In the commercials for office supply store Staples they show a clever little piece of marketing, the Easy Button, when pressed a voice says, “That was easy.” To my chagrin, I’ve recently had a ‘that was easy’ moment with them. In the middle of February they had a sale on a cross-cut paper shredder for $30 with a mail-in rebate worth another $15. Most people either love or hate mail-in rebates, I personally don’t mind them, even though most do take every bit of the 8-10 weeks they advertise.

After getting the shredder home, unpacking it and testing it to work, I started to gather the information needed to mail in the rebate the next morning. Looking at the sales receipt I was pleasantly surprised to see that I could do the rebate online! No cutting the UPC from the box, no wasted 39 cent stamps, none of that crap. A few minutes later and my rebate information was submitted. Roughly three weeks after submitting the information online, the rebate showed up in mail!

Kudos to Staples for actually making something easier on the consumer.

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