The Not-So-Easy Button

Yeah, so I realize it's been a while a really, really, really long time since I've blogged about anything, but it's not like I'm going to feel guilty about it or anything like that.

For Christmas I got a gift certificate to Staples from my siblings-in-law (which was cool because I wanted a paper shredder). I went to Staples.com and found one that I liked. There was no option online to check availability at the local stores, so I called around and found that that model was on clearance and is only available online. No problem, I'll just order it online (shipping was free).

I went through the checkout process, but at the point where I'm supposed to pay, there's no option for gift certificates. After searching for quite a while, I figured I was doing something wrong and called customer service - nope, I wasn't doing anything wrong.

Yes, that's right: Staples.com does not accept Staples gift certificates! So to get the paper shredder I had to drive to the nearest Staples store just to give them my gift certificate and have them order it for me (they actually ordered it off of their own website) and then go back home and wait for it to be delivered.

I don't think they really get this whole easy thing. If you're going to have an online store, you should accept your own gift certificates. Hopefully someone searching online for "how to use a Staples gift certificate on the Staples.com website" will find this post and it will save them a small bit of frustration.

The good news is that it arrived today, although it was delivered by an un-uniformed man in an unmarked white van.