I had Staples Business rewards check in amount of $30, expiring in 10 days and I also had $20 gift check (got it through Easy Rebates), valid for 90 days. I am also expecting a couple of gift checks within next month.. And I wanted to accumulate all these amounts for later purchase at Staples (have not decided yet what do I need). Well, I went to the nearest store and asked manager if he can transfer money from gift check and rewards check into Staples cash card (so that I still have $50, but without expiration date). He told me that this is impossible and I have to buy something.. Well, I turned around, picked first thing from a shelf that was more than $30 and went back to register. The thing I picked was SanDisk 256Mb SD card , which is $44.94. He used both checks and gave me back a cash card with $3.00 on it , meaning that I paid $47.00 including TAX. I said "thank you, now I want to return it cause I don't like it any more". So he processed the return, transfered money to the same cash card.. And the balance on cash card is $51.65... Yep, $1.65 more than I had 2 minutes ago. Unfortunately, the only thing I have is the return receipt, which shows price $44.94, TAX (8.25%) $3.71 and total return $48.65 , card balance $51.65.

I could figure out that the extra $1.65 is 8.25% of $20 , but still I don't understand how their system could miss it.. If they (for some reason I don't know) deducted $20 from the price and then calculated TAX , system should do the same when returning stuff... Some bug in their software. Good for me

One or both may have been processed as gift certificate, ie discount after tax. Therefore, it may be worthwhile to make a 7 cents investment in copying your gift checks and rewards check. If they are good for online, catalog, and in-store, but was processed as gift certificate in-store, you can still use the coupon code for online or catalog.

Coupons are pre-tax deductions so you 0 sales tax since you paid in full with coupons/rewards checks. Refunds don't look at method of payment and will refund including sales tax. That's why you ended up with more money

Yeah, I think I figured this out.. Gift checks had no TAX, and Rewards check did have TAX.. But when I get extra money on the gift card - I will spend it on TAX later anyway, so actually I did not make any money... Instead of having $20 in pre-tax checks I have extra $1.65 on the card , which will cover TAX I pay later.. So, the math makes sense and their system works fine in this case

You're mistaken, the math does not make sense. In your example Staples will have paid the sales tax for you when you make your final purchase.

Here's an example:
Purchase $100 paid for with $100 rewards check. Math: $100 - $100 coupon, subtotal $0.00, no tax due, total amount $0.00

Return of the $100 item: Math: $100 + 8% tax (ficticious) = $108.00 return on gift card.

Now you have $108 on your card when before you had $100. Obviously you made money that wasn't yours to begin with.

You are right, but I meant those extra bucks do not change anything for me - I pay no TAX or I pay TAX using extra money they gave me.. Which means THEY pay my TAX - bad for them, but I don't care

Not all Staples takes the Reward Card as Gift Card, My Staples said it's a Coupon, once used, you will not be able to return the item.... Insane...

why not just make a copy, and pay 7C and rest goes to your cash card, i havent done it for myself, but i think it will work.