Good morning everyone, I hope your weekend is off to a great start.  This post is probably only relevant to the 0.01% of people who shop at Uline (the huge shipping and office supply company that provides materials for home offices, small businesses, large warehouses, and events).  Many years ago when I was an eBay PowerSeller, I used to buy lots of boxes, padded envelopes, and other shipping supplies from Uline since they had the best prices and great customer service.  Fast forward to last week, I ordered 3 industrial storage cabinets from Uline and paid with my Chase Ink Plus Credit Card since I assumed the charge would code as a 5x office supply store, like Staples, Office Depot, and Quill, but unfortunately, the charge only coded as a 1x transaction (Uline Shipping Supplies – Catalog Merchant).

Here is what the charge looks like on my Chase Ink Plus.

Here are the transaction details, including merchant type: Catalog Merchant.  That sounds strange at first, but Uline still sends out huge 200-300 page catalogs several times a year that shows every single item they sell.  I’m just surprised that the transaction shows it as a Catalog Merchant since I ordered directly on their website.  Uline, if you are reading this, please update your merchant type from Catalog Merchant, you are much more than a Catalog Merchant in my eyes :)

Here are the details on the Rewards Activity page that show the 1x transaction.

I even went so far as to send Chase a secure message with the attached order confirmation PDF asking if the transaction should code as a 5x office supply store purchase.  Unfortunately, Chase did not agree with me and said that Uline “is listed under ‘Direct Marketing – Catalog Merchant’ “ and provided a link to view the Rewards Category FAQs.

The Rewards Category FAQs page was not very helpful, and said this about Office Supply Stores:

Merchants in this category specialize in selling a variety of office supplies. Merchants that sell a wide variety of general goods which may include office supplies, for example, discount stores, department stores, or electronics stores, are not included in this category. Also, merchants and wholesale distributors that specialize in only a few large office supplies, such as computer software and hardware, office furniture, photocopiers, and office equipment, are not included even if they also sell some smaller office supplies.

The above FAQ answer gives me more follow up questions than answers, but I think this is a lost cause with Chase, they are not going to code Uline transactions as 5x office supply stores anytime soon. If you have any questions about Uline, please leave a comment below.  Have a great weekend everyone!