Jenny has a problem with Staples, and happened to find a post that we wrote about the same problem four years ago. Staples, you see, has a web site and they have about 1,600 stores. You can buy Staples gift cards in many places, including from Staples’ own website. But back in 2009, you couldn’t use Staples gift cards to buy things on the site. You still can’t.

Confused and living 60 miles away from the nearest Staples store, Jenny writes:

I received a staples gift card and tried to use it online. I couldn’t find a place to enter the code, so I called 1-800-STAPLES, and was told that gift cards AND E-gift cards are only for in-store use. If I wanted to use the staples gift card, I would have to drive over 60 miles to the nearest city with a staples. They gave me an address where I could mail my gift card with my address information so they could exchange it for coupons. No way!

I saw an old consumerist post about this exact issues, but I figured that since 2008, Staples may have modernized. Not so. I’m so angry. They have no affiliates where I can use the gift card.

Giving coupons instead really solves the wrong problem. There are a number of gift card exchanges where you can buy and sell cards: we hear mostly nice things about PlasticJungle, which has set up shop in some CVS stores if you’re not comfortable submitting card numbers online. Be careful if you try to use a general marketplace like eBay or Craigslist: scammers have found ways to steal the whole balance from you or use bogus payment.

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