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Has anyone else tried claiming Box Tops for Education's "free snack with purchase via rebate"? It is turning out to be quite an epic adventure for me. First, the app couldn't recognize any Box Top products in the picture of my Martin's receipt, but that's no big deal; OCR is hard. ...

2/9/26, 7:45 pm0 reposts0 likes

Jon

@musselwhite.dev

2 Sept

The app invited me to request a correction, so I sent it and promptly forgot about it. A few days later, a template-style email arrived from their support department saying that upon checking my receipt from "S&S Fuel" (never heard of it), they were "happy" to credit $0.20 for the school. ...

Jon

@musselwhite.dev

2 Sept

No mention of my snack rebate and they asked me to reply if I was expecting more. Odd, I thought, but I replied anyway with a photo of the snack's box (UPC visible), a scanned copy of the receipt, and a screenshot of the in-app call-to-action for the offer (just for fun). ...

Jon

@musselwhite.dev

2 Sept

Few days later, they replied: I qualify for a $4.49 rebate because the offer is for the lower-cost of qualifying snacks purchased. The problem is $4.49 was for Red Baron pizza. That's not a snack, it's not a General Mills brand, and (more importantly) it's not on their list of qualified snacks. ...

Jon

@musselwhite.dev

2 Sept

Plus, they didn't identify it the first time, so picking it only when faced with the prospect of paying what they owe slaps of "sludge", the art of friction and bad intentions to make a process more difficult in order to arrive at an outcome that is not in the best interest of the sludged. ...

behavioraleconomics.comSludge