The only gripe I have is that they switched from rebate checks or paypal to now issuing you a debit-type card
I can live with the debit card thing, though it
is annoying that you can't even consolidate them, since not all stores' POS systems (let alone etailing websites) are set up to allow multiple forms of payment in a single transaction, let alone a string of cards with small amounts of money on them). (Though as a last resort, Staples' own POS system
will accept any number of them in a single transaction, so if nothing else, you can use them up there if you can be bothered to collect and remember to bring a stack of them when you go to store in person.) My cynical self assumes they probably save some money over the long-run from people never bothering to use up small amounts of "leftover" credit on the cards, because otherwise it seems like it would have to cost more to produce and mail a any sort of "plastic card" (let alone a service-marked, prepaid Visa card) than to just cut a check...
But what I find more immediately annoying about the rebate process is the often long, inexplicable delay between being notified that the cards "have been mailed" and receiving them, and the related fact that the cards-as-mailed don't include any reference to the original rebate submission - neither the rebate "ID" nor the online "rebate tracking number". So if you submit several identical requests (like for several of the cases of paper this thread is about), it's impossible to keep track of exactly which of them you've received, when, which makes keeping track of them overall, rather a PITA...
- but I mentioned before, I find it really irritating…
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