OK, so this is a little embarrassing. Last night I wrote that it might take a while for Ultimate Rewards Mall points to post if you bought “free after rebate” software in order to get thousands of Ultimate Rewards points for free at Staples.com. Well, this morning I found that all 4X points have already posted! And, yes, I paid with my American Express Reserve card.
I bought the software on Thursday. Hopefully your points will post soon too!
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my order was placed on 2/17, received an email today that it was cancelled
Kroozer: I don’t know of any reason that the rebate wouldn’t work. I’ve received confirmation on mine that the rebate was being processed.
corey: Sorry to hear that! Did they tell you why it was cancelled?
No points posted for order from 2/17/2012.
Order status is “Researching”, “We’re sorry. Delivery of your order may be delayed”. I have a voicemail which says: The order is currently on hold for verification. Please call us back at (877) 312-9737. Your order will be held up to 3 business days. If we have not received a call back. The order will be canceled. Thank you.
Is there a way to confirm that the rebate submission is good? If rebate is at risk for any reason, then I’d rather let the order be cancelled.
Hi, Y’day I got an email from chase that I earned 2800 (700×4)extra points from staples.com. I used my chase Ink bold card for this purchase so it should be 6300 (700×9). what do you think?? should I contact chase?
shoaib: No, you don’t need to contact Chase. The email you got was about the points earned through the Ultimate Rewards Mall. They correctly awarded you a 4X bonus. Your 5X from the Ink Bold is separate and should post automatically with your monthly statement.
I’m stuck in “researching” here . . .
Aren’t some of these software deals free after you upgrade from another version of software? I thought they had AV protection from company A if you had last years version of A’s software or B’s software. What if you don’t have a prior version? Does this still work?
BothofUs2: I think it is time based. It is very common for Ultimate Rewards Mall purchases to appear about 4 days after a purchase. I don’t know why my previous Staples purchase took 8 days, but that’s not uncommon either.
Lawrence: That may be true for some deals, but the offer that ran last week didn’t require having an earlier version.
Did the Staples points post due to a cycle of the Ultumate Rewatds account or does it appear to be time based (ie 5 days after purchase date)?
Hey FrequentMiler,
I just discovered your blog recently and was going through some of your old posts. I noticed one post where you purchased some camera equipment from Sears and resold it on ebay. Just FYI, it appears that you used auction-style listings, whereas fixed-priced listings have substantially lower fees for electronics (http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html). In every category other than electronics, auction fees are lower.
Of course, fixed-price listings do cost $0.50 upfront (while auctions are free), but the fee differential easily makes up for it. And often times, things sell for more in a fixed-priced listing (but it does require a little research to set the right price).
Nick: Thanks for sharing the tip! I didn’t know about the advantage of fixed priced listings at the time, but luckily for me when I sold stuff in December, EBay was actually running a promotion where the auction closing fees were discounted. I have, since then, run only fixed priced listings for exactly the reason you said.
Avis points take a while to post. My January rentals posted last week.
Hmm.. since I ordered a day after you hopefully mine will post tomorrow as well! 🙂
My points posted from my Thursday, 2/16 order too! =) Thanks!
ok, Avis PPM as described a few weeks back did not work, no points posted
I am now trying rental cars via Priceline PPM, stay tuned…