Here is the situation — I am a Staples customer. I have been for a while and spend quite a few bucks each there each year.

They mail me a promotional catalog. It’s addressed to me at my business. It has a great discount card attached to the cover: It’s for a free DVD player with $125 purchase. Good deal, I’ll order some stuff I need and even some stuff I don’t really need, hit the required spend level, score a DVD player, and I’ll be a happy customer.

Hold it. Not so fast, says my friendly Staples “customer service” rep. I can’t use those cards to place an order for my business. They are not for business use, just personal use, she tells me.

Then why was it mailed to my business with my business name printed on the cover?

“We do that in case a business customer wants to use the cards personally” she informs me.

WHAT?

Has Staples lost their collective minds?

Of  course, I then change the order to a new, personal one, going to the trouble of cancelling my business order and re-entering all the items in the new order.

I got my DVD today. It’s nice. I also got a bad taste in my mouth from this. Am I just too demanding? Staples sent  me an offer that I couldn’t use unless I went out of my way and was inconvenienced. 

Can someone find the W.B.Mason catalog for me?