taking carts that have built in printheads.

 

[marceltho]

Went to pick up a used IP4500 in Montreal for 10 bucks, and asked before to go there, if the OEM carts were still in it. They said " yes ", but of course they were not, there were Staples ( Bureau en Gross here in Quebec ) carts in it. At first I was really pissed off, but I took it with me, as I drove 50 km up and down for it, thought at least I have a spare print head for 10 bucks.

At home I took a closer look at the Staple carts, and they looked identical to the OEM carts. I decided to try to get a sticker off, and oh my, easy stickers and OEM Canon carts under them, see picture.

Call me naive, but when I read about that recycling program of them, BTW, they NEVER offered money for empty carts here in Quebec, and we NEVER see those good specials on photo paper as well, I think they try saving the carts from the landfill......now it seems they offer everyone outside Quebec good money for the empty carts, and they sell it to the suckers here in Quebec.....man....am I glad that I am import...!!!!

Perhaps you all knew this already, just thought to mention it, lol......especially the import thing !

and here is how I clean a print head. I have a cover up side down, with 4-5 layers of paper kitchen towel in it, and 2 mm of the famous cleaning solution from the forum with some Windex, hand warm.
I roll from paper kitchen towels small rolls, and put them on the posts of the print head where the cart should be. Then I push the head up and down a bit, and the towels sucks up the solution. This is very effective, and the bad stuff goes where it came from, instead of trying to get it through the small holes of the print head. The picture below shows the second batch of rolls of paper kitchen towels, and almost no ink is coming through any more.
I let it rest over night, and do this one more time in the morning.....always works PERFECT !

 

[Nifty]

Wow, great story and fantastic pics / info!

I always believed 100% that the non-printhead carts taken to Staples and other recycle places were tossed or plastic recycled. I never imagined that they were actually refilling them and turning them into store brand!

I guess it makes more sense to use the highest quality OEM carts than manufacturing new carts... I just always thought it never happened in large volume with non-printhead carts.

 

[marceltho]

I don't know if they do that on really big scale. I think if they did that all over the USA, this story would have seen daylight already long time ago.
Tomorrow afternoon I will take a picture of the Staples box, I believe there is still one cart in it, but my girlfriend took the car to go Quebec, but will be back tomorrow afternoon.( the box is still in the car )
I will also go to see Staples then, as it is not so far away, by car I mean......

 

[msmart]

l......now it seems they offer everyone outside Quebec good money for the empty carts, and they sell it to the suckers here in Quebec.....

Maybe, but at least the Canadian iP4500s are DVD/CD print ready. After my Epson R200 died, I bought my first iP4500 on eBay from a Canadian source so I could continue printing discs.

 

[ghwellsjr]

I've never understood why anyone would buy the Staples brand of ink cartridges since they are typically only 10% below OEM. I would expect them to be less than half OEM.