Staples Buying Empty Cartridges

[stratman]

Was at Microcenter today. They had an ink cartridge recycling bin by the exit. No money, just tapping into a civic duty I guess.

Almost asked if I could have a few of the empties (like 10, for instance) but kept walking out.

Gold star to the first person bold enough to obtain empties from Microcenter then drop them off at Staples for "rewards". ;-)

 

[ghwellsjr]

Gold star to the first person bold enough to obtain empties from Microcenter then drop them off at Staples for "rewards". ;-)

You should ask first. In some places there are laws against people helping themselves to the contents of recycling bins. It's the right thing to do anyway.

 

[stratman]

You should ask first. In some places there are laws against people helping themselves to the contents of recycling bins. It's the right thing to do anyway.

Sad that you felt compelled to post that. The world is not what it used to be.

Thankfully the forum is Nifty-Stuff, not Stealing-Stuff. ;-)

 

[jackson]

[The world is not what it used to be.

It depends.When I was a lad we still had ration books, diphtheria and the friggin Andrews Sisters.

 

[ghwellsjr]

It's a new month. Time to go to Staples again.

 

[ghwellsjr]

This new offer of Staples sounded almost too good to be true. I was expecting to wrap up a huge credit so I could buy something really expensive but here's the catch: You have to wait at least a month for each set of ten cartridges you turn in before the credit appears. Then the credit expires after a couple months. I just received a notice in the mail that the credit for the first ten cartridges I turned in two months ago is now available to spend but it expires at the end of next month. I'm guessing that next month my credit will be at $60 and never get any higher.

 

[Nifty]

I've now taken in about 4 sets of 10 and couldn't be happier. Thanks ghwellsjr for pointing this out to me!

Today I was actually scraping the bottom of the barrel for my next set of 10 carts. I luckily found a bag of carts from my Canon BJC-1000 from 1999! These were from my real first go at refilling and I had about 8 of them. I have a few of BCI-6 carts left that are in various states of refill, but I would like to keep all the OEM ones "just in case" <hoarder>

I was about to go with my 8 BC-06 and BC-05 carts when I realized that 2 of the BC-06 carts looked brand new. Upon closer inspection I'm pretty sure they are brand new! I went to ebay and was sad to see that many weren't going for much more than a few $ over the $3.00 each I get from Staples. A shame, but I'll probably turn these in as well.

BTW, even before this wonderful cartridge swap program I was a big fan of Staples, so this is icing on the cake... but really really good icing!

 

[fotofreek]

Some of the specials that Staples has been running lately makes me wonder if they may be in trouble financially and are throwing out lots of loss leaders to attract more customers. I like the store and especially like the Staples Supreme double sided matte paper for greeting cards. At $1 on sale after rebate it can't be beat. They had a "super store" in San Francisco that closed last year, leaving one smaller store in the city.

 

[ghwellsjr]

I've wondered how they can give $3 for junk cartridges that you can still buy on eBay for a fraction of that price. They don't even charge you sales tax on the items you buy with your rewards money. The combination of their $3 cartridge recycling reward plus fantastic prices just seems to good to be true. I like to save up the maximum of three months rewards and then buy something on sale for around $90 and walk away after paying absolutely nothing or very little. I keep saying they are trying hard to go out of business. But it can't go on for too much longer so take advantage of it while you can.

 

[emerald]

The Staples Rewards program is a scam. Last month I left 8 cartridges at our local Staples store. The clerk was very helpful in accepting my cartridges. They asked for my name, address, telephone number and email address which I gave them. A month passed. I heard nothing. I happened to stop by the store yesterday and asked if they could inquire of my status. Am I now eligible for the $3.00 credit for each ink cartridge I left with them last month, I asked? The clerk was very evasive and told me that their privacy policy does not allow them to make inquiries on my behalf and handed me a Staples Reward card that asks - Program Questions? Need Help? It lists a Staples web site, StaplesRewards.com, An Email address, StaplesRewards@Staples.com and a toll free number 800-793-3320. I have received no response from the Email address, The web site has no useful information regarding my credit balance, only an endless collection of customer inquiries about their credit status. I called the 800 number and encountered a recorded message that asks you to press different numbers for different types of inquiries, none of which were pertinent to my question - which is, how do I redeem my credit for a Staples purchase. I'm a pretty patient old guy but I can recognize a scam when I see one. Has anyone else had this problem with Staples?